People who followed and were following the rules being tortured so they will give up their rights and voluntarily leave the country. This is the country white supremacist want, they do not see nonwhites a human. Hugs
I am posting the meme below because it explains the intrusive thoughts issue I have struggled with for so long and for a while got really overwhelming. But I am NOT suicidal. Again please don’t worry about that, I am not self harming and I am not suicidal. I am just struggling. Links for any that need help below given with love. Hugs
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, TrevorLifeline 1-866-488-7386 the Trevor Project’s crisis counselors are just a text, chat, or phone call away. Completely confidential and free LGBTQ hotline.
I really like the reporting of this person. I strongly suggest everyone subscribe to her substack and support her efforts if you can. But even though this is 7 days old it is really important as it shows how feelings are changing on protecting trans people. Hate won’t win if we and our politicians fight back. When they had the right takes advantage to attack the rights of the LGBTQ+. Hugs
The HHS and Education bills once contained the most sweeping anti-trans provisions in congressional history. Now they contain none.
Photo by Darren Halstead on Unsplash
Early Tuesday morning, final appropriations bills for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education—and related agencies—were released, marking the last major funding measures to be negotiated in the aftermath of the record-breaking government shutdown fight in 2025. That standoff featured multiple appropriations bills loaded with anti-transgender riders and poison pills for Democrats, ultimately ending in a short-term continuing resolution that punted many of those provisions to the end of January. While other “minibus” packages funding individual agencies moved forward, the Education and HHS bills were conspicuously absent, as they contained some of the most sweeping and consequential anti-trans riders ever proposed in Congress. Now, with the final bills released, it is clear that no anti-transgender riders were included—meaning transgender people will largely be spared new congressional attacks through most of 2026 should they pass as-is.
As the government shut down on Oct. 1, the state of appropriations bills needed to reopen the federal government for any extended period was extraordinarily dire for transgender people. Dozens of anti-transgender riders were embedded across House appropriations bills, even as those provisions were largely absent from the Senate’s versions. The riders appeared throughout nearly every funding measure, from Commerce, Justice, and Science to Financial Services and General Government. The most extreme provisions, however, were concentrated in the House HHS and Education bills, including language barring “any federal funds” from supporting gender-affirming care at any age and threatening funding for schools that support transgender students. Taken together, those measures would have posed a sweeping threat to transgender people’s access to education and health care nationwide.
Those fears eased somewhat when the government reopened under a short-term continuing resolution funding operations through the end of January. In the months that followed, Democrats notched a series of incremental victories for transgender people, advancing multiple appropriations “minibus” packages that stripped out anti-trans riders as the government was funded piece by piece. As amendment after amendment fell away, those wins grew more substantial, including the removal of a proposed ban on gender-affirming medical care from the NDAA—even after it had passed both the House and Senate. Still, the most consequential question remained unresolved: what would ultimately happen to the high-impact anti-trans provisions embedded in the HHS and Education bills.
Now, the package has been released—and for the moment, transgender people can breathe again. The final HHS and Education bills contain no anti-transgender provisions: no ban on hospitals providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth, no threats to strip funding from schools that support transgender students or allow them to use the bathroom, and no mandate forcing colleges to exclude transgender students from sports or activities like chess or esports. The bills are strikingly clean. As such, they avert yet another protracted shutdown fight in which transgender people are once again turned into political bargaining chips—and, at least for now, remove Congress as the immediate vehicle for new federal attacks, should they pass as-is.
When asked about the successful stripping of anti-trans provisions, a staffer for Representative Sarah McBride tells Erin In The Morning, “Rep. McBride works closely with her colleagues every day to defend the rights of all her constituents, including LGBTQ people across Delaware. In the face of efforts by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress to roll back health care and civil rights, she was proud to work relentlessly with her colleagues in ensuring these funding bills did not include anti-LGBTQ provisions. It takes strong allies in leadership and on committees to rein in the worst excesses of this Republican trifecta, Rep. McBride remains grateful to Ranking Members DeLauro, Murray, and Democratic leadership for prioritizing the removal of these harmful riders.”
This does not mean that transgender people will not be targeted with policies and rules that affect them in all areas of life. The Trump administration has acted without regard to law in forcing bans on sports, pulling funding from schools and hospitals, and banning passport gender marker updates. The Supreme Court has been increasingly willing to let the office of the presidency under Trump do whatever it would like to transgender people. However, the lack of passage of bills targeting transgender people means that these attacks will only last for as long as we have Trump in the White House, and a future president should hopefully be easily able to reverse the attacks.
it has been reported that after tRump and Walz talked that tRump is willing to have the FBI cooperate and work with local law enforcement on the shooting investigation. But will the Stephen Miller / Kash Patel group really do what tRump wants or will they mess everything up for the local officials to prevent them from pressing charges. Hugs
Federal officials deny Minnesota state investigators access following Pretti’s killing
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was refused access to evidence regarding Alex Pretti’s killing by Border Patrol officers — despite a signed judicial warrant.
Minnesota officials said they were denied access to the scene where Alex Pretti, a 37-year old intensive care unit nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot by Customs and Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Pretti’s killing marks the second fatality of a U.S. citizen — in the same city, and in less than three weeks — as the Trump administration conducts a brutal immigration crackdown operation in Minnesota, despite objections from state and local officials.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on Saturday morning that “the federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period.”
The state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s Force Investigations Unit, which was created in 2020 by the state legislature, typically leads the charge when looking into use-of-force incidents involving law enforcement officers. But in Pretti’s case, the agency was blocked from accessing evidence by federal officials.
“We’re in uncharted territory here. It’s been a longstanding understanding – both in our state and across the country – that entities like the BCA that conduct 80 plus percent of officer-involved shootings investigations across the United States, are asked to do these investigations of federal agents involved in officer involved shootings,” BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said in a Saturday press conference. “There certainly can be a new process going forward if the federal government would like to do that, and federal agencies, but that has not been a discussion that’s been had so that we can provide clear understanding to citizens.”
The BCA was also eventually blocked from investigating the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an ICE officer.
The BCA had been initially conducting a joint investigation into Good’s killing with the FBI, but the FBI later informed BCA that the investigation would be solely led by federal officials, revoking the BCA’s access to case materials, scene evidence and investigative interviews.
Unlike in Good’s case, state officials obtained a signed judicial warrant to allow them access to materials needed to conduct their own investigation into Pretti’s killing. Still, Department of Homeland Security officials denied them access, and the investigation is now solely being led by the DHS.
Evans said that without cooperation and access to evidence, it will be difficult to conduct a thorough investigation. The BCA has offered to share everything obtained in its investigation, but has not heard back from federal officials in charge.
The DHS did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment about the BCA’s request.
Meanwhile, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said that her office is conducting an investigation separately from the federal government, adding that “there is other evidence other than what was taken here by federal agents.”
“It’s really important for us to collect as much as we can,” Moriarty told MS NOW, underscoring that state and local officials also have jurisdiction.
Moriarty has asked local community members to submit any photo or video evidence in the killings of Pretti and Good to an online portal.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit on Saturday on behalf of the Hennepin County Attorney’s office and the BCA to prevent the destruction of any evidence in the Pretti shooting. Hours later, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order, directing federal agencies to preserve and not alter any evidence collected.
In a statement to MS NOW, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that “any claim that the federal government would ‘destroy’ evidence is a ridiculous attempt to divide the American people and distract from the fact that our law enforcement officers were attacked — and their lives were threatened — yesterday. We are actively investigating this matter and will continue to do so as we do for any officer involved shooting. DHS eagerly awaits any effort from Minnesota to help our officers arrest criminal aliens in the meantime.”
David Noriega contributed reporting to this article.
I watched them all but I know many don’t have that kind of time or watch the shows on cable TV. But they are of different lengths and around the same theme, which is ICE. Hugs
At Stephen Miller direction the republicans stripped out of the funding bill an amendment that would have made it illegal for ICE to deport US citizens. Think on what that means. Hugs
It seems if you watch this to the end that there is a fight in the upper ranks over who is in control over ICE and the CBP people. Stephen Miller and Noem want Bovino because they love the violence and control, and tRump wants to cool things off and he wants Homan because while Homan is an asshole he doesn’t want the spectacle of violence and arresting mom’s dads, and kids. He wants to prioritize what he has always claimed on news shows, the going after the worst of the worst, rapist, murderers,and violent criminals. From clip of other shows I have watched it is so bad Homan and Noem doing even talk to each anymore. However Homan was the one who implemented Stephen Millers separating the children from their parents at the border. Hugs
I love this. ICE concentration camp prisons no matter for children or adults are rife with abuse and mis treatment. We need to stop these for profit prisons and stop ICE while making the conditions better at existing facilities. They have the money, the big billionaire bailout bill gave them more money than some country’s militaries. Hugs
She has some good ideas that the people are doing to resist ICE including helping the people who are too terrified to leave their homes. Hugs
I am sorry that the corrupted courts are the last resort. We must try to use them, if only to set a record for the future. Hugs
A bunch of democratic politicians / congress critters where on Ms Now talking about ICE. I won’t share all of them but no where have I seen leadership such as Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. Hugs
In the above picture how does anyone know if he is a rapist trying to kidnap a woman or child? Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 