They Don't Care

[Editorial]

I’ve been listening to Jack Campbell’s "The Pillars of Reality." On Goodreads, the author's biography notes that he draws heavily on his "experience as a retired United States Navy officer."

One particular passage in the book struck me. After a brutal battle with heavy losses on both sides, a general remarks: "We won, but that doesn’t mean we liked it." He said this while mourning the dead from both factions.

That moment provided a sudden moment of clarity regarding figures like Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth: they seem to like it. Unlike the seasoned officer in Campbell’s world, they appear gleeful over the destruction they inflict.

This behavior is not normal. The language they use to demonize others... such as their rhetoric regarding Iranians, is not the language of a true leader. It is the language of a dictator.

[/Editorial]

Takes One To Know One

Score!

CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell got Trump to open his mouth and put his foot in!

Trump lashes out at ‘60 Minutes’ anchor for reading alleged gunman’s manifesto

Any detente between the president and the press after the shared horror of Saturday’s dinner appears to be short-lived.

Politico

By Eli Stokols

04/26/2026

President Donald Trump lashed out at CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview Sunday for quoting from the manifesto of the suspected gunman who tried to storm the White House Correspondents Dinner less than 24 hours earlier.

Trump had initially expressed a sense of camaraderie with members of the press corps who hosted him at their annual dinner and experienced the same initial panic when armed law enforcement agents stormed into the ballroom.

But when O’Donnell, during an interview recorded at the White House on Sunday, quoted from the accused gunman Cole Allen’s apparent manifesto — “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” she read — Trump, who’d been relatively subdued in his responses, flashed a familiar anger.

“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump said. “Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”

O’Donnell interjected, “Oh, do you think he was referring to you?”

But the president blew past her question, declaring, “I’m not a pedophile.”

Trump bristled at what he seemed to deem an insinuation about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who was not mentioned by name in the manifesto or by O’Donnell. “You read that crap from some sick person,” the president said. “I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”

Okay, here’s my take on this.

I’ve done it. You prepare for interviews by thinking through everything that might come up and practicing your responses. You practice a lot. Only once did I ever need to fall back on rehearsed answers, but the key is actually listening to the question; something Trump didn’t do here.

You plan it out: if they say this, you respond with that. If they bring up the manifesto, you’re ready with a clear reply. But she threw a curveball and followed up his answer with: “Oh, do you think he was referring to you?”

Gotcha!

Why? Why?

Why does the Trump administration hate us so much? They are constantly finding new ways to attack us—and now they are going after doctors for, of all things, false advertising!!!!

The FTC Is Ramping Up to Target Transgender Rights

A series of new hires and investigations at the agency appear to focus on penalizing gender-affirming care for minors—and those who speak in favor of it.

Wired

Vittoria Elliott

Apr 24, 2026

The Federal Trade Commission appears to be targeting transgender rights, going beyond its usual ways of operating to do so, according to experts and federal employees who spoke to WIRED.

Since July 2025, the agency has been gearing up to frame gender-affirming care for minors as a consumer-protection issue, in a move that a former FTC employee, who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, described as “very strange.”

“I think their end goal here is to be on the front page, being warriors for the Trump anti-trans agenda,” they claim.

Why? This is pure hatred.

“The FTC has brought lots of cases around phony cures, phony health products,” the former employee says. But those cases were targeted around issues like businesses peddling fake Covid cures. In cases where the FTC has gone after nonprofits, the former employee says, it has involved the nonprofit misappropriating donations.

Who will be the focus of all this? Doctors? Hospitals? The AMA and APA? This is a targeted attack on the trans community, and the official response from the agency to a news organization proves it:

 The former FTC employee described the agency’s move to target nonprofits as “really weird” and said it was “very unusual” to hire lawyers for a specific project or case as opposed to recruiting people based on skill sets, like data protection.

In response to questions from WIRED, FTC spokesperson Joseph Simonson said, “Virtually everything you asked is based off a complete misunderstanding of the law, this agency, and the issue of whether children are potentially suffering from unnecessary mutilation. Stick to computers.”

Contrast this rhetoric with the actual medical data. On the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website, specifically in the article "Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care," published in JAMA, the evidence is clear:

Conclusions and relevance: This study found that gender-affirming medical interventions were associated with lower odds of depression and suicidality over 12 months. These data add to existing evidence suggesting that gender-affirming care may be associated with improved well-being among TNB youths over a short period, which is important given mental health disparities experienced by this population, particularly the high levels of self-harm and suicide.

All the medical evidence shows that this treatment helps us, yet it is being ignored. Instead, the administration is relying on "evidence" from far-right medical organizations. The Wired article concludes by showing this is a coordinated effort across multiple departments:

Other agencies have also targeted trans rights. In July 2025, the Department of Justice subpoenaed doctors and clinics providing gender-related care for minors. “Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” then-attorney general Pam Bondi said in a statement at the time. In December 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would bar hospitals that accept Medicare and Medicaid from performing gender-affirming care. Earlier this month, a federal judge overturned the HHS ban, writing, “This case highlights a leader’s unserious regard for the rule of law.”

Naw... tell me again how there’s "no bias" here.

The Courthouse News reports that judges are seeing through this sham.

Trump admin appeals block on subpoena for trans care clinic records

The Justice Department issued over 20 subpoenas to clinics providing gender-affirming care after Trump called for the end of such services.

Monique Merrill 

March 6, 2026

A battle over a subpoena targeting a Washington clinic that provides gender-affirming care to minors reached the Ninth Circuit on Friday, with the Trump administration arguing a judge wrongly blocked its investigation into drug manufacturers.

“It just can’t be right that the administration must choose between advocating for a policy outcome and using tools like regulatory actions and proposing legislation to achieve that outcome on the one hand, and enforcing existing laws to protect consumers within the same space where it’s engaging in policy advocacy,” said Sarah Welch, attorney with the Department of Justice.

The Justice Department issued a subpoena in June to QueerDoc, a telehealth clinic that provides gender-affirming care to adolescents and adults.

The department sought records as part of an investigation into possible violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by manufacturers of drugs used in gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapies.

[...]

In October, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead quashed the subpoena, agreeing with QueerDoc that the Justice Department had weaponized its investigative authority to advance Trump’s policy goal of eliminating gender-affirming care.

[...]

But U.S. Circuit Judge Daniel Bress, a Donald Trump appointee, questioned why the Justice Department would need patient records.

The Trump administration argued that it needed complete records to verify whether the medications QueerDoc prescribed matched the insurance billing and the patient’s diagnosis.

QueerDoc contended that the Justice Department issued the subpoena under the guise of conducting an investigation but really issued it to advance Trump’s goal of ending gender-affirming care.

No way would Trump be trying to end our healthcare! (This is sarcasm.) 

Of All The Things...

... to be worked up about with all the problems in the world, the soaring gas and food prices, what do the Republicans worry about? Us.

That's right, in Louisiana they are facing rising health insurance premiums: because  of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," property and auto insurance cost are skyrocketing, coastal erosion, pollution, and a public health crisis so what does their legislature focus on... us, the trans community!

A Trump-Inspired Louisiana Bill Would “Erase Trans People From Law”

House Bill 578 seeks to establish “a uniform statutory definition of sex in Louisiana.”

Them

By Quispe López

April 23, 2026

Louisiana lawmakers are advancing a bill that would replace all references to “gender” in state law with “sex” — a move that LGBTQ+ advocates say would effectively erase transgender people from written law.

House Bill 578, known as the “Restoring Biological Truth Act,” was introduced by sponsor state Rep. Mike Johnson in February 2026, and has since received the support of GOP governor Jeff Landry. The stated goal is to provide “a uniform statutory definition of sex in Louisiana,” defined as “an individual's biological sex, either male or female, as observed or clinically certified at birth.”

Of course they just screwed the intersex community!

While HB 578 is new, the ACLU of Louisiana noted that it largely borrows language from a law with an identical goal that passed through the Louisiana legislature in 2024. HB 608, also known as “Women's Safety and Protection Act,” stated that gender identity “and other subjective terms” should not “be used as synonyms or substitutes for sex.” That law has been in effect since August 2024.

Young professionals and families are frequently moving to neighboring states like Texas or Florida, citing better job markets, higher pay, and more reliable infrastructure. Louisiana ranks dead last in overall health rankings! Premature Death: 48th, Obesity & Diabetes: 47th and in Per Capita Income: Ranked 47th., and in Poverty Rate they are dead last!

And with statics like that what does the legislature focus on... us. The trans community!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

[Editorial]

I have testified many times before the Connecticut legislature, and I can honestly say that the legislators always treated me with respect. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case for the Republicans out in Ohio.

Constituents showed up to testify against an anti-drag bill. Ohio Republicans mocked them

They took time off work, drove hours, and spoke out against Ohio’s anti-drag bill. Many left the statehouse saying that Republican lawmakers treated them with contempt rather than respect.

The Advocate

Ken Schneck

Apr 24, 2026

Kim Burroughs was not planning on testifying in front of the Ohio House Judiciary Committee on March 18.

She had a full week of depositions and legal work as an attorney at a Columbus-based law firm, and a nursery to assemble as she and her wife were soon expecting a baby.

But when Burroughs received a call from an Equality Ohio staff member asking her to submit testimony opposing HB 249, “The Enact the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act,” she knew she had to testify for her first time at the Ohio Statehouse.

[...]

But when Burroughs received a call from an Equality Ohio staff member asking her to submit testimony opposing HB 249, “The Enact the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act,” she knew she had to testify for her first time at the Ohio Statehouse.

[...]

“His behavior toward witnesses, residents of our great state of Ohio, was juvenile and condescending, refusing to acknowledge the expertise and experiences of others,” said Whitted, who was the only out LGBTQ+ House lawmaker when she served. “He instead presented as a monomaniac regarding constitutional knowledge.”

That is wrong! Very wrong! To treat a constituent that way shows a complete lack of respect. You would expect that behavior on a fifth-grade playground, not in a hearing room at the State Capitol!

Here in Connecticut, when the first gender-inclusive non-discrimination bill was introduced in 2006, it passed the Judiciary Committee 28–8. That was bipartisan support! However, by 2011, when the bill finally passed, the vote was 27–14, right down party lines. When I first started advocating for this law, if a legislator told you how they were going to vote, they told the truth. By 2011, that was no longer the case.

When the bill passed the Senate, a number of Republicans gave a "thumbs up" signal. They were personally in favor of the bill but had been ordered by their party to vote against it. Back then, I could talk to my Republican Senator and feel like they were actually listening; now, I have a MAGA Republican representative who doesn't even pretend to listen.

Although 108 Ohioans submitted written testimony, the Republican-dominated committee only allowed 16 to testify in person, imposing a three-hour limit for the hearing.

That is unheard of! I have been at the Capitol into the wee hours of the morning. During the marriage equality bill, testimony went almost around the clock!

The Republicans don't want to hear the voices of the people anymore; those voices just get in the way of the party line.

The Republicans simply have no R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for the voters!

[/Editorial]

They Keep Piling On Us!

It seems like every time we turn around...

• They want to require television show to be labeled “trans” if they have any “trans” characters or plots.
• Trump wants to have us labeled as terrorist.
• Trump has stripped us of our life savings healthcare.

Now substitute Black people for trans people.

• They want to require television show to be labeled “Black” if they have any “Black” characters or plots.
• Trump wants to have “Blacks” labeled as terrorist.
• Trump has stripped us of our life savings healthcare.

Do you think that would be allowed? Why is it okay for us to be discriminated against?

There are two mindsets about us: conservatives think we choose to be trans, while liberals know we are born this way. If you look at nature, you will see trans identity everywhere! But we were censored in the animal world along with the human world. Primatologists and anthropologists reported it in their notes, but it never made it to the public back in the 1950s—the era of the "Lavender Scare."

Integrative and Comparative Biology (ICB) writes in Joan Roughgarden’s Evolution’s Rainbow, a book review by Josephine Low that, 

In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin described life as “endless forms most beautiful.” The field of biology is defined by the pursuit of universal explanations for these infinite possibilities. Despite the enduring desire for objectivity, what scientists choose to study and their interpretation is shaped by cultural norms. Paradoxically, popular culture looks to science to affirm what is “natural” and therefore right, creating a feedback loop which distorts our perception of the natural world and humanity’s place in it.

If enforcing a singular perspective on an infinite world unjustly flattens the world, embracing a multitude of perspectives is the best way to understand an infinite world. To borrow the language of renowned ecologist and evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden, we need to learn to see nature’s rainbow.

But that is exactly what the Republicans want to do when they pass laws stating that there are only two genders! The National Institutes of Health website, PubMed, reports in Genetic and Environmental Contributions To Gender Diversity: A Systematic Review of the Twin Literature. The introduction reads, in part:

The aetiological basis for gender diversity remains unknown. However, similar to other complex human traits (Polderman et al. 2015), the prevailing theory is that a complex interaction between genes and the environment collectively contribute to the formation of gender identity (Coleman et al. 2022). Studies using a classic twin study design have assessed the validity of this hypothesis by comparing rates of concordance for a transgender and other gender diverse (hereafter, trans) identity in monozygotic (MZ, identical) and dizygotic (DZ, non-identical) twins (Polderman et al. 2018) (see Table 1 for glossary of relevant terms). Since MZ twins share 100% of their DNA, compared to 50% on average in DZ twins, twin studies offer a powerful opportunity to examine questions about the heritable contribution to gender identity. In addition, using univariate models, twin data can also facilitate assessment of the relative contributions of environmental factors shared between each twin pair (e.g. intrauterine and family environment) and non-shared environmental factors (e.g. unique life experiences) (Neale and Cardon 1992).

[…]

Conclusion

This review of the twin literature suggests that there is likely both heritable and non-shared environmental contributions to gender diversity, but the magnitude of these contributions remains undefined and further research is needed to help clarify this.

But the Republicans still think it is a choice! That one day we sit down and think, "Gee, I want to be trans so I can be beaten up and discriminated against!"

The Guardian reported on:

'Sexual depravity' of penguins that Antarctic scientist dared not reveal

Landmark polar research about the Adélie penguin's sex life by Captain Scott's expedition, deemed too shocking for the public 100 years ago, is unearthed at the Natural History Museum

The Guardian

Robin McKie, science editor

Sat 9 Jun 2012

It was the sight of a young male Adélie penguin attempting to have sex with a dead female that particularly unnerved George Murray Levick, a scientist with the 1910-13 Scott Antarctic Expedition. No such observation had ever been recorded before, as far as he knew, and Levick, a typical Edwardian Englishman, was horrified. Blizzards and freezing cold were one thing. Penguin perversion was another.

Worse was to come, however. Levick spent the Antarctic summer of 1911-12 observing the colony of Adélies at Cape Adare, making him the only scientist to this day to have studied an entire breeding cycle there. During that time, he witnessed males having sex with other males and also with dead females, including several that had died the previous year. He also saw them sexually coerce females and chicks and occasionally kill them.

Levick blamed this "astonishing depravity" on "hooligan males" and wrote down his observations in Greek so that only an educated gentleman would understand the horrors he had witnessed. Back in Britain he produced a paper (in English), titled Natural History of the Adélie Penguin. However, the section about the animal's sexual proclivities was deemed to be so shocking it was removed to preserve decency. Levick then used this material as the basis for a separate short paper, Sexual Habits of the Adélie Penguin, which was privately circulated among a handful of experts.

As a result of that self-censorship, we are demonized! Maybe if they had publicized that being LGBTQ+ is part of the natural process of life back then, LGBTQ+ people would not be persecuted now. Maybe if they taught that in school, we wouldn’t have the hate we have now. And now, once again, they are banning anything LGBTQ+ in schools! What is that teaching the students? What else have scientists hidden from us?

I have always said that Mother Nature loves to experiment. So when you pass laws saying that there are only two genders, you are going against Mother Nature—and she doesn’t like that!

---

Another factor showing that being LGBTQ+ is an inborn trait rather than a choice is statistics!

I’m "sinister"—or left-handed, as they used to call us! We were called witches and burned at the stake. Nuns would whack your hand until it was black and blue and belittle you in front of the class for smudging the ink. According to BBC News:

Approximately 10% to 12% of the world's population is left-handed. While estimates can range from 8% to 15% depending on the study and cultural factors, the 10% figure is the most commonly cited. This ratio has remained remarkably stable for over 5,000 years, with a higher prevalence in males than females

But here is a fact they don’t teach you in school. Psychology Today writes that if you are LGBTQ+, you have a higher chance of being left-handed: 

According to Kenneth Zucker*, a researcher at the University of Toronto's Center for Addiction and Mental Health, homosexuals are more likely to be lefties than heterosexuals. Zucker analyzed data collected in 20 different studies over the past 50 years and discovered a correlation between left-handedness and homosexuality. The findings indicate that lesbians have a 91 percent greater chance of being left-handed or ambidextrous than straight women, while gay men are 34 percent more likely than straight men to not be right-handed. While Zucker says the research provides empirical evidence that links homosexuality to left-handedness, he also adds that "we don't have a definitive answer as to why the relationship exists."

*Hey, I know! Ken Zucker S**ks!

In another PubMed article they write,

Abstract

Handedness preference was assessed in 205 boys with gender identity disorder and 205 clinical control boys referred for other reasons. Boys with gender identity disorder were significantly more likely to be left-handed than the clinical control boys (19.5% vs. 8.3%, respectively). The boys with gender identity disorder, but not the clinical control boys, also had a significantly higher rate of left-handedness compared to three independent, general population studies of nonreferred boys (11.8%; N = 14,253) by Hardyck, Goldman, and Petrinovich (1975), Calnan and Richardson (1976), and Eaton, Chipperfield, Ritchot, and Kostiuk (1996). Left-handedness appears to be a behavioral marker of an underlying neurobiological process associated with gender identity disorder in boys.

Hey! To all you people who think being trans is a choice: is being left-handed a prerequisite for "choosing" to be trans?

Wait, that’s not all. In Nature Communications, the article “Elevated rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses, and autistic traits in transgender and gender-diverse individuals” reports:

In conclusion, our study demonstrates that transgender and gender-diverse individuals have elevated rates of autism diagnosis, related neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, and autistic traits compared to cisgender individuals. This study has clinical implications by highlighting that we need to improve access to care and tailored support for this under-served population.

Can you imagine Republicans passing laws like the ones they are passing against us on any other protected class? Why are they allowed to discriminate against us? They justify their pogrom against the trans community with their lies.

The same institutions that tried to "beat the left-handedness out of people" in the past are often the ones trying to "legislate the trans identity out of people" today.

We will not be erased!

Saturday 9: Good

Saturday 9: Good (1995)

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

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

 

1) This song begins with a guy realizing he's home alone. Do you enjoy being all by yourself?

Well being single… it is a fact of life. When I have company up at the cottage I need a lot of “Me time” to decompress.

2) He watches the sun throwing shadows on the floor. Which room in your home lets in the most sun?

The atrium, it can heat the house during the day in all but the last days of December and the early January.

3) He sings that he may write a letter to his ex. If you were inspired to send someone a handwritten message, do you have stationery or notecards on hand? What about first-class postage stamps?

Yes, I have stationery to write thank-you cards. But I’ll have to dust it off.

4) This week's band, Better Than Ezra, got their start in Baton Rouge. All the members attended LSU and played their first gig at Murphy's, a bar near campus. When you were in your early 20's, where did you and your friends go to socialize?

The bars in town. 

5) While the band refuses to disclose the origin of their name, many assume the "Ezra" they refer to is poet Ezra Pound. Do you often read poetry?

Nope. But I wrote some

6) In 1995, when this song was popular, Michael Jordan "unretired" and returned to the Chicago Bulls. Tell us about a decision you wish you could undo.

Selling the New Hampshire lake cottage.

7) Also in 1995, Phoebe Buffay first performed "Smelly Cat." Do you recall what show she sang on?

Nope, I have no idea who Buffay is lat alone the show!

 

8) Legendary New York Yankee Mickey Mantle died in 1995. How is your team doing so far this young baseball season?

Well first off, you need a team to root for!

9) Random question: What's in your garage, besides your car (lawn tools, holiday decorations, old paint cans, etc.)?

Well if you asked three months ago it was piled up with junk. But they filled a huge dumpster, now there are tools.