Tag: Religious Bigotry

Trump Administration Must Republish Harvard Doctors’ Studies (1)

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/trump-administration-must-republish-harvard-doctors-studies

May 23, 2025, 3:13 PM EDT; Updated: May 23, 2025, 3:35 PM EDT
Allie Reed

Allie Reed
Correspondent

A large transgender flag with signatures and messages during a protest.
Photographer: Manaure Quintero/Bloomberg

The Trump administration must republish two Harvard Medical School professors’ papers it censored because they contained words related to gender ideology, a federal judge ruled Friday.

“The plaintiffs are likely to succeed in proving that the removal of their articles was a textbook example of viewpoint discrimination by the defendants in violation of the First Amendment,” Judge Leo Sorokin wrote for the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

The US Department of Health and Human Services took down peer-reviewed articles by doctors Gordon Schiff and Celeste Royce from the now-inactive Patient Safety Network website, run by the HHS’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

PSNet said the articles were taken down in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order directing agencies to remove content that promotes “gender ideology.” Schiff’s article, on suicide risk assessment, and Royce’s, on endometriosis, both referenced transgender people.

“This is a flagrant violation of the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights as private speakers on a limited public forum,” Sorokin wrote.

The government can only restrict speech on a limited public forum like PSNet in a way that is reasonable and viewpoint neutral, the order said, and the administration’s restrictions were not.

Sorokin said it is not within his discretion “to evaluate the wisdom of restricting access to peer-reviewed scientific information that enhances patient safety by fostering more informed and timely diagnostic care—or of eliminating entirely a free, online repository of patient-safety resources accessed each year by thousands of medical professionals seeking to provide better, safer care to their patients in the United States. Those are matters for the political branches of government to decide.”

The preliminary injunction applies to Schiff and Royce’s articles, as well as other content removed from PSNet in a similar manner.

The case is Schiff v. U.S. Office of Personnel Mgmt., D. Mass., No. 1:25-cv-10595, preliminary injunction order 5/23/25.

(Updates throughout.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Allie Reed in Boston at areed@bloombergindustry.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alex Clearfield at aclearfield@bloombergindustry.com

Christian Nationalist Dudes And Preaching What The Bible Says

Republicans caused or did this. We should ban them.

Comer: James Comey Was “Trying To Jizz Up A Coup”

Trump Admin To Close Famed NASA Research Center

Photo: Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro, who also serves as Kennedy Space Center director, a post she assumed in 2021. Trump elevated Petro to lead NASA after he ousted former Sen. Bill Nelson for believing in climate change.

 

WaPo: The Federal Brain Drain Is Rapidly Escalating

 As previously reported here, European governments have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to lure US scientists.

OK Schools Chief Calls Education Ranking “Fake News”

Newly-released data shows that Oklahoma ranks 46th in per-pupil spending, but Walters, who is eyeing a run for governor, has called for cuts to his state’s “wasteful” education spending, including $250,000 to provide school districts with emergency inhalers. 

In his KFOR interview, Walters did boast about getting new teachers a signing bonus, but as was widely reported the time, $290,000 of that money had to be clawed back because it had gone to teachers who did not qualify. Some of those teachers had already spent the money.

Combat Sports Clubs Are Recruiting White Nationalists

The SPLC’s report is here. The February 2024 report linked below shows that the same thing is happening in the UK.

Tesla Effectively Bans Its Investors From Suing Them

 Guess who donated to the Texas Republicans behind the new law?

 

Felon Has Another Screaming Fit On “Stolen Election”

Trump Demands That Walmart “EAT THE TARIFFS”

Feds Seize Shipment Of Shirts From Anti-ICE Brand

Something something free speech.

New: CBP seized a shipment of t-shirts from @cola.baby featuring a swarm of bees attacking a cop. The company also sells "ELIMINATE ICE" t-shirt and previously was threatened by LAPD for "FUCK THE LAPD" shirts and hats. Shirts to be "destroyed under CBP supervision"www.404media.co/cbp-seizes-s…

— Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T19:44:07.171Z

Forbes: Canadian US Tourism Boycott Is Growing

Canadian Travel Boycott Has Strengthened—Car Travel To U.S. Plummeted 35% In April, Fourth Consecutive Month Of Year-Over-Year Declines

— Forbes (@forbes.com) 2025-05-13T11:53:03.619Z

Trump Posts Video Claiming Hillary Is A Serial Killer

OH GOP Bill Would Designate “Natural Family Month”

Rep. Beth Lear first appeared here in January 2024 when she defended her anti-trans bathroom bill by citing the “millstones” bible verse which calls for drowning anyone who hurts children.

She later blamed “depraved monster” Alfred Kinsey, liberals, and the ACLU for transgender people even existing.

Rep. Josh Williams first appeared here in July 2024 for his bill that would criminalize drag shows in the presence of children. Williams reintroduced his bill last week.

 

Alliance Defending Freedom: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Federal Judge Strikes Down LGBTQ Protections Against Workplace Discrimination

Federal Judge Strikes Down LGBTQ Protections Against Workplace Discrimination

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling marks one of the most alarming judicial rollbacks of LGBTQ rights in recent memory.

By
, 
ErinInTheMorning

Judge's gavel over red and black backgroundZolnierek / iStock / Getty Images Plus

On Thursday, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk — a far-right federal judge in the Northern District of Texas with a record of aligning with the GOP’s most extreme legal positions — issued a ruling declaring that Title VII no longer protects LGBTQ+ people from workplace discrimination. The decision directly contradicts the Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 ruling inBostock v. Clayton County, which held that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is, by definition, sex discrimination. Kacsmaryk’s ruling marks one of the most alarming judicial rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights in recent memory — and sets up a direct legal challenge to one of the foundational civil rights protections for queer and trans people in the United States.

The case was brought against the EEOC by the state of Texas alongside the Heritage Foundation, a central force behind Project 2025 — an aggressive right-wing policy blueprint that explicitly calls for rolling back LGBTQ+ protections in federal law. In siding with the plaintiffs, Judge Kacsmaryk pointed to the Texas Department of Agriculture’s current employee policy, which requires “employees to comply with this dress code in a manner consistent with their biological gender,” specifying that “men may wear pants” and “women may wear dresses, skirts, or pants.” The ruling also upheld the department’s policy banning transgender employees from using restrooms that align with their gender identity.

The judge reached a verdict that Title VII only protects “firing someone simply for being homosexual or transgender,” but that it does not protect transgender or gay people from “harassment”:

Judge Kacsmaryk ruling that gay and trans people can be harassed without repercussion under Title VII.
Judge Kacsmaryk ruling that gay and trans people can be harassed without repercussion under Title VII.

“In sum, Title VII does not bar workplace employment policies that protect the inherent differences between men and women,” Kacsmaryk writes in his ruling.

Judge Kacsmaryk further argued that disparate treatment of transgender employees does not constitute unequal treatment, reasoning that “a male employee must use male facilities like other males” — a statement that erases transgender identity altogether. He extended that logic to dress codes and pronouns, claiming that requiring employees to adhere to clothing standards and pronoun use based on their assigned sex at birth is not discriminatory because it applies “equally” to everyone. The argument mirrors the discredited legal reasoning once used to uphold bans on same-sex marriage — that such laws didn’t discriminate against gay people because they, like straight people, were allowed to marry someone of the opposite sex. It’s a circular logic designed to mask exclusion as neutrality. It also flies in the face of the fact that Texas allows people assigned female at birth to wear gender “pants, skirts, and dresses” but denies that same right to people assigned male at birth.

MAGA Judge Strikes Down LGBTQ Workplace Protections

Kacsmaryk, a former lawyer for an anti-LGBTQ hate group, was exposed in 2023 for failing to disclose millions in stock holdings.

Kacsmaryk was previously exposed for failing to disclose viciously anti-LGBTQ interviews and acting to hide his authorship of an anti-abortion article ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing.

Republican and Christian groups regularly filed their lawsuits in his district because they know they’ll get a friendly ear.

https://x.com/Mercedes_Allen/status/1923446881817948227

 

Some The Majority Report clips I enjoyed

Support for the LGBTQ+ in the tRump hate era.

Salt Lake City Adopts Rainbow City Flag To Evade New State Ban On Pride Flags At Public Buildings [VIDEO]
Boise Adopts Rainbow Flag As Official City Flag To Evade New State Ban On Pride Flag At Govt Buildings [VIDEO]

FYI, Salt Lake City isn't alone in doing adopting special flags to circumvent the new state law. The Boise City Council did the same thing last night. From @fox13news.bsky.social's sister-station in Boise: http://www.kivitv.com/downtown-boi… #utpol #Utah

— Ben Winslow (@benwinslow.bsky.social) 2025-05-07T12:47:58.625Z

On Tuesday night, the Boise City Council voted 5 to 1 to pass a resolution that marks the Pride flag as one of three official city flags.

— Boise State Public Radio (@boisestatepublicradio.org) 2025-05-07T14:08:03.774Z

US Complicity In Israel’s Gaza Starvation Is Policy, Not Accident

Trigger warnings for starving and abused kids / people.   Sadly this is what the US government is supporting and keeping other world leaders from stopping.   This was because Biden was an old person who remembered being part of Israels founding and thought they were so important that it excused everything they did.  tRump doesn’t care about the human cost, he wants the value of the land or as much of the share he can get.  This is sickening.  Personal note.  I was so lacking nutrition in my childhood that my childhood doctors were concerned enough to tell my adopting mother if I did not get more food I would never see five feet in height.  I ended up in a child ICU rushed to the hospital by my grandfather and I had clinical death.  Hugs

 

LGBTQ advocates celebrate wins after Pride flag banning bill and others fail this Session

LGBTQ advocates celebrate wins after Pride flag banning bill and others fail this Session

I think the tide is turning and the superexpressive attacks on the LGBTQ+ people, both adults and kids is not working well for republicans.  I think they will see at local levels people are not buying it and are working to stop efforts to wipe all mention of LGBTQ+ people from society.  Hugs

Gabrielle RussonMay 3, 2025

‘This is more than a policy victory,’ Equality Florida said.

LGBTQ advocates are celebrating several bills — including one that could have banned Pride flags flown at government buildings — stalling out this Session.

“Once again, we’ve done what many thought was impossible: not one anti-LGBTQ bill passed this session,” Equality Florida’s Executive Director Nadine Smith said in a statement Saturday.

The Legislative Session ended Friday although lawmakers failed to pass a balanced budget.

Some of the dead bills including HB 75/SB 100 that would have banned government buildings, schools and universities, from flying flags that represented a “political viewpoint.”

The proposal was sponsored by outgoing state Sen. Randy Fine before he left for Washington, D.C.

“How would we feel if the city of Palm Bay or the city of Ormond Beach flew the Make America Great Again flag from City Hall? How would we feel if a teacher hung that in their classroom?” Fine said during a March committee hearing. “The idea is whether it’s political viewpoints that we agree with or we disagree with, let’s keep that stuff out of government buildings.”

Equity Florida lobbied against the bill with its public policy director Jon Harris Maurer calling the flag ban “unnecessary, unclear, unconstitutional and dangerous.”

“It does not help Floridians struggling with insurance and housing affordability,” he said. “Instead, it is a made-up solution to a culture war for political purposes, but it will have real harms.”

Ultimately, Fine’s bill was withdrawn, failing to reach the Senate floor.

Equity Florida also heralded the defeat of other bills, including HB 1495/SB 440 to prevent governments from using the preferred pronouns for people who are transgender and other bills targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI.)

The organization pointed to its grassroots campaign this Session with 400 LGBTQ activists lobbying during “our largest largest advocacy week ever,” 16,000 emails sent to lawmakers and about 325 in-person meetings with legislators.

“It’s students and seniors, faith leaders and frontline workers, parents and teachers, standing together and making sure lawmakers hear us loud and clear: we will not back down,” Smith said in a statement.

Gabrielle Russon

Gabrielle Russon is an award-winning journalist based in Orlando. She covered the business of theme parks for the Orlando Sentinel. Her previous newspaper stops include the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Toledo Blade, Kalamazoo Gazette and Elkhart Truth as well as an internship covering the nation’s capital for the Chicago Tribune. For fun, she runs marathons. She gets her training from chasing a toddler around. Contact her at gabriellerusson@gmail.com or on Twitter @GabrielleRusson

it is the same … so get over it.

#trans from Liberals Are Cool