I love Ethel who is a grand young woman. I have watched her transition from an awkward teenager online who did not understand how to express what she felt inside and watched her blossom as she realized and started living openly as who she was. She is a wonderful resource for how to combat trans hate and misinformation. If she gives a stat or makes a claim you can take it to the bank that it is correct as she not only does meticulous research she also documents it all for others to see and read for themselves. Trans women are simply women, and trans men are simply men. I look forward to the day we can all drop the word trans, just we need to stop saying same sex marriage and simply say marriage. Hugs and loves.
ICE is now detaining Native Americans. Several members of the Navajo nation have been detained. Fuck this country.. @kaffnews.com http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/l…
“The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I’ve just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away…. The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line.” -Tarkin
tRump hates the Kennedys as much if not more than he hates the Obamas, and has forever. He hates that those families are more respected and called American royalty rather than his. Remember he told the Queen of England that his kids were equal to hers because he was American’s version of royalty just as she was England’s. Remember he demanded that the famous rose garden credited to Jackie Kennedy be destroyed, torn out and replaced with a horrible garden insisting it be credited with his third wife’s name he wanted to be as famous and acclaimed as the wonderful Jackie’s was. It never was because instead of beautiful like the rose garden was the one that replaced it was a nightmare of bad taste and ugliness. So he needs to destroy the Kennedy legacy and anything with their name on it as he has tried to do to Obama, and now Biden. Hugs
As has been widely reported, the underbelly of Air Force One is painted “baby blue” because that makes the aircraft blend in with the sky, rendering it less visible to potential rocket attacks launched from the ground. Last month Trump raged that the Air Force One replacement currently under construction will not be completed until after his term. Also, contrary to his claim to reporters, Trump indeed golfed today.
AF1 livery is beautiful and iconic and the new livery in progress is exquisite. Of course he’ll destroy it.
NBC had news today that of the 1200 people detained by ICE this Sunday, 50% had no criminal record at all.
You know how cops would rather pull over law abiding citizens for minor traffic infractions than chase dangerous criminals? What do you think ICE would rather do, arresting helpless people who volunteered their information and will not resist, or arresting known criminals who might have weapons and try to fight back?
The game is kind of becoming clear, isn’t it?
Trump has no plan to handle inflation, and in fact, his three main things, are all going to increase costs.
Deporting the work force, tariffs, tax cuts for the wealthy – all massively inflationary.
the plan seems to be to lie about crime coming down as the price, and of course, real patriots have no problem paying more…..
January 31, 1865 The U.S. House of Representatives passed (119-56) the 13th constitutional amendment which abolished slavery, and sent it to the states for ratification (three-quarters of the states would do so by the end of the year). The Kentucky legislature didn’t vote to ratify until 1976. Mississippi’s legislature finally ratified it in 1995 but failed to submit the paperwork to the federal government until 2013. Text of the amendment: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” More about the 13th Amendment
January 31, 1876 Sitting Bull: One of several chiefs who refused to comply. The U.S. government ordered that all Native Americans had to move to reservations by this date or be declared hostile. Most Sioux did not even hear of the ultimatum until after the deadline.
January 31, 1945 Eddie Slovik Private Eddie Slovik became the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion, and the only one who suffered such a fate during World War II.Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered Slovik’s execution be carried out, he said, to avoid further desertions in the late stages of the war. Eisenhower
January 31, 1950 U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announced his decision to support the development of the hydrogen (fusion) bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic (fission) bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II.
January 31, 1971 The Winter Soldier Hearings began in a Howard Johnson’s motel in Detroit. Sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the three days of hearings were an attempt by soldiers who had served in Vietnam to inform the public of the realities of U.S. conduct in the war. The veterans testified that the My Lai massacre was not an isolated incident, and that some American troops had committed atrocities. Among those who spoke about aspects of their service in Vietnam was John Kerry, a former Navy lieutenant and future senator and presidential candidate. More than 100 veterans testified to sometimes brutal acts. Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield later entered the transcript of the Winter Soldier hearings into the Congressional Record but, otherwise, the proceedings captured little attention. The term “winter soldier” is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776. He spoke of the “sunshine patriot and summertime soldiers” who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough. Winter Soldier film watchthetrailer (appox 4 minutes) watchthe entire movie (1:35) VVAW/Winter Soldier Organization
January 31, 1993 300,000 Berliners rallied to protest attacks on immigrants, and against racism and renewed support for Nazism on the 60th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. During the previous year there had been 2,285 racially motivated attacks, including 77 against Jewish sites, and the death of two young Turkish girls in an arson attack.
So it has come to this in the US, if you are not white and speaking english you must carry your papers like Nazi Germany? Seriously in the land of the free. I guess it is only free if you are white males? I wonder what they do it they hear people speaking French from Canada, arrest them and start an international issues? Hugs
They were not allowed to clarify their status until they were already in custody, according to Telemundo Puerto Rico.
Despite the apology, the family was allegedly left stranded and had to arrange their own transportation home.
They also advise keeping documents secure and on hand.
A Puerto Rican family, all U.S. citizens, was wrongfully detained by ICE in Milwaukee after speaking Spanish.
A Puerto Rican family, including a toddler, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Milwaukee after being overheard speaking Spanish; this incident is the latest in a surge of racial profiling concerns amid Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The family, all U.S. citizens, were transported to a detention center before officials acknowledged their mistake and issued an apology.
The mother, grandmother, and young child had been shopping when authorities approached and detained them. They were not allowed to clarify their status until they were already in custody, according to Telemundo Puerto Rico.
“My sister, in English, explained that not only are they American citizens, but that they are from Puerto Rico. They were born in Puerto Rico,” a family member told host Milly Méndez while remaining anonymous due to fears surrounding the situation.
Upon presenting official documents, the officials reportedly softened their stance. “I’m so sorry,” one officer said, according to the family’s account.Despite the apology, the family was allegedly left stranded and had to arrange their own transportation home.
Instagram users reacted to Méndez’s post with frustration.
Instagram
“At what store? Why didn’t he give that information here? So you’re shopping with a Birth Certificate on top of it?!… What is that!” One user questioned.
Another expressed disappointment in the political climate, commenting, “Thank you… What a shame that the people keep voting for colors and not values… it’s going to get worse.”
Puerto Rican family detained by ICE in Milwaukee after being observed speaking Spanish https://t.co/FkXDiCPKja
The situation gained traction after journalist Adrian Carrasquillo discussed the case on X, writing, “Another PUERTO RICAN family detained, a man tells Telemundo his sister, mother-in-law, & a child were taken by ICE in Milwaukee & driven to [a] facility where his sister explained that they’re US CITIZENS. ICE response to this flagrant violation? ‘Sorry.'”
Attorneys nationwide are now speaking out to educate immigrants and Black Indigenous People of Color about their rights when confronted by ICE, including the right to remain silent, the right to legal representation, and the ability to refuse entry without a warrant. They also advise keeping documents secure and on hand.
Longest. January. Ever. But it’s also Fred Korematsu Day-Woot!
January 30, 1948 Mohandas K. Gandhi was killed in Delhi by an assassin, a fellow Hindu, who fired three shots from a pistol at a range of three feet. An American reporter who saw it happen
January 30, 1956 As Martin Luther King, Jr. stood at the pulpit, leading a mass meeting during the Montgomery, Alab ama, bus boycott, his home was bombed. King’s wife and 10-week-old baby escaped unharmed. Later in the evening, as thousands of angry African Americans assembled on King’s lawn, he appeared on his front porch, and told them: “If you have weapons, take them home . . . We cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence . . . We must love our white brothers, no matter what they do to us.” Martin Luther King, Jr. and wife Coretta Scott, 1960
January 30, 1968 The Tet (lunar new year) Offensive began as North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched surprise attacks against major cities, provincial and district capitals in South Vietnam. Though an attack had been anticipated, half of the South’s ARVN troops (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) were on leave because of the holiday. There were attacks in Saigon (the South’s capital) on the Independence Palace (the residence of the president), the radio station, the ARVN’s joint General Staff Compound, Tan Son Nhut airfield, and the United States embassy, causing considerable damage and throwing the city into turmoil.
January 30, 1972 In Londonderry (aka Derry), Northern Ireland, unarmed civil rights demonstrators were shot dead by British Army paratroopers in an event that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” The protesters, all Catholics, had been marching in protest of the British policy of internment without trial of suspected Irish nationalists. British authorities had ordered the march banned, and sent troops to confront the demonstrators when it went ahead. The soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters, ultimately killing 14 and wounding 17. By the end of the year 323 civilians and 144 military and paramilitary personnel would be dead. Mural: Bloody Sunday martyrs Eyewitness accounts
January 30, 2010 Thousands of protesters from across Japan marched in central Tokyo to protest the U.S. military presence on Okinawa. Some 47,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, with more than half on the southern island of Okinawa. Residents have complained for years about noise, pollution and crime around the bases. News about the protest (This link is to the 2016 protest; P&J’s link for the 2010 protest links to Not Found.)
January 30, since 2011Fred Korematsu Day Fred Korematsu Fred Korematsu, was born in Oakland, California, to a Japanese-American family. When World War II broke out Japanese-American citizens were subject to curfews and, following an executive order from Pres. Roosevelt, were sent to internment camps. Fred Korematsu refused to go and was convicted and sent to a camp. He challenged the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066 all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1944 the Supreme court ruled against him. Finally in 1983, a Federal court in San Francisco overturned the original conviction. In 1988 Congress passed legislation apologizing for the internments and awarded each survivor $20,000. The “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” is observed every January 30th and in an increasing number of states. “Protest, but not with violence. Don’t be afraid to speak up. One person can make a difference, even if it takes 40 years…” – Fred Korematsu More aboutFred Korematsu
So much for rights for adults to make their own medical decisions. I guess it is fine for cis adults to have boob jobs and cis adult men can do what they want with their penises but not transitioning people. Well not women either. Seems only straight cis males can have control over their bodies and sex organs.
But what I think this is about is how trans people passing for the gender they are upsets fundamentalist men. It screws with their idea that god created men and women and that is just how it has to be, what you are assigned at birth. Right now people who do not suffer going through the wrong puberty don’t get the wrong secondary sex characteristics. Look at the changes in boys when puberty hit. Most boys facial features change and broaden, shoulders get wider, they develop deeper voices, and of course their bodies grow hair along with increasing the size of the sex organs. All things trans girls do not want their bodies to look like and will fight all their lives trying to change and make go away. It will be much harder for them to pass as the women they identify as. It will make them look much less of the idea most people have of how women should normally look. Much easier for them to be singled out. Some changes will never be able to mask or make go away.
Same with trans men. They will be forced to go through female puberty. They will grow boobs they hate, wider hips, along with other body changes including to their sexual organs. All things they hate. Some things will make it harder to transition, again making it harder for them to pass as the men they are.
And again that seems to be the plan. It seems to really upset the fundies that they get all hot about a woman that they then realize is a trans woman. I do know a straight man who had no interest in the male sex organ who started dating an attractive woman, she turns out to be trans who had not had bottom surgery. As they say, love conquers all and they are living very happily together. Hugs
President Donald Trump arrives to speak about the economy during an event at the Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at cutting federal support for gender transitions for people under age 19,his latest move to roll back protections for transgender people across the country.
“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” the order says.
The order directs that federally-run insurance programs, including TRICARE for military families and Medicaid, exclude coverage for such care and calls on the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.
Medicaid programs in some states cover gender-affirming care. The new order suggests that the practice could end, and targets hospitals and universities that receive federal money and provide the care.
The language in the executive order — using words such as “maiming,” “sterilizing” and “mutilation” — contradicts what is typical for gender-affirming care in the United States. It also labels guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as “junk science.”
On his Truth Social platform, Trump called gender-affirming care “barbaric medical procedures.”
Major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support access to care.
Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth are first evaluated by a team of professionals. Some may try a social transition, involving changing a hairstyle or pronouns. Some may later also receive puberty blockers or hormones. Surgery is extremely rare for minors.
“It is deeply unfair to play politics with people’s lives and strip transgender young people, their families and their providers of the freedom to make necessary health care decisions,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson.
The order encourages Congress to adopt a law allowing those who receive gender-affirming care and come to regret it, or their parents, to sue the providers.
It also directs the Justice Department to prioritize investigating states that protect access to gender-affirming care and “facilitate stripping custody from parents” who oppose the treatments for their children. Some Democratic-controlled states have adopted laws that seek to protect doctors who provide gender-affirming care to patients who travel from states where it’s banned for minors.
Lambda Legal promised swift legal action.
Michel Lee Garrett, a trans woman whose teenage child only partially identifies as a girl and uses they/them pronouns, said such policies aim to erase trans people from public life but will never succeed. Her child has not elected to pursue a medical transition, but the mother from State College, Pennsylvania, said she won’t stop fighting to preserve that option for her child and others.
“I’ll always support my child’s needs, regardless of what policies may be in place or what may come … even if it meant trouble for me,” Lee Garrett said.
For Howl Hall, an 18-year-old freshman at Eastern Washington University, taking testosterone not only changed his body but dramatically improved his experience with depression. With that treatment now under threat, Hall said he’s concerned that getting off testosterone would hurt his mental health.
“I would be alive, but I wouldn’t be living,” Hall said. “I wouldn’t be living my life in a productive way at all. I can guarantee that I would be failing all of my classes if I was even showing up to them.”
The push is the latest by Trump to reverse Biden administration policies protecting transgender people and their care. On Monday, Trump directed the Pentagon to conduct a review that is likely to lead to them being barred from military service. A group of active-duty military personnel sued over that on Tuesday.
Hours after taking office last week, Trump signed another order that seeks to define sex as only male or female, not recognizing transgender, nonbinary or intersex people or the idea that gender can be fluid. Already that’s resulted in the State Department halting issuing passports with an “X” gender marker, forcing transgender people to apply for travel documents with markers that don’t match their identities.
Trump said he would address these issues during his campaign last year, and his actions could prove widely divisive.
In the November election, voters were slightly more likely to oppose than support laws that ban gender-affirming medical treatment, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for minors under the age of 18 who identify as transgender, according to AP VoteCast. About half of voters, 52%, were opposed, but 47% said they were in favor.
Trump’s voters were much more likely to support bans on transgender care: About 6 in 10 Trump voters favored such laws.
“It’s very clear that this order, in combination with the other orders that we’ve seen over the past week, are meant to not protect anyone in this country, but rather to single-mindedly drive out transgender people of all ages from all walks of civic life,” said Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.
Seldin said the ACLU is reviewing the order “to understand what, if anything, has immediate effect versus what needs to go through continued agency action.”
Even as transgender people have gained visibility and acceptance on some fronts, they’ve become major targets for social conservatives. In recent years, at least 26 states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Most of those states face lawsuits, including one over Tennessee’s ban that’s pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republican-controlled states have also moved to keep transgender women and girls from competing in women’s or girls’ sports and to dictate which bathrooms transgender people can use, particularly in schools.
“These policies are not serving anyone,” said Shelby Chestnut, executive director of the Transgender Law Center. “They’re only creating confusion and fear for all people.”
_________________________________________________
Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writers Carla K. Johnson and Hallie Golden in Seattle and Linley Sanders in Washington contributed reporting.
Schoenbaum is a government and politics reporter based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also covers general news in the Rockies and LGBTQ+ rights policies in U.S. statehouses.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins talks with Navy Cmdr. Emily Shilling about her status as a trans service member after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces
As I have written and posted I love Ethel’s videos. She presents the facts with an easy to listen to rhythm and tone. She uses facts to present the medical studies and medical science for trans people not emotion, feelings, or guess work. She presents the sources she uses and gives the details of how the conclusions were reached and the validity of the studies. Such as to if it is peer reviewed, how large the sample size, and the conclusions of the data match what the person pushing the information is claiming it does. Often Ethel catches bigots simply lying by claiming a study shows negative results when in fact the studies and data present a positive or are completely opposite from what the haters claim.
Plus for those who would rather read than listen she provides a transcript of the videos she does and again as I mentioned she supplies her sources so others can look up the studies / data themselves to show she is telling the truth. That is why you never see videos by trans haters such as the TERFs trying to claim she lied. If you care about the facts and wish to have the information to combat the lies of bigots please check out her other videos supporting trans people and debunking anti-trans lies. Hugs
Today’s video debunks the myth that between 61-98% of all trans youth desist if we take a ‘wait and see’ approach, exposing the linguistic sleight of hand used by those set on undermining gender affirming care as the only ethical approach. #ProtectTransKids
Hi, welcome to Essence of Thought with me, Ethel Thurston, as your host.
• Debunking Gender ‘Critical’ Fascism
Scottie's Playtime 