I’m Zinnia Jones (she/her), a trans woman, researcher, and activist in Orlando, Florida. I transitioned in 2012 and have volunteered myself since then as a community advocate for transgender people collectively. I have spent years trying to give trans people the resources we need to survive. And for a time, it was good. But because of the current crisis of transphobia and far-right politics corroding trans rights near-daily in the United States as well as abroad, it is now necessary to document and track these events as they occur.
Zinnia Jones’ Bad Trans Day will provide an index of political attacks on trans people’s existence: showing why the specific events of today, yesterday, or this week were particularly alarming, disastrous, threatening, frightening, calamitous, a loss not easily recovered from, or may have led us to weep openly where others could see. I can explain. Here’s why it was a Bad Trans Day. ⬣
Maia Abbruzzese, also known as “Maia Poet” (Twitter: @thepeacepoet99), is an anti-trans activist and pretends to be a detransitioner, having never undergone any medical intervention but still routinely self-promoting on the basis of the supposed body-horror of transitioning.
In 2025, Maia was discovered to be the daughter of Evgenia “Zhenya” Abbruzzese, the cofounder of the anti-trans advocacy group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) (see section Resources at end of post).
Maia had previously filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Skrmetti (2024-10-15), citing a paper by her mother (Abbruzzese, Levine & Mason, 2023), but without disclosing their relation. Additionally, Maia only used the pseudonym “Maia Poet” in the amicus brief, at page 1a under “Appendix List of Amicus Curiae” (“Maia Poet, desister & section co-author”).
In a Twitter Space on 2025-03-08, Maia discussed her history of working with her mother at anti-trans conferences, and described meeting significant figures in the anti-trans movement including Helen Joyce.
Maia identified Kinnon MacKinnon as having attended a Genspect conference: “Anyone can get a ticket to a Genspect conference or whatever…. And we’ve even had Kinnon MacKinnon, who is like the trans man who’s doing this like study on detransitioners, right. So he’s been at the conference.” (More on Kinnon Ross MacKinnon: Detransition, Retransition, and What Everyone Gets Wrong)
Maia admitted that “Poet” is a pseudonym she uses to distance her activism on Twitter from her private life: “the pseudonym ‘Poet’, this is something that I made for Twitter to sort of distance my private life from my activism”.
Maia characterized trans people as “all people who’ve legally changed their names to some fucking stupid cross-sex name because they’re living a LARP”, “and they’re all mentally ill and stupid”. She believes “trans activists are evil lunatics who are not very smart.” During the space, Maia described trans women as “petulant toddlers … in castrated grown men’s bodies”.
At one point, Maia says “trannies” and immediately decries “all of this stupid virtue signaling”.
Maia Abbruzzese’s monologue concludes with her assessment that “this was a really strategically bad move on the part of trans activists, targeting kids. And they will live to regret it.” Because trans kids already existed as trans kids, and they are not trans because of any ‘targeting’ by activists, this is a threat by Maia that trans kids will live to regret existing.
Today, Maia Abbruzzese now tweets that “people with gender & other delusions *who are an active threat to themselves &\or others* should be institutionalized”, on the grounds that “We need to stop treating trans as if it’s an untouchable category”, and “If non-trans people did the same things, they’d be institutionalized immediately.”
SEGM, is this how you raise your children?
Transcript
[02:24]
MAIA ABBRUZZESE: Yeah, I don’t, honestly, I don’t really care. These are all people who- Look, my message is threatening to them. If my messages did not threaten them, they would not be doing this. So honestly, it just shows me that I’m powerful, and it just makes me more and more motivated to destroy these fuckers. […]
[04:49]
MAIA: No, no, no, it’s not that, guys. It’s really- you know what it is? They’ve- they’ve- the same person who doxed me, doxed my mom years ago. He has a hate boner for her, okay? These people only go after- there are so many GC accounts, so many, tons. But they only dox the ones who’s- who they actually feel threatened by. Who they actually feel has a chance of shifting the, like, the uh thought around this type of stuff.
So they- what’s honestly insane to me is that they, so, like- My mom was doxed years ago. Years. And I was doxed months ago and only recently did they put together the connection. I mean, same last name, like, same city. They literally could have put it together instantly, but clearly estrogen is rotting their minds, rotting their brains, making them slow. It’s like, honestly guys, you’re really slacking. Like everyone who means anything to me, or who has been to any of these conferences, by the way, knows that my mom is my mom. Every- like, like, like Sierra has met my mom, all my detrans friends know that, like- Helen Joyce, for Christ’s sake, knows both me and my mom.
Like, every single, all, anyone who- who is in any way important enough or, like, you know, interested enough in this cause to go to a conference, knows that my mom is my mom. Like, everyone. It’s like, a well, it’s a very, very well known fact. It’s just, like, seriously, like- The thing with these trans activists, they can’t stand, they can’t stand contending with ideas that they don’t like. So they- even though these same conferences are open to them, by the way, fully open to them. Anyone can get a ticket to a Genspect conference or whatever. Anyone can.
And we’ve even had Kinnon MacKinnon, who is like the trans, the trans man who’s doing this like study on detransitioners, right. So he’s been at the conference. I’m pretty sure even she knows this, okay. Like, these conferences, before I went public, like, I used my last name at these conferences. I didn’t, you know, the, the pseudonym “Poet” is- This is something that I made for Twitter to sort of distance my private life, you know, from my activism, knowing- I knew full well that this would eventually come out. I knew full well, because these people are vicious and because I was really popular in high school and college, amongst a bunch of different people who are all super woke.
I went to a super woke high school. We had queer history classes that you could take instead of world history classes, and we also had critical theory or critical race theory classes in high school. So I came from a super woke environment. I knew that the second that my story reached a single person who knew me before, all of them would be too woke to hold off on doxing me. I knew this, okay, but, you know, whatever. It’s like, am I going to tell the internet when I’m on my period? Am I? Like, it’s pretty insane that anyone expects me or anyone else to just like, dox themselves and their family members – otherwise, they’re being dishonest? It’s like, no, you trans activists were really slow to the game on this one.
And your, your little stunt is just really good PR because it just shows even more how insane and spirally and conspiracy theory-esque these people are. They’ve made up so many lies that are so easily disprovable. Not just about me or about my mom, but about literally every other person they’ve doxed. The same person who doxed me and my mom has also doxed many other clinicians in this space – including their fucking underage children. These people are vicious, they are ruthless. So I frankly don’t actually- and they’re all mentally ill and stupid. So if they call me a fraud, I genuinely don’t give a flying fuck. Because these are all people who’ve legally changed their names to some fucking stupid cross-sex name because they’re living a LARP. So they’re not being honest about their identities at all.
They’re changing their sex on all their documents. They’ve even, some changed their Social Security numbers or their, their identification to distance themselves from the fact they were born another sex. So I actually, frankly, don’t care what they say because I don’t take them seriously. They’re all, they’re all mentally ill, and like, you know. They, yeah, they just, they’re just mentally ill.
And so like, whatever they say, just kind of like whatever. I mean, it’s good PR, I mean, any, any, any exposure is good exposure. The people who hate me will continue to hate me, regardless of what these trans activists say about me. Like, that’s the truth. People who’ve made their minds up about me, who don’t like me, are just going to continue to dislike me. And the people who like me and find what I have to say to be valuable are going to continue to believe the same thing regardless of what trans activists say. Because they’re smart enough to understand that these trans activists are, are evil lunatics who are not very smart. Like you don’t pull this type of move, you just, you just don’t.
So it’s like, it just, yeah, like- I don’t, I don’t know. It’s not a thing of like, resilience or whatever, it’s just- Like, yeah, was I a little bit stressed about it in the beginning, sure. I was a little bit stressed about it in the beginning. But then I realized, you know what? Today is the day to turn lemons into lemonade. And I’m getting a ton of exposure. And you know what? These people are trying to knock me down. They are trying to get me to react in some way. They’re trying to, you know, they’re, they’re trying to elicit a reaction out of me, and I’m not going to give them that. I’m just not, they’re not worth my time. They’re trying to distract from the important advocacy that I’m doing, not just on this page. This page that I’m running is the least important aspect of my advocacy.
I, you know, I help parents, I write long-form content that is not just a bunch of, you know, rage bait and hot takes. It’s actually well thought out, well-reasoned, well-argued pieces that are reference materials for parents who are trying to help their kids through this, or for loved ones who are trying to help their kids through this. As well as broader commentary about the phenomenon, I make original arguments that, you know, I don’t see other people making, frankly, and I’m contributing something real to this movement.
They are trying to stop me by trying to bait me into some stupid flame war with them, so that they can be like, oh. look how cruel she is, look how transphobic she is. But at the end of the day, it’s like, we’re dealing with petulant toddlers in grown men’s bodies, in castrated grown men’s bodies. Their hormones are all over the place, they’re irrational, they’re clearly becoming slow.
Like they should have been on- like if, if one of them had been brave enough to confront ideas they didn’t like and go to this conference, they would have known. They would have been able to dox me before I even went public with my story. But like, honestly, the fact that it took them this long is just totally on them. They’re being lazy, they’re getting slow. They’re getting a little defeated. This is, you know, the last breaths of gender ideology. They feel their hegemony, their cultural death grip on our society just disintegrating.
And so they’re going to try this, and they have a huge mob behind them. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of- The fact that this is so popular literally just means, all it means, is that there’s a huge trans mob.
There are a lot of people who are very much indoctrinated, and they stick together, by the way. And our side doesn’t stick together. Our side wants to argue about stupid terms like, ‘oh, you’re not a real detransitioner, you’re a desister’, or oh, you’re not, you don’t believe the exact same, you don’t have the same feminist beliefs that I do, and so therefore you’re a grifter. Or, oh, you hold these free speech, controversial spaces where everybody gets to have a say, everyone gets to say what they want to say.
And this means that you’re kowtowing to the trannies, right? Our side has all of this stupid virtue signaling, and it’s, and it’s, and it, and we’re already small. Like, the thing is that most people in, in our Western societies agree with us. But most people who agree with us, agree with us because they’re reasonable. They’re not, like, mentally insane enough to get super involved in these arguments. They agree with us implicitly – but explicitly they’re not so passionate about it, because they’re like, yeah, this is common sense.
But the trans activists, they have a huge, huge mob and they’re all trying to fight to rewrite reality. They will always have a big movement because we’ve opened Pandora’s box and they’re all trying to collude with each other to create this like, new reality in which words, you know, have totally alternative meanings and in which there is no there’s no viewpoint in the future, you know, where there’s any kind of stable sense of reality.
It’s post-modernism at its core, because they’re the ones trying to rewrite basic, basic facts, and because they will always face resistance to rewriting our basic facts and definitions. They’re continue- they’re going to continue to like, have a big mob. That doesn’t make them right. That doesn’t make the claims that they make, that isn’t, doesn’t make their conspiracies right. That doesn’t make their tactics right.
It just means that they are vicious and they are mentally ill, and that ultimately they will bring about their own downfall. I mean, you fuck with enough mama bears who are trying to protect their kids, and you will start to lose your beloved trans rights. Perfect example of that, you know, January Littlejohn literally was talked about on TV by Trump. She was there and the school tried to socially transition her daughter. They socially transitioned her daughter without her consent. And now she is on the front line of running a movement to expose this absolute bullshit.
The dumbest mistake that these trans activists make from the beginning is that they started targeting children. Okay, parents can take the blowback, like parents can absolutely, like- If someone is mad at them for not ‘trans-ing’ their kid, parents frankly don’t really care that much. They don’t, because their mission to protect their kid is way more important than what anyone else says about it. Like it’s not- These parents who are skeptics don’t, like- they get- Either they get convinced by the suicide lie, or they have the mental fortitude to be like, wait a second. This doesn’t make sense.
Like, if you’re naturally a skeptic, you’re not going to go along with ‘trans-ing’ your kid. And there are plenty of parents who start out as skeptics, and then they believe the suicide lie, because they’re kind of too neurotic. They have that, like, kind of emotional thing about them where they basically get really wrapped up in their emotions.
But there are some parents who totally distance themselves. They don’t actually care about their kid’s emotions that much. They’re like- and they don’t really care about all of the scaremongering. It doesn’t impact them because they’re highly, highly rational. That’s the family I come from, highly, highly, highly rational. Those are the types of parents who protect their kids.
Everyone else who’s too neurotic ends up going along with ‘trans-ing’ their kids. And ultimately, if you’re the type of parent who’s too rational to trans your kid, because you ignore the emotional scaremongering, you don’t believe it, you’re whatever, it doesn’t impact you, it doesn’t compel your behavior. If you’re already that rational, like, another parent or even many parents saying, ‘oh, you’re horrible, you’re evil, you’re a bigot, how dare you not trans your kid?’ That’s not going to- that’s also not going to convince that parent into ‘trans-ing’ their kid, right?
So that basic understanding really shows us how stupid it is, like how strategically bad it is for trans activists to target kids. That’s kind of how this whole thing blew up and how people started being very, very skeptical, is when all of these kids started getting targeted. Like all these parents, you know- Note that like, the reason why no one even cared, really, about Jazz Jennings in like 2007, part of the reason why- The only like, the only people who were commenting negatively about what happened to Jazz in 2007 were religious conservatives. All these liberals were like, oh, these these people are crazy. They’re bigoted, you know, they, these people hate gay people.
And so they just dismissed the criticism outright. Liberals dismissed the criticism outright. And so it didn’t blow up as a culture issue until all of these liberal parents started having their feminine, normal, kind of quirky girls getting caught up in this. And then they’re like, oh, wait a second, this is a really big problem. Then, you know, it happened one by one by one by one. And then policies started changing in schools and institutions to try to collude with this and to hide this from parents. And from the moment, from the moment that any parent feels that their kid is being targeted, whether they’re on our side or whether they’re on the trans activist side, they will wage a war.
So this was a really strategically bad move on the part of trans activists, targeting kids. And they will live to regret it. That’s a fact.
Speaker 2: Well said, Maia, I agree with you.
Speaker 3: Okay, I got a slightly off topic question. So with all the trans men that you’ve met, how many of these motherfuckers went with the name Autumn or Skyler? Because that’s a big fucking one around here.
MAIA: You mean FTMs?
Speaker 3: Yes, that’s a big fucking one around here.
MAIA: Skyler? Skyler, yes, Autumn, no. Autumn is more like an MTF name.
Speaker 3: I was like, fucking like, every third fucking FTM around here goes with the name Skyler or fucking Autumn.
MAIA: It’s cause of Skyler Levine. You can basically figure out when these trans men came out, when they adopted trans identities, based on which names they pick. Because just like their identities are socially contagious and their gender dysphoria is socially contagious, the names they pick are also very socially contagious. Like if someone calls, if some FTM calls themselves Skyler, that probably means that they they came out as trans in the last years of the 2000’s or in the first years of the 2010’s. And then the names, the -den names, Aiden, Caden, Jaden, Braden, those names are like sort of 2013, 2014 to like 2017.
Speaker 3: It’s so unoriginal too.
MAIA: Oh yeah, cause they’re all copying each other. Of course it’s unoriginal.
Speaker 3: It’s like, and you look at them, it’s like half the time they just fucking, they all look the same too. It’s like absolutely fucking- I can’t think of more than like maybe three fucking FTMs that I’ve ever seen, even on the internet, that fucking passed.
MAIA: Yeah. I mean, some of them pass better than others. I don’t know, I mean… Um.
Speaker 3: Like, Buck is the only one I can think of where I had to look at twice. But Buck Angel is also incredibly honest about it.
MAIA. Yeah. I’m sure if Buck went to Israel, that Buck would have no problem passing. Like, the thing with Buck is it’s mostly, it’s mostly just the height. But, like, you know, I don’t know. Well, what really works in my favor in Israel, I think, is just that I was young, and so they were willing to believe that a 20 year old might be able to look like a 15 or 16 year old. But of course, the older you get, the harder it is for people to buy that. They kind of think twice a little bit more, but it didn’t seem to occur to basically any of these people unless they were like, you know, liberal Tel Avivis that I might actually be a woman. Because that’s how conservative and kind of traditional this culture is. They would never think that someone would do what I was doing. They would have never conceptualized of it.
With a man who’s wearing a dress, in those societies, that’s much easier for those people to tell, oh yeah, this is a man wearing a dress. It’s easier for them to tell that, even if it’s a super effeminate gay man. It’s that they’re better at passing than a woman who’s wearing men’s clothes, because it’s not as much of an eyesore. Like it doesn’t stick out in your face as much. And so it’s, I guess, easier for those societies to accept. That’s what really just allowed me to do this for so long, frankly, like without injecting toxic doses of testosterone into my body, you know, just roiding myself into oblivion, like- That’s the only way, is because I was really young, and so people could kind of suspend their disbelief because they just didn’t have a schema for what else I could, why I could look so young, right? Like that- But like for Buck, I feel like Buck would have no problem.
Speaker 3: Yeah. You’re gonna look fucking 15 for a while, Maia.
MAIA: Huh?
Speaker 3: You look young right now. You’re 25. You look like you’re 15.
MAIA: Yeah. I’m well aware.
Speaker 3: You’re going to look young forever.
Speaker 2: Don’t worry, that’s why I grow the beard, Maia.
Speaker 3: Just me doing a little bit of light teasing.
“Healthcare researcher and author of several widely-read peer-reviewed publications in pediatric gender medicine. After observing an influx of teens presenting with gender dysphoria for the first time in adolescence in 2018, Zhenya began to study the Dutch protocol and its applicability to the current clinical dilemmas. Eventually her work led her to co-found the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. Previously, Zhenya worked for a major US-based health insurer identifying low-value healthcare interventions, and led a venture-backed startup focused on patients suffering with medically-unexplained symptoms. Zhenya consults for a range of healthcare organizations, working at the intersection of physical and mental health and the promotion of culturally-competent evidence-based healthcare.”
The executive order was quickly challenged in court. In three lawsuits filed on behalf of trans women housed in women’s prisons, federal judges have ruled that the US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) cannot withhold their medical treatment and was barred from moving them to men’s facilities. One judge said the plaintiffs had “straightforwardly demonstrated that irreparable harm will follow”.
Lawyers fighting Trump’s directive say the court rulings prevented the transfers of 17 trans women who are plaintiffs in the cases, but others not included in the litigation are now facing placements in men’s facilities.
“I’m just continuing to be punished for existing,” said Whitney, a 31-year-old trans woman who was transferred from a women’s facility to a men’s prison this week. The BOP changed her records from “female” to “male”, records show. In messages before her transfer, she said she felt like a “pawn in others’ political games”. The Guardian is not using her full name due to concerns about retaliation.
Kara Janssen, an attorney representing trans women in litigation, said she learned of another trans woman not included in the lawsuits who was recently transferred to a facility that houses men, and also had the gender marker in her records changed. Janssen also learned of a trans woman newly entering the BOP system who had gender-affirming surgeries before her incarceration, but was placed in a men’s facility. […]
Whitney, who was recently transferred, said in interviews prior to her move that staff for weeks gave her conflicting information. In mid-February, she and another trans woman were placed into a form of isolation called a “special housing unit” and told they could be there for months, she said. The other woman attempted suicide out of fear of being transferred, she said.
Days later, the women were moved back to the general population. Whitney’s doctor, however, then told her that her hormone therapy medications would start to be tapered down. Whitney said going off those medications would wreak havoc on her body and mind, describing it “like a slow death”. The doctor also said staff would start using male pronouns for her, though she said that had not happened yet.
Here I am again to rise on another bill targeting the LGBTQ community. I first want to start off and say, at its very core, drag is art. Drag is a beautiful art. Drag has a deep history in this country, and it is a history that is important to my community. You know, if you are a woman in this body wearing a suit today, you are challenging gender norms that existed long ago.
And in some ways, drag does work to challenge those norms. There were three articles of clothing laws 50 years ago that said if you wore three articles of clothing that were indicative of the opposite gender, the police could stop you and arrest you. It was those laws that led to the police raiding an LGBTQ bar in New York and led to the Stonewall riots, one of the most important civil rights moments in my community’s history.
I also want to reject the notion, however, that these are, as the sponsor says, events where explicit content is expected or where audiences expect risque entertainment. Drag story hours, I have been to here in Montana. They are like Disney princesses reading to people. We had people come in and talk about this. These are spaces where people come up and they sit down in libraries, and parents elect to bring their children and learn about books and the love of reading. And also, yes, be involved in part, and to hear stories told from members of my community. That is important and that is beautiful, and I do not think that we should be standing up and saying that this art form, because it’s somehow connected to my community, is not allowed.
But there’s something underpinning this that makes this even more insidious. And the sponsor called this a fix to last session’s bill. It’s important to note that last session’s bill, when it was applied, the first application of this was not on a drag show. It was to prevent a trans woman from giving a history lesson in a library. That’s where this came up. That’s how this is going to be attempted to be applied: as an attack against the trans community.
And we have even more examples of that, because in committee, when the sponsor closed on this bill, he said, “this bill is needed” — he said, and I quote his words — “because transgenderism is a fetish based on cross-dressing.” Those were his words for why this this bill is necessary.
And I’m here to stand before the body and say that my life is not a fetish. My existence is not a fetish. I was proud a month ago to have my son up in the gallery here. Many of you on the other side met him. When I go to walk him to school, that is not lascivious display. That is not a fetish. That is my family.
This is what these bills are trying to come after. Not obscene shows somehow getting in front of children. We have the Miller test for that. We have laws for that. This is a way to target the trans community. And that is my opinion, and in the speaker’s own words.
Please vote no.
MADAM CHAIR: Further discussion. Representative Essman.
To speak to the bill, I’m speaking as a parent and a grandmother. And I’m very emotional because I know the representative in seat 20 is also a parent. No matter what you think of that, she is doing her best to raise a child. I did my best to raise my children as I saw fit, and I’m taking it for granted that my children are going to raise my grandchildren as they see fit.
Everybody in here talks about how important parental rights are. I want to tell you, in addition to parental rights, parental responsibility is also important. And if you can’t trust a decent parent to decide where and when their kids should see what, then we have a bigger problem.
So I advise you all to vote about parental rights, parental responsibility, and remember we already have indecency laws in this state. We voted on one, I don’t know, earlier this week, last week, sometime during the session. We all wanted to make sure we knew what indecent was. And now we know.
Trust the parents to do what’s right, and stop these crazy bills that are a waste of time. They’re a waste of energy. We should be working on property tax relief and not doing this sort of business on the floor of this house and having to even talk about this.
Please vote no.
[On a vote of: 44 yes / 55 no, House Bill 675 fails to pass its second reading.]
Refers to:
Montana HB 675: “Revise laws related to hypersexualized shows” (2025)
“Inside, police lined up the bar’s patrons and demanded IDs. They especially targeted gender-nonconforming people, detaining many of them and citing a statute that allowed for the arrest of people not wearing three articles of clothing ‘appropriate’ to their sex assigned at birth.”
Free Speech Center: Miller test, “the primary legal test for determining whether expression constitutes obscenity” (2018-01-01)
— He’s misgendering the trans girl in high school who played volleyball against Payton McNabb, and calling trans women “men”.
Trump:
$8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho which nobody has ever heard of.
— Everyone has heard of Lesotho. He can’t even pronounce it.
Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. … Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229. One person between the age of 240 and 249 — and one person is listed at 360 years of age.
— There’s all sorts of possible reasons those Social Security records are still in that database. Any number of complexities could apply here. He could be listing all sorts of ad hoc edge cases, or odd formatting hacks, that came up in the course of everything all people in the United States can experience across the course of their lives.
Deals are being made — never seen. That’s a combination of the election win and tariffs. It’s a beautiful word, isn’t it?
And Elliston Berry, who became victim of an illicit deepfake image produced by a peer. With Elliston’s help, the Senate just passed the Take It Down Act.
And this is so important, thank you very much, John [Thune]. … The publication of such images online is terrible, terrible thing. And once it passes the House, I look forward to signing the bill into law. Thank you. And I’m going to use that bill for myself too, if you don’t mind, because nobody gets treated worse than I do online, nobody.
— A disgusting suggestion by Trump that an anti-deepfake law, primarily protecting women targeted by AI creation of pornography, would be necessary to protect him because of how desirable he is, which he is not. The implication diminishes what she has been through, to her face, in front of the country, which is extremely insulting. I am offended deeply on her behalf.
All three savages charged with Jocelyn and Laken’s murderers…
— Anyone in any group can act heinously, but choosing to dehumanize anyone is a choice that diminishes every one of us.
Two weeks ago, I officially designated this gang, along with MS-13 and the bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations. They are now officially in the same category as ISIS.
— Terrorism involves attacks on civilians to achieve political aims and send a message. These gangs and cartels are not intending to do so in any of these cited incidents.
— This is all a disgrace, shameful, cowardly, pathetic, small, and utterly chickenhearted.
I have already signed an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer, and tonight I’m asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law.
— He doesn’t specify what degree of murder, or the circumstances. If the accused were 10 miles away, it could be attributed to them as being a murder when an officer is killed by someone else, due a legal mechanism of associated responsibility. This has absolutely happened before. See: “Sentenced to Life for an Accident Miles Away” (The New Yorker, 2023-12-11).
My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools. A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their thirteen-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging their daughter to use a new name and pronouns – they/them pronoun, actually – all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse.
— Notably, he’s describing even social, non-medical transitioning as “child abuse” in a national address, suggesting anything other than parental enforcement of stereotypical gender-conforming expression of cisgenderism (as defined by the state) is “child abuse”.
Stories like this are why shortly after taking office, I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology. I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie. And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.
— This is notable for the invocation of religion (presumably Christian) as imposing a fundamentally anti-trans and cis-only reality on everyone, which precludes from the outset even the existence of trans people at all. This is the president’s claim that a Christian God has determined everyone will have specifically cis genders, and more broadly, that there is any kind of purpose or teleology in the universe at all.
— It is an assertion that trans people’s genders are against the intentions of an external, higher being. This assertion is baseless; there is no evidence of the proposed being or its intentions; the belief is an individual preference that falls within private practices; it is a matter for interpersonal coexistence within a pluralistic society; and it is not a vision for our secular government to select as its model of reality and then impose on everyone in the country.
As a first step, I’m asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art Golden Dome missile shield to protect our homeland, all made in the USA. And Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago but the technology wasn’t there, not even close, but now we have it
— Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back? Nope! Sorry, Cold War/nuclear strategy/missile defense special interest engaged. This will never happen.
I was saved by God to make America great again, I believe that.
— Anyone can say that about any activity they engage in at any time.
— His vision of God wants nothing more for us than a falsified cisgender fraction-of-a-life, filled with many years of President Donald Trump.
And from the legends who soared at Kitty Hawk to the astronauts who touched the moon, Americans have always been the people who defied all odds, transcended all dangers…
— He said “transcended all dangers”, but it sounded like “transgendered all dangers”.
We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science, and we are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond.
— Is he suggesting manned spaceflight to the Galilean moons?
And we will fight, fight, fight for the country our citizens believe in
— A reference to the attempt on his life; a “fight” chant now breaks out.
It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before
— Anyone can say that, but this time, in this context, it seems loaded with threat.
Holder is among thousands of transgender service members who say they are angry, disillusioned and anxious after Pentagon moves that appear to mean the end of their time in uniform. They say they have worked hard to serve their country and meet standards of military service — standards the Pentagon set for them in a series of policies dating back to 2016 — and now that work is being thrown away and the rug pulled out from under them. […]
“Service by these individuals is not in the best interests of the Military Services and is not clearly consistent with the interests of national security,” the memo filed in the lawsuit says. […]
Lindsay Church, a Navy veteran and executive director of Minority Veterans of America, noted that “beyond the baseline inhumanity of the policy”, the sudden separation directive will lead to negative impacts on the transition to civilian life. They noted that transgender veterans face higher risks of housing and health issues as well as suicide. A 2019 study found that “transgender veterans die by suicide at twice the rate of their cisgender veteran peers and approximately 5.85 times the rate of the general population.”
One recent veteran suicide gained attention. On Jan. 27, nonbinary Army veteran Elisa Rae Shupe killed themselves at a parking garage used by the Syracuse VA, less than a week after being discharged. Shupe, who served nearly two decades in uniform, became the first American to get legal recognition as nonbinary. Syracuse.com first reported on Shupe’s death. A witness Task & Purpose spoke with confirmed that Shupe’s body was wrapped in the transgender pride flag. Several vigils have been held for Shupe in multiple cities since then. […]
Beyond concerns over mental and physical health, transgender troops also face the upcoming loss of their jobs. The policy directs separation in roughly 60 days. The Pentagon also said that service members who choose to leave voluntarily have a 30-day window to do so. They will be eligible for voluntary separation pay. As a result, many military members said they are looking at major life changes. […]
Others noted that losing troops, particularly those with experience and specific training, could cause harm for military effectiveness. Holder noted that her unit has to plan for losing several of its members as a result of the ban, including linguists with years of experience.
Title: Memorandum for Senior Pentagon Leadership/Commanders of the Combatant Commands/Defense Agency and DOD Field Activity Directors; Additional Guidance on Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness
Author: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense; Darin S. Selnick (“Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness”)
Wisconsin Republicans are again turning their focus towards LGBTQ+ youth, especially those who are transgender, introducing bills that would prohibit gender-affirming care for youth, ban students from playing on certain sports teams and mandate that school districts get permission from parents when using different names and pronouns for students.
The four bills come as President Donald Trump has signed a slate of executive orders targeting transgender people. The bills have received pushback from the Wisconsin Legislative LGBTQ+ Caucus, the Transgender Parent and Non-Binary Advocacy Caucus and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations.
Sen. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit), chair of the LGBTQ+ caucus, told the Wisconsin Examiner that the bills are “part of broader national Republican effort” to attack trans people.
“Republicans are now trying to essentially legislate trans people out of existence by denying medically necessary life-saving care, by preventing people from playing team sports, by trying to make it harder for people to be called by the name and pronouns that they go by when they’re in school,” Spreitzer said. […]
Spreitzer noted that those under 18 who have been receiving care would also have to stop receiving it. The bill would include a six-month period before it goes into effect which would be meant for health care providers to discontinue care for minor patients
“People are going to essentially be told in six months you’re going to have to stop taking medications you’re currently on, and you’re going to have to go through puberty as a sex that you don’t identify with. That is going to create incredible trauma for those young people,” Spreitzer said.
On January 20, United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order effectively “pausing” US foreign development assistance for 90 days. The ripples of this order were felt soon in a medical clinic in Hyderabad, Telangana, which had been running for over four years on funds from the United States Agency for International Development or USAID.
Mitr Clinic, the first comprehensive transgender health clinic in the country, closed down on January 24, four days after Trump’s executive order. Reacting to the clinic’s closure, the world’s richest man and senior advisor to the Trump administration, Elon Musk, wrote on X: “That’s what American tax dollars were funding.”
Meanwhile, a board, quickly printed on an A4 paper, greets visitors at the clinic at the YMCA crossroads in Narayanguda now. In four languages – English, Telugu, Hindi and Urdu – the grim announcement says, “Clinic will be closed until further instructions.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Rachana Mudraboyina, a transwoman who used to work as a consultant at the clinic, said, “We were told overnight that the clinic will cease to function.” Another worker at the clinic, who requested anonymity, said, “We are still getting calls from community members seeking help for their medical needs. We remain mute, helpless.”
The Trump administration has escalated its efforts to purge transgender service members from the military, urging them to voluntarily separate by March 26—or face an uncertain future.
The directive, outlined in a March 1 memorandum from the Department of the Air Force, was filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as part of Talbott v. Trump, a legal challenge brought by GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The memo, signed by Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Gwendolyn R. DeFilippi, states that individuals with gender dysphoria are “incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.”
Transgender service members “are encouraged to elect to separate voluntarily no later than 26 March 2025,” the memo states. “Service members eligible for voluntary separation pay will be paid at a rate that is twice the amount for which the service member would have been eligible under involuntary separation pay.” The memo applies explicitly to Air Force and Space Force members, though other branches are expected to follow suit.
The document also confirms that previous waivers allowing them to use facilities and grooming standards consistent with their gender identity have been revoked effective immediately.Transgender personnel must now adhere to so-called “biological sex” standards for uniforms, grooming, fitness requirements, and access to showers, bathrooms, and lodging, it notes.
Title: MEMORANDUM FOR ALMAJCOM-ALFLDCOM-FOA-DRU/CC DISTRIBUTION C; Additional Guidance for Executive Order 14183, “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness”
Author: Department of the Air Force, Office of the Assistant Secretary; Gwendolyn R. DeFilippi, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs
