Earlier this year, @msjpauly.bsky.social and I spent tens of hours speaking to trans kids and their families about their lives under Trump 2.0. Now is not a bad time to re-read it. Coverage of the latest news coming from colleagues at Mother Jones later today.

I’ve spent a lot of the last three years investigating the rise of anti-trans politics. Often, it came back to the controversy over trans women athletes. So I teamed up with @pablo.show to look into the leading figure on the issue: Riley Gaines. www.motherjones.com/politics/202... 1/

Cw: suicide This article is devastating. Earlier this month, a 15-year-old died by suicide the day after posting about a substitute teacher insisting on misgendering him. Suicide can have many contributing factors. His family is speaking out about bullying and misgendering as two.

We finally know the identities of the 9 anonymous authors of the May HHS report on pediatric gender-affirming care. Surprise! It's stacked with people who make money advocating against pediatric gender-affirming care. Here's our writeup from May: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"The right’s gripe isn’t just that trans people exist, but that their existence is tearing down the old world—of good men, obedient women, traditional family structures—and unleashing a new, godless age of chaos and precarity on you." @schuylermitchell.bsky.social www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Powerful from @katelynburns.com on the death of Lia Smith. I'll never forget watching an anti-trans mvmt leader try to reassure her allies that trans youth "are not suicidal because of us." Now, they either deny trans people's suffering or call it a kind of abuse. www.teenvogue.com/story/politi...

Today, with more than a dozen global media partners, we’re exposing a surveillance firm whose untraceable phone-tracking tech has been used to target politicians, journalists, and executives. Our investigation rewrites what Americans know about the shadowy surveillance industry. ow.ly/2LUF50Xb7KE

A year and a half ago, @hencarnell.bsky.social and I investigated the movement to resurrect conversion therapy Now, oral arguments are about to begin in a Supreme Court case, Chiles v. Salazar, that could overturn bans in 23 states. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Can't get over this NIH employee reacting to possible Hatch Act violations in the administration's shutdown spin: "I liked the fact that I still had the capacity for disappointment.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202... Congrats to @jollyette.bsky.social on her first @motherjones.com byline!!

“As far as I am concerned,” Guyatt recounted telling people affiliated with SEGM in a recent conversation, “you are not evidence-based.” It was a burn that only the guy who coined the term “evidence-based medicine” could give.

I've had a Google Alert set on Missouri AG Andrew Bailey for a couple years. His aggressive (and at times extralegal) attacks on abortion, local Democrats, trans people often get slapped down in court. But winning wasn't the point. The point was building a rep. Now he's headed to help run the FBI.

Over & over & over The response to the sexual assault becomes the survivor’s “new nightmare.” Cops. Courts. Companies. Schools. It’s always the same story. Read Sam’s latest. I wish there wasn’t cause to publish stories like this year after year after year.

The new "wrongful death" abortion pill lawsuit out of Texas is a BFD for several reasons, but one twist is that the doctor being targeted is the brother of lifelong reproductive health advocate Francine Coeytaux of @plancpills.bsky.social Collab by Nina Martin & me on what the case is all about:

One of the speakers at this was Michelle Cretella. Don't know who she is? Boy, do I have some reading for you. She is part of a fringe, conservative doctors group that calls itself the American College of Pediatricians.

One sigh of relief today: The Supreme Court could have made a bunch of forms of preventive care $$$$ and didn't. This is a short-term win that comes with long-term consequences: RFK Jr. gets more power over what types of preventive care are fully covered. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Super-quick take while reading the ruling: This is going to be a much bigger deal for challenges to *other* Trump policies than to birthright citizenship (where it's likely that lower courts will still be able to block the policy on a nationwide basis even after this ruling). *That's* the import.

And bad for individuals trying to enforce their rights in court :(

This is a bad ruling for people who rely Planned Parenthood and any other providers of politically controversial health care. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

These state laws banning gender-affirming care for youth are a product of religious-right and anti-LGBTQ activist organizing, starting in the years after Obergefell. We know this, because we have the receipts. Here's my 2023 investigation. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

This is key. SCOTUS also used this tortured, acrobatic reasoning in the Dobbs decision, relying on Geduldig.

Roberts' opinion in Skrmetti splits hairs to say that banning treatment for gender dysphoria isn't discrimination based on transgender status. Same as how the court held in the 70s that excluding pregnancy-related disabilities from insurance coverage isn't sex discrimination.

The Supreme Court just green-lit bans on gender-affirming care for minors. “We will find ways to keep fighting,” Chase Strangio vowed. “We’ll fight in state court. We’ll lobby Congress. We’ll lobby our state legislatures, and we’ll organize in the streets." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I mean, Oakland only has 400 thousand people!

I am here in beautiful downtown Oakland California for the gigantic #nokings march through downtown. Grabbing a spot with signal to share pics and conversations with folks I’ve met.

We'll soon be sitting down with @motherjones.com & @revealnews.org management to discuss the CIR Union's demands for ethical, labor, and editorial safeguards around AI. A strong agreement is vital to protect the rights of workers and the reputation of our news organization. Here’s why: 🧵👇

"If people could hear these stories, they would have such a different attitude about third-trimester abortion." @doctorshelleysella.bsky.social spent 20 years providing care to patients seeking abortion late in pregnancy. Our conversation about her new memoir: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

This is my most personal interview to date. I hope folks will take a moment to read it and sit with the questions it raises. And a huge thank you to @msjpauly.bsky.social for the thoughtful conversation 🧡

OB-GYNs are at the nexus of many of our most intense political battles right now: abortion rights, trans healthcare, and DEI—which includes the fight against racial health disparities. Here's my dispatch from behind the front lines, at this year's ACOG conference: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I've got a new piece out on the astounding abuse of power from Missouri's AG and GOP lawmakers right now, all to try to undo the abortion rights constitutional amendment voters approved months ago—and also, how this should be a reality check on the tactic of "putting abortion on the ballot":

I spent five weeks talking to federal workers about knowledge loss and brain drain across the federal government, and its implications, both right now and for decades to come. Their stories are frightening, but I think it's important to know what we're facing: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The medical evidence review, published by the Department of Be Careful What You Wish For.... www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"This case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped," the judge wrote. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I'm going to the ACOG annual meeting this weekend! If you're a clinician or researcher and you want to talk about what it's like to be working in the current political climate, please reach out! #ACOG2025

Hello! For Disability Pride Month in July, I'll be doing four as-told-to stories for @motherjones.com on what brings people disabled joy. If you're interested in being interviewed, please fill out this form below. Reposts appreciated. forms.gle/JFqY8otRVB2k...

HHS says its new report on gender-affirming care proves that science doesn't support the care & that its risks are too great. But the report doesn't really support that blanket statement. It found “sparse” to no evidence of harm and evidence about the benefits of gender-affirming care.

The new HHS report on trans youth care "will be cited every time the government seeks to investigate, prosecute, defund healthcare providers...It will probably be used in efforts to criminalize parents as well," predicts Kellan Baker @whitmanwalker.bsky.social www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

New in-depth reporting from @nlanard.bsky.social and @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social, who have been working around the clock to speak to to 6 of the 60 Venezuelan men in the Bluebonnet detention center in Texas who were almost sent to (it appears) El Salvador www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

NEW: The DOJ sent me Pam Bondi’s memo saying the dept will investigate doctors who provide trans care to minors. One law professor noted that it doesn’t change existing law, but that Bondi is making clear where the DOJ will spend resources. For @nbcnews.com: www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-...

The federal government plans to eliminate services for LGBTQ youth who call 988, the national suicide and crisis hotline, according to a Health and Human Services budget draft leaked last week.

Please, pull up a chair and let me tell you the batshit backstory of the guy bringing today's Supreme Court challenge to Obamacare: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

New data released this week reaffirmed a seemingly paradoxical reality of the post-Roe v. Wade era: Abortion rates have continued to rise despite the increasing restrictions nationwide. Why? We asked the people who wrote a book on it.

This is a big deal

The vitriol of those in power at the state and federal level has been destabilizing.” As the full weight of the federal government comes after trans people, families are scrambling to protect their kids from the onslaught. These are their stories, in their own voices ⬇️

cw: suicide @hencarnell.bsky.social and I spent the last 3 months speaking to families with trans kids. I'd ask you click to through & listen to Renee tell the story of her daughter's coming out. It's so important to know that parents like this are out there. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

My investigation into anti-trans conversion therapy with @hencarnell.bsky.social was part of Mother Jones' General Excellence submission—and we won! Honored to be a part of this team. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

NEW @motherjones.com: HHS gut nearly all of the Division of Reproductive Health this week—which could've helped enact Trump's promises to expand IVF & support healthy pregnancies Spoke to 7 former staffers to report the most complete story thus far on their work: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

The real question at the Supreme Court yesterday was, "Who can stop him?" Took a sec to write this up, on the oral arguments in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic yesterday. It's a complicated case. But there's so much at stake.

NEWS: A federal judge barred the Trump administration from enforcing a ban on transgender peopel serving in the military, saying it was "soaked in animus," unconstitutional and justified by mischaracterizing data. www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

Twenty-three states ban licensed therapists from trying to change minors' sexual orientation or gender identity. Now, the Supreme Court is set to decide whether such laws violate the First Amendment. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

ACLU & Lambda Legal just asked a court to order CMS to rescind this memo, along with others at SAMHSA & HSRA. The memos were issued over the last two days despite a federal court telling Trump on March 4 he can't withhold federal funding from hospitals that provide trans youth healthcare.