Madison Pauly

I love your username. Thanks for reading!

I'm so sorry for your loss.

thank you Carol!

Hi Christina. Thanks for reading. It was a different Lia who died. www.middlebury.edu/announcement...

Thanks, Jody!

Thank you so much for listening, and for this thread, Duncan!

Thank you so much, Jessica!

How right-wing superstar Riley Gaines built an anti-trans empire The swimmer tied a trans woman for fifth. The MAGA industrial complex took care of the rest.

Thank you to the University of Kentucky teammates and NCAA competitors who trusted me enough to speak to me on one of the most controversial topics there is in politics or on the internet today.

Read the story here: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

8/8

Two of Riley Gaines’ teammates say they’re frustrated she’s used her platform to vilify trans women as an existential threat to women’s sports—while barely mentioning the serious problems they say actually affected them.

“She’s very, ‘Protect women’s sports.’ But not when it comes to our team.” 7/

Gaines’ teammates also care about protecting women in sports. But their concerns are different. Their head coach is facing a rape lawsuit. Another was suspended for sexual harassment, per university records. And UK investigated other reports of abusive coaching, eating disorders, punishments. 6/

I waded through the sea of Riley Gaines content—her memoir, podcast, social media, press appearances—to track her rhetoric & goals as both grew more extreme. I followed the money (see article for more on that).

I also talked to some of her old teammates. 5/

And…it worked. Trans women have been banned from women’s competition by the NCAA and the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Trans girls are banned from girls’ school sports in 29 states (lawsuits pending). SCOTUS is hearing the issue this term.

And Gaines personally achieved huge influence. 4/

This GOP effort to turn trans athletes into a wedge issue didn’t start with Gaines tying trans swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAAs. But she and her allies used the story of the matchup as a powerful political weapon—under the banner of “protecting women’s sports.” 3/

YouTube video by PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT Riley Gaines Investigated: The Lia Thomas Race, the Coach & Why She "Doesn't Even Like" Trump | PTFO

This story was produced as a collaboration between @pablo.show and @motherjones.com. Watch the Pablo Torre Finds Out episode here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKUl... 2/

How right-wing superstar Riley Gaines built an anti-trans empire The swimmer tied a trans woman for fifth. The MAGA industrial complex took care of the rest.

I’ve spent a lot of the last three years investigating the rise of anti-trans politics. Often, it came back to the controversy over trans women athletes.

So I teamed up with @pablo.show to look into the leading figure on the issue: Riley Gaines.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202... 1/

HHS names authors and releases peer-review comments for gender dysphoria report The new report reveals that many of the authors and reviewers have been outspoken critics of gender-affirming care and belong to anti-LGBTQ+ groups

Kudos to @theresagaff.bsky.social and Annalisa Merelli at @statnews.com for banging out this detailed analysis today: www.statnews.com/2025/11/19/h...

Get Help Get immediate help 24/7/365. The Trevor Project's crisis counselors are just a text, chat, or phone call away. Completely confidential and free LGBTQ hotline.

Crisis support for LGBTQ youth: www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

Cw: suicide
This article is devastating.

Earlier this month, a 15-year-old died by suicide the day after posting about a substitute teacher insisting on misgendering him.

Suicide can have many contributing factors. His family is speaking out about bullying and misgendering as two.

We finally know the identities of the 9 anonymous authors of the May HHS report on pediatric gender-affirming care. Surprise! It's stacked with people who make money advocating against pediatric gender-affirming care.

Here's our writeup from May: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

How the right uses "gender ideology" to blame trans people for everything MAGA learned from global autocrats the language needed to push fear.

"The right’s gripe isn’t just that trans people exist, but that their existence is tearing down the old world—of good men, obedient women, traditional family structures—and unleashing a new, godless age of chaos and precarity on you." @schuylermitchell.bsky.social www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Excerpt from Teen Vogue article: "There are some professional transphobes who have deluded themselves into thinking that there is no evidence that trans people do anything more than threaten to take their own lives to manipulate others into getting our way. Those of us on the ground, who have trans friends, who are up all night making sure a trans friend having a mental crisis is able to work their way through it, know the truth."

Powerful from @katelynburns.com on the death of Lia Smith.

I'll never forget watching an anti-trans mvmt leader try to reassure her allies that trans youth "are not suicidal because of us." Now, they either deny trans people's suffering or call it a kind of abuse.

www.teenvogue.com/story/politi...

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you Inside the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

Today, with more than a dozen global media partners, we’re exposing a surveillance firm whose untraceable phone-tracking tech has been used to target politicians, journalists, and executives.

Our investigation rewrites what Americans know about the shadowy surveillance industry. ow.ly/2LUF50Xb7KE

A year and a half ago, @hencarnell.bsky.social and I investigated the movement to resurrect conversion therapy

Now, oral arguments are about to begin in a Supreme Court case, Chiles v. Salazar, that could overturn bans in 23 states.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

For furloughed workers, Trump's partisan shutdown jabs are just the latest slight “Not only is it insulting to the standards we’re all supposed to abide by, but it’s also insulting to our intelligence.”

Can't get over this NIH employee reacting to possible Hatch Act violations in the administration's shutdown spin: "I liked the fact that I still had the capacity for disappointment.”

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Congrats to @jollyette.bsky.social on her first @motherjones.com byline!!

“As far as I am concerned,” Guyatt recounted telling people affiliated with SEGM in a recent conversation, “you are not evidence-based.”

It was a burn that only the guy who coined the term “evidence-based medicine” could give.

Trump rewards MAGA attack dog attorney general with FBI post "If Andrew Bailey can do this much damage in Missouri, imagine what he’ll do with federal power."

I've had a Google Alert set on Missouri AG Andrew Bailey for a couple years. His aggressive (and at times extralegal) attacks on abortion, local Democrats, trans people often get slapped down in court. But winning wasn't the point. The point was building a rep.

Now he's headed to help run the FBI.

Women all over the country are suing police for failing to test their rape kits. But they faced a blow from the Supreme Court on Monday.

& over www.motherjones.com/criminal-jus...

The chilling story of three women haunted by the same rapist—and how the law failed them DNA identified a serial predator. The law let him off the hook.

& over www.motherjones.com/criminal-jus...

She said, he sued: How libel law is being turned against MeToo accusers How libel law is being turned against MeToo accusers

& over www.motherjones.com/criminal-jus...

They went to Bible college to deepen their faith. Then they were assaulted—and blamed for it. At Moody Bible Institute, purity culture and complementarianism have worked together to forgive abusers and punish the abused.

& over www.motherjones.com/politics/202...