How do you know that MAGA ranters are employed to endorse Trump?

Last month, I wrote about the decisions by two billionaires at the LA Times and Washington Post not to endorse Kamala Harris.

Here's more about the guy at the LA Times. Oliver Darcy wrote about this in Status.

Scoop: I spoke to Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong this evening about his apparent desire to stuff the newspaper's editorial board with dishonest pro-MAGA voices like Scott Jennings. Suffice to say, the convo didn't go super well. Details in Status: www.status.news/p/patrick-so...

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— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 11:04 PM

When I pointed out that Scott Jennings' job is to serve as a pro-Trump pundit, Soon-Shiong replied, "You just said is his job is to defend Donald Trump. Did you find that in his job description with CNN? I don't know if you know that as a fact." More in Status: www.status.news/p/patrick-so...

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— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 11:42 PM

A lot of political and media messaging in this country basically operates on mafia trial rules where unless you have someone on tape saying “I, [name], love to smuggle and distribute cocaine, which is derived from the coca plant” it’s plausible deniability.

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— Jake Cole (@jakecole.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 8:52 AM

It’s worth noting here that the end of this article confirms something Rogan has publicly lied about: Harris agreed to go on Rogan and he played patty-cake with schedulers to avoid it.

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— Josh Stein (@joshstein.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 5:11 PM

CNN Pundit Scott Jennings, Who Regularly Defends Trump, Gets Raise Amid Staff Cuts Sources told former CNN reporter Oliver Darcy that Jennings is in the final stages of negotiating a significant pay bump as the network is laying off some 200 staffers. Marco Margaritoff, HuffPost, Mar 7, 2025

HuffPost, Oct 4, 2025

"On NewsNight, Jennings tried to justify the raid, stating a “transnational terrorist organization” was frequenting the building. Phillip argued that residents who were not involved in any criminal wrongdoing have a constitutional right not to be handcuffed and detained in the middle of the night.

“When you are sleeping in your bed and you happen to live somewhere, you have a right to not be detained just for not even being in the same apartment, but being in the building,” Phillip said.

“I think you’re overblowing it. They are not arrested,” Jennings responded, adding, “no Americans were arrested.”

Jennings’ comments evoked a strong facial reaction from guest Alencia Johnson, who was the senior advisor to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.

Scott Jennings is either lying or wildly misinformed about what happened in Chicago. He keeps claiming 37 Tren de Aragua gang members were arrested. As if it excuses zip tying kids. DHS says 37 were arrested, and only 2 were suspected gang members. Van Lathan gets it. We can’t lose our humanity.

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— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) October 4, 2025 at 4:31 PM

Jennings wrote A Revolution Of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington And Fought For Western Civilization, to be published November 2025, and let Trump select the cover image.

Abby Phillip on Jennings (HuffPost)

Turned on CNN just to see what the what and there's Scott Jennings, "was no angel-ing" the mother of a toddler who got shot in the face.

— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 10:41 PM

Here's where we are in January 2026, as Marisa Kabas writes in the Handbasket:

"Just hours after the news conference, the Washington Post Editorial Board (the members of which remain unclear) was ready to hang the “Mission Accomplished” banner. They wrote: 'Millions of people around the world, most of all in Venezuela, are celebrating the downfall of the dictator Nicolás Maduro. President Donald Trump’s decision to capture him on Saturday was one of the boldest moves a president has made in years, and the operation was an unquestionable tactical success.'

* * *

...in extraordinary moments such as this, too many journalists behave as if they have more in common with billionaires destroying journalism than the 80 or so people killed in Venezuela by Trump’s airstrikes. If we’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that proximity to power does not equal power."

Margaret Sullivan in American Crisis, Jan 6, 2026:

"A few days ago, CBS News declared the five principles of its new mission. One of them was “We love America.” And the statement added, “We make no apologies for saying so.”

No apologies needed, CBS News. But then again, I think we may have a different definition of how journalists can show their patriotism.

No American-flag pins on lapels are necessary. No jingoistic headlines about illegal raids are welcome. And, please, no fawning interviews of people in powerful positions.

Journalists and their news organizations can show their patriotism by doing their jobs of seeking the truth, no matter who it offends. They can serve the public by reporting honestly and deeply on what their government is up to — and why — even if that means they lose access or get sued."

If you get on someone's bad side, they criticize you unsparingly

Americans are losing the right to exercise state power to restrict the fundamental human rights of a tiny minority of marginalized people without being criticized for that online, and Jeremy Fucking Peters is on it.

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— Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 10:02 AM

That bio under the headline is horrible for the NYT to do. “He writes about this bigoted-ly a lot don’t worry he is an expert”

— Matty (@lionelkitchy.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 1:13 PM

It never makes the NYT for some reason but some things that anti-trans activists have done recently include: - bomb threats against children’s hospitals and clinics that offer gender affirming care - targeted campaigns to get trans and nb teachers fired - harassing gnc children at sports games

— Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 10:41 AM

Anti-trans activist Elon Musk, whose politics Peters finds elusive, has declared his own daughter “dead” bc she’s trans. By comparison, the harsh trans activists are chastised by Peters for protesting (with strong language!) against: a US congressman, a billionaire author, and the White House.

— Julia Carrie Wong (@joolia.bsky.social) November 26, 2024 at 10:44 AM

love how uncontroversial this statement would be about literally any other group (imagine writing "to get on the wrong side of swifties is often to endure their unsparing criticism" in the newspaper) but here it's supposed to read as sinister

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— lauren (@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com) November 26, 2024 at 1:05 PM

Latest threat to free speech: Florida says book bans are government speech

This is scary. The Bill of Rights protects citizens from the government. Not the other way around. www.tcpalm.com/story/news/p...

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— EveryLibrary (@everylibrary.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 2:36 PM

UPDATE: Warning - I'm very very behind, so more to come. There's a lot of book bans friends. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

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— Tasslyn - AKA Dr. Sasslyn (@tasslyn.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 9:27 PM

If you complain about a "book ban," using that language, Florida just says that libraries have the right to remove books of which they disapprove and that this doesn't amount to a "ban." (The Florida fight over banned books goes national, WFSU | By Margie Menzel, January 31, 2025)

Every book published in the United States is sent to the Library of Congress. Also, if you are under 16 you cannot use the reading room or order books.

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— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum.bsky.social) May 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM

Book banners are trying to create a world in which no one is able to imagine living lives different from their own

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— Authors Against Book Bans (@authorsabb.bsky.social) March 3, 2026 at 9:40 AM

‘BLOCKADE’: The Right Is Using AI Content Scanners to Try to Supercharge Book Banning, Claire Woodcock, 404 Media, Apr 1, 2026

"...H.R. 7661, the so-called “Stop the Sexualization of Children" Act.

This dangerous federal bill has already passed the House Committee on Education and Workforce and could move quickly. It would threaten public-school funding for books, materials and programs that lawmakers label “sexually oriented,” including material the bill says “involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism.” It could be used to broadly limit what young people are allowed to read, learn, and see reflected in their schools. The American Library Association has described H.R. 7661 as “dangerous,” “vague,” and an invitation to government censorship."

— Jews for a Secular Democracy, April 2026

Federal court OKs Iowa’s “cruel” book ban law in stunning LGBTQ+ defeat The appeals court vacated two separate injunctions against the law, but advocates promise to keep fighting. John Russell (He/Him), LGBTQ Nation, April 7, 2026

The grand jury report on the Florida embezzlement scheme is blood-boiling. It's clear beyond serious dispute that the current AG of Florida was part of a shameless, calculated plan to steal public funds from sick children to gift the Republican Party & his own PAC. drive.google.com/file/d/15YSC...

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— Julian Sanchez (@normative.bsky.social) August 27, 2026 at 11:49 AM

Shield law for journalists

This is important. www.wired.com/story/press-...

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— Jeremy Kohler (@jeremykohler.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 9:23 PM

We CANNOT let this happen. A free and open press is essential!

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— Megaholt 𓅃 (@megaholt.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 8:00 PM

2025: The anti-trans laws we fear are coming

Here's what laws and policies I expect the incoming administration to pursue, based on Project 2025 and Agenda 47: * The FDA will ban the use of hormones for treating gender dysphoria * National ban on medical treatment of gender dysphoria in minors (affects RAND parents of trans youth) 1/n

— Brynn Tannehill (@brynntannehill.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:32 AM

* Ban on federal funding for any treatment of gender dysphoria with anything besides conversion talk therapy * National bathroom ban at all federal facilities, and probably facilities of federal contractors 2/n

— Brynn Tannehill (@brynntannehill.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:32 AM

* Law that states the federal government will only recognize gender markers if they match sex at birth (no more passport or driver’s license to use for air travel, or flee to Canada) * Potential revocation of security clearances for transgender individuals 3/n

— Brynn Tannehill (@brynntannehill.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:32 AM

* Loss of security clearances means almost no trans people left in federal employment or with federal contractors * Potential penalties on insurance plans that cover health care for trans people 4/n

— Brynn Tannehill (@brynntannehill.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:32 AM

* Bathroom ban on trans people at all schools, regardless of public or private * Day 1 executive order banning trans people from the military (everyone kicked out within 60 days). 5/n

— Brynn Tannehill (@brynntannehill.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:32 AM

* Laws making it far easier to sue doctors who provide health care for trans people * Any doctor or medical facility who receives federal dollars (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIPs) cannot continue to receive payment if they provide transition related health care (Hyde amendment, effectively) 6/n

— Brynn Tannehill (@brynntannehill.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:32 AM

* Almost needless to say, the VA will no longer be providing HRT to trans people. They will provide talk therapy to convince you you're not trans or to learn to live with untreated GD, and anti-depressants. If this doesn't seem survivable: it isn't. 7/n

— Brynn Tannehill (@brynntannehill.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 10:32 AM

Here we go again, the same old absolute flaming nonsense that looks to define sex in terms of “subjunctive gametes”…

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— Ethel Weapon (@lousadzak.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 3:09 PM

The language used is super familiar. So familiar that I already ripped it apart in this article. It’s like defining something in terms of “the thing that it would have if it did”. Vacuous. kim-hipwell.medium.com/why-gamete-p...

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— Ethel Weapon (@lousadzak.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 3:13 PM

This seems new though. Under this law, man and woman are non-fungible tokens.

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— Ethel Weapon (@lousadzak.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 3:15 PM

I don’t suppose the fact that all this is incoherent baloney makes any difference. It’s just a piece of paper to point when something is needed to say it’s OK to be vile to trans people.

— Ethel Weapon (@lousadzak.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 3:17 PM

After Trump’s victory, trans people across the country are grappling with questions about their legal protections and access to gender-affirming care and reproductive health, as well as concerns over their physical safety — in short, what survival will look like. The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention organization, saw a 700% increase in people reaching out the day after the election compared to the weeks prior.

During his campaign, Trump vowed to sign an executive order barring federal agencies from “the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age,” and has promised to restrict federal funding for hospitals or health care providers that perform gender-affirming care for minors. Republicans spent at least $215 million this campaign cycle on ads portraying trans people as a scourge to society, and the official party platform lists keeping “men out of women’s sports” as a priority.

And over the last two weeks, Trump has been busy stocking his administration with authors of Project 2025 — after claiming he knew “nothing” about the 920-page conservative playbook or who was behind it. Project 2025 outlines dozens of policies that essentially erase federal protections for LGBTQ+ people, including allowing Medicare and Medicaid to deny coverage for gender-affirming care; redefining sex as “biological sex,” a phrase that has been used by the right to discriminate against trans people and particularly trans women; and reinstating the transgender military ban.

— Lil Kalish, Trans People Are Scrambling To Prepare For The ‘Waking Nightmare’ Of Trump’s Second Term: Across the country, the trans community is grappling with questions about what survival looks like after Trump’s victory. HuffPost, Nov 22, 2024

Helpful

California State Sen. Scott Wiener has introduced the “Transgender Privacy Act,” to automatically seal and keep confidential all court records related to gender transitions, reducing the risk of involuntary outing.

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— Truthout (@truthout.org) January 10, 2025 at 6:33 PM

CBS News (Nov 19, 2025):

Like Ware and Porter, Becerra said governing bodies in sports "should decide who plays in the sport."

However, like Porter and Ware, Becerra was seemingly unaware that California already requires schools to allow participation based on gender identity.

"There's nothing in the Constitution that says that you are entitled to play a sport," he said.

Watts read the current law to Becerra, who ultimately supported the state law.

"I'm not interested as governor in having someone be bullied or someone discriminated because of who they are, simply for that reason," Becerra said. "And if the rules allow an individual to play in that sport, those are the rules and you should abide by them."

We won’t stand for it.    Amid continuing attacks on the Transgender community, California DOJ will continue to fight to defend this vulnerable population and ensure access to necessary healthcare. oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...

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— AG Rob Bonta (@agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov) January 30, 2026 at 9:20 PM

In 2026:

"The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a California education policy that restricts teachers from informing parents about a student’s gender expression, pausing an approach the state says is intended to protect trans minors from rejection and abuse at home. ... the state said the policy and others like it are intended to protect the privacy of students and avoid a “forced outing” to parents who may not accept their child’s gender identity or sexual orientation. California enacted a law in 2024 that bars schools from requiring staff to tell parents if a student identifies as LGBTQ, though much of the conflict appears to be based on interpretations of the state constitution."
Supreme Court blocks California policies intended to protect transgender students, John Fritze, CNN, March 3, 2026

California must protect gender care for young people, despite hospitals’ fears, by Pamuela Halliwell, Cal Matters, April 15, 2026

Impacts

By August 2025, at least 21 hospitals had ended gender-affirming care for trans youth — out of fear.

Resist

"Prestigious institutions like Brown, Columbia, Harvard, and Penn have already bowed to the pressure," as Erin Reed recaps (Sept 26, 2025), but Chicago Public Schools has resisted. The Trump regime demanded "abolishing the Black Student Success Plan, imposing bathroom and sports bans on transgender students, and stripping recognition of trans students’ identities from all official policies," as Reed said. In reply to the Trump regime, Macqueline King, interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said:

“This school year alone, the U.S. Department of Education has threatened to withhold $12 million in grant funding unless CPS dissolves our Black student success plan and reverses our policies around transgender and gender-nonconforming students. We are confident that our policies do not violate federal law, and we find the government’s actions deeply disappointing. That said, CPS will not back away from our commitment to Black, transgender, or any other student groups. We will continue to consider diversity among our greatest strengths, and we will move forward with protecting the rights of all students. Our district will not back away from doing what we know is right.”

Gavin Newsom vetoes gender education bill, declines to sign other trans protections - buff.ly/MTUAV85

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— LGBTQ Nation (@lgbtqnation.com) October 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM

gavin newsom says he wants to pass legislation banning trans people from playing sports in california

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— Corinne Green (@ket.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 12:41 AM

the whole thing is frankly even more offensive than this clip. it's from this interview with @kqednews.kqed.org a few days ago: youtu.be/4Dm3diA6z08?...

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— Corinne Green (@ket.bsky.social) October 28, 2025 at 12:58 AM

They're punishing anyone who works with or for a trans kid.
"Employees of organizations that work with illegal immigrants or “transition children” will no longer qualify for loan forgiveness after 10 years of payments." (Forbes, Oct 30, 2025)

Over 400,000 Transgender People Have Moved States Since Trump's Election The large migration builds on earlier movements of transgender people in response to anti-transgender legislation. Erin Reed, Jan 08, 2026

Did the Department of Education Really Just Post Gender-Swapped Harry Potter “Malfoid” Fic? It is not clear whether the reference to "Malfoid," a gender-swapped Harry Potter fanfiction where Draco Malfoy is a girl, was intentional. Delia Curtis October 28, 2026

Where Do Trans Americans Go When Home Is No Longer Safe?: Trans Collective Migration Map Data. Leo Caldwell, Dec 21, 2025

Andrea Pitzer: The US as rogue state

"In 2015 I made two trips to Guantanamo while writing my history of concentration camps...

The first visit, I went to a pretrial hearing of the five 9/11 suspects...

One person I talked to not long after that was Mark Fallon, a career NCIS agent, who said something that stuck with me. As NCIS chief of counterintelligence operations for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, he’d been part of the early interrogation program at Gitmo. He protested the U.S. turn to torture in interrogations there internally, later condemning it in public and writing a book, Unjustifiable Means.

Fallon told me that after 9/11, with the turn toward black sites and torture around the world, the U.S. had become a rogue state. And because we had brought those secret, illegal interrogation sites into being around the world, America had not only became a rogue state, but had pulled other states into that orbit. He thought the U.S. would remain a rogue state—and the danger of doing even worse things would remain—until there was full accountability for the program.

* * *

Given where the country is at now, I reached out to Mark Fallon again. When we spoke last week, I asked him what he thinks of our current moment, and whether America is still a rogue state.

He noted that the cabinet nominees put forward so far are in many cases the negation of the agencies Trump is inviting them to run. Each one exemplifies the opposite of the values of the institutions he wants them to lead.

“These nominees appear to be those who will destroy or hinder the internal workings of government,” he said, “which even Al Qaeda failed to do.”"

— Andrea Pitzer, America as a Rogue State: Trump’s malicious chaos targets democracy at home and around the world. Degenerate Art, November 19, 2024

Still, in 2026

There's "a related evil that Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are currently perpetrating outside U.S. borders: the creation of an international network of concentration camps around the world," Pitzer writes in 2026 (Planet of the Camps, April 7). "One of the challenges for Trump and Miller right now is that they can’t deport everyone they want where and when they want." A U.S. court may not allow it, or the intended destination may not accept the person. But in one case, for example, "Cameroon had accepted the men in exchange for implicit or explicit benefits, including the U.S. fostering corruption and looking the other way on human rights abuses following the October presidential election there," and there are "at least 25 countries with which the U.S. has made similar agreements, getting them to accept detainees from third countries, even if deportees have no historical connection or ties of citizenship with the destination country." Meanwhile, " the nonprofit Mobile Pathways has identified more than 13,000 immigrants to the U.S. who are facing deportation to third countries."

Multinational and international detention networks have existed in the past, often set up by some of history’s worst actors. During World War II, Nazi Germany made use of transit camps and hubs to deport targeted populations (especially Jewish detainees but also members of various Resistance groups) eastward from (and often to) occupied territory.

After the Nazis were defeated, the Soviet Union converted many former Nazi camps under their control to use for deportation purposes, transporting dissidents opposing the weight of the Iron Curtain to meet their death, wind up in camps, or remote exile inside the borders of the U.S.S.R. This pattern was part of a larger effort of deportation and dislocation. In the Baltic states, Operation Priboi tore more than 90,000 people from their homes in the spring of 1949. Tens of thousands of those counted as “enemies of the state” were women and children.

I’ve mentioned in previous episodes the ways in which various governments coordinated with one another in the Americas under right-wing dictatorships in 1970s and 1980s in a project named Operation Condor. This kind of collaboration allowed for outsourcing of detention and torture, and these countries carried out their abuses with broad support and sometimes training from the U.S. The synergy that is created when countries collaborate adds to the overall potential for harm.

Look at the rationales:

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was the subject of a court hearing today over the government’s attempt to deport him to Liberia. Prosecutors argue that they’re not deporting him to Africa instead of South America to punish him. Instead, as Todd Lyons wrote in a brief filed last month, Abrego Garcia must be sent to Liberia precisely because the U.S. has gone to so much trouble to negotiate a third-country agreement there.

To help people, act early, she says. For example, "make sure they have legal representation. Few things are as critical as this. Groups like the National Immigrant Justice Center, which works in the Midwest, exist all over the country, and help to make sure that detainees get lawyers."

See: Third Country Deportation Watch

One year ago today Camp East Montana officially opened as a detention camp for immigrants. The site is the largest detention center in the U.S. and it's first year has been marked by death, abuses, and a served as a symbol of corruption and mismanagement. Here is my story looking back:

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— Jeff Abbott (@palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social) August 17, 2026 at 8:07 AM

Inclusive gay & Jewish community since the 1970s

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum says:

"The Jewish community was behind the Christian, especially the Protestant community was — In the '60s There were Proetstant priests and ministers who were great leaders of the LGBT movement or lesbian and gay movement. And in 1973 when CBST was founded, there was not a single rabbi, not a single Jewish organization, not a single synagogue, not a single Jewish civil rights organization which supported gay rights. So CBST was founded and the LGBT movement was founded by lesbians and gay men in quite a hostile environment. Really before synagogues like CBST started, or BCC in Los Angeles which was three months beore CBST, you had to make a choice: you had to either...live a gay life but there was no way you could go into a Jewish community, or you could live a Jewish life and sublimate or live a secret life or live a hidden life as a gay person. So it wasn't until 19 — the end of '72 or '73 that there was anything in the Jewish world that was different."
— start at 35:35, and focusing especially starting at 37:29–38:42

Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) — Los Angeles
Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) — New York

Kleinbaum goes on to cite Evan Wolfson, Paul Kaplan, Larry Kramer as Jewish leaders for LGBT civil rights.