Planet Trans was able to independently verify this unexpected good news.
The memo says the Defense Department is returning to the Biden-era medical policy for transgender service members due to a court order that struck down Hegseth’s restrictions as unconstitutional. The administration is appealing the move, but a federal appeals court in California denied the department’s effort to halt the policy while its challenge is pending.
As a result, the administration is barred from removing transgender service members or restricting their medical care, a priority of President Donald Trump and Hegseth. The administration insisted its restrictions were geared toward people experiencing medical challenges related to “gender dysphoria,” but two federal judges said in March that the policy was a thinly veiled ban on transgender people that violated the Constitution.
On Thursday the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow the ban to be enforced while lower court cases play out.
Американская правозащитница, руководитель проекта "Transgender planet" Келли Анна Буси ( Kelli Anne Busey) рассказала о складывающейся политической обстановке в США при Трампе, о правах трансгендерных людей, ЛГБТ и в целом о правах человека в США, о протестах в США, о новых указах Трампа, о манипуляциях Трампа, о миграционной политике и судебной власти в США. Дала оценку Илону Маску, о политических перспективах США , о Путине и сговоре с Трампом, о Республиканской Партии, о Джо Байдене и Демократической партии и попросила у мира прощения за Трампа, подробнее на видео.
Last week, I was interviewed by long-time friend Julia Guseinova, a fearless human rights activist and press secretary at the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights.
Julia asked for this interview becuse LGBTQI people in Russia are concerned about the Trump adminstration and its affect on democracy. Most media in Russia is under Putin's control, somthing that Trump is striving to do here in America.I was honored to answer her questions.
The interview is in Russian, but if you desire, click the "show Transcript" button, mouse over the transcript and if you have Google Translate installed on your browser, it will offer to translate it to your primary language.
It took the jury just two hours to find Nicola Murray guilty of three charges of assault, two sexual assaults, two of indecent communication, one indecent assault and two offences of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, all committed against minors between December 2002 and August 2022.
Murray was a lead voice last week when the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman should be based on biological sex under equalities law, meaning, for instance, that transgender women, who are biologically male but identify as women, can be excluded from women-only spaces.
Murray has been listed as a child predator and will be sentenced in May, Edinburgh Live reports.
Nicola Murray, a "gender critical" activist, who was found guilty of abusing four children, subjected one of the children to transphobic abuse, calling them "tr*nny* because they cut their hair short, so... https://t.co/k1pcLheruf
"TERF who campaigned against trans-inclusive women’s shelters turns out to be a nonce," a redditor noted.
Murray, from Stanley, Perthshire, set up Brodie’s Trust seven years ago claiming she suffered two miscarriages after being abused by a former partner.It operated in Perth, Stirling and Dundee but widened services after trans critical group Let Women Speak donated £2,500 and supporters handed over more than £1,000 during an internet cash drive in 2021, according to The Scottish Sun.
Organisers claimed they funded the “small unregistered organisation “from our own incomes” and “help from family and friends”.Brodie’s Trust was not listed with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator or divulge its accounts or income.The group's Facebook page was last night taken down, as she claimed on social media she had been "stitched up," parlance for being framed.
As of yesterday, Observer columnist and leader writer Sonia Sodha, LGB Alliance co-founder Malcolm Clarke, Rosie Duffield MP, For Women Scotland and many other very high-profile “Gender Critical” figures were still following Nicola Murray on X/Twitter.
Murray is one of Scotland’s best-known anti-trans activists; she was one of the key figures in the witch-hunt against Mridul Wadhwa, the trans woman driven out of her job at a rape crisis centre in Edinburgh.
Andrea R. Lucas, Trump installed EEOC Acting Chair / @andrealucasEEOC
The federal agency tasked with protecting workers’ civil rights is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority, essentially putting them on indefinite hold, according to two agency employees who spoke with the AP.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a meeting on Wednesday clarifying how it would treat new worker complaints of gender-identity discrimination in view of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order declaring that the government would recognize only two “immutable” sexes — male and female, the AP reports.
Staff who handle incoming charges, or intakes, were directed to code them as “C,” the lowest categorization in the EEOC’s system, which is usually reserved for meritless charges.
“Since Day One, President Trump has been undermining civil rights enforcement for American workers, from rescinding a 60-year-old civil rights era Executive Order that prohibited discrimination in federal contracting to unlawfully firing two commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,” said Rep. Mark Takano (CA-39), Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “As part of Trump’s campaign to weaponize of the federal government against minorities, including transgender people, the White House has directed federal agencies to go after private employers who work to address historic discrimination in their fields. Now, agencies like the EEOC are following Trump’s lead and have stopped processing all sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination complaints.
The EEOC’s new policy regarding gender-identity-related discrimination contradicts the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, a landmark case that established that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination based on gender identity.
A federal court has ruled against a Republican lawmaker from Maine who sued the state’s Democratic House speaker after being censured for a social media post about a transgender athlete.
Rep. Laurel Libby posted about a high school athlete, a minor, who won a girls’ track competition. Libby included a photo of the student and identified them by first name, with the name in quotation marks, saying they previously competed in boys’ track.
The censure reportedly disallows Libby from debating and voting on House matters.
U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose on Friday ruled against Libby’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the sanction, the AP Reports.
DuBose said the imposition of the sanction “is not of such extraordinary character as to obliterate the formidable shield the courts have provided to legislative acts.”
In a major win Friday, a Federal Judge sided with six complainants and issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump Administration's policy that kept transgender people from updating the sex designations on their passports. The ruling will remain in effect until the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit or the United States Supreme Court orders otherwise.
Presently, the injunction only covers the six complaints but in a statement the ACLU said that the plaintiffs plan to quickly file a motion asking the court to certify a class of people affected by the State Department policy and to extend the preliminary injunction to that entire class.
Judge Julia E. Kobick issued a preliminary injunction Friday after finding that an executive order by President Trump and a State Department policy prohibiting updates to sex designations on passports is likely unconstitutional and in violation of the law. The preliminary injunction requires the State Department to allow six transgender and nonbinary people to obtain passports with sex designations consistent with their gender identity while the lawsuit proceeds.
“This decision is a critical victory against discrimination and for equal justice under the law,” said Li Nowlin-Sohl, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “But it’s also a historic win in the fight against this administration’s efforts to drive transgender people out of public life. The State Department’s policy is a baseless barrier for transgender and intersex Americans and denies them the dignity we all deserve. We will do everything we can to ensure this order is extended to everyone affected by the administration’s misguided and unconstitutional policy so that we all have the freedom to be ourselves.”
“This ruling affirms the inherent dignity of our clients, acknowledging the immediate and profound negative impact that the Trump administration's passport policy would have on their ability to travel for work, school, and family,” said Jessie Rossman, Legal Director at ACLU of Massachusetts. “By forcing people to carry documents that directly contradict their identities, the Trump administration is attacking the very foundations of our right to privacy and the freedom to be ourselves. We will continue to fight to rescind this unlawful policy for everyone so that no one is placed in this untenable and unsafe position.”
Federal Judge Rules Trump's Transgender Passport Policy Unlawful and Unconstitutional
Meeting Point: Boadicea and Her Daughters Statue / Wiki Commons
A protest is set to take place over the UK Supreme Court ruling that transgender people are not included under the Gender Equality Act.
As first announced by the Feminist Gender Equality Network, the protest, which will begin at 1:00 PM Saturday, will be crucial in conveying the anger that the community is feeling at being excluded.
Update: What The Trans has a list of protests that will take place all over the UK.
TERFs celebrate on Wednesday, after Britain's top court delivered unanimous judgement that the definition of a woman under equality law refers to "biological sex." Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images
The Equality Act 0f 2010 was heralded as a cornerstone victory for humankind by cisgender and transgender people alike. But to TERFs (Transgender Exclusionary Radicalised Feminists), it was unconscionable that transgender humans could be protected under law, any law.
The Equality Act 2010 provision section 7 "Gender reassignment" remains unchanged at the moment, but the jackels are at the door demanding it be removed.
Updated guidance for public bodies after the UK supreme court’s ruling that a woman is defined in law by biological sex is expected to be issued by the summer, the head of the equalities regulator said on Thursday.
Lady Kishwer Falkner, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, described the ruling as “enormously consequential”, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are going to have a new statutory code of practice, statutory meaning it will be the law of the land, it will be interpreted by courts as the law of the land. We’re hoping we’re going to have that by the summer.”
She said it would give “clarity” that trans women could not participate in women’s sports or use women-only toilets or changing rooms, and the NHS must update its guidance on single-sex wards based on biological sex.
Planned Parenthood Arizona has resumed gender-affirming medical care, the organization said in a statement. The pause "occurred out of an abundance of caution after threats to the Medicaid services in our state," and an "onslaught of attacks on sexual and reproductive health care services in Arizona and across the country."
“Planned Parenthood Arizona deeply values and is dedicated to the LGBTQIA+ community, which includes our patients, supporters, and staff. We recognize how critical it is for our patients to have certainty to access essential services, including gender-affirming care.
After a brief pause, we are pleased to announce the continuation of our gender-affirming care services. This pause occurred out of an abundance of caution after threats to the Medicaid services in our state.
The onslaught of attacks on sexual and reproductive health care services in Arizona and across the country is alarming, and is a clear, continued effort to shut down Planned Parenthood. This will not be the last threat that aims to deny people medically sound, essential health care, needlessly putting them at risk and unnecessarily creating chaos and confusion around the accessibility of services.”
Sara Millerey was found April 4 in a ravine struggling for life with her arms and legs broken. She died later after being transported to a hospital.
The government of Columbia has offered a 50 million Peso reward for information regarding the brutal murder of transgender woman Sara Millerey, in Bello Columbia.
"She was the victim of an atrocious and hateful act. Sara was raped, her arms and legs were broken, and she was thrown into the river, and it's deeply painful to think that this happened with so many indifferent. We can't allow transphobia to continue to silently claim lives," said Bello Mayor Lorena González Ospina on Monday.
Rolando Serrano, Bello's Secretary of Security, told Blue Radio that criminal gangs are believed to have been involved in the incident, although he cautioned that it will be up to the prosecutor's office to determine the motives and perpetrators.
Serrano added that, until last weekend, the woman "had not received any prior threats" and that "she was someone very well-liked by the people; she was part of the neighborhood dynamic."
President Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in the recent history of Colombia asserted that these cases indicate the presence of "Nazis" in the country.
"They criticize me for talking about Nazism. I know perfectly well that fascism is the violent elimination of human differences: political, religious, ethnic, sexual freedom. What happened in Bello is called fascism, because there are Nazis in Colombia," Petro wrote in X.
Trigger Warning: If you click through to see the Video on X, it contains highly disturbing images.
Me critican que hable de nazismo. Se perfectamente que el fascismo es la eliminación violenta de las diferencias del ser humano: políticas, religiosas, étnicas, de libertad sexual.
Sara Millerey's funeral took place this week. There, she was mourned by her loved ones and human rights organizations.
During the ceremony, her mother, Sara González, spoke to local media.
"For me, she should have been murdered so vilely, because she was murdered vilely, for who she was, for being extroverted and for being trans," she said in an interview with Caracol radio.
The woman noted that "it has been a very difficult time."
"She didn't harm anyone, she didn't harm anyone, she was a being of light, just because she was that way... They left me alone, they left me devastated. I'll never forget this, this is very sad."
Sophia Chavez / Photo Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department are asking for the public’s help locating Missing Sophia Chavez. a 14 year-old Hispanic transgender female. Sophia was last seen on April 4, 2025 at approximately 10:49 AM on the 1700 block of East Avenue J in the city of Lancaster.
Sophia is 5’02” tall, 135 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a blue sweater, light blue pants, and black shoes.
If you have any information, please contact Lancaster Sheriff’s Station.
If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call "Crime Stoppers" by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), use your smartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile APP on Google play or the Apple App Store or by using the website lacrimestoppers.org or en español.
RFK Jr., a key player in Trump's retribution tour at his HHS confirmation hearing / Wikipedia
RFK Jr. has ordered the National Institute of Health to conduct a political hit job in the guise of a scientific study focusing on “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children and adults — a reference to gender-affirming care and surgery.
As the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) continues to defund nearly every research project on transgender health, the White House has directed the agency to focus on studying “regret” after a person transitions to align their body with their gender identity. Several NIH employees, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, confirmed the directive to the scientific publication Nature..
Two weeks ago, Matthew Memoli, who was acting NIH director at the time, sent an e-mail to the directors of several NIH institutes. It said that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is the NIH’s parent agency, “has been directed to fund research on a few specific areas” related to what it calls “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children and adults — a reference to gender-affirming care and surgery. “This is very important to the President and the Secretary” of the HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the e-mail added.
Every American Medical Association Supports Youth Gender Affirming Medical Care. Here are their statements.
Based on its priorities, the White House sometimes directs the NIH — the world’s largest public funder of biomedical science — to study certain broad topics, such as cancer or women’s health, but the latest directive’s specificity, inflammatory language and focus on a hyper-polarizing topic are unprecedented, the NIH employees say. Although the White House can sometimes “push us on various different things, we normally get to chart out the approach”, a staff member says.
Many scientists, reeling from the abrupt cancellation of more than US$180 million in NIH funding for research on transgender health, slammed the proposed studies as ideologically driven.
Studies show that youth who receive gender-affirming medications, like puberty blockers and hormones, have a lower risk of depression and suicidal thoughts. One Stanford University study found that transgender people who received hormones as teenagers had better mental health outcomes than those who received them as adults.
Another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that transgender youth who started gender-affirming hormones reported higher life satisfaction and lower depression and anxiety after two years.
A study conducted at the Western Australian Pediatric Gender Clinic of 552 youth treated for gender dysphoria indicates that only 5% re-identified to the sex of birth.
Some studies suggest that rates of regret have declined over the years as patient selection and treatment methods have improved. In a review conducted by the NIH of 27 studies involving almost 8,000 teens and adults who had transgender surgeries, mostly in Europe, the U.S and Canada, 1% on average expressed regret. For some, regret was temporary, but a small number went on to have detransitioning or reversal surgeries, the 2021 review said.
The major American medical associations' statements remain online. So, Trump will take a different route. He apparently seeks to manufacture lies a la UK's discreited Cass Review, which was instrumental in the doubling of UK transgender suicides
Given that from day one, Trump has targeted transgender people with vile vitriol messaging, the results of these studies are a foregone conclusion.
It's not clear how these bills would affect Birth Certificates from other states as some don't show the sex as assigned at birth. Both bills make an exception for intersex people.
Another bill would make it illegal for transgender individuals to identify as a gender other than what we were assigned at birth. HB 3817 would make it State felony fraud to represent ourselves authentically to law enforcement, regardless of which state we were born in. When introduced HB3817 had only one Primary Sponser Representative, Tom Oliverson [R]. It now has two primary sponsors and four co-sponsors, so you can bet your bottom dollar that these hate-mongers mean business.
Texas AG Paxton has already stopped the motor vehicles department from accepting court-ordered gender marker changes with just a letter, his latest opinion calling for all state agencies to retroactively revert gender markers on documents shouldn't be taken lightly. It's clear that once Paxton has the law behind him, he will pursue Texas transgender people unmercifully.
Trump designated April as "National Child Abuse Prevention Month" and ergo the month to stop "the sinister threat of gender ideology."
The proclamation, which could have had value, quickly transitions into an anti-transgender screed filled with hateful terminology:
"Sadly, one of the most prevalent forms of child abuse facing our country today is the sinister threat of gender ideology. Proponents of the gender ideology movement are outrageously indoctrinating our children with the devastating lie that they are trapped in the wrong body — and that the only way they can be truly happy is to alter their sex with hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and sexual mutilation surgery. The evil and backwards lies of gender insanity are robbing our children of their happiness, health, and freedom, while imposing unimaginable heartbreak on parents and families. As I stated during my Joint Address to the Congress last month, my message to every American child is simple: you are perfect exactly the way God made you."
"As President, I proudly signed Executive Order 14187 prohibiting public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology, while also taking action to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. To further protect our children, I have taken historic action to secure our southern border and end child trafficking — and am working diligently to make our young people healthy again."
"This National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we pledge to stop the atrocity of child abuse in all its forms. We affirm that every perpetrator who inflicts violence on our children will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Above all, we vow to give our children the tools they need to fully embrace God’s gift of life, and to carry that radiant torch of American Liberty generations into the future."
Andre Karlow, 39, was arrested Tuesday and charged with a hate crime for beating a university district transgender woman. Police are looking for two other men who participated in the violent attack that occurred last Thursday.
Karlow, who has 13 prior felony convictions, was out on $3,000 bond for a September hate crime in which he was arrested for beating a transgender transit worker. Karlow is currently being held on a $200,000 bond, according to The Seattle Times
The community of Deep River Ct. woke Wednesday to find transphobic flyers, one resident described as a "hate crime," strewn about in bus stops and on people's lawns. They are asking for Ring videos to identify who did this.
AP / Heather Rogue said that everyone who wants to live in a society based on human rights becomes affected when you try to codify the removal of rights.
The California Assembly on Tuesday soundly rejected Republican-sponsored bills to ban trans women from playing on high school sports teams.
This would have been a non-issue if not for Gov. Newsome's surprise announcement that he was opposed to trans athletes on his first podcast. Newsome stated that position when he was asked by guest Charlie Kirk, a Trump ally and founder of Turning Point USA.
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a prominent Democrat and long an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ+ issues, scrambled the debate when he called transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports “deeply unfair” on his podcast.
Republicans have been amplifying his comments ever since, LA Times reports.
Erika Knoll, who came to speak in support of the legislation, told the AP that she has five daughters and two sons who are athletes. She has as many offspring as trans athletes playing in California and nearly as many playing at the collegiate level in the USA. This isn't about fairness; it's about bigotry.
Many in the LGBTQ community felt blindsided and were bitter toward Newsome. Others said they weren't surprised by his anti-trans views and never trusted or voted for him in the first place.
Trans man Gabriel Haaland, former president of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club and a union activist, was delighted by the news and offered this invaluable insight.
"The legislators were asked by Newsom to not move any legislation that supported transgender people and they ignored him and supported us anyway."
Marcy Rheintgen, a transgender woman from Illinois, was arrested for washing her hands in a women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol, according to reports.
This is most likely the first time a person has been arrested since the Florida bathroom bill was signed by DeSantis in 2023.
According to reports, Ms. Rheintgen sent letters earlier in March to Florida lawmakers, informing them that she planned to use a specific women’s bathroom in the Capitol and included a photo of herself for identification.
Ms. Rheintgen, a moderate conservative, was sure that common sense would prevail.
On the day Rheintgen planned to use the bathroom, she was met outside by two officers who said they would try to work with her. Rheintgen decided to use the bathroom anyway.
Officers in the restroom told Rheintgen that they would issue her a notice to appear in front of a judge, which would avoid her being sent to jail. They ended up arresting her and charging her with trespassing, a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail.
Equality Florida's Executive Director, Nadine Smith, released the following statement in which said in part:
We were not aware of Marcy’s planned action and cannot speak for her personally, but what has been reported aligns with the long tradition of civil disobedience: the intentional breaking of an unjust law, done publicly and deliberately without causing harm, to expose its cruelty. She wrote lawmakers, identified herself, and made it clear that this was a protest, not a threat.
We’ve seen laws like this before. Whether it was denying access to lunch counters, water fountains, or restrooms, the goal was always the same: to diminish a group’s humanity and license public cruelty. That strategy failed then, and it will fail again because people are standing up, telling the truth, and refusing to be erased.”
Lonnie G. Bunch III is the fourteenth secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the first African American and first historian to serve as head of the Smithsonian. In 2020, Bunch was interviewed by Dometi Pongo for his Smithsonian learning lab Songs for Change - Listening for Inequality.
Bunch served as the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, which was targeted in Trump's latest executive order RESTORING TRUTH AND SANITY TO AMERICAN HISTORY, for in Trump's white nationalist opinion, subjecting America to "ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history."
From Lead Belly to Kendrick Lamar, Black musicians have long used song to share stories of struggle and triumph. Join MTV News host Dometi Pongo and Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch III as they discuss music's role as a gateway to teaching others about Black culture and combating injustice. #BlackHistoryMatters #ConversationsInContext From the Series: Conversations in Context: Movements https://bitly.com/2OSUMWT
We'wha, 1849-1896, a Zuni lhamana (Two-Spirit) soul, is known for the portrait of them holding a clay ceremonial prayer-meal basket, a piece that highlights their role as a skilled artist and cultural leader. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Learning Lab Resource: Retrieved March 28, 2025.
Trump's latest assault on America was carried out behind closed doors last night in the form of an EO that threatens funding to the Smithsonian and calls for the removal of "improper ideology" and reinstallation of Confederate statuesremoved after George Floyd was murdered.
In a statement to staff Thursday, Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian, promised to "remain steadfast in our mission to bring history, science, education, research, and the arts to all Americans" in light of Trump's executive order.
Trump has longed to get Black people mad enough to take to the streets again so he can declare martial law. This may be it.
Trump singled out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016 near the White House, the Women’s History Museum, which is in development, and the American Art Museum for criticism.
Trump also wants to ensure that the women’s history museum celebrates women and not “recognize men as women in any respect,” the AP reports
The physical artifacts on display would not be carefully stored. Given Trump's track record, they would most likely be tossed into a dumpster. This must not happen.
Disney investors voted 99%-1% to reject a proposal to stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign Equality Index where it has a 100% rating.
The far-right "National Center for Public Policy Research" proposal made issue with gender diversity, however, shareholders by their vote clearly signaled that transgender people are valued.
"This vote gives us a clear statement of values from Disney’s shareholders," HRC said in a statement. "They know what we know - that despite all the noise, commitments to inclusion pay figurative dividends and help their literal bottom line. And they’re not alone. Shareholders at companies as diverse as Costco, Apple, John Deere, and others in the past months, have resoundingly rejected efforts to roll-back DEI. We know that 93% of LGBTQ+ workers believe that scoring 100 on the Corporate Equality Index communicates support of the LGBTQ+ community – those are current and future employees and customers. Disney shareholders recognize this."
In 2022, the company’s stance against Florida’s “don’t say gay” school policy prompted a two-year legal battle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who prevailed in installing three hand-picked shills to the board. However, this wasn't a vote by political appointees. It was a vote by the people who spoke loud and clear that diversity matters.
Andry a gay asylum seeker / Photo Lindsay Toczylowski
The asylum seeker who was disappeared by ICE has been identified as Andry, a gay makeup artist from Venezuela. Andry entered the US legally seeking asylum but was detained by ICE for lack of any other reason because he is gay and from Venezuela.
We have learned that Andry was one of the Ice Detainees who were illegally sent to a notorious El Salvatorian prison when Trump ignored a court order halting those flights
Lindsay Toczylowski, president of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, shares a photo of her client publicly for the first time and talks with Rachel Maddow about the difficulty of getting answers about her client who the Trump administration, through ICE, has accused without evidence of being a gang member and summarily deported to a prison in El Salvador with no due process or opportunity to defend himself.
An international effort to trace and rescue tens of thousands of children kidnapped from Ukraine to Russia and prosecute those responsible has been crippled by the US state department’s deletion of evidence.
The Trump administration cut funding to Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which was compiling a database of alleged Russian war crimes, including the abduction of an estimated 35,000 children from occupied areas of Ukraine, last month.
Using satellite imagery and other surveillance systems provided through the US government, the Yale researchers were monitoring 116 sites in Russia.
A Yale source said the US state department deleted the evidence which would have been used as part of rescue efforts to get the children home to Ukraine. It would also have been used to prosecute those behind their abductions – including Russian president Vladimir Putin.
”It is unclear whether it was by accident or intent, but it may reveal or it may cause potential criminal liability for the Trump administration, given international prohibitions against the destruction of war crimes evidence,” the Yale insider told The Independent.
Trans Texans, there are a couple of bills in the legislature that would invalidate your birth certificate, and driver's license, and make living authentically and legally a State Felony. Yes, the state is that perverse, but wait it gets worse.
Senate bill SB406 and House HB2291 are carefully crafted to require that the sex a person is identified as at birth is the only gender indicated on birth certificates. SB406 has passed committee but hasn't yet been scheduled for a floor vote but it's possible it won't for reasons I'll disclose in a moment.
UPDATE: SB406 was placed on the Senate Intent Calander on 03-24-2025 signaling that it could come up for debate and a vote at any time.
Another bill would make it a felony for transgender individuals to identify as a gender other than what we were assigned at birth. HB3817 would also make it felony fraud to represent ourselves authentically to law enforcement.
Given that AG Paxton has already stopped the motor vehicles department from accepting court orders with just a letter, his latest opinion calling for state agencies to retroactively revert gender markers on documents shouldn't be taken lightly. It's pretty clear that once Paxton has the law behind him he will pursue us unmercifully.
Both bills are short, to the point, and could be added to any bill at the last moment, which is the Republicans' cowardly way of avoiding debate. They have done it in the past and will do it again, so we need to stay aware.
US District Judge Ana Reyes sided with the transgender plaintiffs and granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday. In deference to the Military's position, Judge Reyes put the injunction on hold until Friday, giving the Trump administration (the defendants) an opportunity to file an emergency stay with the DC Court of Appeals.
Judge Reyes, wrote that the ban “is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext. Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”
“Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed – some risking their lives – to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them,” she wrote:
In Executive Order No. 14183, President Donald J. Trump focuses on “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.” The military’s “clear mission” is to “protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force.” Id. § 1. Service by transgender persons is “inconsistent” with this mission because they lack the “requisite warrior ethos” to achieve “military excellence.”
On February 26, 2025, Secretary of Defense Peter B. Hegseth issued a policy to EO14183’s directives. (Hegseth Policy). It disqualifies “[t]ransgender troops . . . from service without an exemption.”
"The President has the power—indeed the obligation—to ensure military readiness. At times, however, leaders have used concern for military readiness to deny marginalized persons the privilege of serving. “[Fill in the blank] is not fully capable and will hinder combat effectiveness; [fill in the blank] will disrupt unit cohesion and so diminish military effectiveness;
allowing [fill in the blank] to serve will undermine training, make it impossible to recruit successfully, and disrupt military order.”
"First minorities, then women in combat, then gays filled in that blank. Today, however, our military is stronger and our Nation is safer for the millions of such blanks (and all other persons) who serve."
"Plaintiffs beg to differ. And differ they can. Together they have provided over 130 years of military service. They have served in roles ranging from Senior Military Science Instructor to Artillery Platoon Commander to Intelligence Analyst to Satellite Operator to Operations Research Analyst to Naval Flight Officer to Weapons Officer. They have deployed around the globe, from Afghanistan to Poland to Korea to Iraq to Kuwait to the USS Ronald Reagan and USS George W. Bush. One is presently deployed to an active combat zone."
"They have earned more than 80 commendations including: a Bronze Star; two Global War on Terrorism Service Medals; two Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medals; numerous Meritorious Service Medals; numerous Commendation Medals; Air and Space Outstanding Unit Awards; and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, among many others," Judge Reyes wrote.
"Defendants rejoin that these service records are inapposite. The Court must ignore them and instead “defer to the military’s judgment.” Yes, the Court must defer. But not blindly. The President issued EO14183 within seven days of taking office, and Secretary Hegseth issued the Policy thirty days later. There is no evidence that they consulted with uniformed military leaders before doing so. Neither document contains any analysis nor cites any data. They pronounce that transgender persons are not honorable, truthful, or disciplined—but Defense counsel concedes that these assertions are pure conjecture."
THE COURT: Is saying that transgender people or people with
gender dysphoria, [that] their inherent identity is inconsistent with a
commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, is
that demeaning to them?
DEFENSE COUNSEL: I don’t have a characterization for that,
Your Honor.
THE COURT: Okay. And if I asked you about all the other words
in [the Military Ban], with respect to the characterization of
transgender people or people with gender dysphoria, you would
have the same answer?
DEFENSE COUNSEL: Yes, Your Honor
THE COURT: There’s nothing [supporting these assertions] in the
studies; right?
DEFENSE COUNSEL: That says those same things, no, Your
Honor, not that I know of.
THE COURT: [No study] says anything close to those things;
correct?
Texas AG Ken Paxton issued an opinion on March 14, 2025 instructing state agencies to retroactively revert gender markers on drivers' licenses, state IDs and birth certificates to that of the individual's sex at birth.
The 19-page opinion was issued after DPS stopped accepting Court Ordered Gender Updates For Driver Licenses and pursuant to a letter sent by then Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw to Ken Paxton asking if the DPS had the authority to ignore court orders and revert driver licenses to the sex they were before they were changed.
The summary of Paxton's March 14, 2025 opinion.
As everyone knows Paxton has the authority to enforce the law but he can not make or break laws. However, a bill passed through Senate committee on March 13, 2025, would make Paxton's opinion align with law.
Senator Middleton introduced SB406 qualifying its existence with the hundreds of anti-trans bills introduced this year in Texas and Trump's genocidal intentions, while stating that the bill "is not about restricting anyone's personal expression," alluding to 120,000 transgender Texans whose lives would be utterly destroyed by SB406.
SB406 "Relating to the required inclusion of a person's sex on a birth certificate and prohibited change of sex on the birth certificate of certain persons" passed 9-0 through committee and is bound for a floor vote. It's a well-researched, professionally written bill that creates an exemption for intersex people. And tragically it would create the essential legislative foundation for Paxton's legal war on transgender people.
The Boston City Council voted 12-1 to pass a resolution Wednesday declaring it a Transgender Sanctuary City, making it the largest protected city in the Bay State.
Councilor-at-Large Julia Mejia and District 9 Councilor Liz Breadon called on Boston to adopt the measure supporting transgender people, pointing to what they see as harmful rhetoric coming from President Donald Trump and the White House, WBTS' Matt Prichard reports
The resolution says, in part, that Boston has "a specific commitment to protecting transgender and gender-diverse individuals. Taxpayer-funded agencies shall not comply with federal efforts to strip resources that safeguard their rights. Boston will not cooperate with federal or state policies that harm transgender and gender-diverse people and remains committed to ensuring their access to healthcare, housing, education, and employment without fear or discrimination."
Mejia and Breadon acknowledged that the resolution is symbolic and nonbinding, but Mejia said it is a critical first step and an "opportunity to set the groundwork for the legislation."
Last month, the Worcester city council voted overwhelmingly to become a transgender sanctuary city. Council members hope that the legislature takes notice and enacts laws making all of Massachusetts safe for LGBTQI people. Between Cambridge, Northampton, Boston, and Worcester, just shy of a million people are now living in transgender sanctuary cities.
Judge Reyes noted that Pete Hegseth, at the time he issued the policy ‘had been the Secretary of Defense for about 30 days and had no prior military history other than, I think, he had an early deployment before his television career?’ (AFP via Getty Images)
The Judge who is considering Trump's transgender troops ban, tells lawyers that evidence supplied by them suggests that transgender troops are as well or better suited to serve than cisgender counterparts. She then sent Trump's lawyers back for 30 minutes to partake in a trans 101 and read the DOD policy.
District Judge Ana Reyes will rule on the troop ban next week.
District Judge Ana Reyes was incredulous when told by a Trump lawyer that the policy does not include all trans people.
The judge then cited a Defense Department post on X from February 27: “Transgender troops are disqualified from service without an exemption.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also shared the post from his official account according to The Independent.
“Do you think you can say one thing in public…and say another thing in court? This wasn’t some off-the-cuff remark at a cocktail party?” Reyes asked.
The judge asked if he was using “loose language” but Manion argued Hegseth was using “shorthand.”
“I’m not going to speculate that he was just being sloppy when he said that. I’m going to take him at his word,” the judge said.
Judge Reyes asked the Attorneys if they had read any of the pertinent data supplied by the DOD. When they confessed to be totally ignorant she advised them that "The study showed a group of trans people were deployed longer than a comparison group of non-transgender service members who were diagnosed with depression," the judge said. If anything that shows that transgender troops are as well suited, if not better than other troops on long deployments.
Anti-Trans military article shared by Trump on social media featured a Pink Triangle with a prohibited marker over it.
Meidas News reports that Trump posted an article to his Truth Social account this weekend featuring a deeply troubling image: a pink triangle—the Nazi-era symbol used to identify and persecute gay men in concentration camps—covered with a red prohibited sign.
The Washington Times opinion article by Jeremy Hunt published Wednesday, February 19, 2025, "Army recruitment ads look quite different under Trump" (archived) features that pink triangle with a red prohibited sign supported by a soldier in fatigues.
Typical of fascists, had Hunt taken the time to research Nazi-era iconography he would have known to feature a black triangle. It's also possible that the pink triangle is appropriate as Trump is planning to rid the military of the entire LGBTQI community eventually.
Hunt wrote "For most presidents, major cultural change in our nation’s armed forces doesn’t happen overnight. It usually takes years for a commander in chief to leave a mark on the military. But President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are accomplishing what often takes years in a matter of weeks."
That is untrue as Trump's Trans Military Ban has been blocked by multiple courts that have issued preliminary injunctions. Unless overturned by his minions on the Supreme Court, those injunctions will likely stand.
Berlin opened The Institute for Sexual Science in Germany in 1919, the place where the word “transsexual” was coined, and where people could receive gender-affirming counseling and other services. Its lead doctor, Magnus Hirschfeld, also consulted on “the Lili Elbe sex change“, the world’s first documented “sex reassignment” surgery. In the 1920s, Berlin had nearly 100 gay and lesbian bars or cafes, and other affirming spaces for queer & gender non-conforming people.
But even though the process to decriminalize homosexuality had already begun in Germany in 1929, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany successfully brought in penal reform of Paragraph 175, making homosexuality a felony. On May 6, 1933, the Nazis violently looted and closed The Institute for Sexual Science, burning its extensive collection on the streets – a direct attempt to erase the existence of LGBTQIA people.
From 1933–1945, an estimated 50K gay men and gender non-conforming people were sent to police prisons and concentration camps, where they were tortured and often murdered.
In Nazi concentration camps, LGBTQIA prisoners were required to wear a downward-pointing, triangular cloth badge on their chest, the color identifying the reason for their imprisonment. Early on, homosexual male prisoners were identified with a green triangle (indicating criminals) or red triangle (political prisoners), the number 175 (referring to Paragraph 175, the section of the German penal code criminalizing homosexual activity), or the letter A (which stood for Arschficker, literally “arse fucker”).
The use of a pink triangle was later established for prisoners identified as homosexual men, which also included bisexual men and transgender women. Lesbian and bisexual women and trans men who were imprisoned sometimes wore a black triangle, or a pink triangle. The pink triangle was also assigned to others considered sexual deviants. If a prisoner was also identified as Jewish, the pink triangle was superimposed over a second yellow triangle pointing the opposite way, to resemble the Star of David like the yellow badge identifying other Jews.
When Adolph Hitler needed to justify arresting and murdering former political allies in 1934, he often accused them of being gay.
Mr. Bannon, Mr. Musk and assorted MAGAt low lifes might want to take notice of the final paragraph in this article as Trump has shown over and over how he delights in crushing former allies.
Montana State Representative Zoey Zephyr (D) and Representative Sherry Essman (R) both rose as mothers to speak against this draconian anti-LGBT bill
State Representative Zoey Zephyr's speech against an anti-LGBT bill was so powerful that republicans overwhelmingly voted against it! HB675 stated intent was to criminalize drag shows, but it was much more far-reaching.
Yes, this is the same Zooey Zephyr who was silenced last session by the republican dominated legislature for dramaticaly standing up for transgender children!
"I'm a proud mother," wrote Rep.Zephyr. "Whether I'm walking my son to school or reading him a bedtime story, I do everything to make sure he grows up loved and cared for."
"And for the sponsor of the drag ban to say that my existence is a fetish is false and cruel."
"I'm glad we were able to defeat this hateful bill today."
"I'm also really grateful for my friend and colleague, Representative Sherry Essman (R - Billings), who stood up and said it's time to "stop these crazy bills."
"May her courage be contagious, and may it lead to more Republicans standing up against these bills," Zephyr wrote.
