Alliance Defending Freedom anti-trans activities since 2015

The Alliance Defending Freedom was founded in 1993.

According to Wikipedia, its first leader was Alan Sears, who had led president Reagan's anti-porn campaign, producing the Meese Report in 1986. Its next leader was Michael Farris (2017–2022), who had lobbied for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 and has been part of the Christian homeschooling movement since the 1980s, founding the Home School Legal Defense Association. Farris opposed Trump's candidacy in 2016 but in 2020 he "worked to overturn the election results, drafting a legal complaint with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the unsuccessful case Texas v. Pennsylvania." Kristen Waggoner has led the ADF since 2022.

The anti-gay movement had for years scaremongered about gay people somehow corrupting children, by directly recruiting them to be gay, by parenting them, or just by incidentally modeling gay relationships. In 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, with other countries making similar advances around that time, the anti-gay movement decided to transfer the moral panic and project it onto trans people.

Riki Wilchins says that, for decades, the gay rights movement adopted an assimilationism that downplayed sexuality and gender nonconformity. This created an opening for the Alliance Defending Feedom to come in and attack trans people for whatever sexuality and gender nonconformity they chose to project onto them. Wilchins:

"As the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented in excruciating detail, beginning in 2015 ADF built a multi-layered 57-organization network for the sole purpose of leveraging public discomfort over gender queerness.

Its goal was transforming trans women into predatory “folk devils,” and trans kids into confused children who couldn’t know their own genders— unless they were cis of course.

But homosexuals were always ADF’s real target, and the anti-trans backlash was quickly expanded to them."

— How Gender Came Back to Gay Rights, Medium, December 19, 2024

By now, at the end of 2024, Wilchins says, "14 states have now introduced and/or passed laws making drag illegal. In the past year, there have been 141 attacks by paramilitaries against drag events, some by armed groups."

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed an anti-drag bill "even after the press produced pictures of him doing drag," because "Of course ! Drag is only pedophilia when gay people do it." Right after he signed the bill, in Nashville, someone hung a publicly visible banner with a Nazi swastika "thanking Lee for his 'tireless work to fight trannies and fags.'"

In another article, Wilchins says that, according to a major tenet of the anti-trans playbook:

"All attacks on trans kids medicine must be framed as concern for their welfare. This goes back to a panel at the Family Research Council 2017 Values Voter Summit when it was decided that the frontal assaults long used against homosexuals would backfire against children. Henceforth, all attacks on trans care had to be framed as caring about them [kids] — a phenomenon scholar Mikey Elsner has termed insidious concern."

— WashPo Editorial Board Sh*ts the Bed on Pediatric Care, Medium, December 17, 2024

The Southern Poverty Law Center described the October 13–15, 2017 Values Voter Summit:

"In her presentation, Kilgannon mapped out three non-negotiables in the fight against the so-called gender identity agenda, a conspiracy theory touted by anti-LGBT groups that disavows sexual orientation and gender identity. The first is to 'divide and conquer. For all its recent success, the LGBT alliance is actually fragile and the trans activists need the gay rights movement to help legitimize them. ...gender identity on its own is just a bridge too far [for many people to accept]. If we separate the T from the alphabet soup we’ll have more success.'

* * *

Kilgannon’s two other non-negotiables facilitate her divisive strategy: the first is to 'never ever attack LGBT people or trans people or parents of trans children.' She goes on: 'don’t play into their victim narrative because in this culture war they are the bullies, not the victims.' The last non-negotiable, for Kilgannon, is to not approach the topic of gender identity with religious arguments, which are 'simply not effective.' Instead, she recommends using arguments 'based on biology and reason.'"

Before the Trump administration takes off, build your protective systems and networks

At the end of this video, Rosa Brooks says:

"The final thing — and this is kind of depressing — this isn't about stopping it. This is about if you shift your mindset to thinking: If you live in Russia and you know Putin's coming down the road, you live in Hungary and you know Orban's coming down the road, what would you do to ensure that if you have to get through a period that could be four years, could be 20 years, could be 40 years of autocracy, that that little flame of democracy is not extinguished, you know? You want to set up the networks that can ensure people have cyber protection and legal assistance and potential physical protection if they need it, and communications help and so on. And you need to do that in advance, because if you wait until everybody is sort of isolated and alone, it's probably too late to do it. ... [a Trump administration] could be a while and a bad while, but there is a lot we can do to kind of protect the people and organizations and communities that he's likely to target during that time, if we start now." (16:07–17:15)

Disney won't let a character be trans

Earlier today, I wrote about ABC (owned by Disney) settling with Trump. Trump ‘In Fact Did Exactly That’, But Reporters Can’t Say So

A couple hours later, we learned that Pixar (owned by Disney) will cut a trans storyline from one of its shows.

Disney decides against transgender arc in Pixar’s "Win or Lose" series: A Disney spokesperson said the decision was made with parents in mind, Kelly McClure, Salon, Dec 17, 2024

The leaked prerender scene featuring a trans story line that Disney/Pixar removed from their new show Win or Lose. (sped up a bit to meet the upload limit)

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— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) December 17, 2024 at 7:29 PM

Probably this is an unofficial part of the settlement, and of heading into a new Trump administration. It's among many things that Disney is being asked to do. And they do it.

Anti-gender-affirming-care article in The Federalist (Dec 2024)

Here's a treat from The Federalist a couple days ago.

If you'd like to find it, after https://thefederalist.com/ ...

...type: /2024/12/13/landmark-transgender-scotus-case-could-redefine-medicine/

(I'm trying not to give them SEO value on this one.)

It's written by Dr. Aida Cerundolo, who has practiced clinical emergency medicine for two decades. (Not a specialist in gender-affirming care, it seems.) She's arguing that doctors harm trans kids by affirming their gender.

She says: "Aspirin can be dangerous when taken inappropriately or by those with an allergy, but the risks and benefits have been studied since the 1800s." Since gender-affirming care has not been studied since the 1800s, I guess it fails to meet that standard, if "studied since the 1800s" is the standard. But hormones were synthesized in the early 20th century, so there is a century-long history of humans taking hormones. And there are plenty of medications and surgeries that are more recent than gender-affirming care.

"Conversely, so-called “gender-affirming” treatments have no long-term studies that establish a clear risk-benefit ratio." She doesn't cite a source for that. But then, a study can't be done until the "risk" and "benefit" are defined.

She then gives an example. As the risk of trans people attempting suicide is "a claim used to promote these treatments" (i.e., to allow trans people to live in their gender), she uses that as an example, and says simply: "the evidence so far from multiple systematic reviews does not demonstrate a reduction in suicide." For that, she links to the Washington Examiner (a right-wing news outlet) and the Cass Review (a politicized document in the UK).

Anyway, she says, whereas medications like aspirin are meant to make you healthier, "gender-affirming treatments seek to disrupt a healthy physiology." So it seems she doesn't think there can be any benefit.

Next: "Since it is impossible to diagnose which children will persist with a transgender identity into adulthood," there is an "unmitigable risk of misdiagnosis. Hippocratic oath medicine doesn’t allow this harm to be whitewashed under the premise that it is, as the ACLU attorney indicated, a 'very low' 'one percent.'"

Just consider, she says, "wrong-site surgeries (when a wrong limb or organ is removed)." An organization is investigating it because "that’s a harm rate of 0.00000788 percent — too high for doctors seeking to 'first, do no harm.'"

Of course this is illogical.

1. There is a commission investigating why some surgeries go wrong, not stopping all surgeries because the risk of error is too high.
2. In the case of wrong-site surgeries, the error belongs entirely to the nurse or surgeon (not the person getting surgery), so the commission can investigate what happened (e.g., the nurse wrote wrong information on the notepad, or the surgeon was drunk). Asking why some people change their minds about what they want their body to look like is another question.
3. Not everyone who detransitions has been "harmed" by taking hormones or getting surgery. Some are happy to have had that experience and simply decide they don't wish to continue with hormones or they adjust how they present themselves in the world, not minding that they've had hormones or surgery.
4. There isn't an acceptable risk percentage that applies equally to every kind of healthcare. Knee surgery has a high regret rate, yet surgeons continue to do it, because for whatever reason, that risk is considered acceptable.
5. If indeed 1% of kids regret transition but 99% are living full lives because of it, and if that's an unacceptable risk-benefit ratio, what she's saying is that one cis person matters more than 100 trans people.
6. As she acknowledges, "the stated 'one percent' risk of regret is unverifiable. The rate of detransition is unknown because there is no system in place to measure it." So if there's no evidence that many people are unhappy that their doctors allowed them to access hormones and surgery, whence the concern?

Ideas from the 'Serial Killing' philosophy anthology

"...the period [of video games] I wish had gotten some serious attention from the Review is the 1990s: that first decade of first-person shooters, from Wolfenstein 3D (1992) to about Halo (2001), is endlessly interesting, both as an era of relentless formal and technical one-upmanship — as programmers raced one another to work out how to virtually represent three-dimensional space, movement, and interaction — and as a sustained unselfconscious exploration of American gun obsession. It was probably the most important video game genre of its time, and it was entirely about seeing the world down the barrel of a gun — some of the games are works of genius, some are absolute garbage, but the whole period amounts to something that still feels deeply strange and important. But I have no idea what it means."
— "Compulsion, Triumph, Regret, and Unease." Gabriel Winslow-Yost, interviewed by Daniel Drake. New York Review of Books. August 20, 2022.

---

"a literary bouquet that is to this day one of the finest extant examples of remix culture, generally attributed to that late medieval genre of writing known as florilegium or 'flower-culling.' ...florilegia were extensive and systematic compilations of extracts from past writings: proverbs, maxims, and stories, sometimes quoted verbatim in mnemonically brief segments, but more often summarized or subject to some alteration with the aim of exemplifying certain topics which, when combined and recombined together, illuminated a central doctrine or idea; thus producing, through a mode of literary splicing, the telescopic effect traditionally associated with targumim texts."
Edia Connole, "The Language of Flowers: Serial Kitsch In Serial Killing: A Philosophical Anthology. Edia Connole and Gary J. Shipley, eds. Schism, 2015. pp. 95-96.

---

From the same Serial Killing anthology:

David Roden, in "Aliens Under the Skin," asks: In describing a serial killer as "inhuman," do we make "any more than an exclamation of moral disgust?" Or do we make "some kind of truth claim?" He uses bioethicist Darian Meacham's suggestion of the Phenomenological Species Concept - meaning, we have "empathic awareness" of others, recognizing that they have "mental states analogous to our own." This is "intrinsically motivating and normative," enabling us to "share moral practices" that relate to the very feelings we recognize that others have. But, on the other hand, we can't empathize with serial killers, either, can we? The suggestion that we ought to empathize with serial killers even if they do not empathize with us has the appearance of logic, despite its unfairness. (It is unfair because fairness, by definition, usually implies reciprocity). Sometimes we give to others in ways they cannot give to us, under the rubric of dignity, charity, or social justice, but it isn't immediately obvious that we want to offer any of that to serial killers.

Gary J. Shipley, in "Visceral Incredulity," points out that serial killers are defined in terms of what they've done to their victims, and furthermore they are outside "the moral dialogue" that everyone else shares, so they are "unstable, transitory and impersonal" and seen "as void, as zombielike and personless."

Daniel Colucciello Barber, in "Nonrelation and Metarelation": Metarelation means some kind of resistance against reality. It "involves saying no to the world's definition of construction, as well as to the very construction of the world."

Niall W. R. Scott, "A Creeping Death": When a physical body dies, it experiences "the very precipice of what it is and what it is not at that particular moment." So death is not just physical but psychological. The anticipation of death is "the anticipation of no longer being able to be aware of oneself as a thing." A serial killer seeks to make someone "experience the moment of the light diminishing."

It is asked whether a person's sadism can be attributed to a cultural influence such as "poverty, despair, political and economic impotence and disillusion, a figure of abjection, weakness and brutality shivering with a generalised, aimless and endless rage." Sometimes the killer reveals surprisingly "ordinary" feelings "of pleasure-desire central to the productive and profane world" rather than "an utterly unimaginable excess or a corporeal conduit of excremental forces that leave all structures, laws and grounds in ruins." (Fred Botting, "Bataille's Vampire")

I Wrote More About This Book

To read more, please see "What Murderers Make Philosophers Think About". It's a 3-minute read on Medium.

Antisemitism and transphobia: It cooks your brain

"On Monday [October 21, 2024], Elon Musk invoked the names of two German Nazis in a tweet while simultaneously disparaging modern pronoun conventions — attempting, as he so often does, to make a joke. (I’m not repeating the text here — not because it’s profane, but mostly because it’s just not funny.)

For context, Musk was responding to a post about a Der Spiegel article that compared him to a media mogul who helped Hitler climb to power.

— Allison Morrow, Any other CEO would have been fired for what Elon Musk just said, CNN, October 23, 2024

Morrow also mentions that the previous month, Musk had promoted a

"widely condemned interview with a Nazi apologist who said the murder of Jews in concentration camps was “humane” and that Winston Churchill was the “chief villain” of World War II. Musk later deleted his X post that called the interview 'very interesting' and 'worth watching,' per the Independent."

— Allison Morrow, Any other CEO would have been fired for what Elon Musk just said, CNN, October 23, 2024

a lesson we have learned repeatedly in the UK is that when transphobes suddenly appear in load-bearing roles in organisations, they are usually prepared to sacrifice everything, including their job and their org’s credibility, in order to platform and perform transphobia

— Alyson Greaves (@badambulist.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 3:51 AM

like, transphobia legit cooks people's brains. I'm talking people who are so determined to keep abusing trans children at their teaching job that they keep returning to school even after they've been fired, even after they've been taken to court. you cannot communicate rationally with these people.

— Alyson Greaves (@badambulist.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 5:46 AM

a new antisemitism, the parasitic traits of the belief — jeopardizing one's job, jeopardizing one's relationships, solely isolating the hosts in communities of persons who similarly can only discuss a single topic daily and for years straight, the conspiratorialism, etc.

— Salty 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 (@nacl.sh) December 11, 2024 at 6:33 AM

transphobia operates very much like the antisemitism we're all familiar with, but born anew altho still modeled in a distinct image

— Salty 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 (@nacl.sh) December 11, 2024 at 6:34 AM

Strangio: 'You are never just a lawyer. You are the trans lawyer'

Imara Jones, host of the TransLash podcast, summarizes that the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Skrmetti could "decide the overall constitutionality of gender-affirming care for all trans people in the United States," not just youth.

In that interview, Chase Strangio says that while there are "incredible advocates who are regularly appearing" as experts before the Supreme Court, there are fewer people who've been "in the trenches fighting for their communities" and who thus "know, in their bones, the consequences" of what the court is preparing to decide.

Jones: "I mean, you know, that's been a problem with, sort of, American life since the 1970s is the growing you know, one might argue over-professionalization of everything, which means that everything gets separated more and more from the people, which is why things seem to be esoteric and disconnected."

(This feels important to me because it's related to arguments about elitism and meritocracy. When Trump voters say that Democratic voters are elitist, maybe what they're experiencing is that many aspects of society (not specifically conservative or liberal, or otherwise partisan) are elitist. A thought I shall table for now.)

Jones asks Strangio: "After you stand up after the Solicitor General [at the forthcoming hearing on December 4, 2024], look those nine justices in the eyes, and let the words, 'May it please the Court' leave your mouth, what do you think is going to be the personal feeling that you have of both having to stand there at the highest level of your professionalism and at the same time be debating the essence of your humanity, facing off on the other side against people who refuse to to see that?"

 

Chase Strangio points out that he frequently testifies in state legislatures and committee hearings where he hears "the most vile misrepresentations and cruel things about about trans people," so he's not new to this.

"I cross-examine and depose experts who fundamentally don't believe trans people should exist, the same experts who are being used by the state of Tennessee in this case, and I have argued before courts that I know will have ruled against me, will rule against me in this fight that is so central to everything about me as a human being. So that is something that I am used to. I think obviously in this context where, when you enter the Supreme Court, it, in and of itself, just has that feeling of you were, many people were never meant to be in that space. It is a space that has been occupied by the very sort of, you know, most limited constructions of the elite, and over time, that has a lot more and more people have been able to enter the doors, but only in a very limited way. And so whenever you are in that space, and whenever you are representing a community of people that was never meant to be there, I think it is both powerful and destabilizing. A little bit it's sort of holding that those sets of truths and trying to be as best of an advocate for your community as you can be knowing that so much is being projected onto you, so much misinformation, misunderstanding and dehumanization in that moment, you never have the sort of privilege of just being a lawyer. And that is something that I think many lawyers from you know, sort of historically excluded and currently discriminated against communities feel. It's like: You are never just a lawyer. You are the trans lawyer, or you are the Black trans lawyer, or you are the disabled lawyer. People's experience of that obviously affects the theater of the courtroom very significantly, and I think to suggest otherwise would be to do a just huge disservice to the nature of law and how law is made through its very performative elements, so I'm thinking about those things. And then, you know, obviously, like, it's, it's not lost on me that we're having a conversation about health care, that the health care is the very reason I will be standing there in that, in that moment, like there is no version of me that gets to the Supreme Court that has the life that I have if I didn't have access to this health care that now the governments are seeking to take away."

This is from the November 14, 2024 episode of TransLash.

Relatedly, see my info: Will SCOTUS Let Parents and Doctors Support Trans Kids? (5 min read) on Medium

U.S. v. Skrmetti is so important to trans kids

ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, interviewed by Imara Jones, tells us that Tennessee

"very much wants to cast this case [U.S. v. Skrmetti] as a case about the federal government displacing the state government. But what this case really is about is…the government of Tennessee that has come in and said that: 'You parents who have loved your children since birth, who have cared for them, who have recognized in them deeply painful experiences of distress for years and found medication that your child and you and your doctors all agree is necessary - We know better. We are taking this option off the table.'"

A trans boy in the case

"started asserting himself and recognizing himself as a boy when he was two years old. He is only known as a boy in all aspects of his life, and he has been relying on this medication for years, and after, you know, six years of mental health treatment, after multiple specialists, after parents who themselves struggled and researched, and then you have the government of Tennessee acting like these are rash choices being made by individual eight-year-olds."

And

"they're standing in for thousands of families and young people across the country who are being displaced by these types of laws, who are being forced to flee their homes because of these types of laws, who...have had to split up with one parent taking a child out of state and another parent staying behind with other children...this is not just three people in Tennessee...I believe in my heart that every single one of the justices on some level can relate to the idea of just wanting to take care of someone that you love. And often those decisions are painful and personal and complex, and the idea that the government is going to impose insurmountable barriers to being able to make and execute those decisions is, I think, upsetting to many people, and hopefully the stories of these families, in addition to the legal arguments, will resonate with at least five members of the court."

This is from the November 14, 2024 episode of TransLash.

I summarized other parts of the episode on Medium.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Seen on Bluesky: 'the trans protagonist *literally* defeats the villain with her transness'

here's another clip from the trans cartoon episode Disney pulled a few days ago, where the trans protagonist *literally* defeats the villain with her transness (with Unlock It by Charli in the background!!) this would have changed my life when i was a kid (content warning: some flashing lights)

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— sara (@sara.lgbtq.social) November 17, 2024 at 8:57 AM

its so gutting to see representation this good finally being made, only to be axed by bigots the whole damn episode is beautiful. her transness being "against the rules" of the system leads them to realize that the only way to win is by <breaking the system> its awesome. you should download it:

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— sara (@sara.lgbtq.social) November 17, 2024 at 9:00 AM

On the US election postmortem

"Yet the roots of Trumpism extend many years before 2015. I first came across them in 1994, when the Democrats lost both houses of Congress in what was then termed a “repudiation” of the Democratic Party.

Trumpism is the consequence, not the cause, of a long-term structural change in the American political economy.

Over much of the past 30 years, as the Republican Party embraced bigotry, lies, and hate to stir up working-class fears and resentments, the Democratic Party abandoned the working class and embraced global trade, deregulation of finance, and lower taxes on the wealthy, and has allowed corporate bashing of labor unions and monopolization of industry.

As a result, the median wage of the bottom 90 percent has risen just 15 percent, adjusted for inflation, while the stock market has soared 5000 percent."

To its credit, the Biden administration is the first Democratic administration in more than 30 years to reject additional moves toward globalization and deregulation, propose higher taxes on the wealthy, strengthen labor unions, aggressively utilize antitrust, and adapt a forward-looking industrial policy.

But these measures require years to take effect, and many working-class Americans have not yet benefited from them.

— Robert Reich, Who are we? Nov 7, 2024

---

"I’m not interested in participating in the circular firing squad of why Trump won and Harris lost. Because I don’t think messaging or strategy would have overcome this. Much like in 2016, I’m not sure there’s anything Harris could have realistically done to turn the tide. And as much as folks might not want to hear this I think her team ran a good campaign and Trump ran a terrible one. It just didn’t matter in the end."

— Melissa Ryan, Clarity: I don’t have all the answers, but here’s where I’m at today. Ctrl Alt Right Delete, Nov 6, 2024

---

"Harris decried Trump as a fascist, a petty tyrant. She called him divisive, angry, aggrieved. And that was a smart case to make if, deep down, most voters held democracy dear (except maybe they didn’t) and if so many of them weren’t already angry (except they were). If all America needed was an articulate case for why Trump was bad, then Harris was the right candidate with the right message at the right moment. The prosecutor who would defeat the felon.

But the voters heard her case, and they still found for the defendant. A politician who admires dictators and says he’ll be one for a day, whose former top aides regard as a threat to the Constitution — a document he believes can be “terminated” when it doesn’t suit him — has won power not for one day but for nearly 1,500 more. What was considered abnormal, even un-American, has been redefined as acceptable and reaffirmed as preferable."

— Carlos Lozada, Stop Pretending Trump is Not Who We Are, New York Times, November 6, 2024

"Things like $15 an hour, labor law reform, and the care agenda...would have immediately been felt in working families’ homes," said Heather McGhee, but Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin (Democrats) blocked those Democratic victories. Whereas things like "a long-term infrastructure plan" and "dethroning neoliberalism, dealing with antitrust, and creating new manufacturing jobs...feel very long-term and it’s easy to confuse who gets credit for it." To win, the Democrats needed policies with "immediacy and marketability." Apparently "people are more enthralled with a $300 stimulus check signed by Donald Trump than they are with the highest rate of manufacturing since the 1970s," and in Missouri they voted for "$15 an hour and abortion rights" yet "reject[ed] the Democratic Party that stands for these things."

— How to compete with the right-wing meaning-making media machine: Writer and policy wonk Heather McGhee on how Democrats failed to reach voters on policy, why having Beyoncé on your side isn't enough, and what it will take to build a left media in the Trump years. The Ink, Nov 11, 2024

"I recently heard someone say, “Republicans work to control the weather, and Democrats wait for it to rain then fight over which umbrella to use.” It stopped me mid-sip of coffee. Like many of you, I’ve been sitting with the tremendous loss that took place last week at the ballot box—the loss of not just the presidency, but the Senate, and now, the House as well; a full trifecta of power now firmly in the hands of Trump, Elon Musk, and the guy who was investigated for sex trafficking who will now lead the Justice Department. I don’t know how to reconcile any of it, including the painful fact that the design of our disconnection as Americans was so well orchestrated and so well executed. It is humbling: how well we all got played and how much we will all suffer because of it, whether you voted for this reality or not. “Pick your pain,” a friend said to me, “One way or another, it’s coming.”"

— Amber Tamblyn, Lean Into the Hard Lesson of Loss: On steep election learning curves, tilting toward the promise of a stronger coalition, and a second live gathering over Zoom this month, because I love you. Nov 14, 2024

Trump secured his victory by just a cumulative 237,000 votes in three states that, had they gone the other way, would have meant victory for Harris." nyt

— Ewart, Dave (@davidewart.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 1:20 AM

Earlier today the NY Times made a reference to a 4-page memo written by Seth London to build "a party within the [Democratic] party," a new moderate faction to spread influence. I have the memo. It's a blueprint for a new Democratic Leadership Council. Explicitly so:

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— David Dayen (@ddayen.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 1:11 PM

The document is a battle plan to identify and cultivate elected officials, a PAC run by Lis Smith, a new think tank, a new media organ populated with old faves, and some state-level organs modeled on a thing in Texas, where Dems have consistently lost support since 2018.

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— David Dayen (@ddayen.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 1:16 PM

Post-election, a hopeful way of thinking

The election outcome was overall bad. But here are some of the election wins, as collected by Popular Information:

• "Voters protect abortion rights in seven states"
• "Voters in three red states guarantee paid sick leave; two boost minimum wage"
• "Three states vote to protect public school funding"
• "Florida voters reject school board politicization"
• "Florida attorney suspended by DeSantis wins reelection"
• "Voters elect first transgender member of Congress; send two Black women to the Senate"

— Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, and Noel Sims, Through the darkness, some rays of light, Popular Information, Nov 7, 2024

---

"How will we conduct this resistance?

By organizing our communities. By fighting through the courts. By arguing our cause through the media."

— Robert Reich, The Resistance Starts Now: I still have faith in America, but we must mobilize to protect those at risk if Trump achieves his worst impulses. Nov 6, 2024

Reich continued:

"The work includes:

• Monitoring Trump and his government — despite the disinformation, propaganda, and lies we’ll be receiving — and disseminating the truth.
• Maintaining a watch over the people and institutions we value.
• Being ready to sound the alarm in our communities and networks when those people and institutions are under assault.
• Organizing and mobilizing nonviolent resistance to such assaults.
• Using civil disobedience wherever possible.
• Litigating through state and federal courts where possible.
• Speaking out against malicious lies like those that spread during the election by Elon Musk on his propaganda machine X and against vicious lies amplified on other MAGA mouthpieces.
• Using our economic muscle to boycott corporations that support Trump, Musk, and other centers of MAGA power."

Robert Reich, What will YOU do?: Acknowledging what we are up against, Nov 12, 2024

---

"American Democracy, as we know it, is likely over. That creates space for something new to emerge. I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t tell you exactly what will happen next. But I know what Trump and MAGA want America to become and that they’re empowered to make a lot of it happen. We keep competing by the rules even though the competition is rigged, and every cycle, our opponents find ways to rig the system even more in their favor. Personally, I’ve never been more open to new ideas and things I haven’t considered before. Not because I don’t think democracy can work but because I think achieving a true multiracial democracy will mean rebuilding from the ground up. I’d encourage us to be open to new ways of thinking and systems for change. Because the space for that now exists."

— Melissa Ryan, Clarity: I don’t have all the answers, but here’s where I’m at today. Ctrl Alt Right Delete, Nov 6, 2024

"Trump’s foreign policy worldview has been clear ever since he entered political life. He believes that the U.S.-created liberal international order has, over time, stacked the deck against the United States. To change that imbalance, Trump wants to restrict inward economic flows such as imports and immigrants (although he likes inward foreign direct investment). He wants allies to shoulder more of the burden for their own defense. And he believes that he can cut deals with autocrats, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, that will reduce tensions in global trouble spots and allow the United States to focus inward.

Equally clear are Trump’s preferred means of getting what he wants in world politics. The former and future president is a strong believer in using coercion, such as economic sanctions, to pressure other actors. He also subscribes to the “madman theory,” in which he will threaten massive tariff increases or “fire and fury” against other countries in the firm belief that such threats will compel them into offering greater concessions than they otherwise would. At the same time, however, Trump also practices a transactional view of foreign policy, demonstrating a willingness during his first term to link disparate issues to secure economic concessions.

* * *

During the [2024] campaign, Trump promised to bomb Mexico and to deport legal immigrants, called opposition politicians the “enemies from within,” and claimed that migrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country. Despite all this—or perhaps because of it—Trump won a popular majority. When the rest of the world looks at Trump, they will no longer see an aberrant exception to American exceptionalism; they will see what America stands for in the twenty-first century."

— Daniel W. Drezner, The End of American Exceptionalism: Trump’s Reelection Will Redefine U.S. Power, Foreign Affairs, November 12, 2024

Everyone needs a planet. Offer enemies a way not to be enemies.

Margaret Killjoy today:

"Remember that everyone has skin in this game, even if some people have more than others. We all rely on a livable biosphere. Anyone with any ounce of conscience is threatened by a fascist government. It’s okay to be fighting for your own future as well, whatever your identity, and it’s important to not let identity divide us (despite the fact that we need to recognize that those of different identities will be impacted differently). We should not flatten our differences, we should celebrate them. And not let them divide us. Because, as always, we need to

Deescalate all conflict that isn’t with the enemy.

We need to offer an offramp for people on the right wing. We need to offer people the chance to deradicalize away from fascism. This isn’t to say we need to be nice to our enemies, just that we need to make it clear that they have the option of no longer being our enemies."

— The Sky is Falling; We've Got This or: yes it's bad, no we need not despair. Margaret Killjoy. Nov 6, 2024

Read more selected quotations on "The US has an election result. What will we do now?"

Project 2025 explainers: How it'll affect journalists & LGBTQ people

Joshua Benton writes for NiemanLab:

"When some of the detailed proposals within Project 2025 — banning abortion pills, slashing climate regulations, criminalizing pornography, abolishing the Department of Education, mass deportations, to name only a few — gained public attention, Trump claimed to “know nothing about” it — despite the thicket of his own appointees who produced it.

Still, there was one element of Project 2025 I haven’t seen spelled out at length: its plans for the news media."

These include:

"Make it easier to seize journalists’ emails and phone records."
"Consider booting reporters out of the White House."
"Kill funding for NPR, PBS, and public broadcasting."
"Put Voice of America under the president’s command — or shut it down entirely."
"Limit advertising for prescription drugs."
"Punish former officials who speak to reporters."
"Ban TikTok…"
"…remove restrictions on media ownership…"
"…and eliminate Section 230 protections."

Joshua Benton, What would Project 2025 do for (or to) journalism?: From defunding NPR and PBS to kicking reporters out of the White House, it’s an array of conservative priorities and Trumpian retreads. NiemanLab, Sept. 25, 2024

See also:

What is Project 2025? And what does it mean for LGBTQ+ Americans? Far-right activists have put together a series of directives for the next conservative president. Here's what it would mean to the LGBTQ+ community. Trudy Ring, Out.com, November 6, 2024

Days after the election, Donald Trump Jr. was making violent comments about political opponents. (HuffPost, Nov 9)

On November 20, 2024, "Trump urged Republicans ... to nix a bipartisan bill that would give journalists greater protections under federal law. Trump wrote on his favorite social network that “REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!” ... Known as the PRESS Act, the Protect Reporters From Exploitative State Spying Act would prevent the government from forcing journalists to reveal their sources and limit the seizure of their data without their knowledge." (CNN)

"As part of their so-called '180-Day Playbook,' for instance, the folks behind Project 2025 have drafted hundreds of executive orders in their efforts to prepare a more efficient, more ruthless rightwing regime." — Thomas Zimmer, November 27, 2024

Speaking of Meta's policy organization, a Project 2025 author is a director of policy at Meta. www.yahoo.com/news/project...

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— Daniel Malmer (@malmer.com) November 28, 2024 at 8:13 AM

Trump’s FBI Director nominee Kash Patel said he will prosecute and jail Americans who Trump deems “the enemy”: “We will go out and find the conspirators... Yes, we are going to come after the people in the media”

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— Parker Butler (@parkerbutler.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 7:04 PM

Here's an entire thread

We asked journalists around the world who have endured attacks on press freedom what advice they would give their American colleagues. We have collected their wise and remarkable responses in a special issue of @niemanreports.org. “Dear America,” they wrote.

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— Ann Marie Lipinski (@amlwhere.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 3:31 PM

Meanwhile

Last month, I fell down an absolutely bizarre rabbit hole trying to figure out who was ripping off articles from Oregon journalists. What I found was identity theft, plagiarism and an absolutely terrifying future for local journalism led by AI scammers. My latest:

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— Ryan Haas (@ryanjhaas.bsky.social) December 9, 2024 at 11:06 AM

What's going to happen

Justin Cox, "The Forthcoming First Amendment Fight," December 17, 2024:

"Brandon Carr will be the next FCC Chair and have the power to define what the media can and cannot do. While journalistic integrity is instrumental to democracy, Carr has been clear that right only extends to views he agrees with. Carr’s assertions are a way of threatening publishers to self-censor in fear of upsetting their new overlord or face his wrath, which could include removing broadcast licenses. This is not protecting free speech. It’s taking advantage of a bully pulpit.

Andrew Ferguson will be the next FTC Chair and have the power to regulate businesses. Like Carr, Ferguson is on a mission to “hold big tech accountable and stop censorship.” Ferguson believes that social media algorithms intentionally block right-wing views, and he wants to fix it. It’s also worth mentioning that Ferguson wants to “fight back against the trans agenda,” which tells you about everything you need to know about this guy.

These guys want to remove private companies’ ability to regulate content to protect “free speech.” All they will end up doing is allowing hate speech to flourish and scare anyone from holding them accountable."

Famed News Editor Says Trump Is 'Salivating For The Opportunity To Prosecute Journalists' Martin Baron warned Tuesday that Trump will sue “a lot of media outlets" and "threaten advertisers" once he retakes the White House. Marco Margaritoff, HuffPost, Dec 19, 2024

Massachusetts AG: Be 'clear-eyed' about the 'challenges ahead'

Yesterday I learned:

"[Massachusetts] Gov. Maura Healey sued the Trump administration 96 times when she served as attorney general during his first term in office, and she won in 77% of those cases, according to The Boston Globe."

The day before, November 6, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said "her office is 'ready to act' against potential threats from Trump’s administration." She said she was "clear-eyed that President-elect Trump has told us exactly what he intends to do as President, and that we need to believe him and to be ready for the challenges ahead."

— Lindsay Shachnow, Boston.com

“Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said that she would refuse to assist in mass deportations in her state, and warned states of the pressure they will face to penalize and deport undocumented immigrants.” www.latintimes.com/massachusett...

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— Gabe Ortíz (@tusk81.bsky.social) November 7, 2024 at 6:31 PM

“Undocumented immigrants from China who are deemed to be of military age will be among the first groups targeted for deportation by the incoming Trump administration…”

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— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) November 15, 2024 at 2:03 PM

"We’ve already seen how disastrous a Trump presidency can be for our country and our planet, and we know that his plans this time around are even worse.

* * *

During Donald Trump’s first term, he did everything in his power to reverse the progress our climate movement made to protect our planet from the greed and exploitation of the fossil fuel industry.

Now, we’re staring down an even more dangerous road. Trump plans to repeal major climate legislation, remove any protected status rules on federal lands and waters to allow for more drilling and mining, rescind EPA standards, and remove the U.S. once again from the Paris Climate Agreement. And that’s only the beginning."

— 350.org email today

Concentration camps. Republicans in Texas can’t wait to open concentration camps.

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— David Slack (@slack2thefuture.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 9:28 PM

Tom Homan makes clear that he's prepared to more or less go to war with cities that resist federal mass deportations

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) November 20, 2024 at 8:37 PM

“Texas authorities say they are prepared to offer President-elect Donald Trump 1,400-acres (567 hectares) of land along the US-Mexico border to build detention facilities for undocumented migrants.”

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— Juan Escalante (@juansaaa.com) November 20, 2024 at 9:14 PM

Team Trump Debates ‘How Much Should We Invade Mexico?’ In Trump’s government-in-waiting, the only question is how massive the U.S. assault on Mexican drug cartels should be. Asawin Suebsaeng, Andrew Perez, Rolling Stone, November 27, 2024

"California Sen. Alex Padilla (D) said Sunday the state had 'no obligation' to help President-elect Donald Trump enact his mass deportation plans, saying local officials will instead work to support migrants and undocumented immigrants."
Trump 'Has It In For California,' State Will Not Help Deportation Plans, Senator Says. “There doesn't have to be a conflict, unless that's what Trump wants," Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla said. Nick Visser, Dec 2, 2024

When asked about Trump's plans for mass deportations, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she supports immigrants with legal papers but would be "the first one to call up ICE" to deport undocumented immigrants accused of crimes. @rebeccaclewis.bsky.social reports for @cityandstateny.bsky.social:

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— Peter Sterne (@petersterne.com) November 26, 2024 at 6:39 PM

Kansas Attorney General is a Trump ally

A Key Trump Ally On Immigration Explains How Mass Deportations Could Work Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has for two decades been one of the most influential lawyers in the Republican movement to restrict illegal immigration. John Hanna, AP logo, Dec 19, 2024