Harvard University sues the White House

Politico explains:

"In a 51-page filing, Harvard’s lawyers argue that the funding freeze violates the First Amendment by amounting to government interference “with private actors’ speech” in order “to advance its own vision of ideological balance.” The suit further claims the Trump administration “has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen.” The judge assigned the case is an appointee of Barack Obama, per POLITICO’s legal ace Josh Gerstein. More from The Harvard Crimson’s Dhruv Patel and Grace Yoon."

Harvard President Says University Had No 'Choice' But To Sue The Trump Administration: Donald Trump on Thursday called the elite school a "threat to Democracy." Marita Vlachou, HuffPost, Apr 24, 2025

The UK Supreme court April 16 ruling will make everything worse for trans people

Trans people in the UK are in real trouble.

“I think this will be the kicking-off point for a very enhanced push for overt restrictions on the rights of trans people,” said Victoria McCloud, who changed her legal sex more than two decades ago.

The UK’s first trans judge, she applied to intervene in the supreme court appeal but was refused. Last year she quit her job as a judge, saying her position had become “untenable” because her trans identity was viewed as a “lifestyle choice or an ideology”. She now lives in the Republic of Ireland.

McCloud said the supreme court ruling came in the midst of “a scary time” for trans people in the UK and would mark the start of a more intense fight for rights. “The rest has been phoney war. The real issues now start,” she said.

“If I was a trans person in the UK today, I would steer clear of using any loo in a public space unless it was a combined-sex loo, because I personally cannot, as of this moment, judge whether I should use the male loo or the female loo,” she said.

“I haven’t got my head around the complexities of the judgment and its repercussions will be ongoing for some time. But I’m happy I live in the Republic of Ireland, where this problem is not an issue. They know where I’m allowed to pee here.”

— Jessica Murray, ‘A huge reset’: gender-critical activists and trans rights campaigners react to supreme court ruling, The Guardian, April 16, 2025

See also:

"...they assert that no trans people will be disadvantaged by this ruling. Funny that. For, the torrent of tears in my online feed yesterday, and the long line of trans folk turning up to declare themselves in despair, in pieces, and otherwise broken by this, suggests an entire community would beg to differ."
— 'Trans People Woke Up To A Bleak New World Today. How Did We Get Here?': Campaigner jane fae examines the Supreme Court's landmark decision on how to define a woman for HuffPost UK. By TransActual director and chair of Trans Media Watch, jane fae. April 17, 2025.

Where will organized anti-trans go next?

"Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman, a prominent supporter of trans rights ... said: "The response by For Women Scotland and other associated groups was very, very clear - they are taking this as a victory and that is potentially dangerous about where they go next."
— "We've already heard people say they want to repeal the gender recognition act 2004, and trans people are worried that people are coming after their right to exist.": Supreme Court ruling has dire consequences for trans people, campaigners warn. Paul O'Hare and Jonathan Geddes, BBC Scotland News, April 17, 2025

For more on the ruling, see: So Sorry About Our Coach and Horses: The UK Observer says “neigh” to trans rights, as we came too close to driving and smashing right through equalities law (9-min read), on Medium

"What Groups Were Behind The 16th April Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation Court Hearing?" Alice Snow, Medium, April 22

Shevchenko: 'Oh bury me, then rise ye up'

"A St Petersburg court has sentenced a 19-year-old woman to nearly three years in a penal colony after she was accused of repeatedly 'discrediting' the Russian army, including by gluing a quotation on a statue of a Ukrainian poet. ... Kozyreva was arrested on February 24, 2024, after she glued a verse by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko onto his monument in St Petersburg... The verse from Shevchenko’s My Testament read, 'Oh bury me, then rise ye up / And break your heavy chains / And water with the tyrants’ blood / The freedom you have gained'..."

— Russia sentences 19-year-old woman to nearly three years in a penal colony after poetic anti-war protest, Mariya Knight and Caitlin Danaher, CNN, April 18, 2025

ICE does not care about birth certificates

Since 2008, Donald Trump has insisted that Barack Obama's birth certificate was fake.

That sort of racist nonsense has led us here today.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was born in Georgia, yet he's been arrested and detained by ICE.

Read the story on HuffPost

'Free fall' in the 'whirlwind': Where we are now

"During the most unprecedented, illegal, and unconstitutional first three months in office, this regime has managed to tear down not only storied institutions and long-standing safeguards but our entire collective confidence in our government.

We are in the unknown, floating between disbelief and horror, fear and anger, unsure where to place our next dollar, what to tell our children, and how we’re supposed to proceed.

We are in total free fall."

— Melissa Corrigan, If Your Skin Is White, This Is Your Fight.: We're over the cliff. What now? Counterstory Media, Apr 16, 2025

Brian Klaas says: "Like it or not, the whirlwind is back. My unsolicited advice is this: make a deliberate plan to escape its vortex so you have the energy to push back more effectively. And remember, above all, that digital engagement matters only if it provokes real-world action."

I want to remind everyone that I have a free newsletter to help U.S. people through this time. It's called Streetlights, and it's on Ghost. You just need an email address to sign up. Or you can read for free on the website without signing up for emails.

Massachusetts anti-trans law to keep kids out of sports?

My essay - April 10

I wrote: An Anti-Trans Sports Ban May Be Coming in Massachusetts (April 10, 5-min read)

Erin Reed has more info - April 11

Please also read and subscribe to Erin Reed: Massachusetts House Dems Pass Bill That Could Ban Trans Students From Sports; Senate Next. Democrats used a procedural motion to water the sports ban down rather than kill it outright out of fear of taking a vote and putting members on record. Apr 11, 2025

Reed explains that on April 9:

"...the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a $1.3 billion budget bill that included a transgender sports ban—the first such measure to pass any legislative chamber in a blue state. Rather than voting to strike down the provision, Democrats advanced an amendment allowing the ban to go into effect only after its impacts are studied."

Further, on April 10:

"...Democratic Representative Mike Connolly...was pressed on the lack of a vote to strike the sports ban. Connolly initially stated that taking such a vote “would not have advanced the interests of trans people,” and noted that Democrats did not want to proceed without “coordinating strategy with swing district Reps,” suggesting the decision to pass the sports ban language was made to protect vulnerable Democrats. When pressed further, Connolly revealed that the amendment did not receive a vote because of concerns about taking a vote “where the final tally — and the implications of that tally — are unknown,” implying that Democrats may have supported the sports ban outright had it come to a vote.

This outcome is deeply troubling. Sports bans have been introduced in nearly every state, and across the country—even in deep-red legislatures—Democrats have consistently voted in unified opposition. Earlier this year, every single Democrat in Montana, a state with a Republican trifecta, stood against such a ban and were unafraid of taking that vote. In contrast, Massachusetts Democrats, rather than taking a public vote to defend transgender youth, chose to shield their vulnerable members by advancing a study provision that leaves the door open to future enforcement."

Many people want to destroy everything rather than share it

I've blogged a bit about U.S. fascism (2024, 2019)

Christina Greer says this now ("Black Americans Are Not Surprised", New York Times, April 7):

"...this moment, the one that was explicitly promised by Project 2025 and Donald Trump when he was a candidate, looks a lot like what my grandmother experienced every day for much of her life. It is frightening and disappointing but not surprising if one knows anything about the Black experience in America. And not the sanitized just-so version of the Black experience in which America skips from slavery, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and somehow ends with a postracial America and Barack Obama."

Some people are eager "to burn this country to the ground before they share it with those deemed other and unworthy," and this threatens everyone. Everyone has to reckon with this. Otherwise we won't survive, let alone learn and move forward.

"I find myself reminding those who are surprised by this moment that my still very spry mother attended legally mandated segregated schools her entire life. The past has somehow turned into prologue, and the head-scratching of many tells me there is a fundamental lack of understanding of this country and what Americans are capable of."

Black women warned everyone:

"People like Stacey Abrams, Vice President Kamala Harris and Representative Maxine Waters walked all of us through the political, social and economic ramifications of a second Trump term. Higher Heights for America mobilized for candidates across the country to help energize and educate the electorate."

Greer's books:

Black ethnics: race, immigration, and the pursuit of the American dream is at the Brooklyn Public Library.