rachel

‘I’m crushed’: Transgender patients left in limbo after UMass Memorial canceled their surgeries Some people had waited nearly a year for their appointments with a preeminent surgeon. Now, they don’t know what to do.

‘I’m crushed’: Transgender patients left in limbo after UMass Memorial canceled their surgeries

www.wgbh.org/news/he...

#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA

post a tree you photographed

‘He’s not the same’: Father of Liam Conejo Ramos says 5-year-old continues to suffer Some people thought they say the 5-year-old during the Super Bowl halftime show. But Liam is still in hiding with his family, after he and his father were detained and then released from a Texas deten...

Super Bowl viewers Sunday speculated that 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos appeared in the halftime show. In fact, he has been in hiding with his family.

“He can’t sleep well at night. He wakes up three or four times a night screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy,’” Liam's father Adrian Conejo Arias, said.

How do MLB workers protect Latin players from Trump's ICE raids? By themselves. Front office staffers told eyeblack about keeping immigrant players safe while league guidance is minimal and "Manfred kisses Trump's ass."

*new* from me:

As pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, three front office staffers spoke to me about helping Latino baseball players and their families navigate an America ravaged by ICE raids.

They say guidance from MLB has been “minimal” so their teams are getting creative.

In Boston ICE randomly pulled over this huge white Irish guy with a Mass drivers license, 20 years in the states, legal status, pending green card and have held him for 5 months, his citizen wife paid a $4k bond that was ignored(!) ICE forged his signature on deportation agreement, no appeal

Blockade with abolish ice sign

Sympathetic anti ICE protestors

Blockade with a mattress reading NO COMPROMISE

Blockade with signs reading "dream of spring" and "ICE go home"

So many friends popping up all over

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says his memory was so jumbled after a beating by immigration officers that he initially could not remember he had a daughter and still struggles to recall treasured moments like the night he taught her to dance. But the violence he endured last month in Minnesota while being detained is seared into his battered brain. He remembers Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling him from a friend’s car on Jan. 8 outside a St. Paul shopping center and throwing him to the ground, handcuffing him, then punching him and striking his head with a steel baton. He remembers being dragged into an SUV and taken to a detention facility, where he said he was beaten again. He also remembers the emergency room and the intense pain from eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages.

ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.”

What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.

Boston did not clear snow from the bike lanes after the storm two weeks ago, so our community came together to do so. "We just want to get home safe and alive!" @bikeboston.bsky.social @streets.boston.gov @mayorwu.boston.gov @universalhub.com @wcvb5.bsky.social @mass.streetsblog.org

The city has spent ~$5M above budget in the past month to deal with the occupation, with roughly $130k per day going to MPD overtime. So when mod CMs/the mayor tell you that we can’t afford rent relief, they’re telling you that they prefer to spend your tax dollars on this instead.

really difficult to overstate how much of daily life in MN has been completely transformed or forced to come to a standstill because of ICE's occupation (that's still happening! ICE hasn't left! people are still being kidnapped daily)

‘Communities Ripped Apart’: On Texas College Campuses, LGBTQ+ Services Have Been Completely Decimated Across the state, public universities that were once making strides toward inclusivity and support have faced devastating cutbacks.

EXCLUSIVE: When Senate Bill 17 went into effect in 2024, Texas universities were forced to enact anti-DEI policies. Since then, 12 queer resource centers or programs have closed — along with layoffs or transfers of at least 100 people.
thebarbedwire.com/2026/02/05/c...

I couldn't string sentences together yesterday, Maybe that's a sign that I shouldn't have been spared when all my fantastic colleagues who unfairly lost their jobs pushed through their grief to write beautiful notes about their careers and the situation at The Washington Post. The health team lost 8 out of 13 reporters yesterday despite health listed as part of The Post's new pared down focus. Just six months after becoming an editor and having the honor to lead an all-star team covering federal health agencies and public health, I have to go back to reporting because there are barely any health reporters left to edit. I'll say more about the reporters we lost later today, but as a team, we did everything we were supposed to do under the vision for The Post to be a digital innovator that breaks news, offers hard-hitting accountability and directly address reader concerns. We landed exclusives on the CDC director's firing, plans to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule, projections for steep ACA marketplace rate increases and more. We avoided dutiful iterative stories and covered storylines such as the expiration of enhanced ACA premiums with smart targeted angles that were widely read. We broke the mold of a traditional newspaper with clever formats including a pop-up newsletter and live chats to help readers navigate new restrictions on coronavirus vaccines, a quiz to understand new dietary guidelines and vertical videos to showcase reporter expertise. The Metro section where I started my career (and offers a clear reason for millions of potential subscribers to pay for us instead of or in addition to other national outlets!) is hollowed out. Reporters around the world wiped out after the owner set a vision for international relevance. A sports department home to journalistic legends shuttered. And so much more bleeding across the entire newsroom.

The Washington Post gutted the health team which I helped to lead despite our stories being among the most widely read, impactful and adept at reaching new audiences.

Meet the mastermind behind Trump’s definition of "woman" May Mailman’s anti-trans crusade could threaten gender equality for all.

"This is the story of an extraordinary effort by the second Trump administration to shape our ideas about who and what men and women are — a campaign that began targeting trans people but has vast implications for the rights of cisgender people as well."

one of the quirky subplots of moving from MN to MA during These Times has been watching people in boston find out who will stancil is

Trans athletes may not have fitness advantage in women’s sport, landmark study finds Findings suggest physical performance in trans women converges toward that of cis women over time

A new systematic review has found that trans women on HRT have the same level of fitness as cis women and don't retain any advantage in sports.

www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

The ProPublica Guild is Ready to Strike for a Fair Contract — ProPublica Guild The ProPublica Guild is prepared to strike. We have shown up and compromised at the bargaining table for more than two years, but our newsroom’s management has slow-walked negotiations , offering w...

1/ READY TO STRIKE: More than 80% of our members signed a pledge saying we are prepared to strike unless @propublica.org agrees to a fair contract.
www.propublicaguild.org/updates/the-...

A Mississippi Synagogue Was Attacked in 1967 and 2026. The Antisemitic Rhetoric Looked the Same Then and Now. A 19-year-old accused of setting a Mississippi synagogue on fire allegedly dubbed Beth Israel a “synagogue of Satan.” The phrase echoed antisemitic rhetoric used almost 60 years ago by a KKK leader ac...

NEW: A 19-year-old accused of setting a Mississippi synagogue on fire allegedly dubbed Beth Israel a “synagogue of Satan.”

The phrase echoed antisemitic rhetoric used almost 60 years ago by a KKK leader accused of masterminding a bombing of Beth Israel.

“In my profession, I have seen many people break down in grief, but that image of Elizabeth’s father will stay with me forever,” she said. “I watched him sit in his car, bury his head in his hands, and cry uncontrollably. Those are images you do not forget.”

“Our expert ethical analysis does not support withholding gender-affirming care from minors.”

As pediatric bioethicists, we wrote this analysis of the ethical shortcomings and flawed conclusions driving the two proposed bans on gender-affirming care.

www.statnews.com/2026/01/30/g...

A community organizer’s guide to Signal group chats Key privacy settings and best practices.

A community organizer’s guide to Signal group chats

the difference between the acronyms for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and International Ms. Leather (IMsL) is just vanishingly small, collab when

think of all the college students who were disciplined or expelled for protesting genocide

"The bill, HB246 ... instructs the director of vehicles of Kansas to identify every license issued to a trans person and send written notice that the license must be surrendered and reissued. Driving with a license that has been canceled, suspended, or revoked is a misdemeanor in Kansas."

Our Zine About ICE Surveillance Is Here Download a PDF of our first ever zine here.

we're releasing a PDF of our zine about ICE's tech for free. we also translated it to Spanish. Please share far and wide! www.404media.co/icezine/

thread of places to donate in springfield, OH in anticipation of an ICE surge targeting Haitian immigrants

There have been many journalists arrested in the US before. I'm one of them.

This is still very different. Lemon wasn't arrested as part of a mass of arrests of people surrounding a protest as it was happening and released (as I was). Lemon is being re-arrested for having covered a protest.

Support Independent Journalism | GF

If you are seeking a way to financially support Georgia Fort right now, this is the best, and most direct, way to do so (info from a family friend): www.georgiafort.com/support?utm_...

Free Georgia Fort now!!

How Unsheltered New Yorkers Face Down the Cold: ‘It’s Survive or Die’ Some unsheltered New Yorkers say they prefer the freedom of the streets. Others say they have not been asked in.

Read @haidee.bsky.social's sensitive, nuanced reporting on how New Yorkers without homes have been getting through this cold, and why they're largely staying outside.

www.thecity.nyc/2026/01/30/c...

thank you so much to everyone who's donating to and boosting this <3

an update from the organizers: 6 people's rents have been covered so far, and today they're distributing as much of the remaining funds as possible — new requests are still coming in and $$$ is still needed to fulfill them!