Blog
How Trump self-scored 36 points on LGBTQ rights — and why it’s a failing grade
The administration has done nothing whatsoever to support LGBTQ rights. The Trump administration has done nothing whatsoever in favor of LGBTQ rights. Don’t repeat its lie to the contrary. It causes pain and stress.
Republicans say: Make it hard to divorce again
The Party of Trump wants to stop your divorce. Independence? For whom? The Republican Party wants to end no-fault divorce. They want everyone to be married with children. This threatens everyone’s right to exit a bad marriage.
Transphobia is a bellybutton mirror
On the Tucker ’n’ Carlos Show, insights from Naomi Klein’s ‘Doppelganger’. We have to stop copying historical patterns of hate and cruelty. I try to reflect the world in ways that are good and true, not through a pipik-mirror.
10 problems with the ‘sex assigned at birth’ essay
They’re in what’s said — and not said. This isn’t a cost-benefit calculation. If we really looked at the term ‘sex assigned at birth,’ we might find that the benefits outweigh the costs.
When trans people are cut out of sports in Nassau County, New York
Republican organizes militia. Democratic Party chair retorts: ‘Does he think we’re going to be invaded by Suffolk County?’ Your neighbors are ‘trained’ to serve someone who marks everyone’s sex as a site of surveillance and regulation. This violence affects everyone.
Oh, it’s about sports, is it?
Nope, it’s not. It’s about constraining transgender lives. I don’t judge sports. I don’t pretend to. But I can detect when someone alleges injury and proposes a false remedy to delegitimize a group of people.
Three books that tell us to smash our categories
Recommended nonfiction by Miller, Fox, and Waters. Nonfiction recommendations: A 2020 book about David Starr Jordan, a 2023 book about William Beebe, and a 2024 book about Avery Brundage.
The indispensable history of ‘sex testing’ in sports
Waters keeps the book focused on the 1930s, with the history told in such a way that it’s crystal clear how it’s relevant today. The moral panic over trans people in sports continues not to be about sports.
As Berlin held the 1936 Olympics, these athletes changed their sex
Assigned female at birth, some went on to live as men. Eugenicists, sexists, racists, and fascists held power. Possibilities were disrupted when the Nazis rose. And the 1936 Olympics belonged to Hitler.