None on Friday, Two on Saturday

As always, the titles are links to learn more about the poets and their poems.

Say What?
Could you please, Pleeeeeeeeeeease repeat
Did you say: Molleta?
Prieta?
Morena?
Ohh African!
Hmmm Soy Puertorriquena
Yes, Puertorican

That I don’t look What ?
Oh, I guess I don’t look cafe con leche
mancha de plátano
Mulata,
high yellow
grifa
By the way
I did not know that there was a puertorican look.
And what exactly is that?
That I just look more what?
Well,    Y   Tu   abuela    dónde      Está?
I should say abuela, tío, Tía, y to el barrio
Let me tell you something
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
Most ricans are a mix of Africans, Spaniards, and Native Americans called
Taínos
By the way, no one has seen a Taíno in the last 500 years.
Sooooo   exactly … You know what that means
My     English is covered with spices
spices from the Caribbean
Spices that you might find Strange
Because you were born in this cold fast food of a mall of a country
Where Spanish is a foreign word
That you are ashamed to learn

And when you try
Is not there
Only mumbles of a murmur
Susurando el olvido
A reganadientes
Pretendiendo
Escondiendo la vergüenza
You remember Puerto Rico on the 2nd Sunday of every June
When everybody is suddenly proud to be Puerto Rican
No the word is Boricua
Boricuas Here, Boricuas THERE, Boricuas everywhere
And everyone waves the flags
The flags that they don’t even understand
And no one knows why they are here
Yes HERE Now
Do you Know?
why your parents or grandparents vinieron aqui?
De que Pueblo?
Cuando te bañaste en las aguas calientes del Caribe?
Better yet
Do you really know that …?
We all came from the Motherland
Africa
Even the Spanish people that came with Colon, Columbus
However you want to say it
Lived 700 hundred years under the Moors
You heard that right
The moors as in Arabs as in black Arabs
SO … in other words
Not only I
But we
Have over 500 years of African mestizaje
The so called “white people” that everyone is so proud of
As in “my grandparents are from Spain
Well if they are …
They
Too have negrITOs in them
Remember the Gitanos
But that is another story …
Getting back to the Boricua’s issue

What history do you know?
Ever heard of
Agüeybaná
Albizu Campos
Luis Palés Matos
Rafael Betances
Arturo Schomburg
Francisco Oller
Julia De Burgos
Rafael Hernández
Segundo Ruiz Belvís
Enrique Laguerre
Mariana Bracetti
Pedro Pietri

Still havING problems figuring me out?
Or is it that you just don’t know
Who you are?

=====

Domino Nights Puma Perl

On Water Street,
scaffolds envelop the buildings,
wire screens surround the benches,
iron fences line the street.
You must walk a hot summer block
in either direction to cross.

To the east, construction continues.
To the west, trucks sit, waiting.

Approaching or leaving,
it feels like a detention center
without passports or means of escape.

Late nights on Water Street,
beneath the scaffolding,
behind the steaming sidewalks,
and the screens and the fences,
the men set up their dominoes table
and their friends watch them play,
awaiting their turns.

We wave on our way to walk our dogs
and when returning home in the humid air.

There are no passersby on Water Street,
no loitering without intent or purpose
but I will reply to the questions
they might have asked had they existed.

Why, they might wonder, do the men sit
at a bridge table in the stifling heat
beneath scaffolds, behind screens and fences?
Surely, there are air-conditioned apartments
where they might socialize and yell Capicu!

Because, I would answer, it is our street,
this is our Lower East Side that we breathe,
this is our space where neighbors smile
as they pass by and call out, Otra vez
you’re still at it, as time slowly propels
us closer to wherever we are headed,
but until we get there, the table is set
for another night of apocalyptic dominos.

Peace & Justice History for 12/14

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorydecember.htm#december14

Israel Executing Land Grabs In Syria

Debunking Trump’s Plan to End Birthright Citizenship

“[Trump’s] been very open for a while about how he plans to end this core constitutional principle, end birthright citizenship.” Watch Mehdi Hasan break down the flaws in Donald Trump’s argument against the 14th Amendment.

Are 300,000 migrant children missing in the US?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0jlre7mymo

Bernd Debusmann Jr
BBC News, Washington 26 November 2024

Unaccompanied children detained at the border are first processed by Customs and Border Patrol before being handed over to other US authorities.

Donald Trump’s incoming border tsar, Tom Homan, has said that the US government “can’t find” more than 300,000 migrant children – and that many have been lured into forced labour and sex trafficking.

President-elect Donald Trump and his political allies, including Vice-President-elect JD Vance, have repeatedly made similar claims.

Some experts have accused them of distorting statistics to suggest the children are “lost” and victims of crime, although there is agreement that aspects of the system need to be changed.

The incoming administration has made immigration enforcement a priority, promising to clamp down on the US-Mexico border and conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Let’s take a look at the claims of missing migrant children.

What are the Trump team’s claims?

In an interview with Fox News on 26 November – just before a visit to the US-Mexico border in Texas – Homan accused the Biden administration of “bragging” about how quickly children are released from custody, as well as “not properly vetting” adult sponsors in the US.

“Shame on them,” he said of the Biden administration. “They have over 300,000 children that they have released [to] unvetted sponsors that they can’t find.”

“Many are going to be in forced labour. Many forced sex trade,” Homan added. “We need to save these children.”

In his October debate against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, JD Vance also said that the Department of Homeland Security “effectively lost” a total of 320,000 migrant children.

Concerns over the plight of migrant children were also starkly highlighted earlier this week when authorities in Texas shared an image of a two-year-old girl from El Salvador found at the border clutching a piece of paper with a phone number.

“Putting optics over safety has led to countless children in danger or unaccounted for,” Tennessee Republican representative Mark Green told the New York Post.

“This refusal to protect vulnerable alien children from abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking will be one of the defining failures of the Biden-Harris administration.”

Are the children actually missing?

According to immigration experts and attorneys, the claims largely stem from an August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office, which found that 32,000 unaccompanied minors failed to show up for court dates at immigration courts from 2019-23.

The report noted that 291,000 migrant children received no court notices at all. It also called on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to “take immediate action to ensure the safety” of unaccompanied migrant children in the US.

Migrant children “who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor”, the inspector general’s office reported.

But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, a migrant advocacy group, told the BBC the figures are indicative of a bureaucratic “paperwork issue” rather than “anything nefarious”.

“When you hear the phrase ‘missing’, you think that there is a child that someone is trying to find and can’t,” he said.

“That’s not the case here. The government has not made any effort to find these children.”

Many of the children, experts say, may well be at the addresses that are on file with the government, but were simply unable to make their court dates.

“That doesn’t mean something bad happened to them,” Mr Reichlin-Melnick said. “It means you missed a court hearing.”

Mr Reichlin-Melnick added that there are “valid concerns” about exploitation.

“We cannot, however, suggest that all 320,000 of those children are being labour trafficked,” he said.

Eric Ruark, an immigration researcher with NumbersUSA – which calls for tighter border controls – said that the children are difficult to track “because of some combination of apathy, incompetence and bureaucratic inefficiency”.

“Many, hopefully even most, are safe with caring sponsors,” he added. “But the Biden administration can’t actually say one way or the other, and apparently doesn’t care enough to find out.”

What happens to children at the border?

Unaccompanied minors detained at the US-Mexico border go through a complicated process that begins with detention and processing by Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP.

If the child is from a foreign country that is not Mexico or Canada, they are placed into removal proceedings and transferred to the US Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.

HHS, through its Office of Refugee Resettlement office, cares for the children in a network of state-licensed providers.

The office also seeks to reunify children with family members in the US or with individual or organizational sponsors – who in turn are obligated to ensure they arrive at immigration court dates.

What can the Trump administration do?

Homan and other Trump administration officials have so far not provided many details about how they plan to address the issues that plague the detention of undocumented minors.

Several immigration attorneys contacted by the BBC suggested that the administration is likely to make becoming a “sponsor” for undocumented children much more difficult, even if the sponsor is a member of their family.

In practice, this would mean that more undocumented children are kept in detention.

“They could do what the Obama administration did, and detain them,” said Alexander Cuic, an immigration attorney and professor at Case Western Reserve University.

The controversial “Remain in Mexico” programme could also be applied to children, forcing them to wait across the border for the outcome of immigration proceedings.

“I’m not sure even they know what they’re going to do with the kids,” Mr Cuic said of the Trump administration. “But there’s a border problem they’re trying to figure out first, and that’s the first concern before whether they’re going to be harsh to both children and adults.”

When the BBC asked the Trump transition team what plan they have for the undocumented migrant children, spokesman Taylor Rogers said only that “Democrats’ wide-open border policies” have led to the children going “missing”.

“President Trump and leaders in his administration will deliver on their promise to end the invasion at our southern border that puts innocent children in harm’s way,” she added.

Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 33 including children, Palestinian medics say

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-12-11-2024-52692a401ef2fb7e66c0d4d00633bd10

By SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA

Updated 5:58 PM EST, December 11, 2024

Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday, with one attack ripping through a home where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north. The strikes killed at least 33 people including children, Palestinian health officials said.

Violence also flared in outside Jerusalem, where an Israeli bus came under fire from a suspected Palestinian attacker late Wednesday, wounding three people including a 10-year-old boy, according to the military and hospital officials. The attack took place on a highway near major Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the army was looking for the shooter in the area around Bethlehem.

The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza shows no end in sight, even after Israel reached a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants and attention shifted to the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad by insurgents. Both the current and incoming U.S. administrations have said they hope to end the war in Gaza before the inauguration in January, but ceasefire talks have repeatedly stalled.

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban.

General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they do reflect world opinion. The votes in the 193-nation assembly were 158-9 with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire. Israel and its close ally the United States were in the tiny minority voting against.

Israeli strike in north Gaza wipes out 3 generations

The strike on the home killed 19 people in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the bodies. Hospital records show that a family of eight was among those killed: four children, their parents and two grandparents.

The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas militant in the vicinity of the hospital. It said reports about the number of casualties in the strike were inaccurate, without elaborating. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses militants of hiding among them, putting their lives in danger.

The hospital said another strike near its entrance on Wednesday killed a woman and her two children.

The hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, said Israeli drones struck nearby residential blocks overnight, causing explosions that sparked panic among the facility’s more than 120 sick and wounded patients.

“We have received distress calls from neighbors and trapped people, but we’re not able to leave the hospital because of the continued risk,” he said. “We are witnessing a massive loss of life, with many martyrs in the targeted areas.”

Another strike in the decades-old Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to the Awda Hospital. The dead included two children, their parents and three other relatives, it said. Later, the hospital said another attack hit the same camp, killing four people and injuring 16 more.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the other strikes.

In Lebanon, where near-daily Israeli attacks have continued despite the ceasefire, at least five people died Wednesday in Israeli strikes in the south, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency.

Elsewhere in southern Lebanon, Israeli forces withdrew from a strategic town and handed it back to the Lebanese army in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers, the two militaries said. It appeared to be the first Israeli pullout from a Lebanese border town captured during the ground invasion.

In Syria, the Israeli military estimates it has destroyed 70% to 80% of Syrian military assets in recent days, according to an official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an intelligence assessment. The military has said it has carried out hundreds of airstrikes.

Evacuation orders in camp after rocket fire

Militants in central Gaza fired four projectiles into Israel on Wednesday, two of which were intercepted, the military said. The other two fell in open areas, and there were no reports of casualties.

The military ordered the evacuation of a five-block area of the built-up Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, saying the rockets had been fired from there. The orders indicated that Israel would soon carry out strikes in the area.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Thousands more Palestinians have gone missing during the war, some after encounters with Israeli troops.

UN says Gaza civilians face ‘utterly devastating situation’

Israel has been waging a renewed offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza’s heavily destroyed north since early October. Troops have surrounded Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, allowing in almost no humanitarian aid and ordering tens of thousands to flee to nearby Gaza City.

Israeli officials have said the three communities are mostly deserted, but the United Nations humanitarian office said Tuesday it believes around 65,000 to 75,000 people are still there, with little access to food, water, electricity or health care. Experts have warned that the north may be experiencing famine.

Sigrid Kaag, the senior U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters on Tuesday that civilians trying to survive all across Gaza face an “utterly devastating situation.”

She pointed to the breakdown in law and order and looting that has left the U.N. and many aid organizations unable to deliver food and other humanitarian essentials to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in need.

Kaag said she and other U.N. officials repeatedly ask Israel for access for convoys to northern Gaza and elsewhere, to allow in commercial goods, to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt in the south and to approve dual-use items.

The Israeli military says it allows in enough humanitarian aid and blames U.N. agencies for not distributing it, saying large amounts of aid have accumulated just inside Gaza’s borders. U.N. officials say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and ongoing fighting make it difficult to access the aid and distribute it, and have repeatedly called for a ceasefire.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have mediated talks between Israel and Hamas for nearly a year, and diplomats say those efforts have recently gained momentum.

But Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned and has said Israel will maintain a lasting military presence in some areas.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace Calls Police on Prominent Foster Youth Advocate; Eyewitnesses Dispute Her Assault Allegations

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace Calls Police on Prominent Foster Youth Advocate; Eyewitnesses Dispute Her Assault Allegations

Remember Mace is a notorious attention hound, demanding her staff book her constantly on different media. She does any stunt she thinks will gain her attention. She made over 500 tweets in two days about a new trans member to congress and the bathroom ban she was pushing but at no time did she mention anything helping her constituents. She even sent a staffer back an hour or so later to ask the man to repeat what he said to Mace. So she clearly did not feel assaulted then. But after a time thinking how to spin it for more attention she suddenly claimed to have been badly assaulted with damage to both wrists and her arm so bad that she is parading around with her arm in a sling. What a phony. Slandering an advocate for foster youth and trans kids for clicks and views. She never grew up, she is still a high school girl chasing fame on social media. Hugs

===============================================================

Stunned onlookers say the disturbing turn of events followed a routine celebration of a landmark child welfare law

By John Kelly

This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Aformer foster youth and award-winning advocate for children was arrested at the U.S. Capitol tonight — a bizarre twist in an otherwise celebratory day of events — after South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace accused him of assault.

The incident took place outside a House of Representatives office building following an event honoring the anniversary of a landmark child welfare law where Mace, a firebrand Republican, had given a speech. Three witnesses at the scene told The Imprint their accused colleague James McIntyre had done nothing more than shake the congress member’s hand at the House reception, and asked her to protect the rights of transgender people.

But in a post on the social media platform X, Rep. Mace described a violent confrontation.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace

“I was physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man. One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine,” she posted at 8:43 p.m. “The Capitol police arrested the guy. Your tr*ns violence and threats on my life will only make me double down.”

The arrest stunned onlookers.

A group of McIntyre’s fellow foster youth advocates rushed to the outside of the Rayburn House Office Building to watch the scene unfold. They stood by tearfully as he was searched for several minutes by police, asking officers where he’d be taken and calling frantically for an attorney who could represent him.

McIntyre, 33, has spoken publicly about his excruciating experience growing up in foster care, and is now a leading voice in policymaking in his home state of Illinois. He is also a chapter co-founder of the influential group Foster Care Alumni of America. In 2019, the National Association of Social Workers’ Illinois chapter named him the “Public Citizen of the Year.”

An officer with the Capitol Police Department told a reporter present at the scene that they were responding to a call about an “assault.” McIntyre was then placed into a police van and driven off.

Other attendees have reacted with outrage since McIntyre’s arrest.

“I want to express deep disappointment in the fact that Congresswoman Nancy Mace came to a national foster youth event, told participating youth that it was a safe space — and literally had one of them arrested by Capital police for simply shaking her hand and asking about trans rights,” said Lisa Dickson, a veteran advocate for foster youth from Ohio, in a Facebook post.

Mace is not new to such publicity. In recent weeks, she has been in the news for her successful campaign to bar newly elected Rep. Sarah McBride — a Democrat from Delaware who is transgender — from using the public women’s bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol.

At tonight’s event, Mace, who co-chairs Congress’ bipartisan foster care caucus, joined a group of legislators at a House reception celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999. The act created the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood, legislation that significantly expanded federal support for foster youth who leave the system after turning 18 without a permanent home.

Today’s events featured speeches from some of the former foster youth whose advocacy led to the writing and passage of the law known as the Chafee Act.

In her remarks at the House event, Rep. Mace told the crowd that while she was not an adoptee or former foster youth, she had been a victim of sexual abuse as a child. She called the dozens of advocates and foster youth in attendance — McIntyre among them — “the cream of the crop.”

“I look forward to working with each and every one of you. God bless you, I will be praying for you,” Mace said.

As she finished her comments and moved to leave the room, McIntyre approached her near an exit door, witnesses said.

Elliott Hinkle, a former foster youth and advocate for LGBTQ rights, said McIntyre shook her hand, and made a comment about how many transgender youth are in foster care, adding: “They need your support.”

“From what I saw, it was a normal handshake and interaction that I would expect any legislator to expect from anyone as a constituent,” said Hinkle, a consultant who has advised the federal government on issues affecting youth in foster care.

Later, Hinkle said, one of Mace’s aides returned to the reception and asked McIntyre his name and whether he would repeat what he had told the legislator. Two other people who witnessed the interaction confirmed that description of the brief episode.

McIntyre left the celebration, but he was later summoned back to the Rayburn Building by police.

Hinkle said his subsequent arrest “sends a chilling effect of, you’re not actually safe to go to the Capitol Hill and share an opinion that is true for you, that isn’t violent — because right now if you do, a congressperson might say that they were physically assaulted and call the police on you. So how would a young person in care feel safe?”

Michael Fitzgerald contributed to this report.

I hope everyone can see what the rabid right haters are trying to do. Not only gaslight everyone lying that a horrible assault happened and trans people are the fault and guilty party, but that the left endorses it. A woman was assaulted by a pro trans … trying to hint or make it sound like it was a trans man who did it. The log cabin people are the silliest as they claim she is a supporter of the LGBT, notice the last letter. They can not find a real attach on a woman by a trans person so now they are trying to make one up. Normal maga right dirty tricks. Hugs

https://twitter.com/NancyMace/status/1866659978108617037

https://twitter.com/LogCabinGOP/status/1866864419281703160

https://twitter.com/timburchett/status/1866858375612354813

https://twitter.com/TulsiPotus/status/1866714106981683619

https://twitter.com/holybullies/status/1866883933436330224

Some More Poetry

The Great Superstition (Sonnet) | Abhijit Naskar | Little Planet on The Prairie

Delightful Poetry On Thursday

Just click the title to read more about the poet and the poem.

In a Grain of Sand by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez

To see a world in a grain of sand …
—from “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake

We are Starseeds
every one of us –
you & me,
& me and you
& him & her,
& them
& they
& those
Who know of this
     are truly blessed …

True for all
   living beings,
beings living –
not humans only,
but ants & trees
& the open breeze,
things that breathe
air or fire,
water, earth
   all kinds of dust
& dirt,
particles
a part of all,
all a part
  of
Everything
that is
in everything;
Thus, it Sings!!!
& its song
is Life,
    & Life
                                                                          is!!! …
a seed of Stars,
the dust of Suns
& Moons
rocks & dust
& outer smoke
  in outer space
Floating
in a bath of timelessness,
   counted, measured
numbered
by some species –
others caring not;
Science & Mathematics
   trying to plot
    Poetry in motion,
Motion
in a Helix’s curve,
And Life
on Earth
becomes visible
to You
through the naked I!

Montana Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Families & Doctors, Blocks Ban on Healthcare for Transgender Youth

Montana Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Families & Doctors, Blocks Ban on Healthcare for Transgender Youth

Case: Van Garderen et al. v. State of Montana

Affiliate: ACLU of Montana

December 11, 2024 1:15 pm

Earlier today, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that SB 99, a 2023 Montana law that categorically bans life-saving gender-affirming care for transgender youth, is unconstitutional under the Montana state constitution’s privacy clause, which prohibits government intrusion on private medical decisions. This ruling will allow Montana communities and families to continue accessing medical treatments for transgender minors with gender dysphoria.

“I will never understand why my representatives are working to strip me of my rights and the rights of other transgender kids,” said Phoebe Cross, a 17-year-old transgender boy. “Just living as a trans teenager is difficult enough, the last thing me and my peers need is to have our rights taken away.”

“Fortunately, the Montana Supreme Court understands the danger of the state interfering with critical healthcare,” said Lambda Legal Counsel Kell Olson. “Because Montana’s constitutional protections are even stronger than their federal counterparts, transgender youth in Montana can sleep easier tonight knowing that they can continue to thrive for now, without this looming threat hanging over their heads.”

“We are so thankful for this opportunity to protect trans youth, their families, and their medical providers from this baseless and dangerous law,” said Malita Picasso, Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Every day that transgender Montanans are able to access this care is a critical and life-saving victory. We will never stop fighting until every transgender person has the care and support they need to thrive.”

“Today’s ruling permits our clients to breathe a sigh of relief,” said Akilah Deernose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Montana. “But the fight for trans rights is far from over. We will continue to push for the right of all Montanans, including those who are transgender, to be themselves and live their lives free of intrusive government interference.”

The Court found that the Plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their privacy claim, holding:

“The Legislature did not make gender-affirming care unlawful. Nor did it make the treatments unlawful for all minors. Instead, it restricted a broad swath of medical treatments only when sought for a particular purpose. The record indicates that Provider Plaintiffs, or other medical professionals providing gender-affirming care, are recognized as competent in the medical community to provide that care.[T]he law puts governmental regulation in the mix of an individual’s fundamental right ‘to make medical judgments affecting her or his bodily integrity and health in partnership with a chosen health care provider.’

Two justices filed a concurrence arguing that the Court should also clarify that discrimination on the basis of transgender status is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Montana’s Equal Protection Clause.

Plaintiffs in the case include Molly and Paul Cross and their 17-year-old transgender son Phoebe; Jane and John Doe joining on behalf of their 16-year-old transgender daughter; and two providers of gender-affirming care who bring claims on their own behalf and on behalf of their Montana patients.

On December 4, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in a landmark case brought by the ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump on behalf of three families and a medical provider challenging a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming hormonal therapies for transgender youth on the grounds the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Today’s decision by the Montana Supreme Court rests entirely on State Constitutional grounds, insulating transgender adolescents, their families, and health care providers from any potential negative outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Today’s decision from the Supreme Court of Montana can be found here.