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- Top Democratic Officials Target Their Most Vulnerable Constituents In New Strategy Document

- Anti-Trans Congresswoman Nancy Mace Now Pushing Anti-Gay Slogans From The 80s

- Trump Admin Attempts To Ban Trans Youth Care Nationwide With New Federal Rules

- Washington State University Credentials Anti-Trans Hate Group SEGM to Teach Medical Providers

- Every Trans Suicide Is A Murder By Those In Power

- AOC To Anti-Trans Swimmer Riley Gaines: "Maybe If You Channeled All This Anger Into Swimming Faster You Wouldn’t Have Come In Fifth."

- USDA Website Blames SNAP Benefits Expiring On Trans People And Immigrants During Shutdown

- The Lavender Ledger: Your Strategic LGBTQ+ Reader By Erin In The Morning

- Study Finds Trans Women's Blood Proteins Resemble Cis Women's After 6 Months on HRT

- After Fenway Cuts Trans Care, Protests Erupt—Again and Again and Again

- A Line Must Be Drawn: The Cowardice Of Historic LGBTQ+ Provider Fenway Health

- Two More Colleges—Arizona and USC—Reject Trump Trans Bathroom Ban Compact

- Federal Judge Rules In Favor Of Public Schools In 16 States That Refused To Comply With Trump's Trans Ban

- Anti-Trans Democrat Seth Moulton Booed At Boston No Kings Rally After Sen. Markey Wears Trans Flag

- The Lavender Ledger: Your Strategic LGBTQ+ Reader By Erin In The Morning

Top Democratic Officials Target Their Most Vulnerable Constituents In New Strategy Document

ERIN REED | OCT 31, 2025, 11:43 AM EDT | SOURCE

Top Democratic officials put out a new guide, entitled "Deciding to Win," that encourages Democrats to be a little more like Republicans on "identity and cultural issues."

Left: David Axelrod // Public domain, Middle: James Carville // JD Lasica // Wikimedia Commons, Right: David Plouffe // Noam Galai // Wikimedia Commons

This week, the self-styled centrist group WelcomePAC released a document entitled “Deciding to Win”—advised on by some of the Democratic Party’s most prominent strategists, including David Axelrod, James Carville, and David Plouffe—urging Democrats to act a little more like Republicans on so-called “identity and cultural issues.” The 58-page memo reads like a compendium of the consultant class’s worst instincts, encouraging candidates to become little more than poll-tested avatars and walking focus groups, trading conviction for triangulation. While the document rarely defines which “cultural issues” it means, the few times it does make it clear: queer and transgender people stand to lose the most if this vision of the Democratic Party takes hold.

The document begins with five key pillars for the party. Some of them make a lot of sense, such as “messaging on an economic program centered on lowering costs, growing the economy, creating jobs, and expanding the social safety net,” critiquing “the outsized political and economic influence of” the “ultra-wealthy,” and support for a $15/h minimum wage. Others, though, encourage the party to abandon platforms that have been central to its identity and mission to protect the most vulnerable in society, calling for the party to “Moderate our positions where our agenda is unpopular, including on issues like immigration, public safety, energy production, and some identity and cultural issues.”

While the document rarely defines what “identity and cultural issues” means, the examples make its targets clear. Support for the Equality Act—legislation that would codify gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes under federal law—is cited as proof the party has “moved left.” Another section lists “protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans” as a priority voters supposedly don’t want Democrats to emphasize. Elsewhere, a discussion of how to mobilize voters “sitting on the couch” reveals that the most popular policy among them is “defining sex as binary and based on biology at birth across federal agencies.” Later in the document, it explicitly calls out transgender sports participation as an issue that the party should “moderate” on.

Screenshot of Deciding to Win Chart of “moderate” policies

Imagine a world where Democrats actually heeded this advice. The “define sex as binary” policy—already championed in Republican-led states and now embedded in everything the Trump administration does—has had devastating consequences for transgender Americans. It has stripped trans people of the ability to update their passports, creating serious barriers to travel; defunded organizations that affirm gender diversity; and fueled crackdowns on college campuses that allow trans students to use restrooms matching their gender identity. It’s a policy of bureaucratic erasure, one that threatens to undo decades of hard-won progress—yet it’s presented, almost casually, as a “moderate” position Democrats might adopt to win votes.

It’s a vision of politics that would turn Democrats into little more than Republican Lite—a “big tent” party spacious enough for those who despise us but not for those who most need protection. In that world, Democrats would lose not just the meaning of leadership but the very soul of why the party exists. And it’s a fantasy built on delusion: no amount of fine-tuned messaging or poll-tested calibration will ever transform the party into the perpetual winner these consultants imagine.

We don’t have to imagine what happens when Democrats follow this playbook — we’ve already seen it. In New Hampshire, Democrats capitulated on multiple anti-trans bills, including bans on youth sports participation and gender-affirming surgery, only to suffer one of the party’s worst defeats of the 2024 election cycle, losing 20 seats. By contrast, Democrats in Montana fought hard against similar measures and mounted some of the most visible resistance to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the country, picking up ten seats in the state House—one of the party’s strongest showings nationwide, in a state Trump carried easily. In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear vetoed anti-trans bills, including a sports ban, and still won reelection in a Trump +31 state. And in New York, a ballot measure enshrining gender identity protections outperformed Kamala Harris’s statewide margin by a wide margin.

Despite the evidence, a faction within the Democratic Party still treats queer and trans people as expendable—convinced that by trimming the edges of equality and tolerating “a little” discrimination, they can win back power. It’s a ruinous illusion. This kind of triangulation doesn’t blunt Republican attacks; it validates them. Every state that once embraced sports bans or “compromise” restrictions has since escalated to banning medical care, censoring books, and policing bathrooms. Capitulation has never advanced LGBTQ+ rights—not in policy, not in public opinion, not once. Democrats aren’t losing because they’ve been too loud or too firm in defending equality; they’re losing because the far right invests in its own moral narrative while Democrats second-guess theirs. The only way forward is to stand unapologetically on principle—as Andy Beshear did in Kentucky, citing it as the very reason for his success—not to chase the approval of consultants who mistake cowardice for strategy and appeasement for leadership.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/top-democratic-officials-target-their at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Anti-Trans Congresswoman Nancy Mace Now Pushing Anti-Gay Slogans From The 80s

S. BAUM | OCT 30, 2025, 4:17 PM EDT | SOURCE

&#8220;Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,&#8221; she tweeted on Tuesday, seemingly unprovoked.

Nancy Mace // Gage Skidmore // Creative Commons

South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who is best known for slinging slurs on the House floor, returned to her signature move earlier this week: horning in where she’s not wanted.

“Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” she tweeted on Tuesday, seemingly unprovoked. Users were quick to point out that Mace had once identified as a supporter of same-sex marriage, up until last year. She voted in favor of protecting same-sex couples in 2022—twice.

To many in the trans community, Mace’s pivot was a mind-numbingly obvious outcome. Of course, the GOP never meant to reserve attacks on human rights to just trans people. The playbook is so predictable that social media users foresaw Mace’s heel turn nearly a year ago. “Gay rights have nothing to do with men invading women’s spaces,” Mace tweeted in November of 2024.

“You’re going to be against gay rights as soon as it’s socially advantageous,” one account responded.

“Vote[d] for gay marriage twice in fact,” Mace said.

Now, her “Adam and Steve” jab evokes what some see as a vestige of a bygone era—the evangelicalism of the Reagan and the Bush administrations, Jerry Falwell-style gay-bashing, and more immediately, the fight to preserve same-sex marriage, which could be put to the test once again with a more conservative Supreme Court this November.

At one point, Mace seemed more than happy to speak out for this cause. “I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality,” she told a reporter from the Washington Examiner in 2021. “No one should be discriminated against.”

“I do believe that religious liberty, the First Amendment, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist,” she continued. Mace added that she had LGBTQ friends and family and that “having been around gay, lesbian, and transgender people has informed my opinion over my lifetime.”

Cut to 2025: Mace unleashed a transphobic, slur-heavy tirade at a House hearing this past February, and over the summer, she repeatedly called a trans person a slur face-to-face at a constituent town hall.

It’s not 100% clear what triggered Mace’s born-again homophobia, but it’s possible that with the government shutdown droning on and slashed SNAP benefits thrusting millions of Americans into hunger, the right needs a new (or old) boogeyman to keep everyone distracted. Plus: Mace is running for South Carolina governor, and she’s wrestling with Lt. Gov. Pam Evette for a coveted endorsement from President Donald Trump.

The moral hypocrisy of conservatives is certainly not breaking news, but the change in tune is something that some in the online TERFsphere are trying to pin on trans people. Multiple posts from gender conservatives in response called for the LGBTQ community to ditch the “TQ.”

This rhetoric relies on the same tired trope: that gays and lesbians are wholly distinct from trans people, that trans people constitute a political liability for the left, that our existence is too fringe to bother fighting for, and that we must abandon those radical trans people—or as Mace might say, those “tr*nnies”—in order to maintain gay rights. Even some Democrats are starting to bemoan that we’ve gone “too far” too fast on equal rights for trans people.

The problem: Capitulation has never worked. In 2007, for example, mainstream gay rights groups—such as the Human Rights Campaign—appeared all too willing to leave trans people behind in order to secure legislation protecting cisgender gays. But that didn’t stop the conservative resurgence we’re seeing now. Every letter of the LGBTQ community has been censored online and in schools, faced increasing levels of harassment and violence, and fallen victim to global LGBTQ repression more broadly.

Selling out trans people won’t save gay people. The struggle for equal rights on both fronts has been inextricably intertwined since the trans and GNC youth of the Stonewall Uprising sparked the movement as we know it today.

The slippery slope won’t stop with Nancy Mace either; this was always the natural conclusion of the anti-trans crusade, pioneered by conservative activists who openly tout transphobia as a gateway drug into more hardline conservatism.

It stands to reason that throwing trans people under the bus won’t save anyone. Only solidarity—a united front against hate—can do that.

Screenshot of Nancy Mace tweets. Archived version here.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/anti-trans-congresswoman-nancy-mace at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Trump Admin Attempts To Ban Trans Youth Care Nationwide With New Federal Rules

ERIN REED | OCT 30, 2025, 11:06 AM EDT | SOURCE

Three new rules pushed by the Trump administration may serve as the next wave of a federal crackdown on trans youth care.

Photo by René DeAnda on Unsplash

Over the past year, the Trump administration has made restricting transgender health care for youth one of its top priorities, seeking to ban treatment for anyone under 19 in both red and blue states. Its tactics have included threatening and subpoenaing providers for trans youths’ medical records, attempting to pull federal grants from hospitals and universities that offer gender-affirming care, and issuing vague guidance that’s driven even longtime allies into overcompliance. Now the administration is escalating with a blitz of three new rules that could effectively end most transgender youth care nationwide if enacted—pressuring many medical institutions to drop trans patients from receiving the care they need out of fear of federal reprisal, and punishing those who do not comply.

A federal rule finalized this morning would bar nonprofits from qualifying for Public Service Loan Forgiveness if they “engage in chemical and surgical castration” of minors—the administration’s inflammatory phrasing for what it later defines as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, both standard treatments for transgender youth diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The change would punish entire institutions: doctors, nurses, and staff at any hospital, university, or nonprofit that provides gender-affirming care to minors would lose access to loan forgiveness, effectively coercing organizations to abandon care or risk their employees’ financial security.

This rule is slated to go into effect on July 1, 2026, and is widely expected to face legal challenges. PSLF’s statute does not authorize excluding otherwise-eligible nonprofit employers based on providing gender-affirming care. Legal experts say the policy is vulnerable under the Administrative Procedure Act and post-Loper Bright statutory-authority review. Still, as seen in previous crackdowns on transgender health care, many hospitals—and even some LGBTQ+ organizations, including Fenway Health in Boston—have opted to comply rather than risk confrontation, underscoring how fear of federal retaliation can chill resistance even among supposed allies.

The same morning this first rule was finalized, NPR reported that two additional rule proposals are expected within days. One would prohibit federal Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care provided to anyone under 19. The other would go even further, barring hospitals that treat transgender minors from receiving any Medicaid funds at all—a measure that would effectively eliminate access to such care nationwide, except at the few private clinics able to forgo Medicaid entirely, a rarity in transgender youth medicine.

The new rules echo the negotiations over the FY26 appropriations bills tied to the ongoing shutdown fight, where House Republicans are similarly pushing to ban federal funding for gender-affirming care nationwide. As the shutdown drags on, transgender advocates and trans Americans are watching closely to see whether any of those provisions slip into law. Though the shutdown has primarily centered around a clean continuing resolution without those provisions, there has been some shift towards negotiation of the full appropriations bills, which could be a mechanism for anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ provisions to enter into federal law. If Trump gains access to even a fraction of the restrictions embedded in those House bills, it would further streamline his administration’s efforts to dismantle trans health care across the country.

Gender-affirming care saves lives. A Cornell review of more than 51 studies found that such care significantly improves the mental health of transgender people. One major study reported a 73 percent drop in suicidality among trans youth who began treatment; another found a 40 percent reduction in actual suicide attempts in the previous year. Research published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in April 2024 showed puberty blockers sharply reduced depression and anxiety. Abroad, a German review backed by 27 medical organizations endorsed gender-affirming care for youth, and a recent French medical consensus did the same. The evidence has driven a historic resolution from the American Psychological Association—representing 157,000 members—formally condemning bans on trans care.

If enacted, these rules would make gender-affirming care for transgender youth far harder—if not impossible—to access across much of the country. Even now, with only the threat of enforcement hanging overhead, many hospitals and organizations have chosen compliance over resistance. Should these measures take full effect, the chilling impact on trans health care would be immediate and devastating, erasing years of medical progress and leaving thousands of young people without safe treatment options.

You can read the full text of the PSLF rule here, and view the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs listings for the other two proposed rules here.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/trump-admin-attempts-to-ban-trans at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Washington State University Credentials Anti-Trans Hate Group SEGM to Teach Medical Providers

S. BAUM | OCT 29, 2025, 7:59 PM EDT | SOURCE

The Southern Poverty Law Center has dubbed the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine an anti-LGBTQ hate group for its role in proliferating pseudoscience and transphobic policies.

WSU // Public Domain

The Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, received the green light to teach medical professionals through Washington State University’s continuing medical education (CME) program—meaning medical providers may now use SEGM courses to fulfill requirements to maintain their licensure.

Critics argue the move by WSU gives the appearance of legitimacy to a group with opaque funding and a disturbing proximity to far-right, Christian fundamentalist forces. It also means well-meaning providers who want to enhance their practice with trans-competent care may be misdirected to SEGM propaganda instead of evidence-based best practices. Most damning, critics say, is that listing SEGM as a CME option lends undue legitimacy to a dangerous cell of what the Southern Poverty Law Center has dubbed an anti-trans pseudoscience network.

“They’re an issue group that has a position on transgender health care,” said Evan Urquhart, a science journalist and founder of Assigned Media. “Whatever they do serves that particular agenda. It’s not about an openness to evidence in the spirit of scientific exploration; they advocate against gender-affirming care, using misinformation.”

The CME series, which is available for free viewing online, appears to be composed of lectures and panels from SEGM’s October 2023 conference. It is marketed to a wide range of medical providers, from psychologists and physicians to dietitians, dentists, and pharmacists.

To the untrained eye, the content may seem innocuous—one lecture claims to examine the role of psychotherapy in treating gender dysphoria. Another one reviews international literature on trans issues. But coming from SEGM, they take on a more sinister role. Conversion therapy tactics and restrictive, debunked screeds against trans people’s medical self-determination (such as the United Kingdom’s Cass Review) are being presented as sound science. And while scientific debate is always an important step in improving medicine, the program is full of red flags that betray a political, as opposed to academic, agenda.

In fact, Dr. Gordon Guyatt, who is regarded as the “godfather” of evidence-based medicine for his part in pioneering evidentiary metrics, spoke at that 2023 conference. Despite arguably being the most high-profile academic in the room, however, his presentation didn’t make it into the CME course.

Earlier this year, Guyatt co-published a letter lambasting SEGM for its anti-trans and anti-science views and practices, as outlined in a recent Mother Jones investigation into the group. Guyatt said he hadn’t known about SEGM’s sordid past when he accepted the invitation, and he has since rebuked it for its ideological and unacademic practices, calling SEGM “an unconscionable use of our work to deny people gender-affirming care.”

Meanwhile, the CME prominently features a panel moderated by Jamie Reed, a disgraced anti-trans activist who made unsubstantiated if not flat-out false accusations against her former employers at a Missouri gender clinic, where she was a caseworker. She has since spent her time traveling around the country touting “falsified” data and pushing conspiracy theories about how transitioning makes one more likely to commit acts of political terror and violence.

SEGM has publicly refuted its designation as a hate group and rejected the idea that it peddles misinformation. The group often uses its proximity to outliers in the trans community—like Dr. Erica Anderson, who also spoke at the conference—as a shield against accusations of transphobia or ideological motivations.

“SEGM as an organization has taken great care to avoid wading into political debates, seeking only to enable evidence-based decision-making about care for gender-dysphoric youth, without prescribing specific policy solutions,” a Sept. 25 press release from the group reads. “We reject the politicization of questioning how best to care for gender-dysphoric youth.”

However, the group’s leaders and its very foundation are steeped in anti-trans political advocacy. Before the incorporation papers were even finalized, co-founder Dr. Stephen Beck was using the SEGM moniker to advocate for Trumpian policies that effectively write trans Americans out of existence. In 2020, SEGM board member Dr. William Malone testified in support of an Idaho bill that would have made it a felony crime to prescribe hormone blockers to trans minors, while leaving cisgender youth access to that same care intact. The organization has also filed a 2021 amicus brief in Arizona arguing against state health insurance coverage for chest surgery for transgender boys, plus a 2024 anti-trans amicus brief during the Skrmetti proceedings. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

A spokesperson for WSU, Pam Scott, told Erin in the Morning that the inclusion of SEGM in their CME offerings does not represent an endorsement of the espoused views.

“For the situation in question, the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine acted as an accreditor, through its Continuing Medical Education (CME) program,” Scott said via email, noting WSU did not create the courses nor compensate SEGM or any of its “faculty” speakers for the program.

But when the university acts as an accreditor, it is expected to adhere to standards set by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).

“Accreditation indicates that the courses met ACCME’s requirements for scientific balance and educational integrity,” Scott said.

When Erin in the Morning asked about the use of content from a hate group in a CME course, ACCME president Dr. Graham McMahon said the matter may warrant further scrutiny.

“The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) is committed to ensuring that all accredited CME activities are valid, evidence-based, and free of commercial or other biases,” McMahon said via email. “While we are not in a position to comment publicly on an activity that we have not (yet) reviewed or audited for compliance, the description you provided raises questions that appear appropriate for an inquiry. We welcome a formal submission through our confidential complaint process.”

Meanwhile, Dr. M.A. Miller, an assistant professor of gender, race, and health at WSU who researches the intersections of gender, race, and health, told Erin in the Morning that SEGM’s affiliation with the medical school has alarmed some LGBTQ+ community members at the university.

Miller was cautious to reaffirm the importance of academic freedom in this political moment. “We’re in this pretty intense battleground space of embracing freedom of speech, even if it’s speech that we don’t like,” they said. State repression under the Trump regime has led to a flood of anti-trans academic attacks, such as the Texas professor fired for teaching college students about nonbinary people, the Florida teacher ousted for using a trans teen’s preferred name, the countless faculty members branded “groomers” or “pedophiles” for acknowledging the biological reality of sexual and gender diversity, or the student works being censored for featuring queer art.

But Miller felt lending WSU’s official accrediting capacity to platform proponents of debunked ideas—like “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria,” a quack theory painting transness as a social contagion, or “exploratory therapy,” which has been called rebranded conversion therapy—goes beyond the spirit of diverse thought and debate.

“It’s another thing entirely to suggest that medical providers can be credentialed in something that has already been unanimously understood as not only pseudoscientific, but also deeply, deeply dangerous to already vulnerable populations,” Miller said.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/washington-state-university-credentials at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Every Trans Suicide Is A Murder By Those In Power

ERIN REED | OCT 29, 2025, 12:12 PM EDT | SOURCE

News came this week that transgender athlete and student Lia Smith took her life at just 21 years of age.

Just days ago, Middlebury College in Vermont announced the tragic death of Lia Smith, a transgender student and former athlete at the school. In the days that followed, a clearer picture of her life emerged: she was a passionate advocate for transgender rights, a devoted teammate before leaving athletics in the 2023-2024 season, and someone who, like so many visible trans people today, faced relentless hostility. While we may never know the exact reasons she took her own life, her death came amid a wave of Republican attacks on transgender student athletes and sweeping Trump administration restrictions on transgender people across nearly every aspect of life. To call her death merely a suicide misses the larger truth—no suicide happens in a vacuum. Policies designed to make life unlivable for transgender people bear responsibility too; every trans suicide is a murder by those in power.

To understand Lia’s life before her passing is to see the power of what acceptance can make possible. She was a model student—proof that when transgender people are allowed to live authentically, the benefits ripple outward. Lia double-majored in computer science and statistics, played in the Chess and Japanese clubs, loved music, and competed on the women’s swimming and diving team until she left, citing the pressure and isolation she felt as a transgender athlete who “didn’t feel welcome.” Her departure came amid a growing wave of anti-trans policies on college campuses, as states began banning transgender athletes in 2022—a wave that has only intensified since into national bans. That hostility marked the beginning of what every transgender person now recognizes: a coordinated effort to legislate us out of public life.

“We’re not trying to get into women’s spaces to be perverts. We’re just being ourselves. We don’t mean any harm to anyone,” Smith said during a campus panel she joined that coincided and competed with an anti-trans event featuring Brianna Wu and Leor Sapir—the latter a prominent anti-transgender activist affiliated with the Manhattan Institute. On her panel, Smith spoke candidly about her experiences as a transgender athlete and student, sharing the challenges of navigating both visibility and hostility. She closed with a simple plea to the packed audience: “Know that there are people in your community who are here for you and care about you.”

As a transgender journalist and public speaker who has sat on many similar panels, I could have said the same words as Lia. When I learned of her death, I thought of the countless times transgender people have pleaded for our humanity and our rights, and of how often we’ve continued to push for inclusion while clinging to the belief that a brighter future will come—one where we can share in the same basic dignity that Lia asked for. But I also understand the pain she must have carried. It’s a pain familiar to anyone who advocates for transgender people: those moments when hope slips away, when you watch an administration—all the way up to the presidency itself—target you, and when each new policy reminds you how precarious your place is, leaving you braced for the next blow.

This year, transgender people have faced a relentless wave of policy attacks. Hospitals across the country have shut down gender-affirming care for trans youth, forcing many into medical detransition. The NCAA has moved to block transgender athletes from competition, with numerous national sports organizations following its lead. LGBTQ+ student life centers are being dismantled nationwide. Passports have become a new battleground—those who received documents reflecting their correct gender under the attestation form instituted this year have already been warned in court filings that if the Supreme Court rules for the federal government, their passports could be confiscated and reissued under their former gender markers. Our history is being erased, our books banned, and even our role in the Stonewall uprising—the spark of the modern Pride movement—has been stripped from the national monument’s own website. Meanwhile, social-media platforms amplify anti-trans hate as the billionaires who run them disable what few protections once existed, leaving trolls free to publish personal information that invites harassment and threats.

It was this same kind of anti-trans hate and harassment that Lia faced. Early this year, the hate site “HeCheated” targeted her directly, listing her diving competitions and later celebrating when her name disappeared from the roster. Sites like HeCheated and SheWon are riddled with inaccuracies and strange logic, often ensnaring both trans and cis athletes in their obsessive attempts to police identity. Their real purpose is harassment, driving coordinated online attacks against anyone they mention. We can’t know whether that pressure played a role in Lia’s death, but it’s clear she felt the weight of that hostility. In a February panel, she spoke to that isolation: “It’s really hard putting on the suit every day if you are obviously an outlier. It’s also really hard going in a locker room where you’re not welcome, and there’s really not a clear space that I should be going to.”

The policies that targeted Lia make life harder—and shorter—for transgender people. In a time when we can’t predict what fresh cruelty might come next, as the president signs one anti-trans order after another, as elite universities quietly comply with his demands to discriminate even in blue states, and as the movement against us widens its sights to target transgender people of every age, we have to name what’s happening plainly. These policies carry blood on their hands. Transgender advocates have warned for years that the relentless criminalization and isolation of our community would lead to deaths. Lia deserved better—better than this government, better than these institutions. Every transgender suicide is not just a tragedy, its a murder; it’s the foreseeable consequence of policies designed to make us disappear.

For those wishing to help Lia’s family, you can give to the Middlebury’s Prism center for Queer and Trans life as requested by her family.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/every-trans-suicide-is-a-murder-by at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

AOC To Anti-Trans Swimmer Riley Gaines: "Maybe If You Channeled All This Anger Into Swimming Faster You Wouldn’t Have Come In Fifth."

ERIN REED | OCT 28, 2025, 1:04 PM EDT | SOURCE

Riley Gaines has turned a 5th place finish into a national conservative platform against transgender rights.

Different Democrats speak about transgender people in very different ways. Some rely on vague gestures and political hedging—defending trans rights only when it’s convenient, and discarding them when it’s not. Others speak with conviction, choosing to lead with values of inclusion and solidarity for the most vulnerable. On Monday, after appearing at a packed rally alongside progressive New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made clear which camp she belongs to. When anti-trans swimmer Riley Gaines—who infamously turned a fifth-place finish into a national crusade against transgender athletes—tried to bait her online by saying that they were responsible for “destroying |America| within,” AOC shot back: “Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth.”

The post, made on Elon Musk’s Twitter platform, was viewed more than 36 million times and sparked an avalanche of conservative outrage. “Where Riley ended up is not the point…” wrote former tennis star and outspoken anti-trans activist Martina Navratilova. Daily Caller journalist Meg Brock responded with a bizarre insult comparing AOC to a stripper. Riley Gaines herself appeared on Fox News to demand a debate with the congresswoman over “socialism… removing God… and child sacrifice.” AOC replied once more: “And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job.”

Riley Gaines has built an anti-trans activism career around her fifth-place finish tied with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. Because of her outsized visibility in that movement, many Republicans have falsely assumed Gaines was a historically elite athlete. During a congressional hearing on transgender athletes in 2023, Republican Congressman James Comer told Gaines she “worked so hard to be the best” and was “the best at female swimming, there was no question about that.” In reality, Gaines never won a national championship title in swimming. You can see that exchange here:

Riley Gaines’ fifth-place finish has since become the springboard for a career built on anti-trans activism. She joined the far-right Independent Women’s Forum as an ambassador, lobbying for conservative causes including bans on transgender athletes. She’s taken part in multiple state and federal lobbying efforts targeting trans people, appeared at events hosted by the hate group Turning Point USA, and even launched her own “Riley Gaines Center.” Despite never losing a medal finish in national competition to a transgender athlete, Gaines has become one of the leading figures opposing transgender participation in sports—targeting everything from chess to darts, where claims of any transgender “biological advantage” strain all credibility.

While some Democratic leaders shy away from confronting figures like Riley Gaines, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has never been one of them. In 2023, during a panel on transgender athletes, she said, “I want to dive into an issue more deeply into why targeting trans girls is particularly problematic not just for trans girls but for all of us… Trans people represent 1% of the population and we have spent so many resources and time figuring out how to more finely exclude them… and I’ve started to realize that a lot of these proposals here involve invasion of privacy of all women.” More recently, in a House hearing on a Republican bill to ban trans people from sports, Ocasio-Cortez delivered a searing rebuke: “Republicans, who have voted consistently against the Violence Against Women Act, who have taken the rights of all women to have control over their own body, who as women are bleeding out in parking lots, now want to pretend today that they care about women. And why? To open up genital inspection on little girls across this country in the name of attacking trans girls. We have two words. Not today.”

AOC was in good company at the rally with Zohran Mamdani that sparked Riley Gaines’s comments. Mamdani, the progressive New York City mayoral candidate, recently released a two-minute campaign ad that celebrates transgender history and calls for full protections for transgender people in the city. Rather than shying away from the issue, the ad treats trans rights as a moral and political cornerstone of his campaign—promising to “deploy hundreds of lawyers” to fight the administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda. The rally itself took place in a city that just voted to enshrine constitutional protections for transgender people into law.

As the country moves into the next political era—one following an election Republicans poured unprecedented sums into anti-trans ads—some Democrats still seem unsure how to talk about transgender rights to their own voters. Others, though, have learned that the only real way forward that stands up for Democratic Party values is through unapologetic defense. Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s sharp response to Riley Gaines gave many transgender advocates a rare and refreshing sense of catharsis. For years, far-right figures like Gaines have spewed relentless vitriol without consequence. AOC’s willingness to meet that hate with humor and resolve offered a reminder to Democrats that confidence, not caution, wins the argument, and that those who stand firm on their values have nothing to fear from bullies.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/aoc-to-anti-trans-swimmer-riley-gaines at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

USDA Website Blames SNAP Benefits Expiring On Trans People And Immigrants During Shutdown

ERIN REED | OCT 27, 2025, 12:04 PM EDT | SOURCE

The benefits, which are set to expire on November 1st due to the government shutdown, will lead to millions of people struggling to secure access to food.

This morning, news broke that the Trump administration will not use emergency funds to pay out SNAP benefits to the millions of Americans who rely on them starting November 1. The benefits are set to expire as the government shutdown drags on, with Democrats and Republicans at an impasse over a series of funding bills for FY 2026 loaded with conservative policy riders. The main sticking point centers on whether to extend Obamacare subsidies—without which millions could see their health insurance costs skyrocket. In an official notice posted to the USDA website, the administration blamed Democrats for the lapse, accusing them of holding out for “healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures”—a message that scapegoats marginalized groups and, experts warn, may itself violate federal law.

“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance,” reads the memo posted on top of the USDA website as of Monday morning.

USDA Website, 10/27/2025

The message accuses Democrats of shutting down the government to protect transgender people and undocumented immigrants. The shutdown followed the Senate’s failure to pass compromise legislation on a series of funding packages for fiscal year 2026. When those measures collapsed, focus shifted to a “continuing resolution” that would have temporarily kept the government open without the controversial policy riders—buying time for further negotiation. But that, too, fell apart when Democrats insisted on preserving Obamacare subsidies to prevent millions of families from facing soaring insurance premiums. With neither a full-year funding bill nor a stopgap resolution in place, the government shut down, leaving federal agencies unfunded and millions at risk.

Trump turning his focus on transgender people raises the temperature that when an eventual deal is brokered, Americans could see the inclusion of some of those anti-trans riders as a major policy priority of the President for compromise legislation. Among the policies that have been suggested: The House appropriations bills for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education includes a sweeping ban on “any federal funds” supporting gender-affirming care and attacks on health insurance coverage for transgender people. Interpreted broadly, that language could dismantle programs at hospitals nationwide for all transgender people and block Medicare and Medicaid from covering transgender healthcare altogether. The Commerce, Justice, and Science bill, the Financial Services and General Government bill, and even the National Defense Authorization Act on the house side carry provisions ranging from Pride flag bans to bathroom bans on military bases to rules forcing transgender people into prisons aligned with their sex assigned at birth. Taken together, these bills amount to a wholesale rewrite of federal policy on LGBTQ+ rights—one that would instantly transform the legal and medical landscape for transgender people.

The USDA post is part of a broader pattern: a wave of overtly partisan messages that the Trump administration has published across federal websites in recent weeks. Legal experts warn that such posts may violate multiple federal laws prohibiting the use of taxpayer funds for political purposes, including the Anti-Lobbying Act and the Hatch Act. Politico reports that several Hatch Act complaints have already been filed against the administration. Yet few expect meaningful consequences—Trump’s team has repeatedly brushed off legal constraints, asserting near-limitless executive authority to use the machinery of government for partisan ends.

The message comes as experts warn that more than 42 million Americans could lose access to food assistance, with SNAP benefits set to expire as the shutdown drags into November. For many families, opening the USDA website to check on SNAP status now means being met with a partisan message blaming Democrats, immigrants, and transgender people for their hunger. It’s a cynical weaponization of federal platforms—turning what should be a lifeline into propaganda aimed at stoking resentment against marginalized groups. Whether that tactic holds political power remains to be seen. It’s one thing to scapegoat transgender people while out of power; it’s another to keep doing so when your party controls every branch of government, and voters are watching their groceries—and their patience—run out.

This is a lesson some Republicans are already learning in Virginia, where GOP candidate Winsome Earle-Sears has poured millions into anti-transgender ads attacking her opponent, Abigail Spanberger. But this time, the old playbook isn’t landing. Polling shows that the number of voters who list transgender issues as a top concern has actually fallen since the ad blitz began—and Spanberger continues to hold a double-digit lead. The attacks seem increasingly out of touch in a political moment when transgender people, far from being the source of the nation’s problems, have been systematically stripped of power and protections under the Trump administration. Blaming this marginalized group for America’s ills may once have been a reliable wedge—but voters appear to be moving on.

Regardless of where voters stand, many Republicans in power continue to lean hard into anti-transgender politics—and the ongoing negotiations to reopen the federal government will almost certainly make trans people a bargaining chip again. When Congress debates the full fiscal year 2026 funding bills, dozens of anti-trans provisions are expected to resurface. Democrats, for their part, have shown flashes of resistance but also moments of retreat—most notably when they voted for a Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act that included anti-trans measures. For advocates, the message is clear: don’t wait for politicians to do the right thing, call your elected officials and let them know your stance on federal budget negotiations and transgender rights.

You can find your elected officials at Common Cause.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/usda-website-blames-snap-benefits at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

The Lavender Ledger: Your Strategic LGBTQ+ Reader By Erin In The Morning

ERIN REED | OCT 25, 2025, 3:46 PM EDT | SOURCE

Our service for the week to cover the news we did not carry but do not want you to miss.

Inside EITM’s newsroom, we track dozens of breaking stories weekly—tips flood in from readers embedded in state houses, school boards, and organizations across the country. Our sources are everywhere. But here’s our strategic dilemma: while we’re chasing down original leads and working our exclusive angles, critical intelligence is moving through other channels that deserves your attention.

Consider this your weekend drop.

These are the stories that crossed our desk, passed our vetting, and matter to LGBTQ+ people—reported by trusted outlets while we were deep in our own investigations. Think of it as our intelligence-sharing agreement with you: the essential coverage from across the LGBTQ+ media landscape that we’ve been monitoring, verified, and deemed operationally significant.

This week’s important releases:

Houston police arrest protestors during overnight crosswalk removal, by Gwen Howerton

If you’ve been following our reporting at Erin In The Morning, you already know about the wave of resistance that’s swept Florida as the state attempts to erase rainbow crosswalks—symbols of pride that have long marked queer neighborhoods as safe havens. Now, Texas is following suit. At the apparent urging of Libs of TikTok, a far-right provocateur account, Governor Greg Abbott has moved to strip cities of their rainbow crossings. But things aren’t going as planned. In Houston, when state road crews arrived to tear up a prominent crosswalk, residents met them with hours of defiance—forming a human barrier and refusing to let the state erase their colors without a fight. You’ll have to read to see how the showdown ended, but one thing is clear: the movement to defend queer visibility is spreading, and it’s not backing down.

3,000 march in Taipei to support transgender community, by Wu Kuan-hsien

It’s worth remembering that the fight for transgender rights doesn’t stop at America’s borders—it’s global. The same battles over dignity, autonomy, and recognition being waged in the United States are unfolding around the world. In Taipei, Taiwan, for example, transgender people are still barred from changing their legal gender unless they undergo surgery—a requirement that is often financially out of reach, medically unsafe for some, or simply unwanted. Nearly every blue state in the U.S. has already struck down such rules, and ending surgical mandates has become a core demand of the global trans rights movement. The issue is now being tested in other nations too—most notably Japan, where a recent court ruling allowed some transgender people to change their legal gender without surgery. The struggle for equality is shared across continents; read this article and see how trans people everywhere are part of the same fight for self-determination and freedom.

Why many transgender Americans are preparing to flee the country, by Avishay Artsy and Noel King

Donald Trump’s second term has been devastating for transgender Americans—a relentless barrage of policies and rhetoric designed to erase us from public life. We’ve covered every blow here at Erin In The Morning. Increasingly, transgender people are packing up and leaving the United States altogether. In a recent Vox feature, journalists spoke with Kate Sosin of The 19th, an outlet that has heavily covered LGBTQ+ issues, to explore why so many are seeking refuge abroad. You can also listen to the attached podcast that the same piece is based off of.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/the-lavender-ledger-your-strategic-707 at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Study Finds Trans Women's Blood Proteins Resemble Cis Women's After 6 Months on HRT

S. BAUM | OCT 23, 2025, 8:01 PM EDT | SOURCE

&#8220;Feminizing GAHT [gender-affirming hormone treatment] skews the plasma proteome toward a cis-female profile,&#8221; the study concluded.

MCRI

A study by researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), published this week in Nature Medicine, analyzed over 5,000 proteins from the blood samples of 40 transgender Australians who underwent hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with estradiol and an antiandrogen. What they found is that, after mere months of HRT, trans women’s bodies may change down to the molecular level.

“This highlights that human biology is malleable and that even in adulthood, our bodies respond to sex hormone changes,” co-author Dr. Boris Novakovic said in a press release about the project. In other words, the endeavor shows the true range and plasticity of human bodies, including the idea of sex, which many gender conservatives falsely argue is immutable, binary, and stagnant.

These antiquated notions of sex have been used to justify segregation in everything from bathrooms to sports to competitions like e-sports and chess.

Beyond the gender culture wars, however, the study serves a more tangible and utilitarian function: helping inform our understanding of gender medicine, so trans people can have the best quality of care and health outcomes. HRT, like any medical treatment, can have side effects—both for trans people and cisgender people, who have been safely and effectively using hormone therapy for decades to treat everything from acne to erectile dysfunction.

“For transgender women, we found gender affirming hormone therapy alters the levels of many protein biomarkers,” Novakovic said, noting that this could impact risk assessments for things like autoimmune disease and heart conditions. Usually, these assessments factor in any number of variables, including sex as well as lifestyle or genetic components.

“Feminizing GAHT [gender-affirming hormone therapy] skews the plasma proteome toward a cis-female profile,” the study concluded. It should be noted that people of any sex or gender can exhibit a vast and evolving spectrum of these biomarkers—there is no “one size fits all” model for biodiversity.

But due to right-wing fearmongering surrounding HRT for trans people, there’s a disproportionate amount of fanfare dedicated to debating whether this kind of care, which is life-saving and evidence-based, should be legal at all. When space is given to scientists to go beyond this baseline framework, we can instead work towards a future where trans people don’t just have health care, but the highest quality health care possible.

The abstract can be seen below, and the full study is here.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/study-finds-trans-womens-blood-proteins at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

After Fenway Cuts Trans Care, Protests Erupt—Again and Again and Again

S. BAUM | OCT 22, 2025, 4:08 PM EDT | SOURCE

&#8220;This failure of courage does not have to be permanent.&#8221;

Protests at Fenway Health, credit Nick Rice

Hundreds of protesters, from decades-old activist groups to autonomous cohorts of young people, have taken to the streets outside Fenway Health in Boston to protest the historic LGBT clinic’s capitulation to Trump’s anti-trans agenda.

Last week, Fenway announced it would stop providing puberty blockers and hormone therapies to trans people under the age of 19. The clinic—which was founded for the explicit purpose of providing care to underserved populations, namely poor people, people of color, and especially the LGBTQ community—asserted that the precarity of its mission, clientele, and federal funding necessitated the move in order to keep its doors open.

But trans people, providers, and parents have rejected this categorization. Activists labelled the care stoppage calling it a capitulation to a regime that won’t be satiated until all kinds of gender-affirming care, for trans people of all ages, is eradicated.

So the community staged a picket Friday, marched Monday, and pledged to be back again next week, too.

mrtransmass

A post shared by @mrtransmass

“We are calling on Fenway to find brave and creative solutions to maintain funding while following their mission to provide the same rights to every patient,” said Teddy Walker, a 20-year-old Boston student, reading from a statement penned alongside 21-year-old Berry Andres, their co-organizer for Monday’s action. Both are Fenway patients who started hormone therapy as teens—the very care and demographic being cut off now. So they know intimately how vital this life-saving care is for trans young people.

“This failure of courage does not have to be permanent,” Walker told Erin in the Morning. “We can still be allies in this historic fight together, because we know Fenway Health is not our enemy. The Trump Administration is. But that does not mean we will stand idly by as Fenway does Trump’s work for him by stripping patients of their care.”

An estimated 200 people heeded the initial call for a rapid response from ACT UP Boston, the local chapter of a direct action group founded in the 1980s in response to the HIV/AIDs crisis. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a protest drag organization, joined in and announced they would be boycotting Fenway’s annual gala on Nov. 14. After Andres and Walker put out a call for further action on social media, dozens more came out to support the cause on Monday, including the communications director for president of the Boston City Council.

According to ⁨Gerry Scoppettuolo, an ACT UP veteran, Andres and Walker aren’t the only ones taking matters into their own hands.

“The community has decided just to rise up,” Scoppettuolo told Erin in the Morning. He said he made a few calls ahead of Friday to get boots on the ground—but says even he didn’t know what would happen next.

“I just lit a match, but I was astonished at the size,” he said. “I got there at 4 o’clock when it was supposed to begin, and already, like 50 people were there.”

An estimated 200 people showed up that day alone, one protester told Erin in the Morning.

“I had to leave at six and they stayed for at least another half hour,” Scoppettuolo⁩ said. “The line was a block long. It was fucking incredible.”

Video from Friday shows just a portion of the demonstrators. Signs read: “Fascism feeds on compliance” and “How many have to die?.” One image showed a pastor carrying a sign reading: “Fenway Health: Denying trans kids care is just a phase that you can grow out of!”

Meanwhile, Andres and Walker told Erin in the Morning that people came out from the Fenway building to show their support. Several people showed up to Fenway for a flu shot, unaware of the care stoppage—and ended up joining the protestors, they said.

Inside Fenway, similar revolts are happening, according to Sky—a Fenway employee, who spoke to Erin in the Morning on the condition that a pseudonym be used, citing likely retaliation from their employer if they went on the record.

Sky said around 150 staffers attended a virtual meeting with Fenway executives last week, called after they announced the withdrawal of care. The Trump regime’s attacks on trans youth have been on the horizon for at least the last year now, but Fenway’s apparently sudden capitulation blindsided providers.

“They’ve been assuring staff at Fenway that there was a plan for this, that they were going to have a buffer,” Sky said, emphasizing that most providers wanted Fenway to fight back. “But they immediately sold out the kids.”

CEO Jordina Shanks was flooded with questions during the all-staff meeting, Sky said, but fell short of giving meaningful answers. Executives said it was a board decision. They said they had no choice. “There’s nothing left to say,” Shanks allegedly said, before attempting to leave the call early, as Fenway employees demanded answers.

Fenway and institutions like it are indeed facing frightening attacks from the federal government. “The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently issued a revised Grants Policy Statement which allows it to terminate a grant ‘for convenience’ if it ‘no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities,’” a Tuesday press release from Fenway said. “If we continued the service, our status as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) would have been at serious risk. Maintaining this designation is essential to our ability to continue providing high-quality, affordable care to more than 30,000 people across New England and beyond.”

“I get that from a Machiavellian, utilitarian sense of: ‘If we just cut out this vulnerable population, we can still continue to do good work on that one,’” Sky admitted. In addition to providing gender-affirming care, Fenway houses primary care physicians, a pharmacy, a behavioral health clinic, a dental practice, reproductive health services, and more.

But Fenway Health has not publicly released any information about explicit threats from the government challenging its FQHC status. It also did not respond to a request for comment for this piece. And updates to the Grants Policy Statement do not inherently amount to a change in regulation, attorney Alejandra Caraballo told Erin in the Morning, meaning it is not ironclad.

“It’s flawed thinking because that’s not what’s going to happen,” Sky said. “Every institution that has caved to Trump so far has come back to get shaken down again. It’s only the ones who stood up, and said no, and have gone to court, that have had any degree of success against this.”

The nearby Boston Children’s Hospital refused to comply with an arguably unlawful subpoena of their staff and patients, and they refused to bow to Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, which do not hold the weight of law—despite the White House’s attempts to craft the narrative otherwise. Meanwhile, Massachusetts state law and its constitution have been interpreted to protect trans people from discrimination, and restricting trans people’s access to care arguably violates such laws.

Andres and Walker said they will be back at Fenway on Saturday, Nov. 1—this time, they are planning to partner with even more local groups. Their Instagram page—Hold Fenway Health Accountable—will continue to post updates about upcoming demonstrations, they said.

“Our ask for Fenway is to leverage their partners and not compromise their mission: to provide equitable and equal care to every person, and to sustain their programming as a clinic that serves a lot of low income people,” they said. “We don’t believe it has to be an either or.”

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/after-fenway-cuts-trans-care-protests at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

A Line Must Be Drawn: The Cowardice Of Historic LGBTQ+ Provider Fenway Health

ERIN REED | OCT 22, 2025, 2:29 PM EDT | SOURCE

Fenway Health must return to its roots and care for those the government casts aside.

Last week, devastating news tore through the transgender community: Fenway Health—once one of the most trusted LGBTQ+ clinics in America—announced it would end gender-affirming care for anyone under 19, bowing to pressure from the Trump administration. The rationale was both cynical and cowardly. Fenway claimed it feared that Trump could revoke federal funding on a whim and that by staying in his administration’s good graces, the clinic could protect its resources. In other words, rather than fight an unlawful threat, it chose appeasement. As Timothy Snyder warned in On Tyranny, this is how authoritarianism advances—not through direct orders, but through institutions that “preemptively obey.” By cutting off the very trans youth who helped build its reputation today, Fenway is abandoning their mission. If the line isn’t drawn here, when it’s our lives on the chopping block, who will be left to draw it when it’s theirs?

We’ve seen this kind of preemptive obedience play out across the country. Some hospitals have quietly dismantled their gender-affirming care programs rather than risk litigation—even though the few that have fought back have largely won in court. Universities have instituted discriminatory bathroom and housing bans with only a nudge from Washington, surrendering before a single lawsuit was filed. Administrators and executives, terrified of losing grants or federal favor, are pulling resources from transgender people not because they’ve been ordered to—but because they’ve guessed what might please those in power. But Fenway Health’s decision to cut off transgender youth care marks a breaking point. This was a voluntary act of compliance from an institution that once stood for defiance.

Fenway’s history with the LGBTQ+ community runs deep. Founded in 1971 by activists determined to care for LGBTQ+ people experiencing healthcare discrimination, it began as a grassroots “drop-in” clinic—run not by corporate executives or government bureaucrats, but by volunteers and community organizers serving those society left behind. In its earliest days, Fenway wasn’t buoyed by tens of millions in federal dollars or institutional prestige; it was powered by compassion and defiance. Its founders understood what it meant to be abandoned by the state. They built an institution that drew a line for the most vulnerable, refusing to let government hostility define who was worthy of care.

Snippet from a Boston Globe Article on Fenway, 1989

Fenway has lost its way. One protest poster at one of several demonstrations held outside the clinic read, “Fenway has built their reputation and funding based on supporting the trans community.” Now, after receiving that funding through the years, Fenway is casting aside the transgender people who have come to depend on them for care, in a misguided attempt to appease those in power—without even fighting for the very people who helped them build that reputation and secure that funding. Fenway serves thousands of transgender patients in need, publishes clinical guidance for the care of trans youth, and has been held up as a model for other centers nationwide. To say they’ve built their reputation on transgender care is no exaggeration; they’ve received tens of millions in pledged donations, in part based on their commitment to providing it. Now they have abandoned that commitment.

A line must be drawn. Fenway believes it must preemptively comply because otherwise, the administration could go after its federal funding. Right now, it’s transgender youth care. But what happens when it’s transgender adult care? Would they make the same decision to cut us off rather than fight back? What happens when it’s birth control? What about when it’s treatment for immigrants? What if it’s HIV drugs and PrEP—both of which have already been targeted by this administration? Fenway administrators surely have a line; I assume they would not roll over if told to cut off AIDS and HIV treatments. But they fail to understand that they must draw that line early. To Fenway, I ask: where is your line? Think about the values you claim to hold, and understand this—if you wait until they’ve crossed your line, it’s already too late. You didn’t stand up when they came for us. Who will be there to stand up when they come for you?

Fenway believes that by throwing transgender youth away, it can save care for cisgender LGB people. Trans youth have become a sacrifice Fenway is fearfully willing to make, without an ounce of fight. They are left scrambling to find care elsewhere. But what happens when every clinic makes the same cowardly decision? When every homeless shelter decides it must turn away transgender women to “protect” its funding? When every college decides to ban us from dorms and bathrooms? Where are transgender people supposed to go when the very institutions that built their reputations on our trust betray it—targeting the most vulnerable who depend on them to survive?

Fenway must return to its roots. It was founded to serve those our government targeted and our healthcare system abandoned. Now, it has become an arm of that very system—an agent of exclusion rather than resistance. The clinic that once stood with the vulnerable now stands over them, holding the knife. Fenway can fight. If it did, it would be met with an outpouring of support from the very community that built it. Instead, its leaders behave like servants eager to please their masters, hoping that obedience will spare them. It won’t. This administration will not stop at trans youth; it will come for every marginalized population they treat, every program that challenges its vision of who deserves care. I hope those in power at Fenway hear this and find the courage to fight back. And if they won’t, then the rest of us—the LGBTQ+ community that once made Fenway possible—must stand together and make it clear: you cannot save the house by burning one room and pretending the fire won’t spread.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/a-line-must-be-drawn-the-cowardice at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Two More Colleges—Arizona and USC—Reject Trump Trans Bathroom Ban Compact

ERIN REED | OCT 21, 2025, 11:10 AM EDT | SOURCE

The universities are the latest in a series of institutions that are refusing to comply with Trump's threats to target trans people.

USC Edward L Doheny Jr Memorial Library // Michael // Creative Commons

Two universities—the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona—have become the latest to reject the Trump administration’s demands to impose transgender bathroom bans on their campuses. They join five other universities that have similarly refused letters from the administration offering large financial incentives in exchange for adopting so-called “reforms,” which include anti-transgender measures, anti-immigrant provisions, attacks on diversity programs, and new restrictions on student protests. The rejections come after notable institutions folded to earlier anti-LGBTQ+ demands, including Brown, Columbia, Harvard, and Penn—some of which rejected this latest compact.

“USC fully agrees that academic excellence cannot exist without a “vibrant marketplace of ideas where all different views can be explored, debated, and challenged.” To foster such an environment at USC, we have committed ourselves to institutional neutrality and launched a number of initiatives designed to promote civil discourse across the ideological spectrum. Without an environment where students and faculty can freely debate a broad range of ideas and viewpoints, we could not produce outstanding research, teach our students to think critically, or instill the civic values needed for our democracy to flourish,” said USC interim president Beong-Soo Kim in response to the demands.

Last month, the Trump administration sent letters to nine universities proposing a so-called “compact” that offered preferential access to federal grants in exchange for sweeping changes to campus policy. The agreement demanded that universities curb what the administration described as the “punishment” of conservative viewpoints, limit the enrollment of foreign students, and adopt measures targeting transgender people. The compact called for a complete rejection of transgender students’ gender identities and imposed bans in bathrooms and campus sports. A copy of the administration’s demands regarding transgender students can be seen here:

Trump Compact // WAPO

Both universities faced immediate and forceful backlash from students and faculty. At an October 6 meeting at USC, more than 500 attendees signed up to voice opposition to the administration’s compact—and not a single speaker spoke in favor of it. “History will not judge USC kindly if it agrees to this compact. The government is clearly engaged in a war on education… Capitulation is the fastest route to ruin,” said Edward Saxon, professor of cinematic arts. “There can be no negotiation. They are playing by the fascist playbook,” added Amelia Jones, vice dean of faculty and research at the School of Art and Design.

At the University of Arizona, the administration’s proposed compact sparked widespread protest among students and faculty alike. Eighteen student organizations—including the Black Student Association, the Pride Alliance, and College Democrats—joined together in a demonstration condemning the proposal. At an October meeting, numerous professors denounced the compact as both discriminatory and politically motivated. “For those of you who are trans on this campus, we stand by you… What I’m worried about as we sit here and determine whether our university is going to sign this compact is that it’s already being leveraged by this administration,” said Dr. Carol Brochin of the College of Education. Senator Zeiders, representing the School of Family and Consumer Sciences (CALES), added that the compact “shifts focus from the quality of scholarship to compliance with political directives.” When the Faculty Senate finally took a vote on the compact, it failed overwhelmingly—40 to 8.

Five other universities have already rejected the compact, though not all have been consistent in standing up to the administration’s broader pressure campaign. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Virginia, and Dartmouth all rejected the proposal outright. Brown and the University of Pennsylvania also turned it down—but both had already accepted separate demands from the administration tied to federal funding, incorporating elements of its discriminatory agenda into their campus policies. Meanwhile, other prestigious institutions, including Harvard and Columbia, have capitulated entirely, enacting anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ measures after facing federal threats.

These two universities join a growing coalition of institutions choosing resistance over compliance. From public school districts in Northern Virginia to Chicago, Denver, and New York City, educators and local officials across the country are rejecting the Trump administration’s attempts to weaponize federal funding against transgender students. Just this week, a federal judge sided with 16 states challenging a similar policy targeting LGBTQ+ inclusive education, blocking the administration’s effort to withhold funds. While too many institutions—including some hospitals and universities—have capitulated to these demands, the decisions by USC and the University of Arizona stand out as moments of moral clarity. Their refusal will be remembered by the transgender community as proof that not everyone bowed to fear when it mattered most.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/two-more-collegesarizona-and-uscreject at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Federal Judge Rules In Favor Of Public Schools In 16 States That Refused To Comply With Trump's Trans Ban

ERIN REED | OCT 20, 2025, 6:16 PM EDT | SOURCE

The judge will block the Trump administration's attempt to restrict funding for sex education from schools that teach it in an inclusive way.

Wayne L. Morse United States Courthouse // Aboutmovies // Wikimedia Commons

Over the past several months, the Trump administration has sought to strip federal funding from schools that teach about gender identity or include transgender students in their policies. Many districts have refused to comply with the administration’s directives, issued under an executive order that labeled transgender people “false,” prompting the withholding of tens of millions of dollars in federal education funds. Now, in a major development, a federal judge in Oregon has informed all parties in a lawsuit brought by 16 states that she intends to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the restrictions—marking a significant victory for transgender students and a sharp rebuke to those who see capitulation as the only path forward.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken announced during a conference call between state attorneys and federal officials that she intends to issue a preliminary injunction blocking the policy, denouncing what she described as “a sort of separate-but-equal policy” on sex education. The coalition of 16 states argued that the Trump administration’s new directive violated the Administrative Procedure Act, was arbitrary and capricious, and infringed upon the Constitution’s separation of powers. While the specific grounds for Judge Aiken’s forthcoming injunction are not yet known as the order has not been released publicly as of yet, her decision represents a major setback for the administration—one that will, at least for now, halt some of its efforts to weaponize federal funding against schools that teach about gender identity or include transgender students in their curricula.

The ruling follows months of escalation after the Trump administration issued an executive order barring schools nationwide from engaging in what it called the “social transition” of transgender youth—a term encompassing everything from using a student’s chosen name and pronouns to allowing them to use the bathroom or play sports with their peers. When most schools ignored the order, which carries no force of law and mislabels basic affirming practices as “unlawful,” the administration retaliated by threatening to strip funding from schools that included gender identity in their comprehensive sex education programs. Federal letters soon followed, targeting districts from Virginia to Denver, Chicago, and New York City with the loss of tens of millions of dollars in federal grants for maintaining inclusive policies. The administration’s sweeping threats prompted a 16-state coalition to file suit, arguing that the administration’s campaign against transgender inclusion represents an unconstitutional abuse of executive power.

Among the states rejecting the federal government’s demands was California, which saw millions in sex education funding blocked over what the administration called “gender ideology content”—in reality, lessons that simply acknowledged the existence of transgender people. Maine faced similar threats after its curriculum glossary included a definition for “gender identity.” In Massachusetts, funding was targeted because its sex education materials noted that gender norms are culturally relative, stating that gender consists of “the ideas in a culture or society about the appropriate ways for men and women to dress, behave, think, and feel. Ideas about what gender behavior is appropriate change in different cultures and at different times in history.”

Many individual school districts have also defied the administration’s demands. In Virginia, five major districts rejected federal pressure to restrict transgender students’ bathroom access—prompting the administration to attempt to terminate their federal funding. In Denver, the public schools superintendent vowed that the district “will protect all of their students from this hostile administration,” refusing to comply. Chicago and New York followed suit, rejecting similar mandates despite threats to strip sex education and other federal funding. Even under the weight of those financial threats, these districts stood firm, signaling that the moral and legal cost of capitulation outweighed any fiscal consequence.

Meanwhile, many of the nation’s most prestigious institutions have taken the opposite path—choosing compliance over confrontation. This year, several universities including Brown, Columbia, Harvard, and Penn have accepted the Trump administration’s demands to discriminate against transgender students. More than 20 hospitals have ended gender-affirming care for trans youth, even in blue states with protective policies, out of fear of losing federal funding. Even Fenway Health, one of the country’s most well-known LGBTQ+ healthcare providers, recently announced it would comply with Trump’s transgender care ban rather than fight the administration.

Time and again, organizations and states that challenge the administration’s efforts to weaponize federal funding against transgender people—and against state law—have prevailed in court. This latest win delivers another major blow to the administration’s attempts to strong-arm states into adopting discriminatory policies. It comes amid a broader federal budget battle, with over a dozen anti-transgender provisions embedded in the FY2026 appropriations bills that could shape the outcomes of similar lawsuits in the months ahead. For now, though, the schools that refused to throw their transgender students under the bus have a powerful new legal victory on their side.

The states that were a part of this lawsuit include: the State of Colorado, the State of Connecticut, the State of Delaware, the State of Hawai‘i, the State of Illinois, the State of Maine, the State of Maryland, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the State of Michigan, the State of Minnesota, the State of New Jersey, the State of New York, the State of Oregon, the State of Rhode Island, the State of Washington, and the State of Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia.

You can find the legal complaint filed by the 16 states and D.C. here.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/federal-judge-rules-in-favor-of-public at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Anti-Trans Democrat Seth Moulton Booed At Boston No Kings Rally After Sen. Markey Wears Trans Flag

ERIN REED | OCT 19, 2025, 12:53 PM EDT | SOURCE

Representative Moulton is challenging Senator Markey for his senate seat in 2026.

WCBV Channel 5 Boston

On Saturday, No Kings protests and marches spread across the United States, drawing an estimated 7 million people. In Boston, at least 100,000 packed the rally to hear movement leaders and elected officials condemn what they called the Trump administration’s authoritarian grip on U.S. policy. Among the speakers were Representative Ayanna Pressley, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Mayor Michelle Wu. But the subtext belonged to Senator Ed Markey and Representative Seth Moulton, rivals for the same Senate seat in 2026. Markey—a noted ally—took the stage draped in a transgender flag and stressed the stakes for trans rights. Moulton, whose comments on transgender issues have drawn fire since Trump’s election, was greeted with boos and jeers from parts of the crowd.

As Representative Ayanna Pressley introduced her colleague, Seth Moulton, a wave of boos rippled through the crowd. The reaction likely stemmed in part from comments Moulton made earlier this year, when he accused Democrats of “spending way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face.” He then invoked transgender girls in sports as his example, referring to them as “boys” and saying, “I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”

See him get booed in this video segment of the Boston No Kings rally (timestamp linked here):

Moulton’s remarks came just after Senator Ed Markey took the stage draped in a transgender flag—a visual declaration of solidarity that set a stark contrast between the two rivals. Moulton declared himself a primary challenger to Markey only a few days ago. Markey, who has long aligned himself with progressive movements, used his time on stage to denounce Trump’s authoritarianism and to affirm his support for transgender people. “We’re going to get up, we’re going to stand for the right thing, and we are going to win. Because here in Massachusetts, we stand for what is right. We stand with trans people because trans rights are human rights,” he said to raucous applause—a clear difference from Moulton’s reception.

See Markey’s speech here:

Representative Moulton’s comments have continued to draw sharp backlash from across Massachusetts politics. In the days after his remarks, Governor Maura Healey rebuked him, saying, “I also think it’s important in this moment that we not pick on particularly vulnerable children… And you know that’s what I’ve been disappointed in seeing,” accusing Moulton of “playing politics” with trans kids’ lives. Protesters gathered outside his district office to denounce his statements, and frustration with Moulton has since lingered among LGBTQ+ Democratic activists—an undercurrent of discontent that continues to follow his campaign. That frustration appeared to have boiled over in the No Kings Rally when he took the stage.

The reaction to Moulton at the No Kings Rally is important to note. Many centrist organizations have been quietly—and sometimes not so quietly—encouraging Democrats to move right on transgender issues, arguing that transgender people cost Democrats the 2024 election. These organizations are well-funded, but Democrats have mostly held firm on transgender rights, with a few notable exceptions. The moment comes as the nation remains in a shutdown, and Republican spending bills under negotiation for FY26 contain dozens of anti-trans amendments that could devastate transgender people nationwide. In the weeks ahead, many Democrats will once again be told to abandon or moderate their stance on transgender rights in the name of political expediency.

Some Democrats, though, are not just refusing to abandon their transgender constituents—they’re leaning in. Recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reaffirmed her commitment to her trans constituents in a video message posted to Instagram. New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani released a two-minute campaign ad centered on transgender history and his promise to protect the community. And now, Senator Ed Markey has taken to the stage draped in a trans pride flag at one of his most visible events of the year. Despite relentless efforts to push the party rightward on transgender issues, a growing number of Democrats are doing the opposite: making a full-throated, affirmative defense of transgender rights central to their political identity.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/anti-trans-democrat-seth-moulton at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

The Lavender Ledger: Your Strategic LGBTQ+ Reader By Erin In The Morning

ERIN REED | OCT 18, 2025, 6:17 PM EDT | SOURCE

Our service for the week to cover the news we did not carry but do not want you to miss.

Inside EITM’s newsroom, we track dozens of breaking stories weekly—tips flood in from readers embedded in state houses, school boards, and organizations across the country. Our sources are everywhere. But here’s our strategic dilemma: while we’re chasing down original leads and working our exclusive angles, critical intelligence is moving through other channels that deserves your attention.

Consider this your weekend drop.

These are the stories that crossed our desk, passed our vetting, and matter to LGBTQ+ people—reported by trusted outlets while we were deep in our own investigations. Think of it as our intelligence-sharing agreement with you: the essential coverage from across the LGBTQ+ media landscape that we’ve been monitoring, verified, and deemed operationally significant.

This week’s important releases:

AOC assures trans kids they’re not to blame for anything: “You are fine just the way you are” by Molly Sprayregen

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has emerged as one of the most outspoken defenders of transgender rights in Congress this year. When Republicans introduced a national trans sports ban, she led nearly every Democrat in opposition and delivered one of the sharpest rebukes on the House floor—condemning the GOP’s push for invasive “genital exams” on student athletes. Now, in a new video message highlighted by LGBTQ+ Nation, she is seen directly addressing transgender Americans with words of solidarity and resolve. At a moment when even some Democrats have gone quiet or compromised on trans rights, Ocasio-Cortez has shown leadership on the issue within the party.

Judge finds anti-trans Republican Florida Congressman Cory Mills to be a danger to women, by Christopher Wiggins

So often, the loudest voices railing against transgender rights turn out to be projecting their own darkness. The same politicians who claim trans people are a “danger to children” or a “threat to women” are frequently the ones exposed as actual perpetrators of harm. The latest example: Florida Rep. Cory Mills—a fierce advocate of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation—has been hit with a court injunction after his former girlfriend sought protection from him. According to reporting from The Advocate, the court found that she “has reasonable cause to believe she is in imminent danger of becoming the victim of another act of dating violence.” Read about it at The Advocate.

UK warned its treatment of trans people could breach European Convention on Human Rights, by Chantelle Billson

The global situation for transgender people continues to worsen—and nowhere is that crisis more visible than in the United Kingdom. Many of the anti-trans policies now spreading across the world were first incubated there, exported as blueprints for restriction and repression. Following recent court rulings, the U.K. now faces the possibility of a national bathroom ban for transgender people, on top of catastrophic healthcare delays that have left some adults waiting the equivalent of multiple lifetimes—up to 200 years—for treatment. After years of politically motivated crackdowns on trans youth and adults alike, PinkNews reports that the country may be in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This article was downloaded from https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/the-lavender-ledger-your-strategic-b7c at Oct 31, 2025 at 7:21 PM EDT.

Table of Contents

Erin in the Morning: 2025 Oct 31

All articles

Top Democratic Officials Target Their Most Vulnerable Constituents In New Strategy Document

Anti-Trans Congresswoman Nancy Mace Now Pushing Anti-Gay Slogans From The 80s

Trump Admin Attempts To Ban Trans Youth Care Nationwide With New Federal Rules

Washington State University Credentials Anti-Trans Hate Group SEGM to Teach Medical Providers

Every Trans Suicide Is A Murder By Those In Power

AOC To Anti-Trans Swimmer Riley Gaines: "Maybe If You Channeled All This Anger Into Swimming Faster You Wouldn’t Have Come In Fifth."

USDA Website Blames SNAP Benefits Expiring On Trans People And Immigrants During Shutdown

The Lavender Ledger: Your Strategic LGBTQ+ Reader By Erin In The Morning

Study Finds Trans Women's Blood Proteins Resemble Cis Women's After 6 Months on HRT

After Fenway Cuts Trans Care, Protests Erupt—Again and Again and Again

A Line Must Be Drawn: The Cowardice Of Historic LGBTQ+ Provider Fenway Health

Two More Colleges—Arizona and USC—Reject Trump Trans Bathroom Ban Compact

Federal Judge Rules In Favor Of Public Schools In 16 States That Refused To Comply With Trump's Trans Ban

Anti-Trans Democrat Seth Moulton Booed At Boston No Kings Rally After Sen. Markey Wears Trans Flag

The Lavender Ledger: Your Strategic LGBTQ+ Reader By Erin In The Morning