Marissa Higgins

People on all sides of politics have varying opinions on boycotts—namely, whether or not they work and whether or not they’re worth someone’s time. Is an individual refusing to buy from a megacorporation really making a difference? What about people who have limited options due to location or budget? These are the questions that are hard to answer and reinforce the importance of accountability for corporations (and the wealthy people who run and profit from them).

During a school board meeting on May 25, 2021, an elementary school physical education teacher in Loudoun County, Virginia, opposed a policy that would require teachers to use student’s correct pronouns. Some outlets—and people—may refer to these as “preferred pronouns,” in that they differ from the sex one was assigned at birth. However, they really are just pronouns, and the correct ones, at that.

Lauren Hough’s deeply honest, moving, and original essay collection Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Part tackles a subject Hollywood loves—both living in and leaving a cult—from the perspective of someone who survived cult life during adolescence. Hough defies reader expectations, however, by focusing much more on what her life was like after the cult rather than during it.

Systemic and structural racism are, unfortunately, and disturbingly, long integrated into life in the United States. In recent years, mainstream media and elected officials have spoken openly about police violence against people of color—and specifically, Black Americans—as well as the intersection of race with a number of issues, like wage equality, job opportunities, and unhoused populations.

In light of the anti-trans bills state lawmakers are pushing across the country, a lot of queerphobia pales in comparison and isn’t worth the air time. There’s something to be said, too, for simply choosing not to amplify the harm and hate speech uttered by some on the right. One example: On Tuesday night, Newsmax host Grant Stinchfield launched into a queerphobic rant about the LGBTQ community and—get this—cereal, as reported by the New Civil Rights Movement.

As the pandemic continues, Republicans across the country are eager to keep distracting the public from the party’s failures over the past year and a half. As Daily Kos has covered, we know state-level Republicans have pushed anti-trans legislation that rests on hysteria and misinformation, ranging from banning trans girls from participating on girls’ sports teams to making it a felony for physicians to prescribe gender-affirming health care to transgender youth.

People who follow the news when it comes to transgender rights and equality have likely witnessed the absolute onslaught of anti-trans measures across the nation. At the state level, countless Republicans are pushing legislation that dehumanizes and discriminates against transgender folks, and especially, transgender girls.

As the nation continues to face the novel coronavirus pandemic, Republican lawmakers in Texas have established a truly baffling set of priorities. As Daily Kos continues to cover, for example, Texans are facing an onslaught of anti-trans bills at the state level, including girls’ sports and gender-affirming health care.

Here at Daily Kos, we have a strong and consistent focus on state and local elections. Midterm elections are huge, but as we know, don’t tend to get the same attention from national media outlets (or voters) as the presidential election does. Why does this matter now? As reported by the Associated Press, Democratic officials at both the state and national level have reached a fundraising agreement in order to get more aid to state parties.

On Thursday, the Biden administration released an ambitious and sweeping report, “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful,” breaking down its hopes to conserve 30% of land and water in the United States by 2030, as reported by Reuters. The Department of the Interior, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the Department of Agriculture and Commerce all contributed to the report.

A Tennessee CEO has been fired after videos of him appearing to ridicule a teenage boy in a prom dress went viral. The man, identified as VisuWell CEO Sam Johnson, denies the allegations and claims the boyfriend of the teen in the dress edited the video of their interactions. So, what allegedly happened? Dalton Stevens and his boyfriend Jacob Geittmann were at the Harpeth Hotel in Franklin, Tennessee, to take photos before Stevens’ high school prom.

In addition to facing the novel coronavirus, changes in school, work, and even housing stability for folks across the nation, Republicans are pushing anti-trans legislation from every angle. As Daily Kos continues to cover, transgender youth appear to be an easy mark for the GOP, and attacks tend to hit in a few key areas. One, trying to bar transgender girls and women from girls’ sports teams. (For contrast, by the way, trans women are literally allowed to compete in the Olympics.

While hosting a large party or having a destination wedding are obviously not smart choices during an ongoing global pandemic, couples are continuing to get married for a number of reasons. People are also making future wedding plans. One such duo is McCae Henderson and Ike Edwards, a same-sex couple living in Raleigh, North Carolina, who have a wedding planned for April 2022.

Just a few months into 2021, we’ve already seen Republicans push dozens of anti-trans bills across the nation. Some bills, as Daily Kos has covered, center on keeping trans girls out of girls’ sports, even beginning as early as kindergarten. Other bills aim to prevent transgender and nonbinary folks from updating their birth certificates. And, in yet another area, some legislation seeks to bar transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming medical care.

This year’s Trans Day of Visibility is on Wednesday, March 31, 2021. What is it? An annual day to celebrate and center transgender folks and their countless contributions to society. This day is separate from the Trans Day of Remembrance, which commemorates lives lost. Some ways to honor and celebrate Trans Day of Visibility in any given year? Take time to brush up on allyship, pronouns, and donate to trans-focused groups and mutual aid funds if you’re able.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Dr. Rachel Levine, an openly transgender pediatrician, as assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services. Levine, who previously served as Pennslyvania’s secretary of health, is the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate, as reported by NPR. In other words, Levine quite literally made history.

In the slew of anti-trans legislation springing up around the country, most measures focus on one of two areas. There are a number of anti-trans sports bills that aim to keep transgender girls out of girls’ sports. There are also a number of bills aiming to make it a felony for physicians to prescribe gender-affirming care, like hormones, to transgender and nonbinary youth. One example of this is slowly but surely moving forward in Alabama.

Though Republicans have progressively taken on the anti-trans rallying cry by way of defending the integrity of [cisgender] girls’ and womens’ sports, more than 500 college athletes are making it clear that transphobic GOP lawmakers don’t speak on their behalf.

Though Republicans have progressively taken on the anti-trans rallying cry by way of defending the integrity of [cisgender] girls’ and womens’ sports, more than 500 college athletes are making it clear that transphobic GOP lawmakers don’t speak on their behalf.

Between the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the recent storms and subsequent power and heat outages in Texas, and the seemingly endless hate spewing out of members of the GOP, it can be hard to keep track of stories that don’t always get the national media attention they deserve. One such case is a water crisis happening in Jackson, Mississippi. As reported by The Daily Beast at the end of February, thousands of people living in Jackson had been without water for almost two weeks.

If the growing number of anti-trans bills aimed at excluding transgender girls and women from sports are beginning to blur together, that makes a lot of sense. Why? Because—especially in the last few months, much less the last few years—there are a stunning number of them coming from all around the country.

The Arizona State House held a Government and Elections Committee meeting last Wednesday, during which they reviewed H.B.2725. The bill would prevent all government entities in the state from officially recognizing non-binary folks, making “male” or “female” the only options on government forms and IDs, like driver’s licenses.

The nation is still facing the novel coronavirus, Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is underway, and more than 400,00 Americans have died already due to COVID-19. In all of this, a slew of states have found time to push anti-trans legislation. Now, Alabama’s state legislator is considering a fiercely transphobic bill, HB 1 and SB 1, that would make it a felony for physicians to provide transgender youth with gender-affirming medical care.

As mainstream media digs into the deeply concerning QAnon conspiracy theory—including coverage of the reality that we now have a QAnon congresswoman—we’re also seeing more people who formerly identified with the movement come forward. In an interview with CNN, Melissa Rein Lively described how she fell into the conspiracy tunnel, and why she wants to help people experiencing the same thing now.

If you hear the keywords “GOP,” “Republican,” “transgender,’” and “sports,” you might be thinking: Which state can possibly be pushing more anti-trans legislation while we’re in a global pandemic? After all, as Daily Kos has covered, Tennessee, Idaho, and South Dakota have all recently pushed these efforts. The latest state? Utah. 

First, the basics of the legislation. H.B.

Does anyone bring joy to the general public like national treasure Dolly Parton? At the age of 75, Parton has a long history of using her massive music platform for good, and recently, donated $1 million toward developing the Moderna vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

If you’ve heard of Republican lawmaker Rep. Fred Deutsch, a legislator who represents South Dakota’s Florence district, it’s likely because of his considerable history of pushing anti-trans legislations. As Daily Kos has covered in the past, Deutsch has pushed a bill that would have punished physicians for providing gender-affirming treatments to transgender and nonbinary youth.

If you followed along with Dr. Deborah Birx, former White House coronavirus task force coordinator, you might have experienced some frustration at what the White House was (or more accurately, wasn’t) doing in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Less than one week after a group of pro-Trump insurgents rioted and stormed the U.S. Capitol, former U.S. secretary of state and 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton published a smart, somber analysis in The Washington Post. Surprising few, Clinton calls for Donald Trump to be impeached. She discusses the grief, horror, and trauma that comes with an insurgency at the Capitol.