Ian

✅ PASS NEWS RECAP

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Again, Project 2025 defines trans people as inherently "pornographic" - as in our physical beings. This has long been the plan in place to federally ban queer people from all public life. If this bill passes - or is issued by executive order - the end game for trans people in America will begin.

Could you imagine if the head of the United States healthcare system didn’t believe that HIV caused AIDS?

…And that instead they believed that AIDS is caused by recreational drugs (“poppers”) used by gay people?

Oh wait…🥴

let me try to spare ppl some pain today, and repeat something I said in a talk on resistance to Trump last week: you do not have to take advice on how to protest from those who are not themselves willing to protest (and in the NYT ed board’s case, who see disciplining protestors as part of the job)

two truths for today: the law is not for defining gender and sex; pretty much anything that pleases helen lewis is bad law

We’re fucking disappearing gay barbers to labor camps and the people in power are fomenting a panic about an Islamic Children’s Crusade, an internet Village of the Damned.

Maybe we should be paying more attention to the white supremacist rugrats who’ve invaded the social security administration.

🚨 Action Alert: Colorado Senate Vote Tomorrow 🚨
Tell your legislators: No to invasive age verification mandates! Take action now: buff.ly/3WGD4zc

Bar graph titled: "Drug test positivity rate for opiates in California prisons" with subhead: "Quest Diagnostics used a different chemical in drug tests from mid-April through July" The bar graph shows that the opiate testing rate was around 6.6% to 6.8% in Jan thru April of 2024, and then spiked to 17.1% in May, 20.5% in June and 17.1% in July when a new chemical was used.

Scandal exposed by UnCommon Law, org that reps ppl in parole cases + has affected clients. They obtained test data showing when Quest Diagnostics used a new chemical for tests, positives jumped 300% across prisons

Quest admitted its chemical switch caused a spike but downplayed the scale of impact.

Revealed: drug tests in California prisons yielded false positives, affecting thousands of people Records suggest Quest Diagnostics erroneously detected opiates. Lawyers say parole requests were jeopardized in the process

NEW: Thousands incarcerated in California were given faulty drug tests that produced false positives – some denied parole due to erroneous claims of opioid use, according to internal records + lawyer testimony.

Officials have known about the issue for months, but have not cleared people's records.

Why is this man still in office.

PASS Announces New Membership Program for All Adult Industry Workers — PASS Certified Los Angeles, CA – PASS is excited to announce a groundbreaking new membership program that will now accept all individuals working in the adult industry. As part of its ongoing efforts to prov...

PASS is excited to announce a groundbreaking new membership program that will now accept all individuals working in the adult industry. ✅

Learn more: www.passcertified.org/news/pass-an...

Combining long-term electoral and issue organizing with mutual aid *is* the answer to retaking the country. It is the way to get folks to vote. It is the way to build social infrastructure.

Yes. Let's fucking go.

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

the vast majority of the incredibly small number of sex worker orgs in the US with funding are health-oriented orgs with HIV funding (i know it's not that deep for the trump admin—and millions of people will be harmed by this everywhere—i just had to say it because those orgs changed my life)

A Columbia University Professor Speaks Out Against the Kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil On March 12, at a rally in front of the New York City courthouse where Mahmoud Khalil’s hearing took place, classicist and Columbia University associate professor Joseph Howley made the follo…

“We will not take lectures on antisemitism from segregationists and neo-nazis.” @illdottore.bsky.social, a Columbia University professor, speaks out against the kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil.

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

Freedom of the Press Foundation: “[Wired] is going to stop paywalling articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.” [freedom.press]

Is RFK Jr. Cracking Down on Poppers? Double Scorpio Says It's Shut Down After FDA “Search and Seizure” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, has promoted the falsehood that poppers cause AIDS.

"Among various other conspiratorial anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs, RFK Jr has repeatedly promoted the myth that poppers cause AIDS, writing 'heavy recreational drug use in gay men and drug addicts was the real cause of immune deficiency' and that he had never “found any evidence that HIV ever kills a T-cell'

Rahm Wants to Run. Yes, For the Presidency. The former Chicago mayor is already on the hustings, finding new ways to attack Trumpism from the center.

Gonna repeat myself here: The generation of leaders that got us into this mess will not be the ones to get us out of it. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

The only new question on my nonprofit D&O insurance renewal application this year was “what percentage of your budget comes from government funding?”

Truthfully, there has never been a better time for feminists to align with the fight for sex workers rights. Both groups are seeing massive attacks aimed at stripping bodily autonomy, freedom of movement, and increasing criminalization.

More allies = better chances of winning.

Right now there is clear, overwhelming opposition to Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction across the moderate, liberal, progressive & left spectrum. This kind of loud unity is what authoritarians are afraid of. To keep it up we need every institution & public leader to join the chorus.

The disappeared Columbia student is the start of a surveillance nightmare Mahmoud Khalil is a legal permanent resident. That didn’t stop ICE.

how did ICE know where to find Mahmoud Khalil, and who will they go after next? I wrote about the vast surveillance network that powers ICE arrests, and the Zionist groups making deportation wishlists for the agency:

www.theverge.com/policy/62718...

Columbia grad student with a green card and a pregnant US citizen wife, abducted by ICE because of his political organizing, and now his lawyers can't find him.

Hey, @schumer.senate.gov. This is your constituent. Bring him back home.

Data lies all the time.

If there's one thing I can tell you, armed with my debt-fueled Master's in Research, it's that data is not reality, just like the map is not the territory.

Data lies all the time. Data has been used to justify some of the most horrible actions ever taken by governments.

Bsky Verified Donates Bluesky Verification to PASS AVN BSky Verified, a verification provider for Bluesky, announced that it has furnished a bskyverified.social handle to adult industry testing oversight organization, Performer Availability Screening Serv...

We’re so happy to do what we can to support @passcertified.bskyverified.social ‘s mission.

avn.com/press/techno...

Sexual rights are human rights, and if you won't defend the right to consensual sexual expression, you can't adequately defend consent, gender expression, sexuality, reproductive care, and a whole lotta speech.

Throwing "sex" under the bus is complying in advance with Christian Nationalism.

Sex, and sex work in particular, is the stone they sharpen their legal knives on.

Legislators know that few people will stand up and defend porn or sex work more broadly, and it allows them to pass bills that they can then use to harass, intimidate and jail other forms of expression.

There is a lot of work to be done, and this is only a small step and there are no guarantees. But I will tell you I thought showing up today would be pointless, given the make-up of the committee. I expected outright hostility for even daring to voice opposition to the bill.

Show up.

Uh… I spoke before the committee.The sponsor — the Chair — held the bill. “You convinced me.” No vote. We’ll start work on a more effective solution tomorrow. Don’t give up that you can make a difference, even when all effort seems pointless.

it’s true and it’s been driving me up the wall also and: the exec orders only have force to the extent that they give permission to institutions that were never all that committed to our so-called rights to abandon whatever they think they can now get away with