Today's SCOTUS decision on conversion therapy

In Authoritarianism, Dictators Come for LGBTQ People First. Here's Why: The No King's Protest underscores how many believe Trump's attacks on queer rights are putting American democracy in peril. Sam Donndelinger, Spencer Macnaughton, and Jelinda Montes, Uncloseted Media, Oct 21, 2025

"Our silly queer lives and our silly queer drama and our endless arguing about terminology, it’s fundamentally incompatible with authoritarianism because it’s fundamentally a declaration that we either defy classification entirely (my preference) or we at least get to dictate that classification amongst ourselves. The state wants to be the one who decides which of us are valid. It doesn’t want to let us hash that out ourselves in mean-spirited Instagram reels." (Our Visibility is Somehow a Threat to Power, or: on Trans Day of Visibility, Margaret Killjoy, Mar 31, 2026)

Read the ruling, March 31, 2026: CHILES v. SALAZAR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF REGULATORY AGENCIES, ET AL (PDF download).

Supreme Court Rules Against Conversion Therapy Bans On Transgender Day Of Visibility: "The fallout could be catastrophic," said Justice Jackson in her lone dissent of the 8-1 opinion. Erin Reed, Mar 31, 2026

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APA Statement | The Supreme Court Decision in Chiles v. Salazar

Supreme Court Clears Path For Extremely Dangerous Practice — And Now More Young People Will Die “The treatment does medical harm — First Amendment rights are not the issue here." Melissa Garner Lee, HuffPost, Apr 5, 2026

New Colorado Conversion Therapy Ban With Clever Mechanism Close To Passing: The bill uses a private right of action, a tactic previously used by Republicans to target abortion providers. Erin Reed, Erin in the Morning, Apr 29, 2026

Well, at least this, for Colorado

i will admit i did not believe they would dismiss the hilariously cissupremacist not-enough-of-them-to-care reasoning from the pi denial which is disastrous for minorities across the board for obvious reasons but i like being wrong the moral is, like i've been screaming, go after the providers

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— Corinne Green (@ket.bsky.social) May 18, 2026 at 2:34 PM

Oh really, you are voting for conversion therapy and then like a day later saying "whoops"?

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AZ District 4: Lynda Carter's sister Pamela opposes repro rights and LGBTQ people

Pamela Carter is running to represent Arizona’s Legislative District 4 (part of Maricopa County) in the Arizona House of Representatives.

"Her platform," Lydia O'Connor writes for HuffPost, "includes being opposed to same-sex marriage, abortion in nearly all cases and transgender inclusion in sports. She supports arming teachers."

Her sister Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the 1970s TV series, is a strong supporter of abortion rights and told Mother Jones on September 13 that she doesn't support her sister's campaign.

Wonder Woman says no: ⬇️

ABC Television - Scan of publicity photograph, public domain, Wikimedia

Catch up with Thomas Zimmer's series on Project 2025

Project 2025 is online at project2025.org — click on Policy and read the agenda.

Thomas Zimmer tells us more about it.

Feb 22 article

He recommends that we read the 17-page foreword to the 920-page “Project 2025.” In this foreword, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, "captures and oozes the siege mentality, self-victimization, and grievance-driven lust for revenge." It reveals "how much the power centers of conservative politics have been taken over by anti-democratic extremism," and it does so in a voice from the Right itself. When the NYT interviewed Roberts in January, Roberts expressed approval for 1950s McCarthyist endeavor to root out Communists from the government, that Biden did not win the 2020 election, and that the real threats to American democracy were not the 2021 attack on the Capitol but President Biden and Black Lives Matter protesters. Before his position at Heritage, Roberts was "CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a rightwing think tank in Austin focusing on, amongst other things, fighting for the privatization of education and on making the “moral case for fossil fuels” by rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change. He also served as the president of Wyoming Catholic College." Roberts is thus a "true believer in the reactionary political project" from "the world of reactionary Catholicism."

Part of Roberts's complaint in that foreword is the "toxic normalization of transgenderism," which he links with "sexualization of children" and "critical race theory." He adds: "Contemporary elites have even repurposed the worst ingredients of 1970s ‘radical chic’ to build the totalitarian cult known today as ‘The Great Awokening.’" (Zimmer points out that "a reactionary majority is dominating the Supreme Court" and that, for some reason, this doesn't seem to be enough for the Heritage Foundation.) Of course, "Since the formation of modern conservatism as a political project in the middle decades of the twentieth century, rightwing leaders have often claimed it was five minutes to midnight. To some extent, this is all very much in line with established conservative rhetoric. But what Roberts presents here also captures a more recent radicalization..."

"The Heritage Foundation was established in 1973 as part of an attempt to build a machinery of organizations and think tanks that could help counter what conservatives perceived as the liberal hegemony. Heritage has, for decades, been the most influential, most powerful of these rightwing think tanks – certainly the one closest to the power centers of the Right and the Republican Party. It used to be associated – and associated itself – with Reaganism, and it has rightly been regarded as conservative establishment.

In recent years, however, Heritage has gone into a decidedly more Trumpian direction, defining their own role as “institutionalizing Trumpism” – and not in the sense of containing or taming it, but to make it more efficient."

Project 2025, furthermore, has an Advisory Board of "101 organizations and institutions. It’s a Who is Who of rightwing actors – Alliance Defending Freedom, America First Legal Foundation, Center for Renewing America, Claremont Institute, Hillsdale College, Liberty University, Young America’s Foundation, Moms for Liberty, and on and on and on."

Yet, Zimmer says, "Much of this [what the Heritage Foundation is saying] sounds like Marjorie Taylor Greene might have posted it on Ex-Twitter or said it to rile up the base at a rally." Such deluge of "manufactured rightwing moral panics...defines the center of conservative politics today."

Roberts writes that "socialism" also goes by the names of "Communism, Marxism, progressivism, Fascism," such that these all mean the same thing. "Analytically," Zimmer says, this is complete nonsense....It is not worth engaging a statement like this on substance." But as a historical fact, we should note that "what Roberts presents here is reminiscent of what the infamous 1776 Commission produced, the advisory committee established by then-president Donald Trump in the fall of 2020, with the explicit goal of guaranteeing 'patriotic education.'"

Feb 29 article

Zimmer continues:

"Over the past few months, different factions on the Right have presented detailed plans for what they want to do the next time they get back to the White House. Among them, 'Project 2025,' launched in April 2022 under the leadership of the Heritage Foundation, stands out because it unites much of the conservative movement and the machine of think tanks as well as activist and lobbying groups behind the goal of installing a more effective, more ruthless rightwing regime.

Last week, in Part I of my deep dive into 'Project 2025,' I examined the worldview of the people behind these plans They see themselves as noble defenders of 'real America' against a totalitarian 'woke,' 'globalist' assault. 'Project 2025' is their declaration of war on multiracial pluralism. The “Promise to America” Heritage president Kevin Roberts has offered in his foreword to the 'Project 2025' report perfectly captures the siege mentality, self-victimization, and grievance-driven lust for revenge that are fueling the Right’s plans."

The right wing believes they didn't competently take advantage of the Trump administration while it lasted, so they want to be prepared to take advantage of a second Trump term. They're planning "what amounts to a comprehensive authoritarian takeover of American government" and it is "very much in continuity with the reactionary crusade against public education that has always been a key element of modern conservative politics."

"In their own parlance, “Project 2025” consists of four “pillars”: A policy agenda, spelled out in the 920-page report they published last April, titled: “Mandate for Leadership: A conservative promise” (I); a personnel database, intended to build an army of loyalists (II); a “training effort” that currently consists of online courses they call the “Presidential Administration Academy” to get these loyalists and all political appointees ready to implement the rightwing agenda (III); and, finally, “Project 2025” vows to create “a playbook of actions to be taken in the first 180 days of the new Administration to bring quick relief to Americans suffering from the Left’s devastating policies” (IV) – this fourth “pillar” is, at this point, still distinctly vague and seems to exist only in the form of an announcement of future action."

Mar 21 article

This time, Zimmer says, reactionaries are working in sync. They want "to punish their enemies, 'take back' the country, and restore the 'natural order' of unquestioned white Christian patriarchal rule – a unity that is indicative of a broader realignment on the Right towards an aggressive embrace of state authoritarianism." This time, they have "a fully Trumpified GOP, a reactionary super-majority on the Supreme Court, and with the omnipresent threat of escalating political violence intimidating anyone who dares to dissent."

Project 2025 is a plan to authoritarianize the government by gutting some parts, weaponizing others, giving the president much more power over what remains, and installing Trump loyalists under him.

This is Trump's platform:

"In a speech at the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) in Nashville in late February, for instance, Trump promised to create 'a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias'; to take 'historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology and restore the timeless truth that God created two genders, male and female'; and to sign an executive order to 'cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children' (Robert P. Jones provide an excellent write-up and contextualization of the speech in his newsletter this week). All of that sounds like it could be coming straight out of 'Project 2025.'"

Zimmer adds:

"...there is, at a macro or maybe philosophical level, an inherent tension between two opposing principles in the vision 'Project 2025' outlines – there is the proclamation to dismantle the 'deep state,' but there is also the desire to use it, to mobilize and weaponize it in service of the reactionary agenda. The former reflects the preferences of the conservative legal movement and the libertarian, market-fundamentalist strand of the Right...This tension has actually always been a constitutive feature of modern conservatism. What emerged as the modern conservative political project in the middle decades of the twentieth century was in many ways defined by an alliance between two distinct factions."

Then, this happened

Heather Cox Richardson says:

"On March 19, [Josh] Kovensky explained how that power was reaching into lawmaking when he reported on a September 2023 speech by Russ Vought, a key architect of the plans for Trump’s second term, including Project 2025. In the speech, which took place in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Vought explained the right wing’s extreme border policies by explicitly marrying Christian nationalism and an aversion to the pluralism that is a hallmark of American democracy. Vought argued that the U.S. should model immigration on the Bible’s Old Testament, welcoming migrants only 'so long as they accepted Israel’s God, laws, and understanding of history.'"

See the Talking Points Memo reporting on Russ Vought.

Earlier this month, Kovensky reported on the Society for American Civic Renewal.

Media Matters (May 2024):

"Project 2025 director Paul Dans told the Australian Financial Review that he thinks a second Trump administration 'will adopt' many of the initiative’s radical right-wing proposals. He also suggested that even if Donald Trump loses, Project 2025’s ideas would live on through the conservative establishment."

CNN (July 2024):

Olivia Troye, a former advisor to Mike Pence, points out that Stephen Miller, Ben Carson, and Ken Cuccinelli are all involved in Project 2025. She says (video): "Trump knows that what is written in this plan is so extreme that it is damaging to his possibility of getting elected." In Troye's opinion, it's not the "fiscal conservatism" or "individual liberties" she believes in. it's "complete overreach by the federal government on our individual liberties." As an example, regarding women who have to go out of state to get an abortion, Project 2025 uses the term "abortion tourism," and Troye objects to this language choice. "No amount of distancing by Donald Trump should be believed because the authors and the collaborators are all part of this operation that's been behind him from even the first term of his administration."

MSNBC (July 2024):

On Ali Velshi's show:

Velshi began, “Now, from the get-go, we all know that wasn’t true so we set out to debunk it and honestly I thought there might be a little more legwork involved in spelling out the web of connections between Donald Trump and Project 2025 but then I realized, all you have to do is look in the table of contents.”

The MSNBC anchor pointed out Trump’s links to the authors of many of the playbook’s chapters, many of whom were actually aides and officials in his first administration.

“I literally don’t have enough time to list every connection between Donald Trump and Project 2025,” said Velshi. “But I can absolutely confidently say that Donald Trump’s claim that he ‘knows nothing about Project 2025’ and has ‘no idea who is behind it’ is, how do we say it in Canada? Complete and utter B.S.”

Of course Trump knows who's behind Project 2025.

Project 2025 Co-Author Says Donald Trump ‘Very Supportive Of What We Do’: Russell Vought told an undercover reporter he’s drafting executive orders for Trump to deploy on his hopeful return to the White House. Arthur Delaney, HuffPost, Aug 15, 2024

July 9 article

Zimmer wrote:

"MAGA extremists and the conservative establishment that is behind Project 2025 are aligned on personnel, policy, and ideology," Zimmer says, but it's not a conspiracy. Simply, "they are fundamentally in agreement about what it is they want to do to the country and the reactionary vision of 'real America' they want to impose on the nation. Moreover, it is a shared desire to punish their “Un-American” enemies that binds them. Project 2025 is evidence of how far the Right has radicalized, how far beyond Trump the problem goes."

In February, Trump spoke to the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) in Nashville, and what he said "sounds like it could be coming straight out of Project 2025, which promises to restore former national glory by purging enemies and deviants from the nation. Look anywhere in the policy report, and what you’ll find is visceral disdain for any kind of pluralism and diversity channeled into a policy agenda aiming to extinguish it."

Zimmer noted:

"Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s closest advisors, quickly followed his leader in emphasizing that “I have never been involved with Project 2025, not one word.” Miller, of course, is the head of the America First Legal Foundation, which is listed as a member of the Project 2025 Advisory Board, meaning they have officially signed off on this operation. Miller has also, as many people were quick to point out, recorded one of the videos for Project 2025’s “Presidential Administration Academy,” a “training effort” that currently consists of online courses intended to get the people Project 2025 wants to bring into the executive ready to implement the rightwing agenda from day one."

Not only is Trump getting bad publicity over Project 2025 right now, but the publicity might be hurting his ego as it gives the impression "that elite operators like Kevin Roberts are the real leaders on the Right."

"Trump is not pulling the strings behind Project 2025, and this operation isn’t being conducted in secret at all. This isn’t the work of a handful of henchmen doing their dark lord’s bidding, but an effort that has united much of the American Right’s elite machinery. And there is absolutely no brainwashing or coercion involved: The people behind Project 2025 are true believers in their extremely reactionary vision for America. Project 2025 should not be conceptualized as a plot designed by an all-powerful evil overseeing everything in the background. Instead, Project 2025 crystallizes the self-mobilization of a rightwing elite that has radicalized to the point where their plans are entirely in line with Donald Trump’s vengeful desires and the fever dreams of the extremist fringe."

Project 2025 isn't a puppet by a single villain.

"It is the manifestation of a comprehensive mobilization of a radicalizing rightwing establishment, intelligentsia, think tank world, and moneyed interest. The people who are responsible for it have not been brainwashed, they aren’t merely scared of Trump or the base, and they certainly aren’t helpless marionettes or pawns in a game. They are willingly, enthusiastically planning to take over the American government and transform it into a machine that serves only two purposes: exacting revenge on what they call the “woke”, leftist, globalist enemy and imposing a minoritarian reactionary vision of white Christian patriarchal order on society.

By the way, Project 2025 lies about its intentions, and it lies about them badly: "'Mandate for Leadership' talks about 'eliminating politicization' – only to then present the whole laundry list of rightwing culture war grievances. DEI! CRT! Trans people! It is a policy agenda aligning entirely with the Christopher Rufo canon of reactionary white male moral panics."

NEW: The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans As Trump tried to disavow the politically toxic project, its director, Paul Dans, stepped down. But the plans and massive staffing database that he prepared — to replace thousands of members of the “deep state” with MAGA loyalists — remain.

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— ProPublica (@propublica.bsky.social) Aug 1, 2024 at 12:51 PM

By the way, in March 2025, when Politico asked Dans if Trump was falling short on Project 2025, Dans said that Trump's delivery was "actually way beyond my wildest dreams."

"On Sunday [August 4, 2024], MSNBC’s Ali Velshi noted it was a “tricky one” because “they actually went down and wrote everything they were going to do and then Donald Trump goes out to these rallies and tells people, ‘I’m not involved in this, I don’t agree with a lot of this stuff, it’s got nothing to do with me,’ which is actually part of what authoritarians sometimes do.”

Snyder, an expert on authoritarianism, agreed.

Trump is “trusting that his people will believe him, no matter what he says,” he explained. “That is part of an authoritarian dynamic where you can lie to your own people and then you can say something completely different the next time and they nod their heads and say, ‘Oh yes, I knew it all along.’ That’s part of what it means to belong to that sort of thing.”

“The shift is basically a scam,” Snyder continued."

— Lee Moran, Tyranny Expert Explains Why Donald Trump's Project 2025 Shift Is 'Basically A Scam': It's "part of an authoritarian dynamic," said Timothy Snyder. HuffPost, Aug 5, 2024

There is "flight tracking data and a photo of Trump traveling with Kevin Roberts in April 2022."
Trump Took Private Jet Flight With Head Of Project 2025, New Photo Shows: The former president has tried to distance himself from the controversial far-right blueprint, claiming he has “no idea” who was in charge of it. Nick Visser, HuffPost, Aug 7, 2024

See also

Project 2025 - The Advisory Board List: Full list with hyperlinks and additional information on each organization. Juliet Jeske, #DecodingFoxNews, July 8, 2024

Cracking the Christian nationalist code: A glossary for the confused: The Christian right has a clearly anti-democratic agenda — but it's concealed with deliberately confusing terms, Paul Rosenberg, Salon, May 26, 2024

Project 2025 believes in three genders, Tucker Lieberman, Medium, July 5, 2024

Delayed publication of Heritage president's book reflects Project 2025 shell game: Media Matters has obtained a galley copy of Dawn's Early Light, which decries IVF, abortion, childlessness, and dog parks, Madeline Peltz, Media Matters, August 7, 2024

Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts compared abortion access to slave auctions, lynchings, and the Holocaust, Eric Hananoki, Media Matters, August 8, 2024

Sources

"“Project 2025” Promises Revenge, Oppression, and Autocratic Rule: The Right’s plans for a return to power are driven by a radicalizing siege mentality and a desperate desire to restore dominance". Thomas Zimmer. Democracy Americana (Substack). Feb 22, 2024

"What 'Project 2025' Would Do to America": The Right has developed concrete plans to make America into a much nastier place for anyone who dares to deviate from the white Christian patriarchal order. That’s what is on the ballot in November." Thomas Zimmer. Democracy Americana (Substack). February 29, 2024

"What Makes 'Project 2025' So Dangerous: Will the Right be able to implement these radical plans? Is Trump on board? What happened to traditional conservatism? Let’s tackle some of the key questions surrounding 'Project 2025'." Thomas Zimmer. Democracy Americana (Substack). March 21, 2024

"Project 2025 director: A Trump administration will likely adopt many of the group’s policy suggestions," Sophie Lawton, Media Matters, May 14, 2024

Allies Against Democracy: Trump and Project 2025: Trump is not the mastermind behind Project 2025. It’s worse: The rightwing establishment has radicalized to the point where their plans are entirely in line with his vengeful desires. Thomas Zimmer. July 9, 2024

Again, there’s a bizarre insistence that power has been stolen from us, the people, despite the Constitution being a power sharing agreement. Just straight up ignoring Congress, ignoring that the executive acts at the will of Congress, and ignoring that Congress represents popular will. #project2025

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— Kaitlin Has Had Enough (@gothamgirlblue.com) Jul 31, 2024 at 9:30 PM

Here’s the 90-day search chart for “Project 2025.” The BET Awards took place on June 30, 2024. That giant spike? That’s just after June 30th. Taraji did that. *Legend*.

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— Kim Shumway (@kimshum.bsky.social) July 23, 2024 at 6:45 PM

Democrats had a great message on Project 2025. It was so deeply unpopular that Trump had to deny any connection. Now that Trump has said he plans to hire key figures from Project 2025 for his administration, Democrats need to sound the alarm. It will still be unpopular.

— Max Berger (@maxberger.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 6:43 PM

Democratic leaders did not prepare

Project 2025 was right there providing a roadmap for building a legal attack. Lawyers could have been marshalled to handle it by sections. Instead of running off prematurely, appointees could have been saving docs, databases, and building bulwarks & firewalls to protect & sabotage the new Regime.

— Riggsveda (@riggsveda.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 9:07 AM

They desperately wanted to run the UK labour party play: police the left of the party, but otherwise do nothing and wait for the opposition to screw up.

— Daniel Jones (@dcjones.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 8:45 AM

A constant of US politics for the last decade+ has been the unsubtle desire among Dem pols for things to actively get worse, so they won't need to lift a finger to still look better than the alternative. They react violently to anyone suggesting this strategy has flaws.

— Ember Bite Aegle (@emberaegle.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 8:48 AM

They should have been "organizing the 250+ electeds into groups based on their strengths. instead, youve got a handful of reps/sens out there trying to whack every mole." (Bluesky) "The "not swinging at every pitch" idea from consultants and leadership was astonishing and instructive in equal measure. This is why you lose to MAGA twice, because you think triangulating on how much of the system they destroy is somehow the smart tactic. Not standing against wrong and bad things." (Bluesky) "Their plan was to sit back and let them "screw up" while complaining about the price of eggs. Many of them are still expressing anger that people want them to do something else." (Bluesky)

The ADF is responsible for the mifepristone ruling

On August 1, 2021, an article called "Splitting the T from the LGB," written by Steph Richards, was published by the UK org TransLucent.

First of all, in early 2017, a group called Hands Across The Aisle was founded by "staunch Catholic Kaeley Triller Haver and anti-trans lesbian Miriam Ben Sharlom," Richards explains. The Hands Across the Aisle website says: "We are radical feminists, lesbians, Christians and conservatives that are tabling our ideological differences to stand in solidarity against gender identity legislation, which we have come to recognise as the erasure of our own hard-won civil rights." Their goal was "working together, rising above our differences, and leveraging our collective resources to oppose gender identity ideology." They named Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, aka Posie Parker, and among their specifically "left" wing allies, they named Fair Play for Women and Transgender Trend. In 2018, Jules Joanne Gleeson wrote about Hands Across The Aisle in the New Socialist. Separately, Gleeson described Fair Play for Women as a "single issue anti-trans group" that "used their official Twitter to publicly fantasise about trans people dying from ‘a thousand cancers’" and later deleted the tweets, and described Hands Across The Aisle as "a group founded by Christian evangelicals to unite right and left-wing transphobia" in accordance with "the stated agenda of the Christian far-right in splitting ‘LGB’ from ‘T’ groups in order to make both more easily defeated." (Richards notes that the Hands Across The Aisle website went offline around early 2020. I see other people cited their website in late 2022, but in mid-2023, they're offline again.)

Then, something happened later in 2017. Richards went on: "Every year the American Christian right-wing extremists attend a gathering known as the 'Values Voter Summit'. Organised by the controversial Family Research Council (FRC), this networking event ... is attended pretty much by all the right-wing anti LGBT+ hate groups together with the anti-abortion groups. Sponsors include Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and The Heritage Foundation, who both have close links to the UK’s Conservative Party. ... [In 2017,] a sitting President, Donald Trump, addressed the faithful gathering for the first time ever." At the same 2017 gathering, transphobia made its first significant appearance at the VVS. Meg Kilgannon recommended — according to SPLC's Hatewatch reporting, and with general agreement from RightWingWatch that this is indeed what Kilgannon was saying — that they "separate trans activists from the gay rights movement," with the strategy of "divide and conquer. For many, gender identity on its own is just a bridge too far. If we separate the T from the alphabet soup, we’ll have more success." She said that recognizing trans people's gender "only come[s] at the expense of others": it leads to the "erasure of women," including through "lesbian eugenics" and the elimination of the value of "modesty." That was her right-wing anti-trans platform. Also from the Hatewatch article: Cathy Ruse, a senior fellow with the Family Research Council, also spoke, saying: "Did you know that feminists are at odds with the transgender movement? Last year a prominent feminist published a compendium of articles under the title of Female Erasure." She suggested there was an "impact on girls who are bombarded with gender transition messages," who, "in their young minds," might interpret the existence of trans men as meaning "that being female isn’t good enough". Meanwhile, Peter Sprigg, also an FRC senior fellow, spoke on the same platform, suggesting that gender transition is "a violation of the natural law"; for context, he also opposes gay people, linking them to pedophiles.

Richards said: "the concerted attacks on Stonewall [for advocating for trans rights] are further evidence of the attempts to split the LGB from the T precisely as Kilgannon had called for. And whilst peddling these far-right extremist views by helping to spread hatred directed against the trans community, they are also being complicit in aiding the real war on women – abortion rights."

Marisa Kabas writes (May 17, 2024) that

"abortion does not exist in a vacuum, because no struggle does. Multiple speakers [at ComstockCon] referenced the protests against genocide in Gaza and Harvard’s student encampment a few minutes away; anti-blackness and racism undergirded every panel; and numerous links were made to trans liberation and health care. And by the end of the day, one thing was clear: The most powerful tool for protecting and expanding abortion rights—and all human rights—is through solidarity.

* * *

Isolating married white women with exceptions as the prime victims of anti-abortion laws is quite the opposite of solidarity, the conference speakers agreed: It elevates them above the poor and Black and Brown and queer and disabled and immigrant women who faced barriers to terminating pregnancies well before Roe fell. ... Comstock himself disproportionately went after immigrants and Jews for indecency, and this go-round by Christian Nationalists is unlikely to be much different."

---

As this left/right alliance against trans people presents a branding challenge, they call themselves "gender-critical."

---

Erin Reed, on Twitter:

The Alliance Defending Freedom is responsible for the anti-abortion Mifepistone ruling.

The same organization that is behind the 450 anti-trans bills this year.

These are two sides of the same coin in the same fight and the same people are fighting with the same justifications.

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) April 8, 2023

It is no coincidence we see abortion rights fall the same time the most anti-trans laws have been passed in history.

Everything is connected here: Trans sports bans policing what a female body is, healthcare to youth and the right for them to obtain it, its all the same fight.

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) April 8, 2023

The same decisions are being used to harm all of us and block bodily autonomy for all.

They are using tools from the same tool box.

- Gestational ages and minimum ages for trans care
- Onerous restrictions placed on clinics
- Bans on care
- Laws targeting people out of state

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) April 8, 2023

Don't believe anti-abortion and anti-trans laws are connected?

Idaho State Rep Young: "I see this conversation as an extension of the pro-life argument. We are not talking about the life of the child, but we are talking about the potential to give life to another generation."

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) April 8, 2023

This is all part of the culmination on a full fledged assault on reproductive freedom and the enforcement of a gender norms in service of a patriarchy that must seek to subjugate women, queer and trans people, and minorities in order to maintain its power.

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) April 8, 2023

Even if the Supreme Court stays Kacsmaryk's order—which is more likely than not, I think—this problem will not go away. Republican litigants know they can walk into Kacsmaryk's courthouse and get *literally anything they want.* Without reforms, this will keep happening forever.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 8, 2023

And it's not just Kacsmaryk. Republicans can shop their case to a handful of other equally lawless judges: Reed O'Connor, Andrew Hanen, Drew Tipton, Terry Doughty, Jeffrey Vincent Brown, Mark Pittman, James Wesley Hendrix. These guys toss out nationwide injunctions like candy.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 8, 2023

Kacsmaryk, O'Connor, Tipton, and company embrace Republicans' brazen judge-shopping in furtherance of a shared agenda. And they know the hard-right 5th Circuit is likely to take their side on appeal. If Congress won't act, the Supreme Court needs to stop this madness.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 8, 2023

This solution is not a sustainable one. It subjects the executive branch to competing, mutually exclusive court orders, essentially forcing it to break the law by choosing which order to ignore. That's how constitutional crises happen. We're in one now. https://t.co/kKOGDlX931 pic.twitter.com/tZBABQaHWD

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 8, 2023

I’m not sure most people know how immersed Kacsmaryk has been, for his entire life, in the most radical and extreme wing of the anti-abortion movement. He’s spent his whole career fighting Roe v. Wade—that’s why ADF handpicked him to decide their case! https://t.co/lwpPoHo6nJ pic.twitter.com/8dVagZ3Hal

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 9, 2023

Possibly this is too nuanced a take for twitter and I will regret it, but: pro-abortion messaging around mifepristone is almost exclusively concerned with its safety, which is fine, but talks entirely past why the people who want to take mife off the market are trying to do so

— Andrea Grimes (@andreagrimes) April 11, 2023

This feels a whole lot, like a WHOLE LOT, like getting caught up arguing about ASC regs and gestational limits.

There is no point at which someone who thinks the gov't should force pregnant people to stay pregnant at all costs is going to concede the safety of mife.

— Andrea Grimes (@andreagrimes) April 11, 2023

From the handwringing about “evidence-based medicine” to claiming there’s “not enough studies,” the trial decision is word for word what anti-trans actors are saying. Anti-abortion and anti-trans movements are one and the same. https://t.co/01A5Mvh6ip

— Florence Ashley (@ButNotTheCity) April 13, 2023

Ashley is referring to Mark Joseph Stern's tweet about this article: "A Scalia Clerk Dismantles the Medication Abortion Decision: The court’s analysis directly contradicts binding precedent, relies on skewed evidence, and would yield absurd consequences." Adam Unikowsky, April 12, 2023.

I understand why Steve has to pretend that the religious fanatics stocked on our Supreme Court and empowered with limitless authority to impose their narrow reading of Christian law in our nation will care about merits. It his job.

But I don’t think we should pretend. https://t.co/5bJyVIvCWy

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) April 13, 2023

"Justice Department Files Immediate Appeal To Abortion Pill Ruling," Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost, April 7, 2023

"The Shared Anti-Trans and Anti-Abortion Playbook," Irin Carman, NY Intelligencer (paywalled), April 4, 2023

"The MSNBC host [Nicolle Wallace] noted that she typically avoids amplifying Trump or Fox News, but said that this rhetoric provided important context on the recent Republican-led efforts to strip back abortion rights, implement voter suppression laws and silence dissent in the Tennessee state legislature.

“It’s important to understand they’re not bodily functions. They’re not burping out random policies. They’re following their leader, who’s following the world’s most heinous authoritarians,” Wallace said. “And we showed you that to show you just how dangerous his rhetoric is.”

— "'Such An Idiot': Nicolle Wallace Bursts Out Laughing Over Trump Comment On Fox News." Josephine Harvey. HuffPost. Apr 12, 2023.

Also:

"As a lawyer for a conservative legal group, Matthew Kacsmaryk in early 2017 submitted an article to a Texas law review criticizing Obama-era protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions.

The Obama administration, the draft article argued, had discounted religious physicians who 'cannot use their scalpels to make female what God created male' and 'cannot use their pens to prescribe or dispense abortifacient drugs designed to kill unborn children.'

But a few months after the piece arrived, an editor at the law journal who had been working with Kacsmaryk received an unusual email: Citing “reasons I may discuss at a later date,” Kacsmaryk, who had originally been listed as the article’s sole author, said he would be removing his name and replacing it with those of two colleagues at his legal group, First Liberty Institute, according to emails and early drafts obtained by The Washington Post." [emphasis mine]

"The controversial article Matthew Kacsmaryk did not disclose to the Senate," (unpaywalled gift link) Caroline Kitchener, Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, Washington Post, April 15, 2023

Also:

"The federal judge who suspended the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of an abortion pill failed to disclose two interviews on a Christian radio show where he discussed his extremist views on contraception and gay rights, CNN reported [April 20]..." — HuffPost

Also, bonus: "vile sexist stereotypes" (CNN video) on the Tucker Carlson show, as alleged by Abby Grossberg days after his show was concerned. Carlson's show had 3.05 million viewers on the Wednesday before he was fired (April 19, 2023); a week later, the Wednesday after he was fired, the same Fox time slot (8 p.m., hosted by Brian Kilmeade) had dropped by more than half, to only 1.33 million viewers.

.

Consequences of anti-abortion legislation

Please read this story. The discrimination is blatant. Ohio Woman Charged After Miscarrying Non-Viable Fetus In Bathroom: The Black woman's ordeal highlights the perils and uncertainties of being pregnant in a post-Roe America. Julie Carr Smyth. HuffPost. Dec 16, 2023. See more on this story from MSNBC, Dec 21.

Court date

The Supreme Court will hear mifepristone arguments on March 26, 2024.

"Research at the heart of a federal case against the abortion pill has been retracted," Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR, February 9, 2024

What to expect when you’re expecting an abortion pill argument, Impromptu (Washington Post podcast), March 20, 2024

How The Far Right Engineered An Assault On Abortion Access, Even In Blue States: The Supreme Court is set to hear a case that threatens to erode abortion rights even in states that have acted to preserve them. Sara Boboltz, HuffPost, Mar 23, 2024

Supreme Court Again Confronts Abortion, This Time Over Access To Widely Used Medication: Abortion opponents on Tuesday will ask the high court to ratify a ruling from a conservative federal appeals court that would limit access to the medication mifepristone. Mark Sherman, HuffPost, Mar 25, 2024

Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Efforts To Restrict Abortion Pill The justices ruled the plaintiffs didn't have the standing to bring the case in the first place. Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost, Jun 13, 2024

"By basing its decision on procedure rather than merit, the Court left the door ajar for anti-abortion groups to pursue other legal challenges. For instance, ADF’s takeaway was that, “The court recognized that our doctors would have standing to protect their conscience rights,” which allow medical providers to deny care based on their religious beliefs. And rather than being dismissed, the FDA case will return to the lower courts, where attorneys general for Kansas and Missouri have already promised to continue their litigation."
They won't stop, but neither will we," email from Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, June 15, 2024

The Mifepristone Battle Isn’t Over Yet: On the eve of Dobbs’s second anniversary, we celebrated a small victory with the mifepristone decision. But the time is now for Dems to make a preemptive strike to protect abortion rights before SCOTUS takes another swing at them. Andrea Grimes, Dame, Jun 25, 2024

Abortion Opponents Shift Focus To Pills With Lawsuits, Proposed Laws And Possible Federal Action: The battles over abortion in the U.S. are increasingly focusing on the pills that are now the most common way pregnancies are ended. Geoff Mulvihill, AP, HuffPost, Dec 23, 2024

Republicans are pushing to restrict abortion pills based on a garbage new 'study.' We’ve seen fake data like this reach SCOTUS—but if we make it politically toxic now, we might stop it before it spreads. Feel free to steal these images, or read the full debunk in my newsletter

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— Jessica Valenti (@jessicavalenti.bsky.social) April 30, 2025 at 10:41 AM

RFK Jr. Says He's Exploring A Crackdown On This Perfectly Safe Medication: Kennedy called a flawed, conservative think tank-backed study on abortion medication "alarming." Lydia O'Connor, HuffPost, May 15, 2025

Related:

At the newsletter right now: One of Turning Point USA’s first campus events since the murder of Charlie Kirk will be a panel with leaders of the abortion ‘abolition’ movement - extremists who lobby for abortion patients to get the death penalty jessica.substack.com/p/turning-po...

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— Jessica Valenti (@jessicavalenti.bsky.social) October 3, 2025 at 5:44 PM

Florida and Texas made a quiet move that could have huge implications nationwide: They asked to join a lawsuit against the FDA seeking to drastically roll back access to the abortion drug mifepristone. But unlike the states before them, they seek to rescind the drug's approval. Me in @slate.com:

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— Susan Rinkunas (@susanrinkunas.com) August 29, 2025 at 10:54 AM

Louisiana issues arrest warrant for California doctor who allegedly sent abortion pills minnesotareformer.com/2025/09/30/r...

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— Minnesota Reformer (@minnesotareformer.com) October 1, 2025 at 2:18 PM

One of the DOJ’s Arguments Against Trans Care Could Threaten Abortion Pills, ElizaBeth, Medium, March 2026

He claims there's such a thing as "abortion water."

Court Restricts Abortion Access Across The U.S. By Blocking The Mailing Of Mifepristone: A federal appeals court has restricted access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by blocking the mailing of mifepristone. Associated Press, May 1, 2026

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche Commits To Ending Abortion Pills By Mail In Confirmation Hearing, Alanna Vagianos, HuffPost, July 15, 2026

Federal Judge Rules FDA Unjustly Restricted Abortion Pill Mifepristone: Mifepristone has faced increasing attacks from politicians and Republican-led states in recent years. Caroline Wilburn, HuffPost, Jul 24, 2026

Anti-LGBTQ initiatives by the Texas GOP

I'm reading this news: "Republican lawmakers in Texas proposed a bill [SB 1993] that would enable the secretary of state to overturn election results in counties that have one million residents or more." That would be Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, and Collin counties. The secretary of state could do this if they have "good cause to believe" that at least 2 percent of a county's polling places had requested supplemental ballots but did not receive them. In this situation, the secretary of state could order a new election. The secretary of state would have "the same authority granted to a district court."
— "Texas Republicans Introduce Bill Allowing Secretary of State to Overturn Election Results," Filip Timotija, Mediaite, Mar 31, 2023

I'm considering that in the context of recent homophobia and transphobia by the Republican party in Texas.

---

In 2010, the Texas Republican Party's platform declared: "We oppose the legalization of sodomy." Zero tolerance there. They would criminalize sex.

In 2019, a Texas couple argued about whether to support their child's gender.

---

This in June 2022:

Meeting at their first in-person convention since 2018, Texas Republicans on Saturday acted on a raft of resolutions and proposed platform changes to move their party even further to the right. They approved measures declaring that President Joe Biden “was not legitimately elected” and rebuking Sen. John Cornyn for taking part in bipartisan gun talks. They also voted on a platform that declares homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice” and calls for Texas schoolchildren “to learn about the humanity of the preborn child.”

* * *

Votes on the platform were collected at the end of the party's three-day convention in which party activists moved to add multiple items to the official Texas GOP platform. As the convention closed, two separate sets of ballots — one allowing delegates to choose eight of 15 legislative priorities and another allowing delegates to vote on the 275 platform planks — were gathered. Those will now need to be tallied and certified in Austin, but it is rare for a plank to be rejected, according to party spokesperson James Wesolek.

* * *

Meanwhile, the party platform vote on Saturday by roughly 5,100 convention delegates would argue that those under 21 are “most likely to need to defend themselves” and may need to quickly buy guns “in emergencies such as riots.” It also would say that red flag laws violate the due process rights of people who haven’t been convicted of a crime.

— "Texas Republican Convention calls Biden win illegitimate and rebukes Cornyn over gun talks," SEWELL CHAN AND ERIC NEUGEBOREN Texas Tribune, June 18, 2022

---

Charles M. Blow, "The G.O.P. Tries to Build a Gay Ghetto," June 22, 2022, reminds us — in case anyone has forgotten — that, in 2016,

Republican state legislators were introducing a number of bathroom bills, an early step in their push to oppress queer people. Then came a series of state laws preventing transgender women and girls from participating in female school sports.

These attacks were never going to remain focused only on trans people. (Even if they did, it would still be a horrific attack on human rights.) Now, we are witnessing the inevitable result, as Republican legislators widen the attacks to queerness itself.

Just this year, we saw Florida pass its “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Note: For more on Florida's "Don't Say Gay," see my article on Medium.

Here's an example of a trans man who was harassed for using a women's bathrooom (Rand Bishop, on Medium). And here's a cis woman who was murdered (Blackthelma, on Medium). This happened to a short-haired women in Las Vegas (The Advocate, 2022).

---

NEW: A 16-year-old boy tried to kill himself after Greg Abbott ordered child abuse investigations of all parents of trans youth in Texas. He was admitted to a psychiatric facility— the staff then turned his parents in for child abuse for him being trans, per @texastribune.

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) June 8, 2022

“An investigator from [Texas protective services] visited the family’s home and, according to the lawsuit, said that the psychiatric facility had reported the family for child abuse.

The family remains under investigation.”https://t.co/LIV9dg6jVk

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) June 8, 2022

And in schools:

https://t.co/TAGIgo8qMN

— 🍀 Merete von DOE 🇩🇰 (@MereteVonDOE) June 29, 2022

Supportive parents of LGBTQ+ kids: I’ve been thinking this over, and I hate this, but I think you should consider having a talk with your kids about telling you if they have the slightest feeling a grown up is treating them differently or behaving weirdly. /1 pic.twitter.com/KwOpkjPzIp

— Lyra, Esq., is NOT DAREDEVIL (@PinkRangerLB) September 24, 2022

We are just beginning to learn stories of the horrifying ordeal that Texas trans teens went through when DFPS was sweeping the state and charging their parents with child abuse.

One trans teen was pulled out of class and interrogated for over an hour about his dysphoria. pic.twitter.com/V52QkGxSMC

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) September 9, 2022

The GCISD outside of Dallas just banned the word "transgender," banned trans kids from bathrooms, banned teachers from transitioning (or at least sharing a new name/pronouns), and so much more.

They should be ashamed, but I'm proud of all the activists who showed up. https://t.co/dYexrUDlvG

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) August 23, 2022

Another BIG WIN against Gov. Abbott’s administration in Texas! Now ALL @PFLAG families of trans youth in Texas can be protected from unlawful, cruel, and traumatizing investigations.

For those keeping count this is technically temporary injunction #5 (not counting 2 TROs). https://t.co/q5OvObKOr0

— Omar GP (@omargp) September 17, 2022

We are here:

This is an insane decision. Basically, it says you can't be fired for being gay or trans but if you marry a same gender partner or wear clothes that match your gender, you can still be fired. It's a distinction without a difference. Conduct and status are essentially the same. https://t.co/91VPE9SDUe

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) October 7, 2022

We are here:

"Just last week, Texas released 10 bills targeting the transgender community, defining trans people as doing drag and curtailing their medical treatments and ability to exist in public. Now, this bill [SCR #3] specifically calls for an 'end to gender affirming care.'" — Erin Reed, "Texas Resolution Seeks To 'End Gender Affirming Care' Entirely" Substack, November 29, 2022

In June 2022, someone at Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to provide a list of everyone who had changed their gender [unpaywalled gift link to Washington Post] on their driver's license or any other identification records that the department managed. Employees found over 16,000 changes over the previous two years. Some were "driver’s licenses that had been changed in error, or multiple times, or for reasons other than gender changes." The reason for the changes was not stored in any easily retrievable way, so they did not give the data to Paxton's office. Abbott had previously "signed a bill banning transgender youths from participating in sports that align with their gender identity at K-12 public schools and ordered the state to investigate the provision of gender-affirming care as potential child abuse," according to the Washington Post. The newspaper quoted one lawyer as saying: "They’ve already targeted children and parents. The next step would be targeting adults."

The records obtained by The Post, which document communications between DPS employees, are entitled: “AG Request Sex Change Data” and “AG data request.” They indicate that Paxton’s office sought the records a month after the state Supreme Court ruled that Paxton and Abbott had overreached in their efforts to investigate families with transgender children for child abuse.

Paxton’s office bypassed the normal channels — DPS’s government relations and general counsel’s offices — and went straight to the driver license division staff in making the request, according to a state employee familiar with it, who said the staff was told that Paxton’s office wanted “numbers” and later would want “a list” of names, as well as “the number of people who had had a legal sex change.”

On November 17, 2023, the Texas Office of the Attorney General made a civil investigative demand from Seattle Children's Hospital in Washington, asking if they were providing gender-affirming care to any Texas children.

The Texas OAG

gave the hospital until Dec. 7 to produce documents to the OAG for the agency to identify the following:

• All medications prescribed by the hospital to Texas children
• The number of Texas children treated by the hospital
• Diagnosis for every medication provided by the hospital to Texas children
• Texas laboratories that performed lab tests for the hospital prior to prescribing medications
• Protocol/guidance for treating Texas children diagnosed with gender identity disorder, gender dysphoria or endocrine disorders
• Protocol/guidance on how to “wean” a Texas child off gender transitioning care

Then, Texas submitted a follow-up demand for the hospital to answer the questions under oath, also by December 7.

On December 7, the Seattle Children's Hospital sued in Travis County District Court. The hospital says that, not only does Texas lack the authority to make this request of a hospital in Washington, but furthermore Washington has a "Shield Law" to protect people's data from this kind of request from other states. The Shield Law covers reproductive care as well as gender-affirming care (n.b., that's why transphobia is related to abortion rights). The hospital "told the court that the hospital does not have property or accounts, nor employees who provide “gender-affirming care” (or administrative services for that care) in Texas or based in Texas." Nor have they advertised their gender-affirming services in Texas. Nor have they provided gender-affirming care to Texas residents via telemedicine. (Source: "Seattle Hospital sues after Texas Attorney General asks for handover of patient records," Cora Neas, KXAN Austin, December 20, 2023)

Paxton also sought information in at least one other state. He requested medical records for trans kids from QueerMed, a telehealth clinic based in Decatur, Georgia. The request was made in late 2023. Although the Washington Post had made a public records request for any requests that Paxton had made of other states, Paxton only supplied the information about his Washington request, not his Georgia request. (The newspaper has appealed to the Travis County district attorney.) QueerMed founder Izzy Lowell spoke to the Washington Post about it on January 28, 2024.

"'This request from the Texas Attorney general is a clear attempt to intimidate providers of gender-affirming care and parents and families that seek that care outside of Texas and other states with bans,' Lowell said in a statement.

Lowell, a family physician, said the clinic stopped providing services to minors in Texas after that state banned gender-affirming care for minors in September. Paxton’s Nov. 17 request, however, was for information about patients dating back to Jan. 1, 2022.

'Let me be clear: QueerMed will never, ever turn over HIPAA-protected patient information,' said Lowell’s statement.

* * *

Paxton has led similar initiatives in Texas. His office investigated clinics in Austin, Dallas and Houston for providing gender-affirming care last year, leading the clinics to close or stop providing services, The Post reported at the time. Paxton’s office also requested records from the Texas Department of Public Safety for those who had changed their sex on their driver’s licenses.

* * *

QueerMed received the Nov. 17 letter on Dec. 7, a delay Lowell attributed to a fire that burned down the care facility’s Decatur office last year. The fire was set intentionally, the Decatur Fire Department said. The perpetrators are still unknown, and the city is collaborating with federal and state agencies to investigate."

— Texas AG seeks transgender records in Georgia as part of his wider probe. Maham Javaid and Molly Hennessy-Fiske. Washington Post. January 29, 2024

Y'all this Texas bill prohibits DEI in "assemblies, protests, speeches, ... the distribution of written material, ... and PUBLISHED OR UNPUBLISHED FACULTY RESEARCH, LECTURES, WRITINGS, AND COMMENTARY." https://t.co/BK0GeGw0cC https://t.co/ykZEHix6bV

— El Norte Recuerda (@Vanessid) December 16, 2022

In December 2022, a Texas man was charged with threatening a Boston doctor who has transgender patients.

Just checking in again on Jeff Younger, whose bigoted anti-trans politics were supported by the likes of Greg Abbott, and it turns out he recently retweeted an image of himself as a Nazi Gladiator. https://t.co/GWjCrMR7wn pic.twitter.com/cwtysHN0NV

— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) February 23, 2023

good morning! did u know that yesterday 450+ Texans showed up to the Texas Capitol to testify against HB1686, an anti-trans healthcare bill, waited till misnight to do so, & were denied that right? watch this👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/ophaNFPwLV

— KB Brookins | preorder FREEDOM HOUSE now! (@earthtokb) March 28, 2023

Last night, over 450 people signed up to testify against a gender affirming care ban in Texas, HB1686. They cut the mic early and went home. So those who showed up stayed and staged a mass demonstration in the capitol.

Protect trans kids!pic.twitter.com/qwNDzAOczu

— Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) March 28, 2023

hey! letting u know that Texas just passed sb14 — a bill that would ban healthcare for trans youth — through to the house without even opening it up for public comment! 🙂👍🏽

— KB Brookins | preorder FREEDOM HOUSE now! (@earthtokb) April 4, 2023

"A TX Republican who has led the charge to ban all-ages drag shows because of his deep concern over 'he sexualization of our children' is facing allegations of inviting an intern to his home late on a weekend night and serving her alcohol...she isn’t old enough to legally drink"

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) April 12, 2023

They tell us “we don’t want these books in school libraries” and “people can get them at public libraries”

Then it’s “we don’t want them in public libraries” and “people can get them at book stores”

Now they are going after the book stores pic.twitter.com/8uWr1Ej7qO

— Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social (@cjtackett) April 9, 2023

Also: The real agenda here is to dismantle public schools and public libraries. Making it difficult to purchase books privately is an added bonus for them, in part because it serves their goal of dismantling schools and libraries, because as people have less access to information, they'll have less of an idea of why schools and libraries are important.

This is horrifying, and I’m going to thread resources below about how you can help in this situation and/or what resources you can use if you’re an affirming parent or educator in Texas right now https://t.co/U3OhkfjuKq

— Dan Rogland (@DanRogland) February 23, 2022

Hey folks: I've got a spreadsheet to start tracking and keeping vague notes on resources where people can get more information and donate to help out trans folks and trans kids in Texas.

Will try to keep this updated; please RT!https://t.co/97NJnmhdYc

— Max R. Cerrina (he/him) (@alephnaught2tog) February 24, 2022

And this:

Public schools in Texas would have to prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom starting next school year under a bill the Texas Senate approved Thursday.

Senate Bill 1515 by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, now heads to the House for consideration.

* * *

The Senate also gave final passage to Senate Bill 1396, authored by Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, which would allow public and charter schools to adopt a policy requiring every campus to set aside a time for students and employees to read the Bible or other religious texts and to pray.

Public schools would have to display Ten Commandments under bill passed by Texas Senate", Brian Lopez, Texas Tribune, April 20, 2023.

July 20, 2023, The Hill: "At least 53 bills targeting LGBTQ people have been introduced this year in Texas, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), accounting for more than 10 percent of proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation nationwide. Most of the Texas bills target transgender young people."

In August 2023, a university LGBTQ resource center shut down:

Banning Dr. Seuss

They were mad because of a discourse over Dr. Seuss. Now they are the ones taking away his books.

Katy ISD bans 14 more books, including Dr. Seuss title, after putting $93K in books in storage, Claire Goodman, Houston Chronicle, Sep. 15, 2023

In October 2023, the Texas Supreme Court was to start hearing arguments by Dianne Hensley, a judge who says people should have the right to refuse to perform same-sex or interfaith marriages if it's against their own beliefs.

On January 22, 2024 (Lil Kalish, HuffPost):

"Five human rights groups issued a letter to the United Nations...arguing that Texas legislation has violated the rights of queer and trans people in the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Equality Texas, GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign and the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law signed a joint letter urging the United Nations’ human rights experts to call on the federal and Texas state governments to protect LGBTQ+ people.

In the letter, the advocacy groups argue that Texas has violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights treaty, which recognizes the rights of all humans to enjoy “civil and political freedom and freedom from fear.

* * *

Last year, Texas passed seven anti-LGBTQ+ laws, including banning trans athletes from participating in sports at the college level and barring trans youth from receiving gender-affirming care.

In 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) instructed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate families of transgender minors on the grounds that affirming a child’s gender identity amounted to “child abuse.”

State Attorney General Ken Paxton has similarly initiated investigations into pharmaceutical companies that sell puberty blockers, according to The Texas Tribune. He has also demanded medical records from Texas patients who sought gender-affirming care at a children’s hospital in Washington state.

These laws and investigations have created a culture of fear, the letter says, and have trickled down into all parts of Texas life. An instance of this occurred last year, when a trans boy in Texas was kicked out of his school play after securing a leading male role."

By the way:

There is no such thing as 'transgender drugs'

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— H Lee Hurley (@hleehurley.substack.com) December 23, 2024 at 3:31 AM

Because: "no medication has ever been developed specifically for trans people. Despite the inane ramblings of the GC distressed, we're not numerous enough for "Big Pharma" to even care" — ciara2001 on Bluesky

Parker Molloy on Patreon tips us off to this. Molloy is quoting Will Bunch:

"Everything that’s happening in Abbott’s Texas — the relentless war against liberalism and education itself, the influence of a corporate oligarchy, the surge of Christian nationalism, the war on feminism that features its strict abortion ban, and its own state military and militarized cops now deployed against its own people — is textbook fascism. The crackdown on dissent is the flame that keeps this downward spiral going. Knowing that attending a protest can expose you to legalized vigilante murder is just pouring more Texas crude on the fire.

It’s important to remember that — whether or not you agree with the cause — state violence currently directed at pro-Palestinian protests from Brooklyn to Austin is merely a trial run for what could come if Trump is sworn in for a second presidency in January. He has already pledged to send out troops to crush any Inauguration Day protests. But the best way to stop full-blown autocracy in 2025 is to speak out against the police-state authoritarianism we have now."

— “Scared about America losing democracy? Texas is already gone” (The Philadelphia Inquirer, Will Bunch, 5/19/24)

Can't people just wear their hair however they like?

No, they can't. Would be great if they could. But they aren't allowed to.

The Barbers Hill Independent School District suspended a Black student for his haircut. The district rule is that boys cannot wear their hair "below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down." When challenged, the district superintendent explained: "Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity." (Texas Superintendent Defends Suspending Black Student Over Locs Hairstyle in Full-Page Ad: ‘Being American Requires Conformity’: Darryl George's family has filed suit claiming the hair policy violates state law. The Messenger. January 18, 2024.)

Can Greg Abbott do things other Texans can't?

Yes. He sued for millions of dollars after a tree fell on him. Then he backed a reform to regulate such lawsuits so others can't have a similar outcome.

UNT unilaterally changed course descriptions

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— enskyment (@enskyment.bsky.social) November 18, 2024 at 3:06 PM

the constitution of the united states is a piece of paper and the gang of six and other goons who run our country wipe their ass with it while they laugh at us

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— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw.bsky.social) November 19, 2024 at 2:12 PM

Texas State Board of Education Ignores Experts’ Warnings, Moves Forward with Bible-Infused Reading Curriculum for K-5 Public Students, Texas Freedom Network, November 19, 2024

The University of Texas at Dallas dissolved the campus newspaper after its staff went on strike to protest the removal of the paper's student editor. Now, the university is disruptimg distribution of a new, independent student newspaper.

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— Joe Ura (@joeura.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 11:03 AM

As a Trans Texan, Updating My Gender Marker Changed Everything. Now, Others Can’t Do the Same. With Trump returning to office, I worry that more trans people will be denied the right that changed my life. KB Brookins. Them. November 26, 2024

Texas GOP wants to ban kids from playing dress-up: Yes, really: Lone Star Republicans propose ban on "non-human behavior" in school — it's another stealth attack on LGBTQ rights. Amanda Marcotte, Salon, May 12, 2025

Ken Paxton Announces Another Investigation, Assigned Media, May 21, 2025

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M adopts policy requiring professors to get OK from school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.

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— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) November 13, 2025 at 6:15 PM

Message to all faculty: your expertise is no longer trusted or valued at this so-called “university.”

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— Brooke Newman (@brookenewman.bsky.social) November 14, 2025 at 7:22 AM

Texas A & M

the texas rangers and texas national guard have been merged into one giant paramilitary force headquartered out of the military academy of Texas A&M University, my alma mater in my hometown of college station lol

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— gwen howerton (@kissphoria.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 9:48 AM

NEW: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears to have used an address where he did not live while voting in six elections in the past two years — despite warning voters that “it is illegal to misrepresent your residence on election records.” with @texastribune.org

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— ProPublica (@propublica.org) July 7, 2026 at 12:31 PM