See The Difference

People say there is no difference between political parties. Well I am going to prove them wrong with one sentence. A state just passed a law that mandates insurance coverage for healthcare for trans people.

You know the answer, so don't tell me there is no difference!

Controversial transgender healthcare bill clears key vote in NJ

Bill sees movement after two-year stasis in Trenton

New Jersey Monitor

By: Lilo H. Stainton

May 11, 2026

New Jersey lawmakers voted along party lines Monday to approve legislation aimed at protecting transgender patients and their healthcare providers, advancing the bill after nearly two years of lobbying by the trans community and its allies. 

The Democratic-led bill to enshrine civil and criminal protections for those who treat and those who receive care for gender dysphoria drew hours of passionate testimony from supporters, who say the protections are essential given the Trump administration’s push to curtail access to gender-affirming care, and emotional pushback from a handful of opponents.  

The measure, which would also expand protections for reproductive healthcare providers, was approved by the Senate’s health committee by a 5-2 vote.

Natalie Baker, a psychotherapist who is also parent of a transgender child, said the kinds of policies pushed by the bill “have very real impacts on families and providers.”

“Families are making difficult life decisions based on whether their children feel safe and protected. Families are paying attention to this. Providers are paying attention to this. And businesses are too,” Baker said. 

According to LGBTQ advocacy group Garden State Equality, 18 states have already passed similar shield laws.

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Colorado Passes New Law to Protect LGBTQ+ People Against Harms of Conversion Therapy in Wake of Supreme Court Decision

May. 8, 2026

BY: Trevor News

Yesterday, the Colorado General Assembly passed HB26-1322, legislation that updates Colorado’s longstanding prohibition on conversion therapy to be viewpoint-neutral, directly responding to the concerns raised by the U.S. Supreme Court in Chiles v. Salazar. The new law preserves Colorado’s ban on this discredited and harmful practice while bringing the statute into alignment with the Supreme Court’s First Amendment guidance. 

[...]

Under HB26-1322, the definition of conversion therapy is amended to prohibit a licensed mental health professional from seeking to impose a predetermined outcome on a minor patient with respect to sexual orientation or gender identity, regardless of the direction of that outcome. A therapist may not steer a young person toward any predetermined identity — the prohibition applies evenhandedly. This change ensures the law regulates a category of substandard professional conduct rather than any particular viewpoint, squarely addressing the basis for the Supreme Court’s ruling. 

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Pennsylvania House passes Fairness Act for LGBTQ+ residents by one vote

The 101-100 vote came after the bill had been pulled from a vote in March.

Fox 43

Author: James Corrigan

April 28, 2026

After a controversial delay, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed the Fairness Act on Tuesday, just over a month after House Democratic leaders were forced to cancel a vote on the bill aimed at adding protections for LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta’s (D-Philadelphia) second attempt to move the legislation through the chamber this year proved successful, as the bill passed by a narrow 101-100 vote. 

[...]

No Republicans voted for the bill after two GOP lawmakers had supported a previous version in 2023.

Rep. Frank Burns (D-Cambria) was the only Democrat to vote against the measure. Republican Rep. Alec Ryncavage, of Luzerne County, also voted "no" after previously voting "yes" in 2023.

So you still think that there is no difference between the parties?

This November will either be heaven or hell for us.

This Is What He Is Doing!

Creating fear in our community!

Trump's policies have created shivers; all his edicts against us have our heads rolling, and that is exactly what he wants.

'I don't feel safe,' students at Smith College react to federal probe on college's trans women policy

WBUR

Nirvani Williams and Phil Bishop, New England Public Media

May 06, 2026

Smith College students are reacting to a recently-opened Title IX investigation into the school, over the admittance of students who are transgender women.

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights argues that Smith violated Title IX gender protections by admitting transgender women and allowing them access to spaces like dorms and locker rooms.

“As a trans woman in the United States, I don't feel safe at all," said a Smith student who asked not to be identified because she says she feels targeted under this administration. She said she’s still processing the news that her college is under investigation for admitting trans students like her.

“It's just one thing added to the mix of like the stressful climate, political climate that we're living in and we're all just trying to come here to get our degrees to study," she said, adding that she feels like the Trump administration is targeting what is already a small minority of trans students on campus.

“They're just causing that sort of emotional pressure on like the hearts and the minds of the students that are trans that go here. We're just a scapegoat in this administration's aims to just outlaw anyone that's different.”

Do you think the White House doesn't want to create fear and uncertainty in our community? This goes deeper than politics with Trump... this attack on the trans community is punitive!

One Ruling Went Our Way

A judge blocked a witch hunt against WPATH.

Federal judge blocks FTC probes into trans medicine groups, citing ‘extensive evidence of animus’

Chief Judge James Boasberg said the Trump administration showed “wafer-thin justifications” in targeting WPATH and the Endocrine Society.

The Advocate

Christopher Wiggins

May 08, 2026

President Donald Trump suffered a pair of legal setbacks Thursday after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked the Federal Trade Commission from enforcing investigative demands against two of the nation’s most influential medical organizations involved in transgender health care guidance.

Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted preliminary injunctions to both the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the Endocrine Society, temporarily halting FTC investigations that the groups argued were politically motivated and unconstitutional.

[...]

In separate lawsuits filed in D.C., WPATH and the Endocrine Society accused the administration of weaponizing federal investigative powers to intimidate organizations that support evidence-based medical care for transgender patients.

The complaints argued the FTC was not conducting ordinary consumer protection oversight, but instead attempting to chill scientific debate, suppress protected medical speech, and deter physicians and researchers from participating in discussions about health care for transgender people.

The Phrasing Has Got Me Concerned!

Trump was recently discussing both foreign and domestic terrorists:

...Terrorists of any kind will not be allowed to find safe harbor here at home or attack us from abroad

Our new U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy is a return to common sense and Peace through Strength. As I said after our first successful counterterrorism mission, just days after I was sworn back in office – if you hurt Americans, or are planning to hurt Americans, “We Will Find You and We Will Kill You.”

Trump's foreword in the 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy!

My immediate thought is: what about a trial?

Furthermore, CBS News reported that Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States said:

Gorka said: "We see a threat, we will respond to it, and we will crush it, whether it is the cartels, the jihadists, or violent left-wing extremists like antifa and like the transgender killers, the non-binary, the left-wing radicals who killed my friend Charlie Kirk."

They have used extrajudicial language before to describe innocent victims of violence by ICE in Minneapolis:

"We will not permit politically motivated violence in the United States from either side of the aisle, but the sad truth is the left has far more politically motivated assassinations or attempted assassinations, to its credit in recent years, not the right."

In the 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy we, the trans community, gets labeled as terrorist! In Minneapolis the DOJ was quick to label them as terrorists.

This talk of "We will kill you" sends shivers down our spines, and that is likely exactly what Trump wants. By promising to "crush" domestic groups without mentioning the legal process, the administration is effectively side-stepping the Sixth Amendment. Every person in this country has the right to a fair trial and due process; replacing a courtroom with a threat of execution isn't just scary—it's unconstitutional.

Bait & Switch

Take the Reflecting Pool. Trump said he didn’t like it, so without telling anyone, he went out and hired a contractor. Because the work was deemed an "emergency," it didn’t need to go out for a competitive bid. The administration reportedly used an “urgent and compelling” justification—effectively an emergency procurement rationale—to award the project without full competition.

The Question: Why was the work “urgent and compelling”?

I used to write bids all the time. I’m not talking about $40,000 or $50,000 jobs, but projects well into the hundreds of millions. We went through every job description with a fine-tooth comb! I cannot imagine a pool company bidding on something they never even looked at.

People are asking:

• Was it legal?
• Was the emergency real?
• Was the estimate credible?
• Was the urgency manufactured by a political deadline?
• Did taxpayers get value for their money?

I don’t see it as an emergency; there was no immediate threat to life or property! Trump not liking the color of the water doesn’t make it an emergency. The stated urgency was that the pool needed to be repaired and visually restored before the July 4, 2026, celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary. They knew that deadline long before they bid the job!

NPR reported:

The suit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF), an education and advocacy organization. In the suit, TCLF is asking a federal judge to halt the project, saying that the Trump administration failed to have the project reviewed federally, as is dictated by the National Historic Preservation Act.

[…]

Critics of the project, including TCLF, don't share that vision – and are taking particular umbrage at the color.

"The reflecting pool should not be viewed in isolation; it is part of the larger ensemble of designed landscapes that comprise the National Mall," Charles A. Birnbaum, the president and CEO of TCLF, said in a statement emailed to NPR Monday. "The design intent, to create a reflective surface that is subordinate, is fundamental to the solemn and hallowed visual and spatial connection between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. A blue-tinted basin is more appropriate to a resort or theme park."

This isn’t the only job the taxpayers got suckered into.

It was suggested that the White House ballroom could be done for around $100 million and would be paid for by Trump's billionaire friends. Then, the price ballooned to $400,000,000! Fox News just reported that:

The latest reporting on alleged rising costs comes from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tagging a $1 billion appropriation for the "East Wing Modernization Project" at the bottom of Republicans' budget reconciliation package Trump hopes to sign by June 1.

That item includes more than just the ballroom and even specifies: "None of the funds made available under this section may be used for non-security elements of the East Wing Modernization Project."

The bill's outlay on the final page of the Senate Judiciary Committee reconciliation bill appropriates "$1,000,000,000 to remain available until September 30, 2029, for the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House Compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and below-ground security features."

It’s like when you go to buy a used car and agree upon a price, but when you go to close the deal, all these “other” fees are tacked on. Plus, there is no longer any word about those billionaire friends paying for it!

So now the taxpayers are on the hook for the Reflecting Pool and the White House ballroom. But wait, there’s more!

US judge to weigh preservation groups' bid to stop Trump's Kennedy Center overhaul

Reuters

By Mike Scarcella

April 29, 2026

A coalition of historic preservation and architecture groups will ask a judge on Wednesday to halt plans by President Donald Trump’s administration for a ​major renovation of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, marking the ‌latest clash over Trump’s legal authority to reshape Washington.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (1400 GMT) to consider issuing a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed ​in March by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the American Institute of ​Architects and six other groups.

The groups contend Trump and the Kennedy Center's ⁠board lack the legal authority to proceed with their construction plans on the famed ​performing arts venue without U.S. congressional approval and mandatory regulatory review.

“It is a city upon ​a hill. It should not — and by federal law cannot — be demolished or overhauled in secret or at lightning speed, and certainly not at the executive’s personal whim,” the plaintiffs told Cooper.

Plus, the Trump Arch!

Birth Certificates!

Who issues birth certificates?

Last Tuesday, I wrote about the federal investigation involving Smith College, and it left me thinking more broadly about how identity is defined in law. In the United States, birth certificates are issued by the states, not the federal government. That raises a constitutional question worth unpacking: where in the Constitution is the federal government given authority to define sex or gender for legal purposes?

The Trump administration has said that passports will reflect sex assigned at birth only. But that raises several questions. First, in states like Connecticut, birth records are maintained by the state and are not typically accessible as a simple personal document in the same way a driver’s license is. So how would federal agencies determine “birth sex” in practice? For many people, the passport itself may already be the primary federal identity document.

Second, the Constitution does not explicitly grant the federal government a general power to define a person’s sex or gender across all legal contexts. Historically, federal agencies have relied on state-issued birth certificates and other identity documents when administering programs, including passport issuance through the United States Department of State.

Third, executive actions, such as orders addressing how federal agencies recognize sex categories and raise an important legal question. Even if the federal government sets internal definitions for its own programs, does that override or displace state-issued identity records? In my view, this raises a broader federalism issue: states traditionally control vital records, while the federal government operates within enumerated powers.

When federal agencies adopt definitions that differ from state-issued birth certificates, the question becomes whether that authority comes from a valid constitutional or statutory source, or whether it exceeds the federal government’s enumerated powers. I believe that the authority to define and record vital identity information should remain primarily with the states. The federal government can only allow M&F and not an X on forms, etc. but they have to go by state determination of gender

When arguments turn to biology, chromosomes, or other medical criteria to define sex for legal purposes, it raises further questions about where that authority is grounded in the Constitution. The federal government is not granted a general police power over identity classification.

So to sum it up:

• States control vital records (like birth certificates).
• The federal government has only enumerated powers under the United States Constitution.
• The federal government generally does not have a general police power over identity definitions.
• Under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states or the people.

Bounty Hunters

The Department of Justice has a major problem: they can't find enough lawyers to do their dirty work. It’s gotten so bad that they’ve resorted to massive hiring bonuses just to get bodies in the door. It makes you wonder... is the DOJ the new "last resort" for legal careers?

DOJ Offers Lawyers $25,000 Signing Bonuses as Hiring Lags (2)

Bloomberg Law

Ben Penn

May 5, 2026

The Justice Department is taking a new tack to overcome hurdles in attracting qualified legal talent and to prevent current lawyers from leaving: offering signing and retention bonuses throughout the Civil Division.

New vacancy postings show signing bonuses of $25,000 are newly available to staff offices investigating youth transgender treatments and litigating the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.

Further, the head of the Civil Division—which plays a crucial role advancing and protecting the president’s policies in court—informed all his attorneys Monday that they’ll begin receiving a “retention incentive allowance” ranging from around $60 to $220 every pay period through Thanksgiving, according to an internal email reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

Do they feel that it is not a good step in career development?

The financial enticements are an apparent first for a department that in previous years would be inundated with resumes from lawyers willing to take significant salary reductions compared to private sector legal practice. Padding lawyers’ biweekly paychecks signals a division growing more desperate to stave off further departures of valuable legal minds, including those who’ve expressed discomfort with defending the president’s policies from a slew of lawsuits.

I guess they don't think that it will look good on their resumes to have prosecuted trans people for terrorism. It might look good to far-right law firms, but not in general law. But look who they are recruiting: college graduates with no experience! The ABA Journal reports:

The bonuses come as the department in March revoked its long-standing requirement that newly hired prosecutors have at least one year of experience practicing law. The Civil Division vacancies similarly state that new hires must have “up to one” year of legal experience, although there are openings at higher grade levels requiring more legal experience, according to Bloomberg Law.

And you wonder why judges are throwing DOJ lawyers out of their courtrooms! When you have inexperienced lawyers, these things happen. According to The New Republic, Judge Melissa DuBose discovered that DOJ lawyers—acting on instructions from DHS—had withheld information about a defendant’s outstanding murder warrant during a bail hearing.

Journalists say unprecedented FBI raid on reporter’s home will have ‘widespread ramifications’

Journalists say the raid is already impacting their ability to get important stories to the public.

Reporter's Committee

May 3, 2026

More than three months after the FBI took the unprecedented step of raiding a Washington Post reporter’s home in connection with a national security leak investigation, journalists say the search has had serious consequences — for reporters and their sources, and for the public that relies on them to hold the government accountable. 

The Jan. 14 raid on the home of reporter Hannah Natanson sent a shockwave through the journalism industry. In its immediate aftermath, journalists expressed alarm that federal agents not only searched Natanson’s home but also seized the reporter’s phone, laptops, and other electronic devices, capturing years of her newsgathering materials and communications with confidential sources. Journalists have since had several months to assess the raid’s fallout.

[...]

The journalists we interviewed almost universally expressed shock, but not necessarily surprise, about the search, with some emphasizing that it was an inevitable next step in what they see as the Trump administration’s broader anti-press agenda.

The DOJ knew what they were doing: creating fear in reporters and their sources!

The collective chilling effect — both on sources and reporters — spells grave danger for a free press in the United States, journalists told us. The impact of the raid, some said, will have “widespread ramifications” across the country, affecting not just national security reporters covering, for instance, the war in Iran but also local reporters covering small-town police departments. 

Above the Law has a different take on this:

The Department of Justice has a major problem: they can't find enough lawyers to do their dirty work. It’s gotten so bad that they’ve resorted to massive hiring bonuses just to get bodies in the door. It makes you wonder—is the DOJ the new "last resort" for legal careers?

[...]

It’s a problem that stretches to every corner of the DOJ. The Solicitor General’s office has hemorrhaged at least half of its career attorneys. The Civil Rights Division has shed more than 60 percent of its workforce since January 2025. U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country are cracking under the strain of cleaning up after DHS and an immigration enforcement regime that treats federal court orders as mere suggestions. Career lawyers have resigned in organized waves rather than pad their portfolio for what should be the inevitable disciplinary proceedings.

Everything has its price. The DOJ is hoping “lying to courts” and “open contempt” is worth about $25K.

It is all part of the Trump administration's plan to control the media! It is being seen as the politicization and disorganization of the Justice Department by the Trump administration.

A Death Sentence

For trans parents!

What?

Yup, a Republican candidate wants to execute parents of trans children!

GOP candidate for governor of Tennessee wants to execute the parents of trans kids

Tennessee Republican Monty Fritts has been widely condemned this week after he openly called for the state to execute the parents and guardians of transgender youngsters.

The Pink News

by Amelia Hansford

January 30, 2026

The 62-year-old gubernatorial candidate made the shocking remarks during a guest spot on a Christian Nationalist podcast earlier this week.

A clip shared by the anti-fascist group Right-Wing Watch on Thursday (29 January) sees Fritts not only call for the state-funded execution of trans and non-binary children’s parents, but of anyone who helps to provide life-saving gender-affirming care to under-18s, such as doctors.

“I think we need a law in Tennessee that would allow for capital punishment for those who commit an assault on the sanctity of life,” he said in the 40-second clip.”I think that anyone who would try to disfigure a child through hormones or surgery, you might be eligible to capital punishment.

It is like the Republicans are playing the game of One-upmanship on who can come up with the draconian laws against us.