Not So Fast

People think that the United States v. Skrmetti case banned trans healthcare nationwide... but it only upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors. It had nothing to do with Connecticut at all. So when I see this article... they are blowing smoke!

High court’s trans ruling leaves state case open

Litigation on whether states can permit biological males in women’s sports to resume

By Edmund H. Mahony

Hartford Courant

July 12, 2026

When the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that states can bar biological males from competing in women’s sports, it left unanswered the other side of the question: Can states

permit it?

The question is pointed directly at Connecticut or, more particularly, at a case referred to as Soule that has percolated in Connecticut’s federal district court for six years. The Supreme Court acknowledged as much in the first footnote in its late June decision.

The cases on which it based its opinion, the court said in the footnote, “do not present the distinct question of whether (under federal law) schools may allow biological males who identify as female to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams.”

“That question is currently the subject of litigation in some lower courts,” the court said.“Nothing in this opinion is intended to decide that question.”

Selina Soule is one of four female high school track athletes who sued the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and four local school boards in 2020 to reverse policies that allow biological males who identify as female to compete in women’s high school sports. It is the mirror image of the question raised in the two cases on which the high court ruled on June 30 — cases referred to as B.P.J from West Virginia and Hecox from Idaho.

So, contrary to what many have heard, United States v. Skrmetti has not banned healthcare nor sports for us here in CT. And from what I remember of the Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools case, it was initially dismissed because the court found there were no injuries to the students. They still received scholarships to the colleges of their choice. (By "injuries," the court meant legal injuries—like being denied college admission or a scholarship—not physical injuries.)

The four women bringing the suit, who competed at a high level in high school sports when the suit was filed, claim that two biological men who identify as woman repeatedly outperformed them in championship level events that might have created scholarship opportunities.

Because they got into their schools and received scholarships anyway, the transgender student-athletes didn't legally harm them.  You have to realize where the Republicans are coming from... the 1950s! Back then, they thought people chose to be LGBTQ+. They still believe that chromosomes alone determine gender. They completely ignore conditions like Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), Swyer syndrome, or mutations in the SRY gene. But now, we know there are complex medical and biological factors involved in being trans.

So, if the Supreme Court says it is a matter of states' rights when it comes to banning trans healthcare, then that state-level autonomy should also hold true for schools and trans students in sports here in Connecticut.

Surprise! Surprise!

As Gomer Pyle used to say, but is anyone really surprised that gay cruise going to an Islamic country this wouldn't be their response?

Egypt turns away cruise ship with mostly gay men after Turkey blocked same voyage from docking

The Virgin Voyages ship Scarlet Lady, chartered by Atlantis Events, was reportedly denied entry into Egyptian waters after Turkish authorities barred it days earlier.

The Advocate

Christopher Wiggins

Jul 09, 2026

A Mediterranean cruise chartered for thousands of LGBTQ+ travelers, most of them gay men, has been blocked from docking at a second country along its itinerary because of who the travelers are.

As The Advocate reported on Friday, Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady, chartered by Atlantis Events for a 10-day sailing from Athens, Greece, to Italy, was denied scheduled port calls in Kuşadası and Istanbul by Turkish authorities last week, citing "moral standards," forcing organizers to change the route shortly before the ship arrived. Atlantis said on its website that Turkish authorities informed the company the ship would not be permitted to dock in either city.

Now come on folks, what were they thinking?

CNN wrote;

“My mind went to the LGBTQ communities in Egypt and Turkey where LGBTQ individuals don’t have the opportunities to just sail away,” passenger Morley told CNN. “Discrimination and the lack of opportunities that come with the shortsighted marginalization of LGBTQ people and other minorities damages far beyond a cruise ship rescheduling.”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party has adopted increasingly harsh rhetoric against the LGBTQ community over the past decade, sparking condemnation from rights groups. Authorities have banned Pride marches in Istanbul since 2015, citing public safety and security concerns.

What were they thinking? It is like waving a red flag in front of a bull!

Cuckoo Award Ops...

Leave it to Trump & Company to get more egg on their face. This is what happens when you hire morons.

Trump’s Department of Education Celebrates ‘American History’ With Old Photo From U.K. 

Gizmodo

By Matt Novak

July 8, 2026

The U.S. Department of Education posted a historic photo to Facebook on Wednesday proclaiming, “American history is worth learning.” The image shows women in clothes from the early 20th century demanding the right to vote. It’s an inspiring thing to behold. But it’s not American history. The photo is from the United Kingdom.

Only this is really British suffragettes demanding the right to vote in London around 1912

Ops...

So with great fanfare the coveted Cuckoo Award is give to the DoEd staff!

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: There'll Be Some Changes Made (1962)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) In this song, Ann-Margret sings that she's going to change her way of living. If you could simply snap your fingers and change something in your life, what would it be?

My back… lower back is becoming chronic.

2) She tells us she's going to change her name. Have you ever changed your name, or asked people to refer to you differently? (Example: "Don't call me Betty anymore. I want to be Elizabeth.")

Ha… I got you all beat!

3) Ann-Margret was born Ann-Margret Olsson in Sweden and when was 5, her family moved to Winnetka, Illinois. She is fluent in both Swedish and English. When did you last converse in a language other than English?

Um… never. I don’t even know any other language than English.

4) Olivia Newton-John was a big Ann-Margret fan. When she was cast in the movie Grease, Olivia asked that her character's name be changed from "Sandy Dumbrowski" to "Sandy Olsson" in tribute. Grease is one of the most profitable movies ever made. Have you seen it more than once?

On a date I saw it when it first came out. And a couple of times on TV.

5) Ann-Margret celebrated her 85th birthday earlier this year. Back in 2024, Ann-Margret told a reporter that she planned to celebrate her 83rd birthday with a spin on her motorcycle, a lavender Harley-Davidson. "I love speed," she explained. Do you always observe the speed limit? Or have you been known to zip along a little faster?

I try not to go over 5 mph over the speed limit on local roads and no more than 75 on the interstates.

6) This week's song was written in 1921 and over the last 100+ years it's been recorded more than 400 times. Before today, had you heard it?

Nope… never.

7) The lyrics were written by William Weldon Higgins, who was better known as vaudeville comic Billy Higgins. When did you most recently laugh out loud?

I don’t usually mark down when I laugh… but it was recently.

8) The music was composed by William Overstreet. In addition to writing music, he was a respected director aat Chicago's Grand Theater. When did you last see a live performance (concert, play, etc.)?

A decade ago. I went to see a Broadway play on Saturday October 01, 2016, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical you can read about the trip here.

9) Random question: Do you have more or less than $20 cash in your wallet right now?

More.

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What a wild and crazy day the Fourth of July was!

It all started in the morning when the central air went out. It was 95°F outside and getting hot fast inside—with no AC! Originally, I was 20th in line for a repairman, but then I played my ace card: I mentioned that I’m 77. Just like that, I moved up to first on the list! I hadn’t even planned on using my age, it just popped into my head, so I said it.

The real "fun" began three or four hours later. Around 7:00 PM, I was sitting under the deck overhang listening to my audiobook when it absolutely poured. It came down in buckets for about five seconds, and then the sun popped back out, sending me retreating indoors.

A bit later, I was in the atrium listening to my book again when the weather went totally insane. Extreme winds hit, hail started bouncing off the skylights, and stripped leaves blew past. It felt exactly like the opening scene of The Wizard of Oz. Branches flew by, the hail pounded, and then—in less than two minutes—it was completely over. The sun came back out and the birds started singing, looking just like an ordinary Saturday afternoon. Except for one thing: trees and limbs were down everywhere, and the power was dead.

The weather forecast had only predicted a slight chance of a severe storm, so it took everyone completely by surprise. It turned out to be a microburst with straight-line winds clocked at 60 to 70 mph.

Eversource initially promised the power would be back on by 6:00 AM Sunday. Instead, it finally kicked back on at 3:19 AM on Tuesday.

To charge my phone and survey the damage, I took a drive around town. The aftermath was textbook microburst: a linear path of destruction about a mile wide and three miles long. Everywhere outside of that strip was completely untouched and had power. At the end of my road where it meets the state highway, the top of a telephone pole was dangling from its wires just five feet above the asphalt. Looking both ways, trees were down in every direction. Trying to navigate my way to McDonald’s for breakfast and a hot coffee was like trying to get through a maze. Every single street was blocked by downed trees and live wires.

The repair process itself was fascinating to watch. First, an assessment guy walked the lines with a tablet. A few hours later, the tree crews arrived—I could hear the chainsaws and woodchippers roaring. Next came two full line crews. Optimistically, I guessed I'd have power back in an hour. (Ha! That was a bit conservative... try three days later!)

Now, the politicians are screaming about how long the cleanup took. But this literally came out of the blue. Unlike a hurricane, where you have days to preposition utility crews, everyone here was just sitting around a holiday cookout when—WHAM! They had to mobilize and bring in emergency workers from all over the Northeast.

Looking around today, just a week later, you wouldn’t have a single clue what happened last Saturday.

Trans Sports!

I am getting sick and tired of hearing, "It is to protect the girls from the big, bad trans girls!" That is complete bull! In K-12 girls' sports, there is an average of roughly 1.72 million total injuries. Out of all of those, I could only find a news article on one trans player: the Payton McNabb case, which the Republicans love to trot out via their favorite witness... singular.

The thing is, Republicans are trying to create fear of these "burly, hairy girls" playing against "little, petite girls." But it is all based on lies.

Women’s Sports Were Built by Letting Girls In

The Supreme Court says its ruling protects women’s and girls’ sports. That’s not the history I lived—or the law that put my generation on the field.

Ms.

by Jennifer Levi

July 9, 2026

In 1991, I stood on a pitch in Cardiff, Wales, with my teammates at the first Women’s Rugby World Cup. I want to be honest about how I got there. I was not the most talented player on that team—not close. I wasn’t a starter for the final match. Most of my teammates were extraordinary multi-sport athletes who could have excelled at anything. I mostly worked hard, and I had the good luck of coming along at a particular moment in the development of women’s sports: Opportunities for girls had been so scarce for so long that it was still possible to arrive at elite competition without having spent a childhood committed to it. I landed in a sweet spot, and it gave me an experience I never stopped being grateful for.

[...]

So when the Supreme Court says, as it did earlier this month in West Virginia v. B.P.J., that banning transgender girls from school sports is about protecting the safety and fairness of women’s and girls’ sports, I hear that claim against everything I actually lived.

The loudest voices for “protecting” women from rough sports were never in the scrum with me. They were the ones telling us (and there were many) that rugby was no place for women at all. What actually threatened women’s sports was never a girl who wanted to run cross-country with her friends. It was the belief—dressed up, then as now, in the language of “protection“—that girls don’t belong on the field at all.

These are almost exclusively men passing these laws! Out of 271 Republicans in Congress, only 40 are women. It is a white male club!

The Supreme Court ruled to uphold West Virginia’s "Save Women’s Sports Act," allowing the state to prohibit transgender women and girls from competing on female scholastic sports teams. How many trans girls actually play in West Virginia school sports? As stated during the Supreme Court proceedings, there was only one known transgender girl publicly seeking to play public school sports in the entire state of West Virginia. You got that? ONE!

True story: I tried out for Little League baseball in Easton, Pa., in the early 1970s. Exactly two girls did that year, me and Peggy Goulet, and we got placed on a team that was literally called the Rejects. And, still, we were just happy to play. That’s what it looked like, within living memory, when the people in charge decided in advance which kids belonged and where.

And here’s what far too few people know about West Virginia school sports policy: The state already had a solution. For five years before the ban, it used a case-by-case approach, taking into account factors like age, experience, competition level and the sport itself. Transgender students could play if their school determined fair competition wouldn’t be affected.

So what changed? Trump!

What is the purpose of high school sports?

• Character Development and Life Skills
• Physical and Mental Well-being
• Academic Engagement and Accountability
• Community and Social Unity

So, when you deny trans athletes the right to play school sports, you are denying them those precise advantages. Not only that, but:

• They are denying trans athletes the skills learned playing sports.
• They are increasing social isolation of trans students.
• They are increasing the mental stresses on trans athletes.

They know this, and it is almost like that is their exact goal.

If that sounds abstract, consider how the Court once approached exactly this question. In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Pennsylvania required married women to notify their husbands before an abortion, and defended the law by saying it barely affected anyone; most women tell their husbands anyway. The Court rejected that in words worth remembering: The analysis “does not end with the one percent of women upon whom the statute operates; it begins there.” The proper focus is “the group for whom the law is a restriction, not the group for whom the law is irrelevant.” The women with abusive husbands were few. They were also the whole point.

Last week, the Court inverted that. The people transgender sports bans operate on were dismissed as too few to count. In 1992, constitutional analysis began with the people a law burdens. In 2026, the people didn’t matter.

This is Trump's hand picked court.

One last thing... have you ever seen people play beach volleyball? Are the teams co-ed?

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Jennifer Levi has spent decades fighting for LGBTQ equality. I first met her in 2006 while we were working to pass Connecticut's nondiscrimination law. It comes as no surprise that she would one day be arguing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.