Dark Money Funding State Redistricting Movement

(From “Open Secrets.” I used their republish code to post this important story; formatting is theirs. We should be aware of this.)

The same dark money groups keep turning up in redistricting fights

By Joedy McCreary
The mid-decade fight to redraw congressional lines ahead of the November midterm elections has surged beyond statehouses and into ballot boxes and courtrooms – with millions of dollars pouring in to shape those outcomes, much of it from nonprofits that never have to say who is funding their activities.

Voters in California and, most recently, Virginia have weighed in on new House maps. A Colorado group wants to put its own proposal before voters. Missouri petitioners are trying to stop a new map from taking effect. And lawsuits are stacking up from Florida to Utah.

One through-line: dark money from 501(c)(4) nonprofits. Free from donor-disclosure rules, these groups move large sums with little transparency and have helped turn state-by-state redistricting battles into nationalized, big-dollar fights bankrolled by tight networks of high spenders.

“It’s a perfect example of where money is trying to influence policy outcomes, and redistricting is so high-stakes that now it’s just part of the process,” said Alex Keena, an associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University who has co-authored two books about redistricting.

What began last year with President Donald Trump urging Texas to redraw its map has now gone national, fueled by a surge in dark money that “perfectly encapsulates what’s happening here,” said Doug Spencer, a law professor at the University of Colorado.

“Every single story really feels like a domino in a long chain of events that goes back to President Trump’s cajoling of Texas to start this,” Spencer told OpenSecrets.

‘A tsunami of money’

The latest epicenter of the redistricting fight was Virginia, where voters in April approved a mid-decade redistricting plan that could have helped Democrats win four additional House seats in November. The measure would have bypassed a bipartisan redistricting commission and allowed the state to use new districts drawn by the Democratic-led General Assembly. The state Supreme Court blocked it on May 8, declaring it unconstitutional because of a procedural timing dispute. Democrats filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on May 11.

Virginia, which has no limit on campaign donations, is “basically the wild, wild west in terms of campaign finance,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political newsletter run out of the University of Virginia. The three key players in this ballot measure fight combined to raise nearly $100 million since February in large cash contributions alone. The Virginia Public Access Project found it to be the most expensive referendum in state history.

“This was the confluence of all of these variables that resulted in just a tsunami of money in a state with lax regulation, high stakes, a single vote involving redistricting that could lead to four or even five new members of Congress,” Keena told OpenSecrets. “And we just had a ton of money flow into the state in a relatively short amount of time, and the result of all that money was just a blitz coming from every medium.”

And on both sides of the debate, the vast majority of that money came from a handful of dark money groups. window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});

Virginians for Fair Elections, the main organization backing the redistricting effort, reported $63.2 million in large cash contributions, defined as any single contribution or loan of at least $10,000, between Feb. 6 and April 24. Nearly 97% of that total came from five 501(c)(4)s:

House Majority Forward, which is aligned with Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives, contributed $39.3 million across 10 installments from Feb. 6 to April 10, the largest of which was $9.3 million on March 30.
The Fairness Project, founded by a California-based healthcare workers union, contributed $11.7 million across five payments from Feb. 18 to April 9, including a $5 million contribution Feb. 18, in addition to $22,950 in in-kind contributions.
The Fund for Policy Reform, funded by Democratic megadonor George Soros, donated $5 million on March 12.
American Opportunity Action, which has been linked to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, contributed $3.5 million.
The Global Impact Social Welfare Fund, the 501(c)(4) arm of philanthropic organization Global Impact Ventures, donated $1.5 million across two contributions.

The same structure appeared on the opposition side. window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});

The Virginians for Fair Maps Referendum Committee, which formed Feb. 9, reported $24.1 million in large contributions between March 2 and May 1. One organization – Virginians for Fair Maps, which shares a post office box in Alexandria with the committee – accounted for 98% of it. State records identify the group as a tax-exempt organization, but there is no corresponding listing for it or its classification in the IRS online database. Co-chaired by former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), it donated $23.5 million across nine contributions from March 6 to May 1, a sum that includes $5 million contributions on both March 31 and April 7 along with $4 million on April 6.

The Justice for Democracy PAC – founded by former state Del. A.C. Cordoza (R) and accused of distributing misleading mailers before the election – raised $10.2 million in large contributions between March 4 and April 24. More than 95% came from Per Aspera Policy Inc., a Massachusetts-based 501(c)(4) previously linked to billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel that donated $9.7 million – including four seven-figure contributions between March 26 and April 14.

“There’s a real question. … Who’s actually trying to influence our election, and to what end?” Keena said. “What are they hoping to get out of it and whose interests are hanging in the balance?”

Donor networks in multiple states

Some of those groups also spent big on similar efforts in other states.

Coloradans For a Level Playing Field wants a new House map for the 2028 and 2030 elections before allowing the state’s independent congressional redistricting commission to draw another one for 2032 based on the 2030 census. Under the plan, Democrats would be favored to win seven of the state’s eight House seats.

According to its May 4 report, the organization raised $246,747 between Feb. 18 and April 29. Two of the key donors in Virginia also supplied more than 97% of the Colorado group’s total: House Majority Forward contributed $150,000 on Feb. 25, and the Fairness Project provided $90,000 on April 29. Of the 149 other cash donations made during that time, 148 averaged just $32.

That breakdown reflects the uneven appetite for redistricting in the state, Spencer said. Sometimes, it draws attention; other times, he said, “it really feels like it’s gone by the wayside – or, at least when you dig underneath, you don’t see a big push or a lot of local money.”

And in Missouri, the Democratic-supported group People Not Politicians, which opposes the state’s new GOP-drawn map, in December submitted more than 300,000 signatures for a petition seeking to block the map from being used. In its April 14 campaign finance report, it reported raising $6.1 million during the cycle. Of that total, $1.7 million came from American Opportunity Action, a Democratic-aligned dark money group supporting ballot measures. Additionally, the Fairness Project donated $250,000 on Nov. 17, 2025, along with four $1,000 payments in late 2025 and early 2026 for “strategic guidance.”

“I think, to the layperson, this all just looks like gerrymandering,” Spencer said. “But up close, every state’s doing this slightly differently.”

Massive spending around California’s Prop 50 fight

The biggest spending took place in California – where more than a quarter of a billion dollars was poured into its redistricting measure.

Voters in a November 2025 special election passed Proposition 50, which responded to the Texas redistricting push by redrawing the map used in the 2026 midterms and in 2028 and 2030. It generated more than $256 million in fundraising from both sides combined. Roughly two-thirds came from groups supporting the measure, and 87% of that $171 million came from two organizations, both of which have received noteworthy contributions from dark money groups:

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Ballot Measure Committee raised more than $102 million through Nov. 3, 2025. The Fund For Policy Reform provided its largest single contribution, $10 million on Sept. 18, 2025..
HMP for Prop 50, the House Majority PAC, raised $46 million. That group’s largest single contribution in 2024 ($34 million) came from House Majority Forward, which also contributed $11.2 million in late 2025, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

On the opposition side, two organizations combined for an even higher share of the spending – 92% of the $84 million that flowed into the race.

The No on Prop 50 Congressional Leadership Fund raised $44.3 million. That group received four separate $10 million donations in 2024, from hedge fund founder Ken Griffin, Aon founder Patrick Ryan, Mellon banking heir Timothy Mellon and Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwartzman. Billionaire megadonor Miriam Adelson donated $10 million on March 11, according to the FEC.
Protect Voters First reported $32.8 million, with Charles Munger Jr. – a physicist and the son of a late billionaire – loaning the organization nearly the full amount.

“It does not seem like the states themselves have been going out of their way to clamor for this,” Spencer said. “California responded to Texas. Texas was responding to Trump.”

How dark money fuels the legal fights

While some states decided redistricting questions in the voting booth, others are fighting the same battles in courthouses – and some groups funding those fights are just as nationalized, donor-driven and opaque.

The National Redistricting Foundation has partnered with the left-leaning Elias Law Group in suing to challenge Florida’s new map. It filed a legal brief urging the Supreme Court to reject Alabama’s request to fast-track its redistricting case and filed a motion to intervene in Utah’s.

The foundation is the 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. As a 527 organization, it is tax‑exempt and may spend unlimited amounts on issue advocacy. It is chaired by former Attorney General Eric Holder, and in 2018 it received $2.6 million from Soros. Its largest contribution in the 2024 election cycle, the most recent available to OpenSecrets, was $500,000 from PAC to the Future, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership PAC. The committee also provided nearly $20,000 in in-kind contributions to the pro-redistricting group in Virginia.

The foundation makes up one part of an apparatus that also includes the National Democratic Redistricting PAC and a 501(c)(4), the National Redistricting Action Fund. The PAC raised $423,000 in the first quarter of 2026, has raised $2 million during the current election cycle and had $250,000 in cash on hand, according to FEC documents. The 501(c)(3) foundation reported $9.7 million in contributions and grants in 2023, according to its most recent IRS filings, but does not identify those donors. Neither does the action fund, whose latest IRS filing shows $5.2 million in total revenue in 2023 – and the same Washington address as the foundation.

A similar structure is in place at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that on May 4 joined the UCLA Voting Rights Project in suing Florida over its redistricting plan. It has also moved to intervene in the Utah case. It shares a Washington address with Campaign Legal Center Action, a 501(c)(4) dark money nonprofit.

Campaign Legal Center’s most recent IRS documents show $13.9 million in total revenue in 2024, with most coming from contributions and grants, and $36.7 million in net assets. But its donors are not identified. Campaign Legal Center Action also does not disclose donor names on its IRS filings.

On the Republican side, the American Redistricting Project – a 501(c)(3) also known as Fair Lines America Foundation Inc. – has been active in redistricting debates in recent years. Its most recent IRS filing shows roughly $1.9 million in both revenue and expenses in 2024. It maintains an online repository tracking redistricting legislation, but it is unclear whether the organization is providing financial support or filing motions in the current legal fights. OpenSecrets reached out to the group but did not immediately receive a response.

This article was originally published by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. View the original article.

2 Pieces Regarding Transpeople’s Rights

I can’t get the entire article here; I think I used up all my NYFT freebies for life back in 2004. However, I got a blurb, and because it’s pertinent to our interests, I’m still posting the link for anyone who’d like to see the story. It’s surprising, as is the story after this one.

Kansas AG issues opinion exempting some state facilities from anti-trans bathroom law

By: Morgan Chilson

TOPEKA — A few spaces are exempt from Kansas’ new bathroom law that requires people to use the facilities in government buildings that match their sex assigned at birth, Attorney General Kris Kobach said in an opinion he released Wednesday.

Kobach’s opinion, which carries no legal authority, exempted some government spaces — such as skilled nursing rooms at the Kansas Office of Veterans’ Services — from complying with the bathroom law that went into effect in February.

He issued the opinion in response to an April letter from Justin Whitten, Gov. Laura Kelly’s chief counsel, who asked for clarification on defining “multiple-occupancy private spaces” and “facilities” as written in Senate Bill 244.

“This was a poorly written and ambiguous law, which is why the governor’s office sought an attorney general opinion,” said Olivia Taylor-Puckett, spokeswoman for Kelly. “The AG’s opinion provides new clarity on the more limited scope of SB 244 as inapplicable to places that are more ‘residential in character’ like a cabin or hospital room.”

The bill became law in February after passing through contentious legislative debate, including a veto from Kelly that was overturned. At the time, Kelly questioned vague language in the bill and how it would apply to some state facilities.

The law sets high fines for agencies that fail to comply and smaller fines escalating to class B misdemeanors for those who violate the law. Critics said the law doesn’t specifically address implementation, leaving agencies statewide struggling to determine what to do to comply.

In an April letter, Whitten asked Kobach to render an opinion on whether spaces like hospital rooms, prison cells and bedrooms in public buildings are considered “multiple-occupancy private spaces” under the law.

The letter asked for definition of “facilities,” and whether Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks cabins throughout the state and Kansas Office of Veterans’ Services nursing facility rooms must adhere to the law.

“SB 244 makes no distinction based on a ‘facility’s’ purpose and instead focuses on the existence of a mere possibility of whether an individual may be in a state of undress in front of another individual,” Whitten’s letter said.

Arguments that the hospital is the “facility” rather than the patient room are “untenable,” he said. The hospital building would fit under the law’s definition of a public building, while the room would be the private space, Whitten said.

“If your answer relies on finding an ambiguity in Senate Bill 244 with the term ‘facilities,’ we ask that you work with the Legislature in the 2027 session to clarify this ambiguity,” he said.

Kobach’s opinion

Citing a dictionary definition of “facility” and saying that “in the absence of a contrary definition, words in a statute should be given their ‘ordinary, contemporary, common meaning,’ ” Kobach said neither the skilled nursing rooms or the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks rental cabins meet the definition of “facility,” which exempts them from the law.

Kobach said SB 244 listed examples of rooms the bill applies to.

“The debate surrounding SB 244 focused on the types of rooms listed in the statute — restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms — and the risks to safety and privacy when individuals of one biological sex use facilities designated for individuals of the opposite biological sex,” his opinion said.

Kobach said the Legislature’s intent didn’t include stopping a married couple from sharing a nursing home or assisted living facility room or to prevent people in those facilities from receiving guests of the opposite sex.

Prison cells, however, more closely match the type of facilities addressed in the law, Kobach said, which means multiple-occupancy cells must only be shared by prisoners of the same sex.

Taylor-Puckett said attorney general opinions are generally given “persuasive but not binding weight in a courtroom.” She recommended that individuals and entities should consult with their attorney with regard to any decisions about complying with SB 244.

‘Poorly drafted’

Harper Seldin, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was glad to see some spaces exempted from the law but that the opinion reinforced what civil rights activists contended from the beginning: The vagueness of the law makes it difficult to enforce and understand.

“This uncertainty about whether people just living their lives are going to run afoul of this law, I think demonstrates both that the law was meant to terrorize and also that it’s poorly drafted,” he said.

Some Kansans and legislators objected to SB 244 being termed an “anti-trans” bill. But Seldin said the interpretation reinforces that it is a bill targeted at transgender and intersex people.

“These interpretations really continue to try to find ways to push transgender and intersex people out of public life, while making sure that people who aren’t transgender don’t feel any disruption whatsoever,” he said. “It does seem to very strongly suggest that this law was really targeted at transgender people and is not actually responsive to any concerns about safety or privacy.”

Seldin said any concerns about safety and privacy aren’t related to reality in Kansas.

Seldin is representing two Lawrence transgender men who are challenging the bathroom law in court, with the next hearing scheduled for Sept. 29 through Oct. 2. That will be an evidentiary hearing regarding the ACLU’s request for a temporary injunction of the law, Seldin said.

Rest In Power, Jason Collins

A fine tribute by Charlotte Clymer.

If You Don’t Understand Jason Collins

Allow me to explain.

Charlotte Clymer

(Mr. Collins and me at the White House in 2022.)

We were eight, nine, ten-years-old, and we called it “Smear the Queer.”

The game went like this: there were a group of kids—nearly always all boys—and a football. The pigskin got tossed up, a boy would grab it, the rest of us would chase and tackle him, and either he would surrender the ball or one of us would take it, and the chasing and tackling would start all over again.

That was the whole game. It was basically freeform rugby with no points, but this was Central Texas in the mid-90s and none of us were aware of rugby, so we thought of it as reverse tag with violence.

We called it “Smear the Queer” because that’s what the older boys called it. They called it that because the boys older than them called it that. Or that’s what their older brothers called it. Or that’s what their fathers and uncles called it.

At that age, I don’t think there was any discussion on the etymology of the word “queer” or why the ball carrier was called “the queer.” That was just the name of the game, and if you had a group of young boys and a football and enough interest, a kid might say “Smear the Queer?” and the game would start.

We were conditioned to think of being gay as a bad thing before we knew what it meant to be gay. By the time we got to middle school, it was made crystal clear to us that there were two things it was absolutely wrong for a boy to be: either gay or a girl.

If another boy called you gay or a girl, it was either because they were being “friendly” (or what passed for “friendly” among boys then) and playfully teasing you with the easiest insult — or they really didn’t like you and were going for the jugular with the worst insult. The intent was based on context, but at the end of the day, being gay or being a girl were not good things.

By that age, homophobic and sexist language had seeped into casual conversations among most of our peers. “That’s gay” was the most common way of saying a situation sucked.

“Wanna come over and play video games after school?”

“Can’t. Got detention.”

“That’s gay.”

“Yeah.”

At the close of the ‘90s, the words “faggot” and “pussy” were at the center of teenage boy lexicon. And a lot of the teenage girls used them, too. These terms flew freely in the hallways of middle school and sometimes in the classroom. Some teachers and parents might put a stop to it, and some teachers and parents willfully ignored it.

I got called “faggot” so many times in those years that I was pretty much resigned to it long before high school.

I was called a faggot for being in choir. I was called a faggot for getting good grades. I was called a faggot for reading. I was called a faggot for listening to Mariah Carey. I was called a faggot for my girlish laugh. I was called a faggot for my mannerisms. I was called a faggot if I did something nice. I was called a faggot for being smaller than the other boys. I was called a faggot for not wearing the right clothing. I was called a faggot for the way I walked. I was called a faggot for the way I talked. I was called a faggot if I followed the rules. I was called a faggot because a boy just didn’t like me. I was called a faggot because a boy in my grade might just feel like saying “faggot” and I was conveniently there.

I never said “faggot” or “that’s gay” myself because it felt wrong. I had a gay uncle. He had a boyfriend. They would come over and hang out and drink and smoke with my mother and stepfather. They were always welcome. The four of them would have a grand ole time.

This did not stop my mother and stepfather from asking my uncle and his boyfriend to sit me down when I was nine or so and make it clear that I needed to act like a boy and never act like a girl because everyone could see the writing on the wall and they wanted to prevent me from getting my ass kicked by other boys.

I didn’t understand their intent at the time. I felt very confused. I thought I had been acting like a boy. Apparently not enough. I needed to try harder. I had no idea what “try harder” meant.

What I remember most is my uncle’s boyfriend giving me a serious look and saying the following: “Don’t be a faggot, kid.”

The world that was supposedly the opposite of “being gay” was professional sports. Football, basketball, baseball. Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, etc.

These men were considered the opposite of gay. They were big and strong and famous and talented and handsome and all the girls loved them and all the boys wanted to be them.

At least where I grew up, the thought of gay men in professional sports was so far removed from rationality that it never came up in conversation. Male celebrities in music, film, and television? All fair game for speculation. But not sports. There was no way a man could be gay if he were a pro athlete. Impossible.

When Jason Collins came out 13 years ago this spring, you could have knocked me over with a feather. My peers and I had grown up, and the world had rapidly changed in such a short time. And yet, it was still a jarring, welcome surprise.

By then, homophobic language was largely frowned upon, even by many conservatives who opposed LGBTQ rights. It felt like everyone personally knew someone in their lives who were openly gay. And the vast majority of folks, regardless of politics, were then enjoying entertainment made by openly-gay celebs.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” had recently been repealed, which meant gay, lesbian, and bisexual folks could serve openly in the military. Tammy Baldwin had recently become the first openly-LGBTQ person elected to the U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, and she had seven openly-LGBTQ colleagues in the House, not including Barney Frank, who had retired from Congress on the same day she was sworn-in.

It felt at the time like same-sex marriage could possibly be legalized nationwide within the decade but maybe not. It wasn’t anywhere near certain. Possible, yes, but no guarantee. Yet, just that it was possible felt incredible.

But male sports? Many years away, it was assumed. Americans could accept gay and bisexual male soldiers dying on their behalf but openly-gay men in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL? Not for a long time to come.

It wasn’t that most of us thought there weren’t closeted gay men in the leagues. We assumed there were. Statistically, how could there not be closeted gay men playing pro sports?

But they weren’t going to come out while still playing. Nope, not for a long time. Pro sports were (and remain) the last cultural bastion of American masculinity, the sole extracurricular distraction of tens of millions of American men who don’t want anything uncomfortable messing up their entertainment.

Make music. Make movies. Serve in the military. Run for office. Get married. Go be gay and live your life. Just stay away from male sports.

It mattered little to them that Sue Wicks and Sheryl Swoopes and other women had come out in the WNBA by then. It mattered little to them that lesbian and bisexual women were, by 2013, out in every major pro women’s sports league. All were courageous, all were leaders, all faced discrimination, and yet, a strange misogyny permitted Americans—particularly men—to have an uneasy, conditional acceptance of openly-gay women in major pro sports but not openly-gay men.

This was the environment in which Jason Collins came out. Everything about it astonished me. The cover of Sports Illustrated? Doing so while a free agent after the season had ended and making a huge gamble on his career? Doing so as a Black man in a country with a long history of diminishing and dehumanizing Black masculinity?

I was in awe of him. I remain in awe of him.

No teams signed him in the offseason. Maybe it was his production on the court. Maybe there were no teams who thought he’d be a good fit for their needs. Maybe—just maybe—even with the general support he received, it was because he was now an openly-gay man and no teams wanted that controversy.

Even with NBA superstars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Steve Nash, and many others praising his courage and saying all that mattered was the game itself and meeting the standard of excellence, he still got passed over.

It was ten months later when, finally, the Brooklyn Nets signed Mr. Collins to a ten-day contract. February 23rd, 2014. Jason Kidd—the coach of the Nets and a former teammate and good friend of Mr. Collins—pushed for the contract. He played that night for 11 minutes against the Lakers. The first openly-gay man to compete in any of the four major male pro sports leagues in North America.

He would eventually be signed for the remainder of the season with the Nets and retired from pro basketball that November.

But here’s what really gets me about Jason Collins: he never rested on his laurels, nor did he decide coming out while an active gay male pro athlete was enough, even though, I would argue, he’d have been well within his right to do so.

Jason Collins had that quality inherent in all great leaders: a heart for service. He always thought about others. He always wanted to lift up others.

It was only revealed after he came out that he had worn No. 98 on his jersey while with the Celtics and Wizards—when he was still closeted—in honor of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old, openly-gay man who was beaten, tortured, and murdered in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998.

He returned to No. 98 after coming out and signing with the Nets. It became the highest-selling jersey in the NBA for a time. He had that level of impact with his courage.

He consistently supported others in the broader LGBTQ community, even when he had no personal connection to us.

Several times over the years, Jason Collins—the retired NBA pro—reached out to me—a little-known trans woman political writer— over social media just to offer words of encouragement and make sure I felt supported and loved — because he saw the vile hatred trans folks were experiencing.

He would tell me he was proud of me. He would remind me that I should keep my chin up and be proud of myself. I remember one random occasion in 2020, as tired and stressed as I was during the presidential campaign, when I opened a DM from Jason that simply read: “Sending you a big hug today.”

Jason Collins went out of his way to be a big brother to queer folks he didn’t know just because he wanted to ensure we didn’t feel alone in tough moments. He felt protective of us because he knew, more than just about anyone, that sharp pang of loneliness in the public arena.

Many of us received an email this past Monday evening from Jason’s husband, Brunson Green, informing us that Jason was headed to hospice care and requesting we record a video offering words of love and what he means to us.

I cried after the reading the email and got to writing. It didn’t feel like enough. How do I tell this man how much he’s meant to me, meant to all of us? I decided to rewrite it (yet again) and film it and send it by the following evening. I wanted to do it right. He deserved at least that. He deserved way more than what I could offer.

Jason passed the next day before I could send it. I will forever regret not telling him all this, even though he likely wouldn’t have seen it in the mountain of videos his family received from countless people who loved and admired him.

What gives me comfort is knowing he was surrounded by those who loved him most, supported by millions who have thought about him this week, said a prayer for him, acknowledged his greatness and his humanity, given thanks for his selflessness and public service.

The world lost a great man on Tuesday.

Art & A Mental Health Moment Or 2 With Jenny Lawson

There is still whimsy and warmness in the world and you deserve it.

Jenny Lawson (thebloggess)

Hello, friend!

I am two days late on sending this because I was stuck in a depression and it ate all of my extra energy. I started and stopped several drawings because I’m not sure if I didn’t like them or if I just didn’t like me very much. My dr recommended sun and exercise and other things that sound very easy when you are not depressed and it reminded me of a poem my mom read to me so often I’d almost memorized it. (All of A.A. Milne’s poems are the songs of my childhood.) If you hate poetry, skip this part.

The poem always made me feel both cozy and sad at the same time, which was a confusing thing for a small child but also a combination that my brain would grow to specialize in.

It reminded me that recently I’d read that tiny harvest mice have been found asleep in flower beds and so I decided to draw that:

“Sometimes harvest mice will crawl into flowers to feast on the pollen and stamens and will fall asleep inside.”

The drawing is simple and plain and fairly unimpressive, but it made me feel warm inside my heart and that is a very special sort of magic.

This is all a very long way of saying that whimsy and comfort and coziness and nostalgia and joy are all worth more than we give them credit for…whether in drawing mice or reading poems from childhood or eating nectar and drunkenly falling asleep inside flowers.

Go find comfort, my friend.

I promise that you deserve it.

Hugs,

From “The Root” Magazine

This is in regard to Kevin Hart’s roast show on Netflix. Over the past couple of years, I’ve read comments that Kevin Hart can be, um, problematic, by being, let’s say, careless how he speaks, or doesn’t call out others’s speech. I don’t go looking to see more about why, though, because it has read as celeb clickbait. I ran across this, and thought I’d share; it’s not celeb clickbait. So, if someone has watched or will watch Kevin Hart’s show, please let us know a counterpoint, or confirm!

Pastor Jamal Bryant Speaks Out Against Kevin Hart’s Netflix Special

Kevin Hart’s celebrity roast continues to garner more backlash and now, activist and Pastor Jamal Bryant is calling out the foul jokes!

By Shanelle Genai

If you haven’t pressed play on Kevin Hart’s Netflix roast yet, consider yourself warned. As more people check out Kevin Hart’s celebrity “G.O.A.T. Roast” that recently aired on Netflix, they are failing to find the humor due to the overwhelming amount of racist jokes that were lobbed across the stage from a myriad of white comics. And now, Pastor Jamal Bryant is calling Hart onto the carpet for letting it happen in the first place.

As we previously told you, the event was home to a plethora of shocking racial and stereotypical jokes targeted towards Hart and other Black comedians who were present. The “punchlines” were wide-ranging, from calling Hart a monkey, a slave, a crack baby, and burnt, to likening comedian Sheryl Underwood to a donkey and more. There was even an egregious George Floyd “joke” that was spoken, which soon prompted multiple members of his family to speak out in protest of it.

And all the while, Hart stood by laughing through it all, never once attempting to say when the jokes had gone too far.

Since then, fellow comedians like Michael Che and Lil Rel Howery have shared their two cents of disappointment with what took place. And now, Bryant is also airing out Hart and the other white comics for behaving the way they did.

Writing in a post to Threads, Bryant said of the event: “The Kevin Hart roast wasn’t comedy it was disrespect dressed as jokes. In this climate for it to go unchecked is to give consent.”

In the comment section, many couldn’t help but side with the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church leader and activist.

“I’ve watched Roasts before but this was outside of a roast, it went way over the line in racism period,” said one user.

“Yeah I missed the joke!!! To mock George Floyd was beyond racist! It was disgusting and when we laugh we allow them’ to think it’s ok!!!,” said another.

One other user agreed, adding: “We need to make it known that its unacceptable. I’m tired of Black ppl’s pain being the butt of jokes. I remember hugging my father so tightly after watching George Floyd’s unaliving. To know that the country we live in is ok with treating Black Men in such a manner will never sit right with me.”

Noted another person, “I think they went way too far! For the love of money !!”

The Government’s Fight Against Gender-Affirming Care Just Escalated

NYU Langone Hospitals in New York City has received a grand jury subpoena for patient medical records, hinting at a federal criminal investigation.

This story was originally reported by Orion Rummler of The 19th. Meet Orion and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

The federal government is escalating efforts to seek private medical data for children undergoing gender-affirming care, as at least one hospital faces the first known criminal probe of its kind.

Last week, NYU Langone Hospitals in New York City received a grand jury subpoena for information about young patients who received gender-affirming care at their facilities anytime in the past six years.

A grand jury subpoena indicates that a federal criminal investigation is underway. This would be a first in regards to gender-affirming care.

The subpoena came from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas, part of the Justice Department. The office is also seeking the names of hospital employees involved in providing gender-affirming care. The government has previously sought medical records of transgender kids from other states, and so have Texas officials, but not like this.

Parents of trans youth under the age of 18 who have received care at NYU Langone got a notification from the hospital alerting them to the grand jury subpoena. According to that notification and to the hospital’s public statement, NYU Langone is one of several institutions that received a subpoena May 7. The hospital said it is still evaluating how it will respond to it.

New York law prevents the disclosure of medical records related to gender-affirming care and abortion except in limited circumstances and broadly prohibits law enforcement from cooperating with investigations into gender-affirming care. This sets up a potential legal fight over the subpoena.

Several legal battles are currently playing out in response to other attempts from the government to obtain trans kids’ medical records.

Eleven families just filed a class-action lawsuit to block the Justice Department from obtaining confidential information about young trans patients seeking gender-affirming care. The agency sent more than 20 subpoenas last summer to doctors and clinics involved in providing such care, with the intent to investigate “healthcare fraud, false statements, and more.” Both the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have sought to investigate gender-affirming care as medical fraud.

Multiple judges halted these DOJ subpoenas in their tracks, after hospitals fought back. A federal judge in Massachusetts called the agency’s investigations into gender-affirming care “motivated only by bad faith.” A judge in Colorado, who blocked a similar subpoena, said patient medical records must be protected from “improper disclosure.”

Separately, a federal judge this month temporarily blocked the FTC from investigating two medical groups that support gender-affirming care for transgender people. Those groups, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Endocrine Society, were served civil investigative demands for years of internal records and financial information. Both groups sued.

Over the past year, hospitals in states like New York, where gender-affirming care is legally protected, have come under pressure by the federal government to halt care for trans youth. For patients, that care has been spotty: earlier this year, NYU Langone halted gender-affirming care for young patients, citing “the current regulatory environment” as a key reason. More than 40 hospitals across the country have done the same, per STAT News.

Gender-affirming care for trans youth primarily refers to hormone therapy and puberty blockers used to treat gender dysphoria, which is a medical condition that can cause significant distress. Very few transgender youth seek and access surgeries. Restricting gender-affirming care is a top priority of the Trump administration, which has proposed regulations to greatly restrict the care for youth and stated its opposition to trans identity as a whole.

Discussion of “Ignore All Previous Instructions”

The Big Idea: Ada Hoffman

Posted on May 12, 2026 Posted by Athena Scalzi

The Big Idea: Ada Hoffman

Snippet:

ADA HOFFMAN:

When I tell people the premise of Ignore All Previous Instructions, they often remark how it reminds them of real life these days. In Ignore, the characters live in a space colony on Callisto where a generative AI company owns everything – and where making art or telling stories, without the AI’s assistance, is strictly not allowed. (snip)

Another part of the novel, even closer to my heart and equally timely, was the problem of queer self-expression and book bans.

In 2023, I was at an early stage in therapy. I was just starting to think back, in ways I hadn’t allowed myself before, about how some of my experiences growing up had shaped me. This included a lot of things, many of them not germane to this post, but it also included the experience of growing up queer without understanding that that’s what it was. (snip-MORE, and it’s really good; go read it!)

Weekly Skews From The Liberal Redneck

Some laughs for Monday Morning

A tiny bit coarse, maybe?

This is one that will make us smile instead of giggle.

Muslim event at public waterpark in Texas canceled after Gov. Abbott threatens city funding

This was a private event held and paid for by the group for a set amount of time at the park. It is a normal occurrence at parks like this. If this had been a Christian church doing the event it would have caused no backlash and been accepted. But because it was a Muslim sponcered event with mostly clothing of this sect of the Islamic faith that also encouraged the eating of foods not normally eaten by Christians it caused a backlash of Islamophobia. Hate for people and customs different from the Christian religion practiced by white people is common in the nearly theocratic Texas. Hugs

The park is available for rent at a cost of $5,000 an hour, Dallas News reported.

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https://www.christianpost.com/news/muslim-waterpark-event-canceled-after-gov-abbott-threatens-city.html

By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Friday, May 08, 2026

LiudmylaSupynska/iStock

A private event at a Texas city-owned water park has been canceled following backlash and a direct threat by Gov. Greg Abbott to withhold more than $500,000 in state public safety funding.

A spokesperson for the City of Grand Prairie said Thursday the city canceled the DFW Epic Eid Celebration scheduled for June 1 at the Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark.

“After further review and in the best interest of the City of Grand Prairie, the June 1 Eid event at Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark has been canceled,” the spokesperson said.

The event at the city-owned waterpark was initially promoted with flyers describing it as “Muslims only” and included a modest dress code requiring burkinis for women, halal food, a private prayer room and rules encouraging attendees to maintain personal space and “lower the gaze.”

After backlash on social media, organizers updated promotional materials to state that “all are welcome,” provided attendees follow the modest dress code.

Abbott’s Public Safety Office shared a letter with The Christian Post that had been sent to Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen warning that the “DFW Epic Eid” event “was publicly and openly advertised as discriminating based on religion” and therefore violated agreements between the city and the Public Safety Office.

The letter from Public Safety Office Executive Director Andrew Friedrichs said the event “purports to be public facing and discriminatory at the same time” and compared it to advertising for a “Whites only” event.

“All Muslims — but only Muslims — may attend,” Friedrichs wrote. “An event at a city-owned pool that was publicly and indiscriminately advertised as ‘Whites only’ would surely violate the Constitution.”

Event organizer Dr. Aminah Knight later updated the online flyer to clarify that the DFW Eid Celebration is a “privately organized and privately funded event held through a standard rental of Epic Waters, just like many other private gatherings hosted at the park.”

“At its core, this event is about creating a space where individuals and families, particularly those who value modest dress and a modest environment, can come together and enjoy a recreational setting comfortably,” Knight wrote.

Knight added that anyone “of a different faith who wants to celebrate the Eid holiday with us and adhere to the modest dress code” is welcome to attend.

A screenshot of an online flyer for a 2025 “Muslims only” event at the Epic Indoor Waterpark in Grand Prairie, Texas. | Screenshot/Facebook

A Facebook post shared by Knight in May 2025 promoting last year’s event included a flyer calling it an “exclusive Muslim-only event” and stating that the taxpayer-funded facility was “closed to the public” for “Muslims only.”

It is unclear whether the City of Grand Prairie approved the flyer or its contents. The city did not respond to CP’s request for comment by Thursday afternoon.

While the 2026 event flyer listed Knight as the organizer, a video shared on social media by Muhammad Abdullah, listed as the director of Outreach & Youth at Al-Hedayah Academy in Fort Worth, claimed he organized the event.

In a video posted Tuesday, Abdullah blamed “Islamophobia” for the public response to the now-canceled event and said, “By the way, I’m organizing that with my wife.”

CP reached out to Al-Hedayah Academy, where Abdullah is pictured as a member of the mosque’s “spiritual team,” seeking clarification Thursday on whether the mosque was involved in organizing the event.

According to Knight, more than 600 people attended the event last year, and all “lovers of modest fashion and those who are curious about Eid and what modesty at a waterpark can look like” are welcome to attend.

Owned by the city of Grand Prairie near the Dallas and Tarrant County border, Epic Waters — which has no ties to the planned Muslim-centric development formerly known as “EPIC City” — is an 80,000-square-foot waterpark with a retractable roof and the longest indoor lazy river in North Texas, according to its website.

Epic Waters opened in 2017 after voters approved a 0.25% sales tax, according to city documents. The park is available for rent at a cost of $5,000 an hour, Dallas News reported.