Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first transgender woman elected to Montana's legislature, attended a Montana House of Representatives session to oppose an anti-transgender bill that would remove references to transgender individuals from more than 40 sections of state code. The bill, which would define sex in a way that excludes trans people, was one of over a dozen heard this year. The previous day, her strong speech against the gender affirming care ban the state had passed led to the Montana Freedom Caucus calling for her censure while intentionally and repeatedly misgendering her. When she punched in, they refused to recognize her to speak, and instead moved forward to pass the bill.

Tensions flared on the House Floor when the entire Democratic Caucus rose to demand that she be permitted to speak. In a strikingly undemocratic move, Republican House Speaker Regier declined to allow it, asserting that he could refuse to allow anyone to speak at his discretion. When Minority Leader Abbott objected, they moved to a packed rules committee meeting, which upheld the ruling. Following that, the Speaker stated it was his intent to no longer allow Representative Zephyr to speak moving forward.

This afternoon a federal judge in Florida issued an injunction on the enforcement of the state's ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors. And while the order is limited to a small number of plaintiffs seeking hormone treatments on behalf of their children, it's a scathing indictment of the statute's constitutionality, as well as the cruelty of the politicians who advocated for it.

"The elephant in the room should be noted at the outset. Gender identity is real," writes US District Judge Robert Hinkle, hinting at the "unspoken suggestion running just below the surface in some of the proceedings that led to adoption of the statute and rules at issue—and just below the surface in the testimony of some of the defense experts—is that transgender identity is not real, that it is made up."

But you don't get to ban something, particularly gender-based medical care, based on barely concealed bigotry.

"Any proponent of the challenged statute and rules should put up or shut up: do you acknowledge that there are individuals with actual gender identities opposite their natal sex, or do you not? Dog whistles ought not be tolerated," the court bristles.

Late Friday afternoon, Judge Patrick Hanlon, a Trump-appointed federal judge, issued a temporary restraining order halting Indiana's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The ruling fully blocked the enforcement of the law, with Hanlon determining it likely violates the constitutional rights of equal protection under law. Hanlon pointedly stated that these bans unfairly discriminate against trans youth and that denying them necessary care could cause "irreparable harm."

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In essence, the discriminatory nature of the law is evident as it only forbids treatments designed to support transgender youth in their transition to a sex different from their assigned birth sex. Conversely, it permits the same treatments when used to maintain alignment with their birth sex. To put it plainly, if a cisgender boy experiences gynecomastia (enlarged breasts), he can access treatment for reduction; however, this option is denied to transgender boys. Similarly, a cisgender girl can get medical assistance to suppress excessive testosterone, but transgender girls are prohibited from the same treatment. These biased regulations are wholly founded on sex, leading the judge to unequivocally rule that “sex-based classifications are not just present in S.E.A. 480’s prohibitions, they’re determinative.”

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This law is the most recent law in a string of laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community judicial demise. Two weeks ago, Florida’s own prohibition on gender-affirming care was blocked by a federal judge. Similarly, Tennessee’s restrictions on drag were ruled unconstitutional. In Indiana, a court ruled that teachers do not have a right to misgender their trans students. On the national stage, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted a transgender student in West Virginia to continue participating in sports. This evolving landscape underscores a new phase in the fight for transgender rights, a phase in which harmful laws are repeatedly toppled in courts across America due to their unconstitutional nature.

While many transgender people currently suffer under these laws, these recent developments give hope to a community that sorely needs it. As the last few gender affirming care bans move through Republican-supermajority state legislatures, these court decisions may serve to dissuade lawmakers from passing their own versions of these unconstitutional prohibitions on care.

In a concerning turn of events, Ohio has become the newest addition to the growing list of states progressing gender affirming care bans for transgender youth out of legislative committees. If Ohio successfully passes this bill, House Bill 68, it will become the 20th state to do so. The bill has weathered numerous iterations and significant setbacks in the past. However, the latest version has emerged with an unprecedented provision unseen in similar bills from other states: a mandate to screen for “influences,” or “causes,” of being transgender.

The bill mandates that before therapists can diagnose a patient with gender dysphoria, they must first screen for a host of other potential "causes" that might explain an individual's transgender identity. Included in these are anxiety, depression, and autism. This provision ignores established scientific consensus: none of these conditions "cause" someone to be transgender. Furthermore, there are no existing diagnostic tools or guidelines to establish the "cause" of someone's gender identity, because fundamentally, such "causes" are nonexistent.

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The list of potential causes forwarded for being transgender in the bill include:

ADHD

Autism

Anxiety

Depression

Physical, Mental, and Emotional Abuse

Trauma

Moreover, even when these so-called "causes" are screened for and no underlying reasons for a person's gender identity are found, treatment remains banned. Essentially, these screenings don't provide access to gender-affirming care for trans youth; rather, they erect a formidable barrier to even obtaining mental healthcare for transgender youth.

Disturbingly, these provisions essentially mandate "gender exploratory therapy," a new conversion therapy currently pushed by members of Christian conversion therapy organizations such as the American College of Pediatricians. This pseudoscientific group, a strong advocate for conversion therapy, has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Its deceptive name is expressly designed to confuse legislators into mistaking it for the American Academy of Pediatrics, the respected medical organization representing the vast community of pediatricians across the United States.

Today, Equality Florida issued an unprecedented travel advisory, warning LGBTQ+ people and allies to suspend travel due to its recent passage of laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community, restricting access to reproductive health care, repealing gun safety laws, and fomenting racism. They cite the impact of recent rises in anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes and the passage of laws that could be used to target travelers and residents alike. They state that Florida may pose a risk to the “health and safety” of impacted communities traveling to the state.

The risks of travel are particularly heightened for transgender people, as several bills and laws there could directly target their rights and access to healthcare. This is especially true for people with trans youth, due to laws moving that could interfere with preexisting child custody agreements and a weaponized state court system. Institutions are being used to significantly target transgender people in schools, places of work, and in media institutions.

The travel advisory joins other organizations that have concurrently issued travel advisories. The Florida Immigrant Coalition and the NAACP Florida have both requested or issued travel advisories as well. Florida already occupies the highest risk category on my own transgender legislative risk assessment map.

The trend of banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth was gaining momentum in conservative-leaning states, leading many to fear that the entirety of the Southeastern United States would follow suit. However, on Wednesday, Louisiana bucked this trend. Louisiana became the only state in the Southeast and one of only four states with Republican trifectas or legislative supermajorities to defeat such a ban in its legislature. This defeat provides transgender individuals, particularly those in neighboring states where such care is banned, with a vital source for their medical needs. Coupled with court blocks on similar bans in other Southeastern states, those who must cross state lines for their care likely feel a sense of relief. Without a doubt, transgender individuals in Louisiana are among those breathing easier.

Back in April, the Texas Education Agency took control over the public school districts in Houston and Austin, deep-sixing their superintendents and elected school boards. State officials claimed they just had to step in to fix long-lasting problems in both districts.

Many families suspected the state seizure of the Houston Independent School District was an attempt to force the state government’s rightwing priorities on a district that’s 62 percent Hispanic and 22 percent Black, in a city and county (Harris County) that’s a Democratic pain in the ass for Gov. Greg Abbott. In June, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement that the takeover process “has been flawed and anti-democratic from the very beginning […] with little or no input from parents, teachers, or local community leaders.”

They want the answer to "Why are women getting paid less than men?" to be "Because women don't work as hard as men do." They want the answer to "Why are all of this company's executives white men?" to be "Because they were all the best person for the job." They want "Why is this population disproportionately impoverished compared to other groups?" to be "Because they don't work as hard." Or, if they are big fans of Charles Murray, "Because their IQs are lower." They don't want people looking at groups of people and saying, "Hey, why is this group doing okay and this other group isn't?" if the answer is going to be anything like "Because the group that is doing okay had an advantage going in," they don't want to hear it.

Ironically, as much as they have ever-so-helpfully "culturally appropriated" the term, the thing they are mad at is still right there in the original definition. Ultimately the thing they are mad about, the thing that really gets under their skin, is people being aware of systemic injustices and working to correct them — largely because they are the ones who benefit from those systemic injustices.

Have you been following the big fight over whether the Los Angeles Dodgers would let the very important convent of gay drag queen nuns the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence be part of their Pride Night ceremonies, or would they be cowards and cave to Catholic extremists who don't even deserve to enjoy baseball anyway?

Let us get you up to speed! Because on top of Bud Light and Fox News and the lesbian green M&M and whatever else, right-wing Christians are getting geared up to boycott baseball.

Here are the Los Angeles Dodgers telling those people to fuck off. Below, we will answer your questions about how we got here.

Americans are getting pretty sick and tired of rightwing scolds trying to turn the country into a year-round Jesus Camp. Now the resistance to the last couple years of moral panics is spreading beyond the awesome kids forming banned book clubs and the civil rights groups suing to throw out unconstitutional laws. In Florida, Big Bidniss is throwing its money into the fight, too, as Judd Legum writes in his Popular Information newsletter.

In response to the Escambia County School Board's removals and restrictions on school library books, the board is being sued in federal court by some very big guns: publisher Penguin (heh) Random House, five authors, two parents of children in the school district, and the freedom to read nonprofit PEN America, alleging that the school board is violating the First Amendment rights of all the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit alleges that the school board banned and restricted books "based on their disagreement with the ideas expressed in those books." In so doing, the school board has "prescribed an orthodoxy of opinion that violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments." “In Escambia County, state censors are spiriting books off shelves in a deliberate attempt to suppress diverse voices. In a nation built on free speech, this cannot stand,” Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of PEN America, said. “The law demands that the Escambia County School District put removed or restricted books back on library shelves where they belong.”

If "Escambia County" and "censorship" ring a bell, that would be because Escambia County is home to Moms for Liberty And Censorship activist Vicki Baggett, a high school English teacher and self-appointed Fahrenheit 451 fire crew who has filed over 150 book challenges.

The only "goal" the Right has put forth in recent years is that they want to stop other people from existing or force them to exist in a way they find more palatable. They want people to stop calling them racist when they say racist things on social media, they want us to stop being so popular on social media so that they can be popular on social media, they want people to stop saying what their pronouns are, they want store clerks to wish them a Merry Christmas, they want LGBTQ people to stop existing, they want Black people to stop complaining about police brutality, they want feminists to stop dying their hair blue and being feminists and to get back in the kitchen and make them a sandwich.

NPR notes that the young artist tried to explain that the adults were worrying over nothing:

"I put my artwork up there to make people feel welcomed," she said in a quivering voice. Responding to adults' accusations that she schemed to include sinister images, she said, "That's not what I'm a part of. That's not what I'm trying to put out there." The student explained that the so-called Satan mask is a character from a video game and that the painted hand is a Latino symbol of protection. She eventually left the meeting in tears.

After the poor girl left, an allegedly adult grown up woman stood up to declare the young woman a filthy liar, insisting, "I feel that she did a really good job finding excuses to defend the things she put on. None of us are that stupid."

We regret that everyone in the room didn't just stare at her and ask her to listen to herself. Still, in today's postmodern world, maybe we shouldn't give any credit to an artist's alleged intent, what with the death of the author and all that.

Another student, who identifies as queer and is a friend of the artist, said they've been bullied because of that. They spoke up in defense of the mural, saying it made them feel included, suggesting to parents, "Maybe you should be more concerned with your children's behaviors instead of what art is on the wall."

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People have been digging into the history of this man who, before he was in Congress, worked for anti-LGBTQ+ hate cells like the Family Research Council and what’s now called the Alliance Defending Freedom (it used to be Alliance Defense Fund), the group that’s currently employing Josh Hawley’s wife to overturn the FDA’s longstanding approval on the extremely safe and popular abortion drug Mifepristone.

Obviously he’s a severe white anti-gay, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion bigot, who wants a national abortion ban and introduced a national Don’t Say Gay bill. [ ]

In 2003, Johnson fought hard for the continued criminalization of gay sex, just as the Supreme Court decriminalized it with Lawrence v. Texas. While working as a lawyer for Alliance Defense Fund, which filed an amicus in the case, he argued in an op-ed for the Shreveport Times that “[s]tates have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse.” He prudishly sneered for the sake of states’ rights to “discourage the evils of sexual conduct outside marriage” — what a goddamned dork — and posited that since you couldn’t then have gay sex within a marriage, then “the state is right to discriminate.” [ ]

But y’all might be particularly interested in Johnson’s advocacy for the weird, creepy, patriarchal and abusive practice of so-called “Covenant Marriage.” Conservative Christian extremists love it because it makes divorce really hard. Like, not even if you both just agree you want to get a divorce. Legum explains:

In Louisiana, for example – the first state to formally recognize covenant marriages – couples seeking a divorce “must go through marriage counseling,” submit evidence, and “be separated for at least a year before a divorce can be granted.” These requirements apply even in cases involving physical and sexual abuse, and increase the chance that a woman continues to experience violence at their hands of their partner.

Even in cases of physical and sexual abuse.

See why conservative Christians love it?

But don’t worry, y’all: Mike Johnson isn’t just the president of covenant marriages. He’s also a client!

Johnson and his wife entered into a covenant marriage in Louisiana in 1999. They’re now “proponents of the cause.” In an interview with ABC in 2005, Johnson said that opting for a covenant marriage was "kind of a no-brainer."