At midnight on Saturday, more than 20 anti-LGBTQ+ bills died in West Virginia after the legislature adjourned sine die. Bills that did not pass included the misleadingly named "Women’s Bill of Rights," which would have ended legal recognition for transgender people in the state, as well as a bill that would have prohibited gender-affirming care for all transgender youth. West Virginia is the second state in a week hinting that anti-transgender legislative attacks are encountering resistance. Last week, Florida's legislature also adjourned, effectively killing dozens of anti-transgender bills.

One bill that failed to pass as the West Virginia legislature adjourned was House Bill 5243, also known as the misleadingly-named "Women’s Bill of Rights" by its proponents. The bill primarily aimed to exclude transgender individuals from all legal gender protections in the state. Riley Gaines, who heavily promoted the bill, joined Governor Jim Justice at a press conference where it was announced as a major policy priority. The proposed legislation would have led to bathroom restrictions, prohibitions on driver's license and ID changes, and the elimination of legal recognition for transgender people's gender identities. Despite frantic, last-minute efforts by some Republicans to pass it, Democratic lawmakers countered by proposing dozens of amendments for debate. As a result, Republicans placed it at the bottom of the calendar.

“HB 5243 offered no real tangible protections for cisgender women, all while punching down on another marginalized community, and sought to erase protections for transgender West Virginians,” says Ash Orr, a trans organizer in West Virginia, “Essentially, it amounted to yet another culture war bill designed to divert attention from genuine issues affecting all residents of West Virginia.”

Another bill that did not pass in West Virginia was House Bill 5297, which sought to entirely prohibit gender-affirming care for all transgender youth. The state had previously enacted a ban on gender-affirming care, but it included an exception for transgender youth experiencing "severe dysphoria." HB 5297 aimed to eliminate that exception. More than 400 health care providers signed a letter opposing the bill, describing gender-affirming care as lifesaving and urging the legislature to reject it. The bill failed to pass before the legislature adjourned, meaning that at least some transgender youth in the state will continue to be able to receive care, making it one of the few red states where this is still the case.

The state is the latest in a series of developments suggesting that the anti-transgender panic gripping the GOP may be diminishing in the lead-up to the 2024 elections. Florida also recently adjourned without passing numerous anti-transgender and anti-LGBTQ+ bills. Recent elections have raised questions about the effectiveness of anti-transgender policies in driving voter turnout. In 2023, more than 70% of Moms for Liberty candidates were defeated. The Virginia legislature shifted to Democratic control, despite Governor Youngkin's efforts to campaign for Republicans by emphasizing anti-transgender politics as a policy priority. Governor Andy Beshear was reelected in Kentucky despite substantial ad expenditures attacking him for vetoing anti-transgender legislation.

When asked about the failure of these to pass, Orr stated, “The truth is, transgender people of all ages are living happy, complete, and beautiful lives - this contradicts the false narrative created around our community by anti-transgender politicians.”

The only bill that did pass in the state was a bill that would stop non-binary gender markers on birth certificates, though it is unclear what effect the legislation would have given that the state did not have a history of issuing such birth certificates.

Although these bills are failing to pass in states that have historically targeted transgender individuals, it remains unclear whether their failure signifies a genuine shift away from targeting LGBTQ+ people or merely a pause in anticipation of the 2024 election outcomes. The threat remains significant in many areas, with a few extreme bills being enacted this year, including a gender-affirming care ban in Wyoming and an adult bathroom ban in Utah. Additionally, some new states have witnessed the successful advancement of anti-trans legislation, such as a "Parents Rights in Education" bill in Washington, which could lead to forced outings, and a bill in New Hampshire that permits sports and bathroom bans. The national budget debate also includes anti-trans provisions that are still under negotiation.

Nevertheless, activists in states that have experienced the most severe attacks see reasons for celebration and hope. The failure of dozens of bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community means that residents in these states will have another year to prepare and strategize. If the 2024 elections yield unfavorable results for Republicans who have advocated anti-transgender legislation, similar to the outcomes in 2022 and 2023, it could further argue against the political viability of making these bills a policy priority. Most importantly, transgender individuals in these states are granted the valuable gift of time to catch their breath following the relentless barrage of legislative efforts that have dominated political discourse over the past five years.

i do love the idea of making a bunch of fictional old mutant turtle men fight, but also SIR. THOSE ARE MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT PEEPAWS. (but also lol)

I am BEGGING you guys to PLEASE vote in November.

FIRST ALASKAN NATIVE TO CONGRESS BABEEEEy (also first women to this seat, and first Dem since 1972 all thanks to ranked choice voting!)

Mary is Yup’ik, has previously worked to rebuild salmon resources on the Kuskokwim River, emphasizes her support for abortion rights, and hopes to elevate issues of ocean productivity and food insecurity.

This is HUGE for Alaska, but the work is not done. This was a special election and to keep her seat Mary Peltola will need to win an election again in a few months during the mid-terms.

you're trying to figure out what to vote in the local election: multi-party system edition

... (absolutely useless rant in tags)

i have a lot of leftist friends who are very strongly pro-voting and i have a lot of leftist friends who are very strongly anti-voting and i'm always telling them the same fucking thing: being a condescending asshole about your voting perspective is not going bridge that difference. it is just going to drive a further wedge in our movement.

@lokifreign (not in a directed at you way, just so as not to talk behind peoples backs via screenshots)

like, this is funny and i’m sure that is all it is intended to be.

but, god do we need to move past this whole unthinking and unnuanced acceptance of Collective Ethnic Guilt thing we’ve got going on on this webbed of site

the results of that "is fanfic a book" poll have shown me one thing and its that this site never graduated past that absolutely insufferable phase in 2013 where everyone acted like every book is the single most sacred thing on earth

sorry to be usamerican on main but given the fact that trump actually didn’t alter us domestic policy in any irreversible way (besides the supreme court which has now stagnated again anyway in terms of membership so even if he were reelected he likely wouldn’t be able to change it further) and the democrats have barely done anything to change the course of domestic policy in terms of the environment and immigration and police brutality and all those other things that people hate republicans for doing nothing about i am allowed to be angry with biden actually. for being a genocidal old man who talks about progress but does nothing for it, for his hypocrisy and his spinelessness and his hiding behind his party’s small victories to shelter himself from the backlash of the war crimes he is actively funding. i am allowed to not want to vote for biden. i am allowed to be repulsed by the idea of it. does that mean i will vote for trump? absolutely not because he repulses me too. I haven’t yet decided whether i will go against all of my morals and vote biden or vote third party and risk throwing my vote away, but the point i am trying to make is that you can’t use “oh but trump is worse” as a shield when functionally they are the same. you can’t say “trump would be worse for palestine” when if nothing changes everyone in palestine could be fucking nuked by the time trump would even be elected. you cannot be so blindly devoted to your party loyalties that you cannot see the world outside the us and think for one fucking second about how your vote really truly affects that. you are not morally superior for supporting democrats above all else — not above all other parties, but above everything, as ive seen people do. you are a coward if you can’t see that your choices have the potential to be just as harmful as the choices of those you have labeled as “bad” and “inferior.” maybe your vote for biden ends up being the best path forward, but you have no right to act like the path is a righteous one.

Mini rant incoming.

Got the new Minecraft update, LOVE the cherry biome, love the terracotta pots (even tho you cant plant stuff in them for some reason), but incredibly irritated bc I can't help thinking that people have been begging for concrete slabs and stairs and more plants for literal years and if Mojang had expended a fraction of the time they spent on the SIXTEEN base, exponentially customizable armor trims I predict everyone will use Once and forget about, they could have easily implemented those features instead of giving us just two (2) incredibly rare, unable to be duplicated plants, and bamboo slabs and stairs, which are nice I guess but also literally noone asked for them.

In addition, like this could have been wrong, but I thought I read once that Mojang didn't want to give concrete (and glass, and terracotta) slabs and stairs bc they "weren't in real life"? Like the glass i understand but I literally see concrete stairs every day of my life. And stairs made out of bamboo is a ridiculous concept???? Also you have fucking dragons. Like why do you ask for suggestions and feedback if all you're going to do is give bullshit excuses and then add shit noone cares about?

I am delighted that Paxton got impeached, his reelection made me SO GODDAMN MAD and now I’m like ‘a rich white asshat is facing CONSEQUENCES and we LOVE TO FUCKIN’ SEE IT’

i shouldnt be taking this so seriously but lmao kip being voted in top 5 worst gimmicks of last year :')

Yes, YES!!! this Twitter thread is such a poignant summary of issues with dems, and why this attitude of "but supporting dems is harm reduction, you HAVE to vote!!" is just pissing so many of us off more. Very well said. I especially appreciate the connection between the supposed cruciality of voting as harm reduction vs rugged american individualism, wow. What an angle.

Hey this isn't like me yelling-callout-post-NOW or anything but I was scrolling through replies on the trolley-problem-palestine post and I do want to say that I have to unfortunately be invested in US Politics as a non-US citizen because of the way these elections affect the rest of the world, culturally and politically. The US is one of the richest and most influential countries in the world and the way it decides to interact with the rest of us, where it sends money and military to, and the conversations people in the US are having even about domestic issues end up shaping the conversations that happen outside of it (trans and immigration issues for example). It's horribly unfair and I'm fuming about it always why can y'all veto shit ❤️ but uh yeah, just a minor nitpick with the influence of the elections on everyone else. I could be entirely wrong in my perception of the way things are but that's how it seems to me rn.

That post was a long time ago, so I can't remember specifically what I said about it, but I don't disagree with your ask.

My big beef (and what I typically rant about) with most of the chatter about the US elections and Palestine isn't that the elections influence other countries. They definitely do.

My beef is that all the US tumblrites are making Palestine into the one single issue ever, in the world and in the US, and they're putting on blinders to everything else.

Palestine isn't even CLOSE to being the single issue or even the most major issue. It simply is not.

And in a US election, Americans NEED to take a look at OUR issues. The issues that affect everyday life. Affordable and accessible education, housing, healthcare, LGBTQ+ issues, rights to bodily autonomy, etc., etc.

In a US election, those are the things that are the most important. In a lot of ways, those are the only issues that functionally exist, within the context of the election bubble. Yes, you can and should consider foreign policy as a factor, but it should NEVER be the only factor ... not when there are so many raw and bleeding gaps at home, and clear, obvious, and impending threats to the very lives of the people these sjw tumblrites claim to care about.

I'm saying that election time is the time for Americans to focus on America for just a minute. And when all I hear is Palestine to the exclusion of all else - all rational thought, all sense - with the conclusion being "punish Biden because he happened to be president when Israel was being a little shit," then that's when I say none of that matters.

Because the US election is not about Palestine or any other country. It's about the US.

People desperately need to remember that.

No, I don't want to put America first, and I care a lot about how we interact in the world. But by God, you don't put your own country LAST in the election that is specifically for your country and will determine how you survive ... and IF you survive. You don't throw your country and everyone in it under the bus.

We have the right to be a little selfish for our election. Not Trump-selfish, but selfish enough to have some sense for the things happening here. It's time to set Palestine on the shelf for a while - at least long enough to realize that "punishing Biden" is idiocy.

Also that Biden is not only America's best strategic option, but he ALSO happens to be Palestine's and the rest of the world's.

Honestly, I've seen more of that perspective from non-Americans, and I hugely appreciate it. I just need the actual Americans in the room to realize that 1) they need to take off their fucking blinders, and 2) their stupid little short-sighted Biden-punishment stunt will not only harm themselves but also all the other countries they seem to care about more than their own.

And I want them to start giving a fuck about the country they currently live in.