Leslie Feinberg, Trailblazing LGBTQ Activist, Changed the Way We Talk About Trans Identity

Recent attacks on transgender and non-binary individuals often frame the struggle for expansive gender representation and rights as a new, emerging phenomenon and evidence of societal degeneration. But gender fluidity is not new, and framing it as a disorder isn’t either.

Though historians have tracked the existence of gender fluidity dating back at least to 5000 B.C.E., by the 1880s, psychologists had begun documenting transgender experiences through a medical lens — but these studies did not center transgender voices. The trend continued in 1910 when German sexologist Magnus Hirshfeld coined the term “transvestite.” While these studies of trans people didn’t inherently condemn trans identity, in classifying gender variance as a medical condition, they laid the groundwork for trans identity to be considered a mental disorder. And in 1980, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) did just that by including “transexualism” as a disorder in its third edition.

Teen Vogue

‘It healed me’: the Indigenous forager reconnecting Native Americans with their roots

As a forager and celebrated food educator, Cassadore, 56, has spent the past 30 years documenting and teaching her fellow Western Apache people about the importance of wild foods in a region that’s considered one of the most biodiverse in the US – yet where diet and substance abuse are leading causes of death. Working closely with the tribe’s wellness center, the local high school and recovery groups, she often takes people out into the land to forage, cook and heal.

The Guardian

Cheat Sheet: 5 Things You Must Know About Juneteenth

June 19th is the day we honor the freedom of those who were enslaved in the Confederacy.

The Root

Nebraska sued over trans health care ban because it violates state ban on multi-issue bills

Surprisingly, the lawsuit focuses less on the ban and more on how the legislature passed it into law.

LGBTQ Nation

One year on the new front line of America’s abortion fight

A year ago, there were no clinics in this former coal-country railroad junction turned college town.

In Illinois, anchored by liberal Chicago far to the north, abortion rights were legally protected. But they weren’t as much of a local concern.

Abortion clinics operated in towns just across from St. Louis. But elective abortions had not been provided in Carbondale since 1985, when opponents had persuaded the local hospital to halt them.

The Supreme Court’s dismantling of Roe v. Wade changed all that.

USA Today

The Democratic Party Can Work With Influencers In a Way That Actually Relates to Young People

This op-ed argues that the Democratic Party needs to get better at reaching young people through influencer marketing.

Teen Vogue

Trump appointed judge works to keep drag shows lawful in Tennessee

On Friday night, a two-day trial pertaining to an anti-drag law in Tennessee ended in a big win for the LGBTQ+ community.

In a surprising move that goes against what one would expect from a Trump appointed judge, U.S. District Court’s Thomas L. Parker ruled the Adult Entertainment Act (AEA) unconstitutional. In his ruling, Parker writes that, “There is no question that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. But there is a difference between material that is ‘obscene’ in the vernacular, and material that is ‘obscene’ under the law . . . Simply put, no majority of the Supreme Court has held that sexually explicit — but not obscene — speech receives less protection than political, artistic, or scientific speech.”

“Whether some of us may like it or not, the Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment as protecting speech that is indecent but not obscene,” the judge furthers, explaining that laws of this nature allow opportunity for problematic enforcement.

“The chance that an officer could abuse that wide discretion is troubling given an art form like drag that some would say purposefully challenges the limits of society’s accepted norms,” Parker writes. “The Court emphasizes that the fear of prosecution from law enforcement officers is not merely speculative but certainly impending.”

Salon

Texas Is Latest and Largest State to Ban Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth

Texas has become the latest state and the most populous to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill to this effect into law Friday. Senate Bill 14 bans surgery, hormone treatment, and puberty blockers for the purpose of gender transition for people under 18, while allowing those procedures for treatment of congenital anomalies, early-onset puberty, and other conditions. Genital surgery is almost never performed on minors. The law goes into force September 1.

It includes an exception for young people who began treatment before June 1 but says doctors must wean them off any prescription drugs they’re taking for transition. There is also an exception for those who have had at least 12 sessions of counseling over six months. “But it was not clear whether doctors would feel comfortable continuing to offer that care,” The New York Times notes.

Violation would be punished by revocation of a medical license, and the Texas attorney general could bring a court action to “restrain or enjoin” health care providers “from committing, continuing to commit, or repeating the violation,” the legislation states.

Advocate

The Anti-LGBTQ Hysteria Is Showing America’s True Identity

The rise of anti-LGBTQ laws mirrors the Jim Crow era — and it’s a disturbing regression.

Huffpost

Transgender adults in Florida `blindsided’ that new law also limits their access to health care

Debate surrounding Florida’s new restrictions on gender-affirming care focused largely on transgender children. But a new law that Republican presidential candidate and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last month also made it difficult – even impossible – for many transgender adults to get treatment.

AP News

Arizona governor slams the brakes on Phoenix development because it doesn’t have enough water

Developers who’ve been chasing the rapid population growth in Arizona during the Covid-19 pandemic just got a wrench thrown into their plans.

Last week, the state’s new governor unveiled a plan to limit construction in areas around Phoenix after finding that the groundwater can’t support the current pace of building, according to the Los Angeles Times. The move by Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, came alongside state projections that showed 4% of the demand for groundwater in the region over a period of 100 years can’t be met under the current rules.

Business Insider

Biden’s brand and the cost of compromise: Debt-ceiling deal signals 2024’s battle

With an address to the nation Friday night and the signing of the debt-ceiling deal Saturday, the president previewed the message and touted the record he will take to voters in 2024 as he seeks a second term.

It came at a moment that is displaying both his considerable strengths and his potential vulnerabilities in trying to forge the coalition and generate the enthusiasm that put him in the White House the first time. He rallied centrists with the deal, for instance, but discouraged some of the liberal and Black voters he’ll need again.

USA Today

Paramore’s Hayley Williams Tells Fans They’re ‘Dead to Her’ If They Vote for Ron DeSantis

A lot of celebrities shy away from discussing politics. Hayley Williams isn’t one of them. At a recent show in New Jersey, the Paramore frontwoman condemned Republican Florida Governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, telling the audience that voting for DeSantis is about the worst thing imaginable in her book.

“I’ll be happy to tell you I’m very f***ing comfortable talking politics,” Williams said in a fan-recorded video that, according to Loudwire, quickly took off online. “And if you vote for Ron DeSantis, you’re f***ing dead to me.”

“So, is that comfortable enough for anyone?” she added.

Teen Vogue

How California, land of Nixon and Reagan, turned blue and changed American politics

In 1992, Arkansas’ five-term governor became the first Democratic presidential candidate in nearly three decades to carry California, the political birthplace of Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Few, if any, considered Clinton’s victory in California the start of a political realignment; he won just 46% of the vote.

Los Angeles Times

These decisions weren’t popular. Jimmy Carter made them anyway

A significant part of Jimmy Carter’s legacy hasn’t gotten much attention, even amid the recent outpouring of tributes to the 39th US president after he entered hospice care.

These steps Carter took during his presidency are still shaping the United States, decades after he left office. But they didn’t help him at the polls.

Because of Carter’s actions, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing persecution had a chance to come to the United States when he was commander-in-chief. And millions more resettled in the US after he left office.

“He was well aware of the political cost,” says Carter biographer Kai Bird, author of “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.” When it came to taking on tough issues, Bird says, Carter didn’t shy away from doing what he thought was right.

And that’s where Carter found himself in the summer of 1979, making a decision that went against what polls said that most Americans wanted.

CNN

‘Nothing to brag about’: Progressives vent fury over Biden’s ‘big win’

But what Biden called a “big win for our economy and the American people,” progressives—who argue the entire debt ceiling law is unconstitutional because it violates the 14th amendment and warned since last year that Republicans would orchestrate a crisis to protect wealthy tax dodgers and corporations while imposing fresh cuts on key social programs—should be seen for what it is: a kick in the face to the planet, democracy, and the material needs of poor and working-class Americans.

Raw Story

‘I felt euphoric;’ 50 years ago, these Vietnam War POWs flew to freedom through an Air Force base in Chicopee

Fifty years later, veterans like Brown are recognizing the anniversary of the release and return of hundreds of American POWs held across Vietnam — some of whom reunited with their families after landing at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee.

American Military News

As #EndOTWRacism Fights for AO3 Policy Changes, Fandom Racism Bubbles to the Surface

“Diversity consultants are not only wastes of money they are people you pay to create race problems where there weren’t any,” writes a commenter on the fanfiction website Archive of Our Own (AO3).  “Anyone even suggesting they be hired should be driven out of the public square and publicly tarred and feathered.”

The comment was left in response to a Black fan talking about how imperative the need for a diversity consultant is for AO3 and its parent nonprofit, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), on an article announcing the sudden departure of the organization’s director, Heather McGuire. It is one of several violently negative responses to #EndOTWRacism, a grassroots movement within queer and feminist fandom to hold AO3 and the OTW accountable for the promise they made, in 2020, to address the documented instances of racist content and behavior in and on its websites, as well as AO3’s lacking offensive content policy. (The archive’s “maximum inclusiveness” policy says anything goes as long as it’s legal, and the gist of the offensive content policy is that nothing is too offensive to remove.) The OTW declined to comment for this story.

Teen Vogue

A ‘Roast and Ride’ diary: Debate jitters, freebies and high demand for DeSantis

Mike Pence rode a motorcycle. Longshot candidates scrambled to find new donors to make it on stage for the first Republican presidential debate. And Ron DeSantis briefly — only briefly — lost his daughter in the crowd.

In the first major cattle call of 2024, every declared Republican presidential candidate except for Donald Trump gathered at the Iowa Fairgrounds on Saturday for Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual “Roast and Ride.”

Politico

Israeli soldiers killed in Egypt border shooting: army

Three Israeli soldiers and a member of Egypt’s security forces have died in a fairly rare exchange of fire near the two countries’ border, their militaries said. The countries said they were investigating together.

Deutsche Welle

Nearly 300 killed in one of India’s deadliest train accidents

At least 288 people have been killed and more than 850 others injured in a train accident involving three trains in India’s eastern state of Odisha, according to officials.

The death toll is expected to rise as more people are feared trapped inside the mangled train cars. Rescuers were cutting through iron compartments, and using sniffer dogs, in the search of survivors and bodies. On Saturday morning, the Indian army joined National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), police, and other rescue teams to find survivors.

CBS News

Senegal shuts social media as protesters die after Sonko sentencing

Social media and messaging platforms have been blocked in Senegal after unrest erupted over the sentencing of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.

BBC

Turkey warplanes bomb PKK positions in Iraqi Kurdistan: sources

Turkish fighter jets have bombed positions belonging to Kurdish militants in Iraq, security sources said on Saturday.

New Arab

Erdoğan promises a stronger, more inclusive Turkey at inauguration

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged to strengthen Turkey’s diplomatic hand around the world, while at home, he promised a new, inclusive constitution and improvements to the economy, during his inauguration speech on Saturday.

DPA

A tiny Mexican town celebrated Pride for the first time. Something amazing happened

“Being queer is a special membership we embrace.”

LGBTQ Nation

Mexican police find 45 bags of human remains

Mexican authorities have found 45 bags containing human remains in a ravine outside the western city of Guadalajara.

BBC