The biggest news of this week — something I will not really be discussing here because I’m not sure why anyone is debating what can happen when someone lives their life in service of encouraging violence and hatred against other people — spurred some hateful rhetoric regarding trans lives. We know this kind of rhetoric sometimes leads to further violence against our communities, and it makes sense to be concerned about how these kinds of claims might impact our daily lives. I’m grateful for the work of journalists and media analysts who swiftly stepped in to show the actual facts of the situation and shut the unverified claims down. Beyond that, the past week brought on a lot more resistance from trans people and their allies, especially in the courts, but it also brought with it some potential new dangers for us that we’ll be tracking.

A Win Against Trump’s Anti-Trans Passport Policy

Following an earlier injunction against the Trump administration’s decision to cut trans people off from receiving passports with their correct gender markers, the administration filed a lawsuit arguing they have the right to ban trans people from changing their documents. The administration brought an appeal against the injunction to the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston last week.

As we’ve seen in many courts around the country, judges have been showing up for trans rights, and this situation was no different. The judge who presided over the administration’s appeal against the injunction has once again deemed the administration’s passport ban “unconstitutional” and reflected “animus toward transgender Americans.” In the decision, George L. Russell III, the district’s chief judge, wrote, “Like every other court that has considered this Executive Order, the Court finds its stated purpose does not serve an important governmental interest that is exceedingly persuasive. Further, the discriminatory means employed are not substantially related to the achievement of those objectives.” This marks the second time an injunction has been placed against the administration’s order against proper access to legal documents for trans people.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson responded to the second injunction by saying, “We believe that the President Trump’s Executive Order 14168, titled ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,’ is factually and legally sound, and that the district court erroneously relied on an untenable equal protection theory that is inconsistent with controlling Supreme Court authorities. Notably, this is a very narrow opinion, applying by its terms only to a few individual plaintiffs. We will be discussing all our options with the Department of Justice.” It seems as if they’re learning slowly that there are just some areas of the law where they can’t do whatever they want and get away with it.

The next steps regarding the ban are still up in the air so this fight isn’t over yet, but this represents a larger pro-trans rights trend happening in District Courts across the U.S. And no matter what happens, we should stay vigilant and wait to see if this will make it to the Supreme Court.

Some Good Trans News For Once

Their play was cancelled by the University—these college students are putting it on anyway. After a production of the play Boy My Greatness by Zoe Senese-Grossberg was canceled at the University of Oklahoma due to its “defiance” of Oklahoma’s state law banning anything that promotes equity, diversity, and inclusion, a group of students have launched a GoFundMe to promote and put on the play on their own without the university’s help.

Judge blocks Trump administration’s subpoena of trans kids’ medical records from Boston hospital. Some more good news out of Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the only state-funded gender-affirming care clinics in the country that is refusing to bow to Trump’s orders that they must stop providing care to trans youth. When will the administration learn they shouldn’t mess with Massachusetts? At this point, they’re just asking for losses.

Pope Leo XIV to follow doctrine of “openness and welcome” for LGBTQ+ community. The Catholic Church sucks and we all know it, but I do think it’s important that religious leaders stand against the virulent hatred and backlash we’re experiencing right now. If for nothing else, it makes the members of those churches rethink their own stances for a minute, even if they don’t adopt the stances of their leaders.

‘Blatantly unconstitutional’: Second Amendment groups slam floated gun ban for transgender Americans. As a trans person who made it my business to learn how to use a gun over the last year, the fact that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is sticking up for our rights to use them has been making me laugh on and off for the last week. What’s that thing they say about broken clocks again?

Rally planned as Tacoma’s children hospital limits trans gender-affirming care and Trans advocates rally against U of M Health’s decision to end gender-affirming care for minors. People in Washington held a “Rally to Defend Trans Kids” in response to Tacoma’s MultiCare Mary Bridge Children Hospital’s decision to stop providing gender-affirming care for trans youth. Meanwhile, people in Michigan are standing up against the University of Michigan’s Michigan Medicine’s decision to do the same thing. More of this! More of this!

Stand with Trans hotline offers help, virtual hugs for transgender kids, their families. Another win for Michigan: A group in Detroit has launched their own trans support hotline for trans youth and their advocates in the wake of the Trump administration destroying the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program.

Manhattan school board rescinds trans youth sports measure. Schools in New York City are now being advised and gently pushed to make gender-inclusion a top priority in their youth sports programs as a result of pushback from parents. You read that right: parents.

Supreme Court lets transgender student in South Carolina continue using boys’ bathroom at school for now. Not fully good news but not bad news, either, considering more and more bathroom bans are being brought to the floors of state legislatures everywhere. As a person from Florida, it’s always great to see Southern states push back against anti-trans legislation.

State to pay $85,000 to LGBTQ+ students forced to leave Iowa Capitol in 2020. Following their expulsion from the Iowa State Capitol after protesting a bathroom bill, a group of students sued the state in 2022. Their lawsuit has finally come to a conclusion with the state having to pay financial restitution to all 150 of them.

International Trans News:

Trans people must be allowed ID reflecting lived gender, EU court adviser says. Huge news for anyone living in Europe with a European Union passport: No matter where they live or what their country says about trans rights, those countries are legally obligated as an EU member state to issue passports that reflect the correct gender markers to their trans citizens.

Cuba’s trans people see legal progress with new gender ID law. I reported on Cuba’s new pro-trans legislation in a previous Trans New Tracker, but I think this profile about how laws that support correct legal identification for trans people can and do improve our lives and expand our ability to move freely through the various bureaucracies we’re all forced to contend with is important for everyone to read.

Trans News I Wish I Didn’t Have to Report

House HHS Appropriations Bill Would Devastate Trans Adult Healthcare Nationwide. A new Health and Human Services appropriations bill making its way to the House is attempting to gut healthcare for trans people in a similar way the earliest version of the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill Act” was originally intended to. The bill takes aim at trans healthcare funding made through Medicaid and Medicare and states, “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for any social, psychological, behavioral, or medical intervention performed for the purposes of intentionally changing the body of an individual (including by disrupting the body’s development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to the individual’s biological sex.” While the Senate version of this bill doesn’t include this language, it’s still important to track how the House bill moves through the legislature.

Alabama libraries could stop children from seeing books that ‘positively depict’ transgender people. This one is especially shocking because it’s not coming from the state — it’s coming from the Alabama Public Library Service.

Video of clash over gender-identity content in Texas A&M children’s lit class leads to firing, removals. By now, you’ve probably seen the viral video of that one loser student calling out their professor over the supposed inclusion of “gender ideology” in class. Sadly, this is the inevitable outcome of the video’s creation and its virality, despite the fact that the professor and the department’s members were simply doing their jobs and doing the right thing. I don’t know what else to say…I’m sick of this shit.

Malcolm Gladwell says he’s ‘ashamed’ of being ‘cowed’ into supporting trans athletes in women’s sports. Gladwell has been on my “Enemies List” since at least 2016, and I think it’s time he’s on everyone else’s, too. What a fucking loser.

Last Bits

Amid anti-trans sports bans, Tucson Roller Derby builds safe space for LGBTQIA+ athletes. I love how roller derby and the people who participate in it are constantly on the right side of history when it comes to almost anything happening in this country.

Who’s afraid of Jinkx Monsoon? Just a truly great profile of the inimitable Jinkx Monsoon, whose starring role in the Tony-winning Broadway hit, Oh, Mary!, is sadly coming to an end very soon.

Nancy Mace melts down after colleague mentions ‘boob jobs’. God, this was really funny. Sometimes we just have to laugh at these buffoons. They deserve it.

Charlie Kirk’s legacy deserves no mourning. Can’t even believe we have to keep saying this, honestly.

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This week’s edition of the Trans News Tracker is the 10th one so far. It’s also the first one where news of resistance efforts made by trans people, queer people, and their allies actually outweighs new efforts being made by the far right, anti-trans Democrats, and other institutions trying to limit our rights and push us out of the public eye entirely. This certainly doesn’t mean we’re winning, but I think it’s important to recognize that resistance is expanding, taking new shapes, and happening in almost every place where trans rights are continually imperiled.

Trump Administration Prders States To Remove All References to ‘Gender Ideology’ From Sex Ed

Although there is a lot of good news here, I do think it’s important to highlight the latest attempt by the Trump administration to erase trans people from public consciousness since we’ll likely see a string of backlash soon from state governments across the country.

Last week, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with the rest of the administration released notices through its Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to 40 states and six U.S. occupied territories “demanding” they remove “remove all references to gender ideology in their federally-funded Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) educational materials within 60 days.” The PREP program was/is a federal initiative aimed at providing evidence-based sexual education programs to young people aged 10-19 in public educational institutions. In a statement following the release of all 46 letters, Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison said, “Accountability is coming. Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas. The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”

To save you from reading through the entirety of these letters, I’ll just tell you here what has been flagged for removal from this program: all definitions of gender identity and gender expressions, references to gender-affirming pronoun usage and guidance on allowing young people to express the pronouns they’d like to use, and any information about gender-affirming care or procedures. In what has become one of the far right’s favorite tactics, they’ve adopted the language/mores of progressive movements by claiming in these letters that these state institutions must cease providing this education as a way to “demonstrate acceptance and respect for all participants, regardless of personal characteristics, including race, cultural background, religion, social class, sexual orientation or gender identity.”

Since the funding for PREP programs helps states educate young people about safe sex and how to protect themselves from youth pregnancy and the transmissions of sexually transmitted infections, any cuts in funding to this program would impact these states’ and territories’ ability to actually provide that education, as well. It’s hard to say right now exactly how many of these places will comply or fight. Aside from this being yet another hostile and violent attempt to push trans people out of public life, this represents a particularly dangerous new development for both young trans and cis people going to school in public institutions. And it serves as a deeply horrifying reminder of how low the far right is willing to go in their crusade to make trans people’s lives unlivable in this nation.

Some Good Trans News For Once

Trans Texans face yet another attempt to ban them from bathrooms. In response to the possible passing of Texas’s Senate Bill 8, a group of trans people and their allies took over both the House State Affairs Committee to testify against the bill and the Texas State Capitol for a bathroom sit-in protest. Since Texas Governor Gregg Abbott vowed to sign the bill if/when it makes it to his desk, the urgency of these actions and plans to continue pushing back against this bill cannot be understated.

Illinois launches LGBTQ+ legal hotline amid Trump-led onslaught. Some great news coming from a Democratic politician, finally. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced last week that the state has launched its own hotline for queer and trans people called IL Pride Connect. According to Pritzker, “IL Pride Connect will inform individuals of their rights and connect them to health and social services support – making us the only state in the nation to provide free legal advice and advocacy tools to protect the LGBTQ community.”

Judge dismisses lawsuit to remove transgender sister from UW sorority. This is one of my favorite news stories this week. In 2023, a lawsuit was filed by members of the University of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority against their national organization seeking to remove an already sworn in trans sorority sister. After not one but two court hearings over this issue, U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson finally dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice — meaning it can never be brought to the courts again — stating, “Nothing in the Bylaws or the Standing Rules requires Kappa to narrowly define the words ‘women’ or ‘woman’ to include only those individuals born with a certain set of reproductive organs, particularly when even the dictionary cited by Plaintiffs offers a more expansive definition. Nor has Kappa or the Fraternity Council concealed this definition from its members: in fact, it has published and distributed multiple texts clarifying the issue.” I think it’s cool he basically told the plaintiffs to “eat shit” and get over it.

[Virginia] school board sues Trump administration to defend transgender student policy. I know I’m biased, but can I get a “Hell yeah, teachers!!” in the chat, please???

Trans news from across the pond:

UK’s LGBTQ+ literary prize cancelled after controversy over ‘gender critical’ author John Boyne. Following the inclusion of TERF author and JK Rowling supporter John Boyne’s new novel on the Polari Prize longlist, 10 other longlisted authors pulled their novels from consideration in protest, which forced the Prize to put a pause on its competition for 2025. It’s always amazing to see writers — a group who, financially, has a lot to lose — doing this kind of work in defense of trans people.

Nottingham Against Transphobia hold die-in in city centre. An activist group called Nottingham Against Transphobia held a die-in in the center of Nottingham last week in protest against the  Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) new guidance urging service providers to “ban trans people from all single-sex facilities and services including changing rooms, wards and sporting competitions.” According to reports from the protest, “The demonstration in Nottingham saw dozens of participants carry out a die-in where they lay silently on the ground as the sound of a steady heartbeat played from a loud speaker. One attendee was dressed as the Grim Reaper and wore a mask plastered with the face of prime minister Keir Starmer, standing ominously amongst the participants on the floor.” As the fight for trans rights gets just as dire in England as it is here, we’ll likely see more and more of these actions in the coming months.

International trans news:

Transgender people in Kenya just won a major court victory. Shieys Chepkosgei sued the Kenyan government over her arrest and indictment in 2019 for “impersonation” (despite the fact that she had legal documents matching her gender identity), and the judge not only ordered the government to give her financial restitution but he also ordered Parliament to pass a law protecting trans people’s rights in Kenya: “The judge went a step further, directing the Kenyan government to initiate legislation in Parliament addressing the rights of transgender Kenyans, either with new protections or by amending current legislation on the rights of intersex people currently moving through Parliament.” Judges here and abroad are really putting in the work to protect trans people lately, and it’s incredible to see.

Trans News I Wish I Didn’t Have to Report

Alaska medical board moves to restrict gender-affirming care for minors in the state. Yet another blow to trans youth, but this time in a state where literally less than a million people live. That’s how you know this is simply retaliatory politics masquerading as “care.”

Trump’s widening war on gender-affirming care. Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration is moving to prevent federal workers and their dependents from receiving gender-affirming care, even if the care is available where they live and through their healthcare providers.

University of Michigan ends gender-affirming care for minors, citing federal pressure. Michigan Medicine at the University of Michigan became the newest compiler, kowtowing to the Trump administration’s pressures on institutions that receive federal funding to stop providing gender-affirming care to trans youth. I’ve reported on this several times in this column, and the list grows longer by the week despite the fact that many institutions are pushing back legally.

South Carolina asks Supreme Court to let it enforce trans bathroom ban. I don’t know how we’re not constantly pointing out how obsessed with this shit these people are. All emotional reactions aside, if this does make it to the Supreme Court, we could be looking at the enshrinement of a legal definition of “woman” and “man” in the same way the UK is experiencing that right now. This is something to keep our eyes on for sure.

Last Bits of Trans News

Sam Nicoresti becomes first trans comedian to win best comedy show at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Please join me in congratulating Sam on this huge honor: CONGRATULATIONS, SAM!

Learn why activist Jae Douglas is so dedicated to helping other LGBTQ+ Floridians. This is a truly wonderful profile on a young person doing some of the hardest work in my home state. As someone who has been organizing in South Florida for the last 20 years of my life, I can tell you that what Jae is doing is no small feat. I hope you’ll read it and listen to what Jae has to say.

Charlize Theron’s adopted daughters – Jackson and August – are officially living their best lives. Charlize Theron joins the growing list of celebrities who are loving and supporting the hell out of their trans children in public and in front of all the anti-trans losers. It’s nice to see the list is getting longer, not shorter.

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Two trans women walk into a Café Brazil in Dallas, Texas.

What sounds like the start to a joke (“they both ask for the estrogen special!”) was instead a lifeline for me one Wednesday afternoon last month. I strolled into the doors of the establishment, scanned the restaurant, and saw my lunch pal sitting at a table inspecting a menu. She was absolutely glowing in a lovely tank top, glistening necklace, and radiant makeup (her eyebrows were on point, as the kids say). Meanwhile, I was adorned in a green dress covered in quasi-floral patterns. Our fashion sensibilities were both rocking that day, despite the circumstances.

The joy reverberating off our Café Brazil table was extraordinary and God knows we needed that joy. Being trans in Texas right now, even in a relatively accepting location like Dallas, is a daily dose of utter madness. How can we possibly survive it?

Well, talking about the chaos certainly helps. In the last month, I’ve had at least three different lunch outings with trans friends, and all of them largely devolved into talking about the hardships of existing as a trans person right now. It seems like every day various Texas government branches propose some new civil rights-suffocating measure targeting trans people. Trying to talk with cis people about this stuff is so challenging, since they’re privileged enough to not directly experience the larger societal context of this mayhem.

There’s also the additional problem of even finding the time to talk about this shit while balancing everyday obligations. Capitalism’s gears never stop grinding. The rent will always be due. You must toil away to get the money necessary to even exist in America. In the middle of those ceaseless obligations, who has time to vent, cry, or angrily yell about all the government and societally sanctioned transphobia? At least in my case, I’m so busy just trying to keep my head above water financially that it can feel extravagant to carve out time complaining about a status quo I can’t immediately alter.

Talking to other trans comrades in a one-on-one setting, I finally feel able to spill my guts about these problems. There is no computer or work consuming my attention. There is only another human being who is also in pain. Now we can talk without having to constantly explain ourselves or deal with cis people saying “actually, it’s not as bad as all that.” Heck, we’re even comfortable enough to make glib jokes about “book burnings” and “internment camps” because, hey, you have to laugh to keep from crying sometimes.

I feel renewed and re-energized when I bask in the light of these other Dallas trans souls. Our wider world includes wretched politicians demonizing trans people to terrify constituents into becoming loyal voters, but this same place also contains these magnificent trans folks who make life worth living.

I know these truths in the deepest parts of my bones. Yet terror and catastrophizing thoughts still grip my mind whenever I’m alone in my apartment with only the latest RFK screed or news about some new transphobic Texas legislation to keep me company. I go from loneliness-induced anguish to Café Brazil joy again and again. It’s like I’m on a rollercoaster swerving from “we’re cooked” to “we’re so back” at 160 miles per hour. Trans life tends to operate in such bifurcated terms. An Uber driver will ask me if “watching trans porn makes me gay” as I’m on my way to a delightful hangout with other trans folks.

Whenever I’m alone, my depressive tendencies grip my brain and suddenly every aspect of my life, trans-related or otherwise, is circling the drain. Will I be able to procure the medicine I need to keep existing? What happens if I get attacked the next time I go out of my house? What if my next Uber ride is the last? Will my fragile finances remain steady? A dab of trans communal euphoria can bring me back from my most anxiety-ridden state…but that also means my darker mental state can return at any time. Witnessing things like data showing Texas as one of the two most dangerous states for trans people to travel through just ratchets up my brain’s disaster-prone impulses.

My darker psychological tendencies are even creeping up as I type all this out. My brain is gripped with fear that this essay just comes off as either bragging (“look at the cool trans friends I have!”) or whining (“waaahh, it’s expensive being an adult, that’s surprising”). My uncertainty and self-doubt is a microcosm of how it feels to exist in Dallas as a trans person right now. It’s maddening. It’s unwinnable. No matter where you go in Dallas, whether it’s a restaurant with a Confederate Flag draped across its wall or a lesbian bar with more grabby cis gay men than trans women, it can feel like there is no salvation. My mind, like this place, can feel inescapably bleak on the worst days.

In the middle of that daily insanity, though, I’ve scribbled down some thoughts I can constantly turn to for temporary comfort. If there’s anything I’ve learned from a life of mental health woes and a little over two years of being out as trans 24/7, it’s that none of us are the only ones going through profound pain. Instead of spiraling into our own woes, we can look to others grappling with the same problems. That includes Dallas, Texas, a place housing many trans women of endlessly varied personalities.

They too know about the madness. It may take on a different form for each of us, but they also know about the insanity of trying to secure basic essential necessities while dealing with ceaseless oppression. Trans stigmatization is all about silencing us and reducing trans folks to societal “aberrations” that need to be wiped out. But we are not anomalies. There is joy in bonding with one another, and looking outward to trans people living around the world and trans people who have existed throughout history.

Listening to my friends, I hear fear, vulnerability, but also anger. Resilience. Determination. Knowing we’re not alone in our distress makes this world seem a bit more bearable because, after all, there’s power in numbers. That doesn’t remove the madness of fulfilling capitalistic obligations while all these social issues transpire. But temporarily, we revel in the joy Greg Abbott and his cronies salivate over wiping out.

Two trans women walk into a Café Brazil in Dallas, Texas, and, for a brief moment, we’re happy.

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