It Is Not Just Us!

It is not just Trump and his cohorts attacking the trans community, but also everything they label as “woke”!

White House Appeals Decision Requiring Sign Language Interpreters

Abe News

by James Weisman, Esq.

Feb 1, 2026

There are two legal defenses to a charge of discrimination on the basis of disability built into the Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. They can be called “undue burden” defenses – undue financial and/or administrative burdens, i.e., the accommodation necessary is financially disproportionate to the defendant’s ability to pay or is so disruptive to the defendant’s operations that it is unreasonable.

Since “reasonableness” is all the “reasonable accommodation” laws require, a defendant’s failure to make legally required accommodations is considered unreasonable.

President Trump is attempting to create another defense. It can be paraphrased as “if making reasonable accommodation cramps your style you don’t have to do it.”

Do you believe this? How petty can the White House be! They are claiming an “undue burden” to provide sign language interpreters!

The Biden Administration provided ASL interpreter services at White House press briefings. The second Trump Administration eliminated them as part of its efforts to root out diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Reasonable accommodation is not “woke” behavior or optional. NAD sued again, in May 2025. The President raised a unique defense, one that was bound to fail. His lawyers argued that ASL interpreters intrude on President Trump’s ability to control his image, i.e., it cramps his style.

Federal District Court Judge Amir H. Ali granted an injunction to NAD requiring the White House to provide ASL interpreters at press briefings. The Trump Administration has appealed and is quibbling over things like what constitutes a press briefing (scheduled and/or spontaneous events).

Where I went to college, every classroom had an interpreter! When CTAC held conferences, we hired interpreters whenever someone needed one. Providing interpreters is not an “undue burden” it’s a matter of respect for others.

This Struck Me!

When I read this headline from Reuters you know what got me?

Kansas invalidates driver’s licenses, birth certificates of over 1,000 transgender residents

So, what caught my attention?

What struck me was “over 1,000 transgender residents.”

What really hit me was that they passed this draconian law for only one thousand people. In the whole state of Kansas, there are only about one thousand trans people! They passed this law for one thousand people! They took time out of their legislative session for one thousand people!

The Kansas state government has invalidated the driver’s licenses and birth certificates of transgender residents who changed the gender on those documents, in accordance with a law that took effect on Thursday.

The move affects more than 1,000 people. The law requires residents to change their gender identification to the sex they were assigned at birth, and also bans residents from changing their gender on those documents in the future.

1,000 people!

Kansas residents were permitted to change their gender markers on driver’s licenses and birth certificates until 2023, when those changes were halted amid litigation initiated by the state’s Republican attorney general, Kris Kobach. Last year, the courts permitted transgender residents to once again make those changes. State lawmakers then introduced the bill enacted into law after the Kansas legislature overrode Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s veto.

How bitter are these Republicans! They are passing all these anti-trans laws for 1,000 people!

From their rhetoric, you would think there were tens of thousands of trans people in the state… not just 1,000!

The Hill writes that,

The GOP-led Kansas Legislature passed the bill last month. While Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed it, the Legislature overrode that veto earlier this month.

This is all the Republican doing, they have a super-majority in the legislature!

“This bill is about forcing people into the wrong bathrooms and opening up all Kansans to scrutiny and gender policing by strangers,” said Logan DeMond, ACLU of Kansas policy director, in a release. “Bathroom bans are grounded in prejudice and misinformation, and they don’t actually make anyone safer.”

Once again… only one thousand people have transitioned! All this vitriol directed at just one thousand people!

---

If you’re trans and living through laws like this, the comparison to Jim Crow probably isn’t an abstract rhetorical exercise. It’s about what it feels like to have the state:

• Reclassify you against your will
• Override how you live and are recognized
• Control where you can safely exist in public
• Signal that your identity is up for debate

The Jim Crow laws and the anti-trans laws share:

• Both both involve government restrictions on a defined group’s rights and autonomy,
• Both singled people out by law
• Both were told by the state that their identity isn’t recognized
• Both experiencing exclusion from public spaces
• Both feared stigma, harassment, or legal consequences

People, you want to know what the Jim Crow laws were like? Well now you know!

When you’re the one affected, you’re not sitting there weighing Dread Scott 1896 Supreme Court* case against modern equal-protection standards. You’re asking: Am I safe? Am I respected? Am I legally recognized?

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*The Dred Scott v. Sandford case said Black people could not be citizens and had no rights the federal government was bound to respect. It wasn’t just wrong; it entrenched dehumanization at the highest legal level. And that runaway slaves had to be returned to their "owners"

Today, there are legal cases before the courts involving transgender people and women seeking abortion who travel across state lines for care and face potential legal consequences in their home states.

They Are Out To Get Us!

Why? What have we done to them, we are only 0.5 percent of the population! Why are they going banana’s over us?

Kansas informs trans residents their driver’s licenses become invalid on Thursday 

Kansas City Star

By Matthew Kelly

February 25, 2026

Transgender Kansans are being informed on the eve of a new state law going into effect that their driver’s licenses will be considered invalid as of Thursday. “Please note that the Legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials. That means that once the law is officially enacted, your current credentials will be invalid immediately, and you may be subject to additional penalties if you are operating a vehicle without a valid credential,” read letters mailed by the Kansas Department of Revenue’s vehicles division.

Why did this take effect the same day the law goes into effect? Why not provide a 60-day grace period? It can only be because they want to inflict pain on the community!

There are other states where you cannot change your gender markers, but no state has ever retroactively canceled IDs that already reflect a trans person’s gender identity.

The Democratic governor vetoed the bill, but…

SB 244, which Republican supermajorities in the Kansas Legislature voted last week to enact into law over Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, will go into effect on Thursday upon the publication of the Kansas Register. The legislation provides no funding to help people who need to replace their licenses. Kansas driver’s licenses typically cost around $30. In addition to invalidating transgender residents’ state identification documents, the new law will require people in government-owned buildings to use restrooms and other multi-occupancy private spaces in accordance with their sex assigned at birth. “The persecution is the point,” said Rep. Abi Boatman, a Wichita Democrat and the only transgender member of the Legislature, who received the KDOR notice on Wednesday.

As the legislator said, this law is punitive! Here is the letter that the DOV sent out...

What does it say about the animosity that Republicans have for the trans community?

But it is not just Kansas that are passing draconian laws!

With New Momentum, Republican States Push Broader Limits for Trans Americans

In states that once focused mainly on health care and sports for transgender minors, debates now revolve around the validity of transgender identity.

The New York Times

By Amy Harmon

Feb. 18, 2026

After a year in which the Trump administration has pressed to limit the ways Americans can identify as transgender in public life, Republicans are pushing the issue at the state level with new zeal.

With legislative sessions underway in most states, hundreds of bills restricting transgender rights are under consideration as social conservatives seek to capitalize on Trump administration tailwinds and a shift in public opinion to codify an understanding of sex and gender as binary and fixed.

[...]

Idaho’s House of Representatives this week advanced a bill that would allow people to sue private businesses that allow transgender people to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

In Utah, legislators are weighing removing transgender people from groups protected by a state law barring discrimination in housing and employment.

Oklahoma lawmakers are considering expanding the state’s ban on gender-transition medical treatment for minors to include adults, and a Florida House panel has advanced a bill prohibiting public sector employers from requiring workers to use the preferred pronouns of transgender co-workers.

The barrage of bills follows a six-year stretch in which 27 state legislatures controlled by Republicans focused restrictions mainly on health care and sports for transgender minors. This year’s proposals are more sweeping: They address trans adults as well as youths, seek to close loopholes in earlier laws and mandate harsher penalties for violations.

I keep asking "Why?" And I think I know the answer but I don't want hear the answer.

Supporters of transgender rights say they view this year’s state proposals as a concerted effort to chip away at protections of trans people at the state level to build support for even broader limits at a national level.

“There’s a clear pathway between the states and federal policies under this administration,” said the Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of Campaign for Southern Equality, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy organization based in North Carolina. “Our general analysis is that they will go as far as they think they can in enforcing what’s fundamentally a very narrow ideological position — that being transgender does not exist. That it is not a reality.”

[...]

Over the last decade, many Democrats have argued that gender identity is central to who someone is, and that excluding transgender people from sports and public accommodations is a form of discrimination. Starting in 2015, Democrats sought to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include gender identity as a protected class.

And this was done last February and we are just finding out about it now...

Trump Administration Removes Trans Individuals From LGBTQI Travel Information Resources

The U.S. State Department has removed letters "TQ" from its official travel website, which now reads, "LGB."

Travel + Leisure 

By Stacey Leasca

February 4, 2025

Just days after President Donald Trump took office for the second time, he signed an executive order making it U.S. government policy to only recognize male and female sex. Quickly thereafter, the U.S. State Department suspended the processing of passports for applicants who selected “X” as their preferred gender. Now, the State Department has also removed the letters "TQ" from its official travel website, which now reads, "LGB." 

"LGB travelers can face special challenges abroad. Laws and attitudes in some countries may affect safety and ease of travel," the website reads, closely mirroring what it did just a few weeks ago, only this time, without the recognition of transgender and queer travelers. "Many countries do not recognize same-sex marriage. Many countries also only recognize the male and female sex markers in passports and do not have IT systems at ports of entry that can accept other sex markers. About 70 countries still consider consensual same-sex relations a crime. In some of these countries, individuals who engage in same-sex sexual relations may face severe punishment." 

What remains unclear — and unsettling — to transgender travelers is if the U.S. will join the "many countries" the State Department says only recognize other sex markers. 

Why all the vitriol from Republicans against us? Is it only to rally their base for votes, even if they are causing irreversible harm to our community?

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Updated @ 2PM

The ACLU is challenging the law!

Today’s lawsuit challenging SB 244 was filed in the District Court of Douglas County on behalf of anonymous Plaintiffs Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kansas, and Ballard Spahr LLP. The lawsuit charges that SB 244 violates the Kansas Constitution’s protections for personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and freedom of speech.

“This legislation is a direct attack on the dignity and humanity of transgender Kansans,” said Monica Bennett, Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas. “It undermines our state’s strong constitutional protections against government overreach and persecution.”

“SB 244 is a cruel and craven threat to public safety all in the name of fostering fear, division, and paranoia,” said Harper Seldin, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project. “The invalidation of state-issued IDs threatens to out transgender people against their will every time they apply for a job, rent an apartment, or interact with police. Taken as a whole, SB 244 is a transparent attempt to deny transgender people autonomy over their own identities and push them out of public life altogether.”

And remember, there are only around 1,800 trans people in Kansas!

They Want To...

Harm us! They want to inflict pain and suffering on the LGBTQ+ community. Don’t believe me? Then why else would they cut funding to AIDS programs, forcing people off their life-saving medication?

New emergency rules finish an administrative challenge to AIDS drug program cuts

AIDS Healthcare Foundation attorney accuses DeSantis administration of ‘legal subterfuge”

Florida Phoenix

By Christine Sexton

February 25, 2026

The DeSantis administration has filed an emergency rule that restricts eligibility for an AIDS drug assistance program beginning March 1, effectively bringing an end to an administrative challenge filed by a leading AIDS healthcare provider.

But a legal challenge to the emergency rules already is looming. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) said Wednesday it would immediately challenge the emergency rules. Hearings on emergency rule challenges must be heard within 14 days.

State Administrative Law Judge W. David Watkins had scheduled an emergency hearing  on AHF’s request to lift an automatic stay that has prevented its legal challenge against the Department of Health from going forward. 

AHF’s underlying case hinged on the argument that the DOH violated Florida law when it announced cost-cutting at the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), including scaling back who’s eligible and what drugs are available. 

DOH claims the changes, announced on its website and in correspondence to affected ADAP clients, need to be made because the program faces a $120 million deficit. About 16,000 people living with HIV and AIDS are expected to be affected by the changes, which include limiting income eligibility for the program from $63,840 annually for an individual to $20,748 annually.

Diseases are not political, if you have funding short fall... Fund It!

Unlike general rules, emergency rules take effect immediately and aren’t required to go through the rulemaking process.

“I think proceeding today on the question that’s teed up on the notice of whether the stay should be lifted or not lifted is, again from our perspective, an academic exercise in light of the emergency rule filed yesterday,” said Lombard, of the Tallahassee firm Lombard Law. “So, our perspective is that, for today’s purposes, there’s nothing to be done. Nothing to be done in the case, period, and all this is moot and subject to dismissal.”

Without treatments, the disease will spread. Republicans keep calling AIDS the “gay disease,” but diseases are equal opportunity infectors — they don’t care what political party you support or who you love. HIV infects people equally.

The reality is simple: this is a disease. Cutting funding doesn’t stop it. The virus is still out there.

WFMZ headline says it all Florida’s proposed cuts to AIDS drug program threaten patient care and public health

More than 128,000 Floridians are living with HIV. The state has the second-highest rate of new HIV diagnoses after Georgia, with approximately 4,500 new diagnoses in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available.

But access to treatment could be in jeopardy if potential budget cuts, announced in January 2026 by the Florida Department of Health, are enacted.

These changes, set to go into effect on March 1, would cut funding for the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which helps more than 31,000 Floridians with HIV/AIDS afford care.

Without the drugs, those 31,000 people can now spread the disease again! When AIDS/HIV came to the US it was carried by gay men but it has spread far and wide.

They cite budget pressure & federal funding shifts, and rapidly rising drug costs, but the cost of not covering the drugs is much greater!

AHF attorney Louise Wilhite-St. Laurent reluctantly agreed with Lombard on that point but not before she accused the DeSantis administration of “legal subterfuge,” noting the administration had filed a motion asking Watkins to quash seven subpoenas it had served on DOH employees requiring them to appear at the emergency hearing.

The motion to quash the subpoenas was the latest legal maneuver from the DeSantis administration that she insisted were intended to stifle discussion.

Other maneuvers included the DOH noticing that it would publish the rules necessary to cut program, which allowed the DOH to take advantage of a state law that enables agencies to obtain automatic stay in certain administrative challenges involving rulemaking.

Oh, the administration knows exactly what it is doing and what these cuts will cause. They know HIV has spread into Black and Latino populations, and even into the senior population. AIDS is a growing problem in long-term care facilities.

These cuts are targeted at the LGBTQ+ community for one reason only... to punish the LGBTQ+ community!

He Is Not Happy Until...

The economy, healthcare, and crime are the top concerns for most voters, while trans rights tend to fall low down the list. Yet we are often treated as “low-hanging fruit.” Politicians like Trump and his cohorts exploit ignorance about trans people to redirect attention away from more pressing issues, such as government corruption, violence, and the erosion of civil liberties. By stoking fear and misunderstanding about trans people, they create a convenient distraction from the real challenges facing citizens.

Stand up to Trump's SOTU attack on trans kids

Opinion: The president's demonization of trans youth in his State of the Union requires a concerted pushback in school boards, family conversations, workplaces, and everyday speech, writes contributor Josh Ackley.

The Advocate

Josh Ackley

Feb 25, 2026

There is a comforting story many of us tell about progress. We imagine rights arrive because the world improves, knowledge spreads, time passes, and people naturally become kinder. We picture history as a staircase that society slowly climbs together.

Anyone paying attention now understands that is not how this works. Rights survive only when someone decides to hold them in place.

Oh... that is so true. Our rights are only skin deep! One judge, one legislator, and one governor away from loosing them!

Political speeches often elevate individual stories to humanize public policy, but this was something different. Here the young person’s life was enlisted as proof of a broader cultural crisis. Family dynamics, medical realities, and ongoing legal proceedings were flattened into a narrative of urgency and threat. The audience was invited to feel alarm rather than curiosity and certainty rather than compassion. Anecdote became mandate in a matter of seconds, and a child’s vulnerability was transformed into justification for federal intervention.

We can do the same! Our stories are powerful! Our families are powerful!

I have been out in this community for a quarter of a century. I have seen children transition, and I have detransition and get on with their lives. But these children who are poster children for the conservatives who are parading them around the country to go and tell their stories before legislators, I have to wonder what is that doing to them?

Trump uses State of the Union to attack trans rights and calls for ban on schools allowing social transitioning

LGBT+ groups say ‘forced outing’ endangers vulnerable gender nonconfirming teens in unsupportive families

The Independent 

Alex Woodward

25 February 2026

President Donald Trump used a teenage girl’s story to call for a ban on states and schools allowing transgender and nonbinary students to socially transition without parental consent, in what civil rights groups have called “forced outing” that endangers vulnerable children.

Trump singled out the story of a Virginia teenager during his State of the Union address Tuesday to call on Congress to further restrict transgender and nonbinary youth after his administration imposed sweeping bans targeting trans Americans over the last year.

Sage Blair’s mother, Michele, sued the Appomattox County School Board in 2023 over allegations that the district did not disclose information that Sage was identifying as male.

As I said, the harm that they are doing to these children is criminal! They are creating lifelong angst for them. They will always have a deep voice because Trump and his religious cohorts! 

I have seen so many trans people detransition only to retransition. They were under so much family and/or religious pressure that they had to detransition. But in their souls they knew the truth.

Oh... Ohio!

The Republicans in Ohio are trying so hard to be the biggest a*s in passing anti-trans laws!

Ohio ranks fourth in nation for anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, report says

by: David Rees

NBC 4 (WCMH

Feb 23, 2026

Ohio ranked fourth in the nation in 2025 for the highest number of anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, with 51 reported cases, according to a new report from GLAAD.

California ranked first with 198, then New Hampshire with 72 and Texas with 66, the organization said in its 2025 Alert Desk report released in late January. Nationwide, GLAAD tracked 1,042 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in 47 states and the District of Columbia between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025. The marks a 5% increase from the 984 incidents recorded in 2024, according to the report.

In Ohio, the 51 incidents included 20 protests, 19 instances of propaganda distribution, five acts of vandalism or damage, two acts of harassment, two bomb threats and three arson attempts.

The report found that 268 incidents occurred last June, making it one of the most dangerous Pride months since GLAAD began collecting data in 2022. That figure represents nearly a 400% increase from the 54 incidents tracked in June 2022.

GLAAD said states at the center of political debates over LGBTQ+ rights led the country in total incidents. In Ohio, the report cited controversy after the City Club of Cleveland invited a lobbyist from the Center for Christian Virtue, designated as an “anti-LGBTQ+ hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to speak as part of its civic engagement programming.

But wait...! The Council on American-Islamic Relations reports,

The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio), CAIR Action, the ACLU of Ohio, the Ohio Divest Coalition, and a diverse coalition of partners testified against Ohio Senate Bill 87 (SB 87), legislation that would codify the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism into state law on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

The coalition included lawyers, doctors, educators, veterans, and faith leaders from Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and other communities. Together, the coalition members advocated for free speech and human rights for people of all backgrounds. More than 25 Ohioans from across the state testified against the bill in-person, in addition to more than 67 others submitting written testimony. A letter signed by more than 100 Jewish Ohioans opposing SB 87 was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and more than 400 Ohioans signed an action alert urging lawmakers to vote no. 

The bill would violate the First Amendment!

If passed, SB87 would expand the net of criminalization for speech using the IHRA definition of antisemitism that has been widely criticized as overbroad. Even Kenneth Stern, the principal drafter of the definition, has opposed its use by government agencies.

But wait — there’s even more. Last summer, Ohio lawmakers wanted to make attacks on politicians hate crimes…

Ohio lawmakers move to classify threats on politicians as hate crimes

The Ohio Capital Journal

By: Morgan Trau

August 28, 2025

A bipartisan group of Ohio lawmakers has introduced a bill making hate crimes illegal, increasing penalties for assaulting or terrorizing someone based on their race, sex, and even political affiliation.

Over the past year, the Ohio Statehouse has had to increase security due to upticks in threats against lawmakers.

The FBI charged a New Albany man in May for sending white powder and a bullet to Attorney General Dave Yost. Along with the threats to the state’s top cop, the suspect sent powder and violent messages to dozens of other public officials, like Sec. of State Frank LaRose and Treasurer Robert Sprague.

A Dayton man was arrested in July for leaving a threatening voicemail to Congressman Jim Jordan.

Over the past two years, Congresswoman Shontel Brown, Yost, and several state lawmakers have been “swatted,” with individuals falsely reporting serious crimes occurring at their addresses. This hoax has the goal of sending a large police presence, or a SWAT team, to approach an unsuspecting victim.

I'm for increasing penalties on crimes. But I do not support redefining them as hate or bias crimes. Hate crimes are about immutable characteristics.

Now they want to make political affiliation a protected class. I don’t know about you, but I have changed political parties in the past, but my gender identity, however, is immutable.

H.B. 306 creates a new provision, protecting race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, familial status, military status, disability, the person’s position in a labor dispute, and political affiliation or position.

“One category that is not explicitly protected by this law, and it was kind of surprising to see that it was omitted given how broad this law is, is sexual orientation and sexual identity, gender identity,” Hill said.

This bill was a compromise, Jarrells said, but he believes that if someone commits a crime against a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it would fall under the “sex” protection.

“We were able to settle on ‘sex’ being kind of the umbrella term that covers all the gamut,” Jarrells said.

Hill acknowledged that in some cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has included sexual orientation under the sex category. Still, this provides an opening to interpret the law as not necessarily including sexuality or gender, she said.

But aren't!

Last Night!

Last night in the State of the Union speech, NPR reported...

Transgender youth

TRUMP: "No state can be allowed to rip children from their parents' arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will. Who would believe that we’re even talking about this? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately."

For the second year in a row, President Trump has brought as a guest a parent with a story about a child who began a gender transition in secret. The children mentioned in both speeches seem to have done some version of "social transition," which involves changing a name, pronouns, clothes, haircuts and the like. All of those things are reversible.

This is a topic he brought up frequently during his presidential campaign, in which he and Republicans spent millions on anti-trans ads.

So far, the Trump administration's efforts to ban trangender [sic] care has focused on medical interventions for youth. Using threats of withheld federal funding, investigations, proposed regulations, and subpoenas, the White House has succeeded in shutting down many gender clinics for youth at hospitals across the country. There are also many lawsuits challenging these actions.

— Selena Simmons-Duffin, Health Policy Correspondent

A Choice… Yeah Right!

[Editorial]

I was recently reading a comment on Yahoo regarding an article about how lesbians organized care for AIDS patients back in the ’80s. The article mentioned that one of the women attended a Seven Sisters college. A commenter wrote: “Those lesbian colleges are turning young women into lesbians!”

That single comment highlighted so many prejudices. First is the belief that being LGBTQ+ is a choice. Second is the assumption that all New England colleges are filled with gay and lesbian students.

If you look through their warped lens, it all fits together. But no matter how much science and research you show them, they reject it.

I don’t argue with them anymore. It is all circular logic that makes my head spin.

I learned a long time ago: thank your supporters, tell your detractors that you don’t agree with them, and then move on. Focus on the "movable middle."

[/Editorial]

Thumbing Their Nose

In Florida they banned rainbow crosswalks... in St. Petersburg they laughed in Ron DeSantis face. He banned rainbow crosswalks how about a 60 miles laser rainbow!

Defiant St. Pete lights up the sky as Winter Pride Saint Pete shines 60 miles strong

WMNF

February 20, 2026

Chris Gorman

Winter Pride Saint Pete had its grand pride laser light ceremony, sending rainbow lasers into the evening sky in a display that organizers say can be seen from as far as 60 miles away.

The show didn’t explode into full brightness right away. Instead, it started off subtle… a slow, gradual process as the lasers warmed up. At first, the colors were faint and easy to miss against the glow of the streets, but as the minutes passed, the beams sharpened, brightened, and became dramatically more vivid.

By the time the display reached its peak, the transformation was undeniable. What began as a low-key start built steadily into a striking, intensely colorful rainbow stretching above St. Pete.

Even though the ceremony took place in the heart of St. Petersburg, the lasers didn’t feel like a local-only moment. People throughout the area reported seeing the glow from a distance, turning the launch into something bigger than a single gathering and giving Winter Pride a skyline-sized presence.

LGBTQ Nation reports that,

City sticks it to Ron DeSantis with massive rainbow laser display

This is not the first act of rebellion the city has taken since DeSantis removed its rainbow crosswalks.

Molly Sprayregen (She/Her)

February 23, 2026

The city of St. Petersburg, Florida, has continued to find ways to support its LGBTQ+ community amid Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) crusade to eradicate rainbow crosswalks from the state.

Most recently, the organizers of Winter Pride St. Pete lit up the night sky with an impressive rainbow laser display visible from more than 60 miles away.

Winter Pride St. Pete executive director Rob Hall called the light show “a remarkable moment,” confirming it was a direct response to the LGBTQ+ erasure taking place in the state.

He told Fox 13 that he knew he should come to St. Petersburg after he came out as an adult. He said the rainbow crosswalk he saw when he got there, which has since been removed by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), was “life-changing.”

“When it was removed, it had a significant impact on my heart,” he said.

The light display was designed by laser artist Yvette Mattern, who said she was “so proud to be able to do this where that rainbow crosswalk was taken away.”

Two thumbs up!

Sorry Charlie

Remember the tuna fish commercial where the tuna keeps getting rejected... well the just turned down Trump's invitation!

U.S. women's hockey team declines Trump's invitation to the State of the Union

President Donald Trump invited the men's and women's hockey teams after both won gold medals in overtime games against Canada.

NBC News

Feb. 23, 2026

By Monica Alba and Megan Lebowitz

The U.S. women's hockey team said it is declining President Donald Trump's invitation to attend his State of the Union address, a day after the president jokingly told the U.S. men's hockey team that he would be impeached if he didn't also invite the women's team.

"We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal–winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement," a USA Hockey spokesperson said. "Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate."

Sorry Donald. Maybe next time!

If he did not invite the women's team, "I do believe I probably would be impeached," he joked.

Ha, ha... That is Trump thinks of the women's teams... as an after thought.

The Constitution? What's That?

They are thugs, pure and simple. There're so many parallels in history with dictatorships throwing laws out the window. We are seeing that here.

Bill of Rights put to the test over Trump's immigration crackdown in Minnesota

A number of court challenges are tied to these constitutional amendments, with potentially significant consequences for immigration law.

NBC News

Feb. 22, 2026

By Allan Smith and Scott Wong

In and out of court, more than half of the amendments enshrined in the Bill of Rights are being fought over as a direct result of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota.

In his second term, Trump and his administration have been aggressive in stretching the boundaries of political conventions, resulting in a number of court challenges. Trump’s push to eliminate birthright citizenship, freeze federal funds and bypass Congress through executive orders have tested the separation of powers.

The Twin Cities campaign, though, has been a flashpoint, with fights over at least six — the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and 10th — of the first 10 amendments. Conservative-leaning scholars see both lawyers and judges overstepping their bounds in fiery filings and opinions, while liberal-leaning counterparts see a notable disregard by the Trump administration for Bill of Rights provisions.

[...]

Yoo added that the contests over the Fourth Amendment might be the most significant as the space where individual liberties may most be at stake. That amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures and requires the federal government to obtain warrants based on probable cause to enter a person’s home. It has been tested under a Trump administration policy that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter people’s homes with administrative warrants issued by the executive branch, instead of a judge.

I keep on having flashbacks to the Boston Tea Party, Writs of Assistance, and the Quartering Act!

ICE officers violate Constitution when making arrests while masked, writes federal judge in West Virginia

West Virginia MetroNews

By Brad McElhinny 

February 23, 2026

When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wear masks and use unmarked vehicles to make arrests, a federal judge from West Virginia wrote, the tactics violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment by eliminating officer accountability and stripping people of due process.

“A mask does one thing: it hides the face of the officer wearing it. On a public highway, in a civil arrest of a person suspected of no crime, the only purpose served by hiding an officer’s face is to prevent his identification. And preventing identification serves only to eliminate accountability.”

The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable government searches and seizures of persons, houses, papers and effects. It requires that warrants be issued only upon probable cause, supported by oath and specifically describing the place to be searched and the items to be seized.

The judge had this to say...

Lawyers for the people in these cases contend that they have cooperated with the immigration system and that judges in that system should make final determinations of status. Instead, they have been caught up in sweeps, arrested and sent to jail without being charged with a criminal offense.

Just last week, such cases were before Judges Thomas Johnston, Irene Berger and Goodwin in the southern district. In each case, the judges agreed that the original basis for arrest was flimsy, that being held in jail without a hearing was improper and that the people who were arrested should be released.

This is just one of many cases around the country that judges are ruling that the Constitution is being ignored!

The New Yorker writes,

Last week, the top federal judge in Minnesota accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of violating nearly a hundred court orders in the month of January. In a ruling that was part of a contempt case involving Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, the judge, Patrick J. Schiltz, wrote, “ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated.” ICE, Schiltz added, “is not a law unto itself.” The ruling marks perhaps the most serious turn in an ongoing battle between federal courts and the White House, with the Trump Administration often appearing to blatantly ignore court orders, or to comply with them only after being repeatedly warned to do so.

[...]

I think judges are being very careful. If they hold the government in contempt, and the government still doesn’t abide by the court orders, we might very well be in a constitutional crisis. The judges appear to be hoping upon hope that if they threaten contempt, the government will come into line, either in the individual case before the judge or across the board.

The Trump adminstration is just thumping their noses at the Constitution and the laws!

Laws! What Are They Good For?

War, Law huh, yeah

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing

Say it again, y’all

War Law, huh (good God)

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing, listen to me

“War” by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong

You see, the Department of Justice lied by omission. They didn’t think it was relevant to tell a judge that the warrant was for a reporter… and the judge is really, really pissed at them.

Judge who allowed FBI to search Washington Post reporter’s home rips into Justice Department

Devan Cole, CNN

Fri, February 20, 2026

A federal judge ripped into the Justice Department on Friday for failing to inform him of the applicability of a law intended to protect journalists from government searches and seizures when it asked him for permission to raid a Washington Post reporter’s home earlier this year.

“How could you miss it? How could you think it doesn’t apply?” Magistrate Judge William Porter asked a DOJ lawyer during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia.

“I find it hard to believe that in any way this law did not apply,” Porter added later.

The judge said during the hearing that he had declined to approve the warrant for materials from reporter Hannah Natanson several other times.

Justice Department attorney Christian Dibblee argued that the decision was made by department officials several rungs above him, but that he understood the judge’s “frustration.”

Porter shot back: “That’s minimizing it!”

“Ms. Natanson has been deprived of basically her life’s work,” Porter said during the hearing, echoing comments from her lawyer that she’s been unable to continue reporting and gathering confidential sources following the raid.

They knew what they were doing by withholding the information. They had been shot down with other warrants for reporters, so this time they decided to withhold the information!

Dibblee and DOJ attorney Gordon Kromberg tried to tell Porter on Friday that the department didn’t believe the law was applicable in this case, with Dibblee at one point saying it’s not the kind of “adverse authority” that lawyers are typically required to raise with a court when making requests for such warrants.

“You don’t think you have an obligation to say that?” Porter said at one point. “I’m a little frustrated with how the process went down.”

They are either lying to the judge or they flunked out of law school. So the government lawyers didn't think a law prohibiting searching of a reporter computer didn't fall under the law prohibiting the exact same thing?

Fox 59 reported that,

Porter said he intends to issue a decision before a follow-up hearing scheduled for March 4.

“I have a pretty good sense of what I’m going to do here,” the magistrate said without elaborating.

Pentagon contractor Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones was arrested on Jan. 8 and charged with unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. Perez-Lugones is accused of taking home printouts of classified documents from his workplace and later passing them to Natanson.

[...]

Post attorney Simon Latcovich said the information contained on Natanson’s devices could expose hundreds of confidential sources who routinely provided her with dozens, if not hundreds, of tips every day.

“Since the seizure, those sources have dried up,” he said.

Trump’s Department of Justice got what they wanted… fear. Oh, they knew what they were doing when they ignored the laws. Exactly. They created fear in potential whistleblowers. They created fear in reporters. Oh yes, Trump & Company got what they wanted!

The newspaper’s attorneys accused authorities of violating legal safeguards for journalists and trampling on Natanson’s First Amendment free speech rights.

Justice Department attorneys argued that the government is entitled to keep the seized material because it contains evidence in an ongoing investigation with national security implications.

The case has drawn national attention and scrutiny from press freedom advocates who say it reflects a more aggressive posture by the Justice Department toward leak investigations involving journalists.

“There is a pattern here, your honor, that this is a part of,” Latcovich said.

Yup. In Minneapolis, saying that the First and Second Amendments do not apply to protesters. Taking U.S. citizens off the streets without cause. Busting into homes without warrants. Ignoring court orders. And now lying to a judge. There is a pattern here… of ignoring the Constitution and the laws when they don’t suit them.

Trump Is Mad!

He is pissed off that "his" justices ruled against him! The nerve of them!

Trump seethes over Supreme Court justices who opposed him on tariffs, especially those he appointed

AP News

By  MARK SHERMAN

February 20, 2026

President Donald Trump’s vision of the Supreme Court, in which his three appointees are personally loyal to him, collided with the court’s view of itself Friday when six justices voted to strike down Trump’s signature economic policy — global tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law.

The outcome led Trump to launch an unusually stark personal attack on the justices, with special rancor reserved for the two Trump appointees who defied him.

 

The case represented a challenge of Trump’s many untested, yet forcefully stated imperatives on everything from trade to immigration policy and the court’s ability to maintain its independence and, at times, act as a check on presidential authority.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for the country,” Trump said in the White House briefing room several hours after the court issued its decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Government 101: Lesson #1 The courts are a separate branch of government and owe their allegiance to the Constitution... not to those who appointed them!

Trump, though, crossed a line in the way he assailed the justices who voted against him, Ed Whelan, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote in an email.

“It’s entirely fine for a president to criticize a Supreme Court ruling that goes against him. But it’s demagogic for President Trump to contend that the justices who voted against him did so because of lack of courage,” Whelan wrote.

But we all know by now that Trump doesn't give a damn about the Constitution, it is all about him.

Protect Children’s Innocence Act

Ever notice how the names of the Republican gives bills do the exact opposite. Like the SAVE Act guts voting laws! The Protect Children's Innocence Act uses language centered on “protecting children” and “innocence,” which carries very strong emotional and moral weight but it goes after vulnerable populations! It will cause lasting harm to children, it will butt in the doctor/patient relationship, and it will drive a wedge into the family.

Congresswoman Sarah McBride said this,

House Republicans just passed one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ bills that has ever come before a Congress. If it becomes law, it will imprison parents and healthcare professionals. 

This policy isn’t just cruel. It’s radical. 

If I had come out four or five years before I did, my parents would have done the exact same thing that they did when I came out to them at 21. They would have gone and talked, first, to their pastor and, second, to a health care professional. They would have supported me — and if this bill was law, they would have been put in jail. 

For some of my Republican colleagues, these attacks on families and doctors are the point. Targeting vulnerable kids gives these Republicans the attention and self-importance that all bullies crave.

But that’s not what Congress is for. Our job should be working to improve the lives of the people who elected us — and that’s what I’ve been focused on every day. 

As long as Republicans hold control of the House, Mike Johnson and Donald Trump’s extreme agenda will continue unchecked. In 2026, we have an opportunity to take back the House, and it begins with defending this seat. 

She's right! The bill is punitive! The bill shows the vitriol they have for us!

Saturday 9: With or Without You

Saturday 9: With or Without You (1987) 
On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…  

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.
 
1) "With or Without You" is about the pain of love. What song reminds you of an old romance? Is it about the joy of love or the pain?
From back when I was dating. After the movie it was the Olympia Diner.

2) U2 lead singer Bono has admitted that, when the group recorded this song in the 1980s, he was wrestling with his real-life commitment issues. He was trying to resolve the responsibilities of being a husband with the demands of his career. He worked it through, and decades later both his marriage and his career are still going strong. Do you feel you have been more successful in your personal or professional relationships?
Professional relationships.

3) Bono credits his wife Ali with helping him through a tough period of writer's block, saying she put the pen in his hand each morning. What time of day finds you the most energized, productive or creative?
Now, it is very early morning… 4 AM until 7 AM

4) Bono likes to pedal around town when he's not onstage. What do you do for exercise?
Um… Er… nothing. That’s the problem, I have enough of a problem walking through the grocery store.

5) Bono is U2's lead singer, backed by three very talented bandmates: The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr., and Adam Clayton. Bruce Springsteen is a big fan of U2's concert performances. If Saturday 9 were to bestow upon you a free ticket to any see any band or performer live, who would you choose?
Hmm… most of the bands that I like and preforming any more. Maybe one of these, The Eagles, Deep Purple, and Heart. 

6) U2 got together 50 years ago, when they were school boys in Dublin. Have you ever visited Ireland? If not, would you like to go?
No, and no desire to go.

7) In 1987, the year this song was popular, Cher won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her most famous line was, "Snap out of it!" Without looking it up, can you name the movie that made her an Oscar winner?
Nope, I was never a big fan of hers, yes she does have a few songs that I like. Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, and Half-Breed.
 
8) Also in 1987, the first Starbucks opened. What's your standard Starbucks order?
Decaf coffee black. And it blows their mind. One time a clerk said, “Ah… someone who likes coffee!”
 
9) Random question – Which self-help book would you be more likely to pick up, the one designed to improve your body or your mind?
Okay,
Which book should I pick up is to improve my body. But I’m at a point in life where I rather finding a book on keeping what you got. While improving my mind dose sounds interesting

The Constitution? What's That?

He has ignored the Constitution! A little something called the Frist and Second Amendments.

Courts all across the country have ruled you cannot stop people from videoing the police!

The Trump administration is increasingly trying to criminalize observing ICE

NPR All This Considered

Meg Anderson

February 18, 2026

Like many people in the Twin Cities, Jess has been observing ICE officers: following them in her car and documenting their actions. Earlier this month, she was in North Minneapolis, when immigration agents told her and another observer they were impeding a federal investigation.

"We followed at a distance. We never got in front of them. We never honked our horns. We never made any sort of noise. We were just keeping an eye on them," said Jess, who requested NPR only use her first name because she fears retaliation from the federal government.

She says she kept tracking the officers at a distance. But then the three vehicles she was following turned around and drove toward her. Federal agents hopped out.

"They all had their guns drawn. I kept saying, 'What you're doing is illegal. You have no right to do this,'" she said. "At that point, they started breaking my window. All I could think about was not being shot."

One officer shattered her driver's side window with a baton. At that, she opened the door. The agents pulled her out and handcuffed her. She was detained for about eight hours.

Now, Jess is waiting to see whether the federal government is going to charge her with a crime for observing its actions. She is not the only person in that position. NPR spoke with several other observers in Minnesota who said immigration officers told them they were impeding federal investigations.

Guns? They even got the NRA mad at them!

'Fundamentally wrong:' Gun groups, Republicans condemn Noem, Patel statements

Axios

Marc Caputo

Jan 25, 2026

A Minnesota gun-rights group accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI director Kash Patel of spreading misinformation about the right to bear arms at protests.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's misstatements about Alex Pretti's shooting death are damaging its credibility even with allies, especially in the gun-rights community.

• "We're getting it from all sides," a Trump adviser told Axios on Sunday.

Zoom in: Appearing on "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo," Patel said, "You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have a right to break the law."

• Patel was echoing Noem, who said Saturday, "I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."
• The Gun Owners Caucus of Minnesota was quick to dispute Patel's statements, posting on X that Patel was "completely incorrect on Minnesota law. There is no prohibition on a permit holder carrying a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines at a protest or rally in Minnesota."
• The group's president, Rob Doar, told Axios that Noem's understanding of Minnesota gun law was "fundamentally wrong," and he took issue with her statements about Pretti not having his ID while he carried his concealed weapon.

He has ignored court orders!

Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped.

Reuters

By Nate Raymond, Kristina Cooke and Brad Heath

February 14, 2026

Summary

• Detained immigrants have filed more than 20,000 lawsuits seeking their release
• Trump administration continues detentions despite court rulings
• Sheer scale of the lawsuits threatens to clog the judicial system
• About 700 Justice Department attorneys deployed to represent the government in immigration cases

Hundreds of judges around the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since October that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining immigrants unlawfully, a Reuters review of court records found.

The decisions amount to a sweeping legal rebuke of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Yet the administration has continued jailing people indefinitely even after courts ruled the policy was illegal.

Them writes,

Lawsuit Says Trump Admin “Motivated by Animus” to Remove Stonewall Pride Flag

Advocates called the removal “an arbitrary and capricious action.”

By Samantha Riedel

February 18, 2026

LGBTQ+ advocates say the Trump administration violated federal law by ordering a rainbow Pride flag removed from the Stonewall National Monument earlier this month, according to a lawsuit filed in New York on Tuesday.

The lawsuit claims that the Department of Interior (DOI) and National Park Service (NPS) violated the Administrative Procedure Act by removing a Pride flag from the Stonewall monument on February 9. The flag’s removal is “a textbook example of an arbitrary and capricious action,” the lawsuit alleges, referencing a common legal test for whether an agency’s actions are lawful.

NPS acting director Jessica Bowron advised regional directors that “only the U.S. Flag, flags of the DOI, and the POW/MIA flag will be flown” on flagpoles maintained by the Service, with some exemptions for flags of historical significance, in a DOI memo distributed last month. The lawsuit argues that as the first LGBTQ+ Pride flag to be flown on federal land, the official NPS Stonewall Pride flag itself constitutes important historical context for the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

“When leaders imply they answer to a person instead of the law, marginalized communities are always the first to feel it.”

Hmm… where have we heard that before? Wasn’t it in some city in Germany in the ’40s?

Breaking News: Supreme Court Say No To Tariffs!

This just in... Supreme Court strikes down parts of Trump's tariffs!

Live updates: Supreme Court rules against Trump's tariffs, limiting president's power to impose taxes

The decision does not affect all of Trump's tariffs but invalidates those implemented using a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

NBC News

February 20, 2026

What to know

• The Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when imposing sweeping tariffs using a law reserved for a national emergency.
• The decision does not affect all of Trump’s tariffs but invalidates those implemented using a 1977 law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
• Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling that the Trump administration had asserted "extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration and scope,” but pointed to no statute that said the IEEPA could apply to tariffs.
• The ruling blocks Trump's sweeping reciprocal tariffs and those the president imposed on Canada, China and Mexico in what he said was an effort to stop the flow of illegal drugs.
• Democrats in Congress applauded the decision, saying the tariffs had impinged on Congress' constitutional authority and hurt average Americans. Some major U.S. trading partners were muted, however, saying they were reviewing the decision and emphasizing the need for stability in international trade.

So the big question is will Trump obey the law and the courts? And remember, this is Trump's court!

Living In The Past

You see, the Republican dream is to turn the clock back to the 1950s, the time of “Father Knows Best” and “Ozzie and Harriet”, when Black people were expected to “know their place” and we were confined to sleazy bars. Back to when abortions were backroom deals unless you had the money to fly to Switzerland.

Project 2025 creator wants to ban gender-affirming care for trans adults

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts recently endorsed taking gender-affirming care away from transgender adults.

The Advocate

Ryan Adamczeski

Feb 19, 2026

After successfully pushing unscientific bans against gender-affirming care for youth, the creator of Project 2025 wants to outlaw the life-saving treatment even for adults.

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts recently endorsed taking care away from transgender adults, saying in an episode of the PBD podcast that the organization is currently "running the numbers" on the supposed correlation between gender-affirming surgeries and violence. His proposed solution? "You outlaw it."

You know that for us, taking away our hormones would be a death sentence. Why? Because hormones build strong bones. Why do you think older people get regular bone density tests? One of the things puberty does is strengthen bones.

And of course, they are going to tie us to “angry trans people” over last week’s murders. The article goes on…

"But where there continues to be disagreement is on what you do with adults. At Heritage, we believe that so-called transgender surgery is bad for anybody because of what you saw in Rhode Island yesterday," Roberts said, referencing the Monday mass shooting that left three people dead, including the shooter, and three others critically injured, all of whom were related to the shooter. Police have described the attack as targeted and domestic in nature.

"There does seem to be a mounting body of evidence that suggests a correlation between that surgery at any age, mental health issues, and increasingly, although we're running the numbers on this at Heritage, acts of violence," Roberts added, falsely.

That is so stupid. We are the ones being attacked, harassed, and discriminated against, but when we fight back, all of a sudden we’re portrayed as crazed killers. They do the same thing with all minorities. Look at Minneapolis, they labeled the whole Somali community as criminals to justify bringing in ICE. Republican rhetoric inflames tensions and drives wedges through communities.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, 26 states currently ban gender-affirming care for youth, according to the Movement Advancement Project. In 11 states, the care is already restricted for adults through laws preventing Medicaid from covering the treatment for all ages. Roberts continued to say he would support completely outlawing the care.

You watch... marriage equality is next and repeal of non-discrimination laws are in their agenda.

---

Update: 2:00PM

Idaho GOP seeks to legalize anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in wave of bills

“We deserve safety, we deserve joy and love, and to exist without our humanity being debated every legislative session.”

LGBTQ Nation

Daniel Villarreal (he/him)

February 20, 2026, 10:00 am EST

LGBTQ+ advocates are speaking out against several anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced by the Republican supermajority in Idaho’s legislature, including one that would legalize anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination by local businesses.

The bills include H.B. 607, a bill banning trans people from using the correct restrooms and changing rooms in government buildings and public businesses, and H.B. 606, a bill criminalizing trans people from using facilities that match their gender identity; H.B. 516, a “don’t say gay” bill banning LGBTQ+ instruction in public school classrooms; H.B. 561, a bill banning the Pride flag from being flown at city and county government buildings; and H.B. 557, a bill blocking local LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections.

Boy it didn't take long for my prediction to come true

• H.B. 607: A ban on trans-inclusive public accommodations
• H.B. 606: A bill criminalizing trans people in public facilities

But it is not just us but the whole community!

• H.B. 561: A Pride flag ban
• H.B. 557: A bill legalizing anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination

These bills are horrible! They put a bounty on us!

State Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen (R), also denounced the anti-trans public accommodations bill, saying, “It puts a bounty on the government of $10,000 just simply for somebody being in the wrong room — not for them having done anything, but just having been in the wrong room,” adding, “I think that this bill is actually a way to intimidate and harass private businesses to push someone’s particular agenda.”

Nikson Mathew, the transgender chair of the Idaho Democratic Queer Caucus, said, “These bills … police public spaces, censor speech, override local control, take away parental rights, restrict privacy and target LGBTQ+ people and families… I just want to say to every queer and trans Idahoan: We deserve safety, we deserve joy and love, and to exist without our humanity being debated every legislative session.”

Just think how many cis-women will be caught in their dragnet?

Why?

Think about this... why did they think that this was ok?

That’s the question; not just that they did it, but why they thought nothing would happen if they did.

Smiling students proudly spell out “hateful” slur during school assembly

Two 8th-grade boys seen holding hands were allegedly objects of ridicule by a group of seniors.

LGBTQ Nation

Greg Owen

February 17, 2026

Ten students at Redwood High School in California’s Central Valley are facing blowback from fellow students and the wider community after they spelled out the word “FA***TS” (without the asterisks) on t-shirts during a school assembly on Friday.

On Monday, Visalia Unified School District officials announced that “disciplinary action” had been taken over the “hateful homophobic slur.”

[...]

“A lot of people at school, including the senior class, are really upset about the ignorant and rash actions of people who were in the photo,” one Redwood High senior told KFSN News.

“They are widely known in school. They’re supposed to be leading by example with the clubs that they run and represent, and people are just really mad because online things can surface really fast,” she said.

Yes… they have First Amendment rights and all that. However, the question remains: why did they do it? Do you think two or three years ago they would have done it? If not, why? Has the political climate changed?

KFSN, ABC 30 reports that,

The Visalia Unified School District issued an updated statement regarding a photo that has sparked a nationwide backlash on social media.

[...]

In a statement this afternoon, Visalia Unified School District Superintendent Kirk Shrum said the district is continuing to investigate and take appropriate action in accordance with district board policy:

"This week, student leaders are being provided opportunities to engage in healthy and productive dialogue with their peers and staff about belonging and respect. As a district, we will convene a roundtable with community leaders who support students in modeling civility and engaging in positive discourse. Together, we will meet this moment with steadfast resolve to restore and strengthen our community. While we may hold differing views, we can all agree that every individual deserves to be treated with dignity and respect."

The message to parents went on to say Redwood High School Administrators are meeting with students to address hate speech, civility and the responsibility that comes with being a member of the Visalia schools community.

But we circle back to "Why" So I asked an AI what it thought about why they did it now... ChatGPT replied:

---

That’s a question a lot of people in the community have been asking about the Visalia Unified School District incident involving students at Redwood High School.

There isn’t a confirmed explanation from the students themselves, but when situations like this happen, there are some common factors people point to:

1️⃣ “It was just a joke” mindset

Teenagers sometimes frame harmful behavior as humor, especially if they’ve seen slurs normalized online or in peer groups. What feels like a “joke” inside a small group can be deeply harmful outside it.

2️⃣ Peer dynamics

Group settings can lower individual judgment. When several people participate together, responsibility can feel diluted (“everyone’s doing it”).

3️⃣ Social media culture

Shock value and attention often get amplified online. Some teens underestimate how fast images spread and how permanent they are.

4️⃣ Lack of understanding of impact

Some students may not fully grasp how slurs affect LGBTQ+ peers — especially if they haven’t had direct conversations about why that language is harmful.

5️⃣ Broader cultural influences

Language that circulates casually in certain online spaces, gaming communities, or social media can desensitize people to how serious it actually is.

It’s also important to say: thinking something is okay in the moment doesn’t mean it actually is okay. Adolescents’ decision-making and impulse control are still developing, and sometimes they only recognize the weight of their actions once there are consequences.

---

ABC 7 wrote;

"A lot of people at school, including the senior class, are really upset about the ignorant and rash actions of people who were in the photo," says an unnamed Redwood High senior.

[...]

A Redwood senior tells our sister station ABC30 Action News that the gym was filled with hundreds of students at the time, and says those in the photo were leaders on campus.

"They are widely known in school. They're supposed to be leading by example with the clubs that they run and represent, and people are just really mad because online things can surface really fast," says the Redwood High senior.

The best response to this is social isolation... otherwise known as shunning. A non-violent to show disapproval.

The district could not specify the punishment for these students, but says they could be facing serious punishment, including suspension and loss of privileges, but it will ultimately be determined by the district's code of conduct.

Of course not. There are federal laws that rightly prevent the release of that information.

It still all boils down to "Why" did they think it was okay to do?

This Is Far More Common

Every November 20^th we remember our dead. Assaults on trans people is increasing just in Connecticut there has been an increase in bias crimes against us.

Man charged after attacking transgender woman at Portland MAX stop, court records say

By Leslie Dominique and FOX 12 Staff

Published: Feb. 11, 2026

A 51-year-old man remains in custody after prosecutors charged him with a bias crime and several other offenses following an attack on a transgender woman at a Portland MAX station.

The incident occurred the night of Feb. 8 at the PSU Urban Center MAX stop, a routine transit hub for students at Southwest 6th Avenue and Southwest Montgomery Street.

Portland State University confirmed the victim is not affiliated with the university. Court documents say the victim, who identifies as a transgender woman, was waiting for a train when 51-year-old William Thomas Ashley allegedly approached her aggressively.

The victim told officers Ashley repeatedly called her “a man,” then ripped an umbrella from her hands and hit her with it several times. She said he grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to the ground and punched her.

---

Then in New York City, a trans woman was targeted in another attack:

Man attacked on NYC subway for kissing trans woman partner

Police are still searching for the suspect who slashed the man's face.

The Advocate

By Trudy Ring

Jan 21, 2026

New York City police are searching for the person who attacked a man on a subway train the evening of January 10 when the man was kissing his transgender female partner. The attacker shouted homophobic slurs and then slashed the right side of the man’s face with a sharp object, Gay City News reports.

The suspect escaped, and the 28-year-old victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment. The trans woman was not injured.

The attack is similar to one that occurred December 20, when a man on a subway train was slashed behind his left ear by another passenger after a verbal argument, Metro Weekly reports.

---

And in Seattle...

Convicted felon facing hate crime trial for attack on transgender woman

by Lynnanne Nguyen, KOMONews

February 4, 2026

A convicted felon, Andre Karlow, is on trial facing hate crime and assault charges for allegedly attacking a transgender woman in the U District last year.

Court records reveal this is not the first time Karlow has been accused of attacking a member of the transgender community.

According to court records, Karlow has a criminal history dating back more than 20 years, including more than 30 arrests.

He was convicted last fall for an unprovoked attack in 2024 on another transgender woman working as a Sound Transit fare ambassador. Karlow is scheduled for sentencing in March in that case.

There have been 26 mass shootings in one month in the U.S. from January 1 through January 31, 2026.