It Is About The Children

That has always been the rallying of the Republicans, way back with Anita Bryant and the "Save Our Children" campaign. And Harvey Milk standing up to their tyranny and now once  again we are fighting against the bigotry.

Children ‘low-hanging fruit’ in fight to end trans care, official at pro-Trump thinktank says

America First Policy Institute, which boasts close ties to president, discussed transgender policy ‘reform’ at DC event

The Guardian

Phoebe Petrovic

Fri 17 Apr 2026

Children are the “low-hanging fruit” in a longer effort to end gender-affirming care for all Americans, an official at a Trump administration-aligned thinktank recently said.

Bans on medical transition comprise just one part of the larger, unprecedented assault on transgender rights mounted by a coordinated campaign of mostly conservative activists and policymakers in the US in recent years. So far, these restrictions have primarily affected minors. But leaders in the emboldened movement have begun to more openly admit their desire to attempt to end gender-affirming care for adults, too.

But a judge the other day said that it was all based on junk medical research...

Federal Court Strikes Down Kennedy Declaration on Transgender Healthcare

JD Supra

April 20, 2026

On April 18, 2026, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon issued a sweeping opinion vacating the “Kennedy Declaration,” a directive issued by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in December 2025 without notice-and-comment rulemaking. The Kennedy Declaration purported to establish that transgender healthcare for minors falls below professionally recognized standards of health care and threatened providers with exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid. Opinion and Order, State of Oregon, et al. v. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., et al., No. 6:25-cv-02409-MTK (D. Oregon Apr. 18, 2026) (ECF 93).

The court granted summary judgment for the 22 Plaintiff States, vacated the Kennedy Declaration in its entirety, declared that HHS lacks authority to unilaterally establish standards of care superseding state-recognized standards, and permanently enjoined HHS and its Office of Inspector General (OIG) from implementing the Kennedy Declaration or any materially similar policy against any provider in the Plaintiff States.

This ruling delivers immediate, concrete protection to healthcare providers in Oregon, Washington, New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The court’s opinion—notable for its extraordinarily pointed criticism of the administration’s conduct as causing “very real harm to very real people”—found the Kennedy Declaration unlawful on multiple grounds.

This is a big win... but you know darn well it will be appealed.

The court’s opinion is notable for its pointed criticism of this administration. The court was particularly scathing in addressing the administration’s claim that finding the Kennedy Declaration unlawful would infringe Secretary Kennedy’s First Amendment rights, stating that it would not allow defendants to “bully or gaslight this Court into ignoring the many procedural and legal flaws of the Kennedy Declaration by invoking one of the most sacred principles of our constitutional democracy—the freedom of speech—when that principle comes nowhere close to being implicated.” The court found that the actual principles offended were “the rule of law and state sovereignty.”

This is a very far reaching ruling... hopefully it will stand with appeals.

"Catering to the lowest common denominator"

"The implication is usually negative: it suggests lowering quality, depth, or standards so that everyone can understand or accept it, rather than aiming for something more thoughtful, complex, or refined."

Trump and the conservative attack on us is gear toward his MAGA base, it is designed to get them mad and out to vote. But they are only a small fraction of the voters, what does the rest of the voters think?

New Survey Finds Strong Majorities of Americans – Including Nearly All Major Religious Groups – Support Nondiscrimination Protections for LGBTQ People

PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute)

March 19, 2026

A new national survey released today by PRRI profiles LGBTQ Americans and tracks Americans’ views on LGBTQ rights across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Based on interviews with more than 22,000 adults throughout 2025, this new data from the 2025 PRRI American Values Atlas measures public opinion on LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections, religiously based service refusals, and same-sex marriage. It also asks Americans if they agree that transgender Americans deserve the same rights and protections as other Americans.

The survey finds that strong majorities of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals (72%) and favor same-sex marriage (65%), although support for both measures has decreased slightly over the past three years (down from 80% and 69% in 2022, respectively). Roughly 6 in 10 Americans oppose allowing businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ people on religious grounds (59%, down from 65% in 2022).

Majorities of all major religious groups, except for Jehovah’s Witnesses, support nondiscrimination protections. Support ranges from 54% of white evangelical Protestants to 92% of Unitarian Universalists.

“Support for nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans and same-sex marriage remains high, including among most people of faith,” said Melissa Deckman, Ph.D., CEO of PRRI. “At the same time, there have been slight declines in support for LGBTQ rights over the past few years, largely reflecting growing party polarization.”

Then why are the Republicans attacking us? Why do they want to criminalize us? Because for the voters it is not a make or break issue, while for the MAGA it is. And they know our Achilles heel is bathrooms.

While most Americans agree that transgender people deserve the same rights and protections as other Americans, the majority of Americans (56%) also favor laws that require transgender individuals to use bathrooms that correspond to their sex at birth, with 40% opposing such laws.

“We see a disconnect among many Americans between broadly opposing discrimination against transgender Americans and growing support for bathroom bills,” said Deckman. “Yet this increase in support for bathroom bills nationally is largely a function of strong movement among Republicans, whose support has nearly doubled in the past decade, from 44% in 2016 to 81% today.”

Where we need to do work?

In the past integration in schools helped us, when we were learning along side other it brought acceptance but now... the Trump adminstration now stopped enforcing the discrimination laws against us.

Support among young Americans ages 18-29 for nondiscrimination protections has decreased from 80% in 2015 to 70% in 2025, largely driven by a 24-point drop among young Republicans during this time (74% v. 50%). Support among older groups of Americans has stayed at similar rates over the past decade (among Americans aged 30-49) or increased among Americans aged 50 or older.

We need to turn that around, we need the support of our cis-gender peers!

A negative trend. I am on a LGBTQ+ speaker bureau and I have noticed that their engagement have dropped almost to zero. There are no laws here in Connecticut like in Florida that bans speaking on LGBTQ+ issues... it is only fear of complaints and it becoming a rallying point for local conservatives.

A Blue Heaven

We tend to think of the northeast as a liberal heaven but we are not homogenous there are pockets of conservatives here. Here in Connecticut it is the northeast corner of the state that sticks up it's red neck, So it should comes as no surprise that...

Transgender pride ribbons cut down in Pittsford; mayor calls act 'mean-spirited'

WHAM

by Daniel FinkelsteinFri,

April 17, 2026

Pittsford Village Mayor Alysa Plummer is asking for people to come forward with information about 63 ribbons, bearing the colors of the transgender pride flag, that were taken off of poles in the village, calling the act "mean-spirited" and "deliberate."

The nonprofit organization that put them there, Pittsford CommUNITY, raised concerns, saying they were supposed to remain until April 4.

"We put up ribbons for Transgender Day of Visibility," said Tharaha Thavakumar, president of Pittsford CommUNITY. "We received a permit. We applied for a permit in the village."

When volunteers returned to take them down, they were already gone.

"We found out that nobody in our group had taken them down, (and) we then went to the mayor and asked if she knew of any staff the village staff had taken it down," Thavakumar said. "They said no. And so that's when we decided to file a police report."

They have surveillance video of the culprit in a green hoodie and the town is asking for its citizens to check their video on the night in question.

"It's a sign of belonging," Thavakumar added. "When something like ribbons get taken down, it just tells people that we're not welcome here, which, you know, it's not just the transgender community, but anybody that's marginalized who feels like they don't belong."

And when the town backs us up... it makes us feel welcomed.

Get Your Birth Certificates Or Passport Out

Because under new regulation you will need it to open a bank account!!!! As the xenophobic Trump adminstration is sticking a citizenship requirement on your banking.

Is Citizenship Becoming The New Banking Requirement?

Forbes

ByVirginia La Torre Jeker, J.D.,

Apr 16, 2026,

A driver’s license and a utility bill have long been enough to open a bank account in the United States. That may not remain the case for much longer. There are growing indications that financial regulators are exploring whether citizenship or nationality should become part of the standard banking verification processes.

While no formal rule or guidance currently mandates such verification, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated on April 15, speaking at the Invest in America Forum that an executive order requiring U.S. banks to verify the citizenship or nationality of account holders is currently in process. He noted that the measure is intended to align financial oversight with immigration enforcement and national security objectives.

I have to ask why? We already need a Social Security number... why a passport or birth certificate?

According to the U.S. Department of State, there were approximately 183 million valid U.S. passports in circulation in fiscal year 2025. In a country of more than 330 million people, this means a substantial portion of the population does not hold what is often the most readily accepted documentary evidence of U.S. citizenship in financial onboarding contexts. This creates what might be described as a “passport gap.”

What happens to existing bank accounts? Will they be closed? 

The Street wrote that,

Banks already carry the weight of extensive anti-money laundering and fraud detection obligations. Adding citizenship verification creates a new category of data with its own legal, privacy, and reputational dimensions. Institutions could find themselves caught between government mandates and customer backlash, particularly if the rule applies broadly to existing account holders.

[...]

The question of whether the executive order arrives narrowly targeted or broadly written will determine how disruptive this becomes. Either way, Bessent’s message to the banking sector was unambiguous: be ready.

And why does it have to be valid passport? Does your citizenship expire with your passport?

This is all about one thing... Trump & Company hatred of immigrants! There is no need to prove you are a citizen because non-citizens can open bank accounts all you need is a TIN. There is no federal law requiring you to be a citizen to bank!

The Bottom Line

[Editorial]

I believe what is motivating Trump right now is a golden medallion.

In the back of his mind, he is focused on the singular goal of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He may think that if he ends the war he helped create, he’ll finally get to grab the brass ring on the carousel.

He doesn’t care who or what gets in his way, after all, Obama got one. Trump believes this is his legacy. He has claimed that he "ended eight wars" and has been nominated for the prize multiple times; however, official nominations are kept secret for fifty years. For Trump, the prize isn’t just a byproduct of his policy... it is the primary benchmark of his success.

At a deep level, this is what I believe is truly driving him: his love of gold. But it begs the question: will he bring down the United States economy just for that brass ring?

[/Editorial]