LGBTQ Rights

Open Thread — The IOC: “Look, Over There!… “

by Anne Laurie| March 30, 20263:15 pm| 102 Comments

This post is in: Breathtaking Corruption, LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Sports

IOC reinstates chromosome testing, banning trans women from competition: defector.com/ioc-reinstat…

[image or embed]

— Defector (@defector.com) March 26, 2026 at 2:51 PM

Whenever the media shows any tendency to investigate the IOC’s myriad failures, the grifters & ticket-punchers have a diversion: Attack the smallest, most vulnerable potential competitors as a Threat To Our Precious ~~Bodily Fluids~~ Integrity. (And they even had a figurehead female official to make the announcement.) But they’re getting some pushback here, at last. Diana Moskovitz, at Defector

The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday that any athletes who do not pass a specific chromosome test will be banned from competition. This means that trans women will no longer be able to compete in the single largest showcase for women’s sports in the world, and neither will any women who test positive for having the SRY gene. The implementation of this policy could lead to similar bans elsewhere in sports, as athletic organizations often take their cues from the global sports powerhouse. The new rules will kick in for the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The 10-page policy doesn’t provide much detail on how and why the IOC, under the leadership Kirsty Coventry, the first female president in IOC history, reached its decision. The policy recaps a lot of closed-door bureaucracy with little explanation. Olympic leadership “conducted a broad-based review” of women’s sports. That leadership decided it needed a “working group.” The working group talked to a bunch of unnamed “specialists.” And the working group reported back to the IOC, which came up with the ban. The New York Times did name one person involved in the decision-making: Dr. Jane Thornton, a former Olympic rower and the medical and scientific director for the IOC, but the same article said the analysis presented by Thornton “has not been made public.”

So while the new policy makes many assertions—men have advantages over women in sports, all contact sports are more dangerous for women than men—there are few explanations given. No scientific papers are cited. No research is detailed. No citations or attribution can be found. There isn’t even a hyperlink. Everything is stated as fact. This includes a statement that “genetic screening for sex does not create significant problems in practice,” despite the entire history of gender testing creating problems in practice…

Also unaddressed in the IOC’s announcement is how this policy represents a solution in search of a problem. As reported by the Associated Press: “It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level. No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games, though weightlifter Laurel Hubbard did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal.”…

Even USA Today is calling this bullsh*t:

show full post on front page

“Since the IOC began allowing the participation of transgender athletes in 2004, only one openly transgender woman has competed at the Olympics, a weightlifter from New Zealand who did not make it past her opening round of competition at the Tokyo Games.”
One.

[image or embed]

— Kerith Burke (@kerithburke.bsky.social) March 26, 2026 at 10:28 AM

… The geneticist who discovered the SRY gene has said it should not be used as a definitive marker of sex. Genetic testing is also illegal in some countries, including France.

“If it is illegal in a country, athletes will have the possibility when they travel to other competitions to be tested there,” Coventry said. “This is also why we’re saying the policy comes into effect now, but will be implemented in LA 28. So we have time to walk through this process with everyone.”

Coventry also dismissed concerns about requiring young athletes to be tested. The youngest athlete at the Paris Olympics was 11 while the Youth Olympic Games are reserved for athletes ages 15 to 18.

“We’re going to be able to help the rest of the movement implement this in a safe way, in an ethical way, and in a human way, which I think … was really a basis for the policy of this athlete-centered way forward,” Coventry said.

Transgender participation has been a focus of right-wing and transphobic groups, which claim it threatens women’s sports and women athletes despite there being a miniscule amount of transgender athletes…

the IOC trans ban’s main effect will be to show you who among your friends and family really enjoys punching down

— Keith Law (@keithlaw.bsky.social) March 27, 2026 at 9:00 PM

Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya has expressed her disappointment with IOC President Kirsty Coventry over the decision to ban transgender women athletes from competing in women's events at the Olympics.

[image or embed]

— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) March 29, 2026 at 11:00 PM

It isn't possible to make paranoids feel safe. Good policy cannot cater to them.

[image or embed]

— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) March 27, 2026 at 1:55 PM

It’s not about which athletes might have ‘wrong genes’ or ‘ambiguous genitalia’ — it’s about ensuring that the women competing in the Olympics look properly feminine, lest some elderly bigots be triggered.

Essay from last August regarding World Athletics, suddenly relevant due to the IOC

[image or embed]

— mcc (@dryad.technology) March 29, 2026 at 3:07 PM

Professor Andrew Sinclair — “World Athletics’ mandatory genetic test for women athletes is misguided. I should know – I discovered the relevant gene in 1990”:

The SRY test isn’t cut-and-dried

World Athletics asserts the SRY gene is a reliable proxy for determining biological sex. But biological sex is much more complex, with chromosomal, gonadal (testis/ovary), hormonal and secondary sex characteristics all playing a role.

Using SRY to establish biological sex is wrong because all it tells you is whether or not the gene is present.

It does not tell you how SRY is functioning, whether a testis has formed, whether testosterone is produced and, if so, whether it can be used by the body…

World Athletics is recommending all women athletes take a cheek swab or blood sample to test for the presence of SRY.

Normally, the sample would be sent to a lab that would extract DNA and look for the presence of the SRY gene.

This may be easy enough in wealthy countries, but what is going to happen in poorer nations without these facilities?

It is worth noting these tests are sensitive. If a male lab technician conducts the test he can inadvertently contaminate it with a single skin cell and produce a false positive SRY result.

No guidance is given on how to conduct the test to reduce the risk of false results…

There was no mention from World Athletics that appropriate genetic counselling should be provided, which is considered necessary prior to genetic testing and challenging to access in many lower- and middle-income countries.

I, along with many other experts, persuaded the International Olympic Committee to drop the use of SRY for sex testing for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

It is therefore very surprising that, 25 years later, there is a misguided effort to bring this test back…

Open Thread — The IOC: <em>“Look, Over There!… “</em>Post + Comments (102)

Open Thread: James Talarico Is Scaring All the Right People

by Anne Laurie| March 14, 20267:39 pm| 89 Comments

This post is in: LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Local Races, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality

It's time, Texas. Vote for Talarico.

[image or embed]

— George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) March 13, 2026 at 4:15 PM

I’m not a Texan voter, and Talarico wouldn’t have been my first choice, but he’s the Democratic candidate now and he’s doing an excellent job so far defending our small-d and large-D Democratic values…

Talarico: "As a former educator, as someone who fought for students & kids in the halls of the Texas Capitol, it makes me sick to my stomach to see our foreign policy take the lives of innocent children in Iran & in the Middle East. It has to end. We need a foreign policy that reflects our values."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 12, 2026 at 9:24 PM

our boy's on it

[image or embed]

— the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) (@merovingians.bsky.social) March 11, 2026 at 2:35 AM

James Talarico: Neither John Cornyn nor Ken Paxton deserve the honor of representing this great state. Both of them are far more interested in serving their billionaire megadonors than serving the people of Texas.

[image or embed]

— Team Talarico (@teamtalaricohq.bsky.social) March 12, 2026 at 11:33 PM

Trump melts down over James Talarico: “He’s so woke, h-he’s grossly incompetent… He’s such an insult to Jesus”

[image or embed]

— Headquarters (@headquartersnews.bsky.social) March 13, 2026 at 12:11 PM

Talarico: I know a minority we should harass

[image or embed]

— manish vij (@mvij.org) March 10, 2026 at 12:37 AM

show full post on front page

New: I spoke to Rev. Babs Miller, a lesbian pastor at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, who has known James Talarico since he was "Jimmy." They told me about how Talarico's church formed his support for queer and trans people from a young age.
www.chron.com/culture/arti…

[image or embed]

— gwen howerton (@kissphoria.bsky.social) March 13, 2026 at 1:21 PM

… In a 2021 speech [Talarico] gave on the floor of the state House, opposing a bill that would ban transgender women from playing in women’s sports, Talarico spoke of Christians who he said were supporting “hateful” laws against trans people by invoking God. Then, Talarico opened up his Bible.

“The first two lines in Genesis use two different Hebrew words to describe God. One of them is the masculine Hebrew noun for divinity. The second is the feminine Hebrew noun for spirit,” Talarico says. “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between.”…

“God is nonbinary,” Talarico declares. The bill passed anyway, but it became another clip in Talarico’s arsenal of viral videos he’s leveraged to become the Democratic Party’s latest hope of flipping one of Texas’ Senate seats. But it also became fodder for Republicans, who are once again hoping that leveraging support of transgender people will be a silver bullet for their electoral chances. Case in point: Before the Democratic primary had even been called for Talarico, the X account of the National Republican Senatorial Committee posted the clip…

Talarico grew up with parents who were devout Christians and politically active Democrats. Talarico’s mother, Tamara, left his biological father when he was barely a year old and met Mark Talarico not long after. Mark adopted the young Talarico, who took his last name, and brought them to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in North Austin.

Rev. Babs Miller, a lesbian pastor at St. Andrew’s who has been there since the 1990s, recalled meeting Talarico when he was in kindergarten. Miller knew him then as “Jimmy,” and they recalled that young Jimmy would put on puppet shows with the church’s pastor, Jim Rigby.

“You just knew he was a very special kid,” Miller said in an interview with Chron.

That Talarico belongs to the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A, a notoriously progressive Christian sect, makes this less surprising; PCUSA has allowed LGBTQ+ people to serve in leadership positions since 2011 and began accepting same-sex marriages in 2014, before the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges…

Indeed, it has often been national outlets who are now Talarico-curious and want to know where he falls on the hot-button cultural issue of the day. Talarico’s camp directed Chron to his previous statements in support of transgender rights. But throughout his (relatively new) political career, Talarico has been defensive of transgender people. Before the bill banning gender affirming care passed, Talarico had a message for trans youth.

“I just want to say, I love you and so do a lot of people in this room, and so do a lot of people around this big state. I know it may not seem like it tonight, but you are loved beyond measure,” Talarico said in 2023 on the House floor…

I've been fascinated with Talarico way before he became a national darling. Part of that is because for a lot of Dem politicians, their support of LGBTQ+ rights lives uneasily with their faith, if they have it at all. But for Talarico, the first flows from the latter.

[image or embed]

— gwen howerton (@kissphoria.bsky.social) March 13, 2026 at 1:25 PM

Talarico: "There's another war in the Middle East. There's a cost of living crisis. There's a secret pedophile ring & no one has been prosecuted. So the people responsible are trying to distract us with the same old culture wars … what do the American people care more about — pronouns or prices?"

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 12, 2026 at 9:34 PM

Open Thread: James Talarico Is Scaring All the Right PeoplePost + Comments (89)

Open Thread: Triumph of the Nerds

by Anne Laurie| February 10, 20264:53 pm| 50 Comments

This post is in: LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Sports

i know pokemon is still popular with younger people but millennial cultural hegemony is going to rock. we're just aging into the marketing demographic where everything is going to be catered directly to us. it's going to rule and we will do whatever it takes to make it last until we're 300 years old

[image or embed]

— lauren (@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com) February 8, 2026 at 9:24 PM

To be honest, I’ve never played either Pokemon or Magic the Gathering (heck, I couldn’t even handle D&D back in the early ’80s, when my not-yet-Spousal-Unit was DMing in our home every week), but I will always cheer for Team Nerd… and Team LGBTQ+.

Congrats to Breezy Johnson and Amber Glenn on bringing home gold medals for Team USA! Team LGBTQ+ is making our country so proud!

[image or embed]

— Representative Becca Balint (@balint.house.gov) February 9, 2026 at 2:54 PM

Amber Glenn, a queer Texan who started ice skating at the stonebriar mall in frisco at age 5, who plays magic the gathering, is an olympic gold medalist

[image or embed]

— gwen howerton (@kissphoria.bsky.social) February 8, 2026 at 5:45 PM

show full post on front page

… Glenn grew up in Plano and is making her Olympic debut at 26, making her the oldest American woman to qualify for the Olympic singles team since 1928. Her path to the Olympics involved winning the U.S. national title in figure skating last month. Glenn won her third consecutive title, making her the first woman to do so since Michelle Kwan did from 2002 to 2005. Glenn is one of two Texans on the Olympic figure skating team, with Pasadena’s own Emily Chan being the other. But Glenn is also an icon for her representation of the queer community. That she’s doing so as a North Texas native feels extra special.

Glenn came out as pansexual in an interview with the Dallas Voice in 2019, where she discussed practicing with skating pair Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc, who are both from Dallas. LeDuc, who is openly gay and non-binary, became the first gay skater to win a pairs title and the first non-binary athlete to qualify for the Winter Olympics.

“The fear of not being accepted is a huge struggle for me,” Glenn said at the time. “Being perceived as [going through] ‘just a phase’ or [being] ‘indecisive’ is a common thing for bisexual/pansexual women. I don’t want to shove my sexuality in people’s faces, but I also don’t want to hide who I am.”

In a recent interview with ESPN, Glenn would later say that watching American skater Karina Manta come out as bisexual in 2019 would inspire her to do the same. Glenn received tons of coverage in both mainstream publications and the LGBTQ+ press.

“I did not expect it to blow up in the way that it did,” Glenn told ESPN in January. “But I’m grateful because they got my message out there. I was able to represent a lot of people who are in skating, especially queer women.” …

Glenn is an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and often skates with rainbow flags and wears pins of the LGBTQ+ pride flag. At a team press conference ahead of the Winter Games in Milan, Glenn said she felt it was important to use her platform and speak out against rising anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, specifically from the Trump administration.

“It’s been a hard time for the [LGBTQ] community overall in this administration,” Glenn said. “It isn’t the first time that we’ve had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights. And now especially, it’s not just affecting the queer community, but many other communities.” …

We’re with you all the way, Amber. 💙💛
It takes strength and courage to stand up for what’s right.

[image or embed]

— Human Rights Campaign (@hrc.org) February 9, 2026 at 6:00 PM

MAGATs are phenomenomaly stupid…
Amber Glenn. Gold……

[image or embed]

— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) February 9, 2026 at 1:11 PM

Open Thread: Triumph of the NerdsPost + Comments (50)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie| January 14, 20267:50 am| 236 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Criminal Justice, LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads

The nonprofit Trevor Project received a $45 million gift from billionaire MacKenzie Scott at the end of 2025.

[image or embed]

— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) January 12, 2026 at 5:00 PM

DEFEATED! Democrats joined by 6 Republicans just took down this anti-worker bill, the final vote was unchanged from below.
Mike Johnson spent nearly an hour trying to flip Republican holdouts but ultimately gave up, his first floor defeat of the year and likely not the last.

[image or embed]

— Aaron Fritschner (@fritschner.bsky.social) January 13, 2026 at 6:00 PM

Democrats plan to spend millions of dollars to consolidate voter registration efforts, traditionally handled by nonprofits and individual campaigns. Party leaders hope the shift will increase their chances in this year’s midterm elections.

[image or embed]

— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) January 13, 2026 at 7:00 PM

“Gangster Affordability” gets the NYT treatment. 🤡
@tonyromm.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/u…

[image or embed]

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) January 13, 2026 at 4:34 PM

show full post on front page

Wednesday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (236)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Catching Up

by Anne Laurie| January 12, 20267:56 am| 121 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Trumpery, Our Failed Media Experiment

Wanda Sykes presented an award at the Golden Globes to Ricky Gervais, who didn’t show up. ‘He would like to thank God,’ she said, ‘and the trans community,”

[image or embed]

— Vulture (@vulture.com) January 11, 2026 at 11:10 PM

Wanda Sykes killing it.

[image or embed]

— East of Barrie (@eastofbarrie.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 11:07 PM

===

I’m assuming that if it gets through the Senste that’s exactly what he will do. And that too few Republicans will vote to override & it fails. That is a very bad outcome & will harm tens of millions. But it’s also giving in a club to Democrats & saying “please bludgeon me to political death”

[image or embed]

— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 12:04 AM

===

Frey: "I think the initial impetus to come to MN was to arrest & deport a bunch of Somali people. They got here & realized the Somali people that would be deported are all citizens. Then they turned their ire toward our Latino community & others. These are communities that make Mpls a better place."

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 10, 2026 at 11:58 AM

Philadelphia sheriff Rochelle Bilal:
“No law enforcement professional wears a mask…No law enforcement professional shoots at a moving vehicle.
“What Trump’s private army is doing…is not only against legal law, but moral law.”
Vows to arrest agents on site who commit crimes.

[image or embed]

— Jay Kirell (@jasonkirell.bsky.social) January 9, 2026 at 5:11 PM

show full post on front page

Pete Hegseth is the least qualified Defense Secretary we've ever had and his open contempt for women in the military is a slap in the face to those who have put their lives on the line to keep us safe.

[image or embed]

— Senator Patty Murray (@murray.senate.gov) January 10, 2026 at 1:54 PM

===

Donald Trump’s assault on the Fed’s independence continues, threatening the strength and stability of our economy.
This is the kind of bullying that we’ve all come to expect from Donald Trump and his cronies. Anyone who is independent and doesn’t just fall in line behind Trump gets investigated.

[image or embed]

— Chuck Schumer (@schumer.senate.gov) January 11, 2026 at 10:00 PM

Jay Powell and the Fed aren’t the reason Trump’s economy and his poll numbers are in the toilet. If he’s looking for the person who caused that he should look in the mirror.

— Chuck Schumer (@schumer.senate.gov) January 11, 2026 at 10:00 PM

He said more than that. He said it was a pretext to intimidate the Fed into obeying the President's wishes on interest rates.

[image or embed]

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 8:02 PM

===

“It would break NATO apart if Trump invaded Greenland”
No, it wouldn’t. Trump giving that order means he’s no longer President. NATO would remain.
“There must be consequences if Trump ordered an invasion of Greenland”
Yes, the consequence being Trump would no longer be President.

[image or embed]

— Queerhawk 🏳️‍🌈 | 🇺🇦 | 🛡 (@alwaysadorecats.bsky.social) January 10, 2026 at 2:39 PM

===

Malaysia and Indonesia become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and non-consensual images.

[image or embed]

— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) January 12, 2026 at 1:30 AM

===

this was what throwing away our democracy and everything good America has ever stood for was worth, the NYT getting to sit down in the Oval Office with the President for hours of him not doing his job and lying to their faces.

[image or embed]

— Henry (@henrythedog.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 9:53 PM

Gift link. Spoiler: It’s as fully toothless & sycophantic as you would expect.

Monday Morning Open Thread: Catching UpPost + Comments (121)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie| December 24, 20257:36 am| 211 Comments

This post is in: LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Music, Open Threads

A Florida official wants to cancel a sold-out Christmas drag show. The queens are performing anyway

[image or embed]

— #TuckFrump (@realtuckfrumper.bsky.social) December 23, 2025 at 3:44 PM

Merry Xmas, Ron DeSanctimonious! Per the Guardian, “A Florida official wants to cancel a sold-out Christmas drag show. The queens are performing anyway”:

A drag queen Christmas tour has become an annual holiday tradition in Florida – and in recent years, so has the ensuing backlash.

Now in its 11th year, A Drag Queen Christmas, featuring performers from RuPaul’s Drag Race, will stop in the Florida Panhandle city of Pensacola on Tuesday night, despite state officials’ best efforts to cancel the show for what they claim is an “anti-Christian” performance at a city-owned theater.

The state attorney general has spent nearly two months lobbying Pensacola officials to cancel the show, to no avail. Instead, the 1,600-capacity tour stop is sold out…

Queens have continued performing across Florida, despite an anti-drag law that had been held up in court for years until last week, compounded by other anti-LGBTQ+ laws and attacks in the state. Challenges like these create a general sense of unity in the scene, said Orlando drag organizer Violet Maldonado, who performs under the name Kissa Death.

“I don’t think the community that’s here is ever gonna go anywhere, or go quietly into the night,” Maldonado said.

Florida has a long legacy of serving as home to LGBTQ+ communities, including in Pensacola. Local drag queen Edie Yacht pointed out that Pensacola’s LGBTQ+ history goes back to the 1950s with the launch of the Emma Jones Society, which for nearly 20 years hosted the nation’s biggest LGBTQ+ gathering at the city’s beaches. But in the last five years, under Governor Ron DeSantis, a wash of anti-queer and anti-trans animus snowballed into a nationwide “drag panic”…

The Pensacola city council made clear several times it would not cancel the show, citing the expense of legal fees if the production company behind the tour decided to pursue litigation. But a legal update to Florida’s anti-drag bill on 15 December, putting the law into action, heightened concerns that either the city council or show organizers would back down. But that didn’t happen, and the drag community says they won’t be going anywhere any time soon.

“We’ve gotten through some crazy things. Pulse was not that long ago,” said Jenda Envy, a drag queen from Orlando. “It would have to take a lot. Ron DeSantis? Ooh girl, you’d have to show up to my house.”

All of this pushback conflicts with a clear reality – Florida is a major home to modern drag. Five of the 14 queens in the upcoming season of RuPaul’s Drag Race hail from the state. All of the Floridians I spoke to for this story emphasized that this pushback – or the conservative elected officials who net headlines for it – doesn’t represent the state’s residents, who are extremely diverse not only ideologically but in identity…

Wednesday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (211)

Proud to Be A Democrat Open Thread: Rep. Sarah McBride Is A Brave Woman

by Anne Laurie| December 17, 20256:43 pm| 113 Comments

This post is in: LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

Rep. Sarah McBride slams the GOP for being obsessed with spewing anti-trans bigotry while putting forth zero effort to make healthcare more affordable 👇

[image or embed]

— The Democratic Coalition (@thedemcoalition.bsky.social) December 17, 2025 at 3:06 PM

Per CNN, “McBride says Republicans are ‘obsessed with trans people’ as bills restricting youth access to gender care come to a vote”:

Rep. Sarah McBride on Wednesday criticized congressional Republicans as being “obsessed with trans people” ahead of a vote on bills that would restrict youth access to gender identity care and penalize health workers who provide it.

“I actually think they think more about trans people than trans people think about trans people,” said McBride, who is the first out transgender member of Congress…

Despite the outsized attention placed on trans people by the administration, they only represent around 0.6% of the US population aged 13 and older, according to the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA Law that provides scientific research on gender identity and sexual orientation.

One of the new GOP bills, spearheaded by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, would amend current law to make it a felony for health care providers to offer forms of gender identity care to transgender youth, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

The bill would also open the door for criminal penalties to people who help facilitate that care for minors, including parents or guardians.

The bill is the culmination of a yearslong effort on the part of Greene, a Georgia Republican, to restrict youth access to such care. Trump, with whom Greene has recently fallen out, made anti-transgender policies a central platform of his successful presidential campaign.

Civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union described Greene’s bill as “the most extreme anti-trans legislation ever considered by Congress.”

A second bill, sponsored by GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, prohibits federal Medicaid funding for “gender transition procedures for minors.”

McBride said Wednesday that Republicans were “trying to politicize a misunderstood community and misunderstood care.” …

Something curious: whenever I post here about Sarah McBride, it usually elicits responses how she sells out trans people. When I post on the other site, it’s mostly people misgendering her. She can’t seem to win either way.

— Eric Michael Garcia (@ericmgarcia.bsky.social) December 10, 2025 at 10:24 PM

Proud to Be A Democrat Open Thread: Rep. Sarah McBride Is A Brave WomanPost + Comments (113)

Mr. Bemused Senior on Tuesday Night Open Thread (Apr 1, 2026 @ 12:25am)

Martin on War for Ukraine Day 1,496: The Fourth Anniversary of the Bucha Massacre (Apr 1, 2026 @ 12:14am)

Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) on Tuesday Night Open Thread (Apr 1, 2026 @ 12:02am)

glc on Tuesday Night Open Thread (Apr 1, 2026 @ 12:02am)

Mai Naem mobile on Tuesday Night Open Thread (Apr 1, 2026 @ 12:00am)

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

So many bastards, so little time.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

How stupid are these people?

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Open Thread — The IOC: “Look, Over There!… “

Open Thread: James Talarico Is Scaring All the Right People

Open Thread: Triumph of the Nerds

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Monday Morning Open Thread: Catching Up

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Proud to Be A Democrat Open Thread: Rep. Sarah McBride Is A Brave Woman