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gijn.org Tips and Advice for Investigating the Stories that Impact the LGBTQ+ Community

“The data is a mess.”
– Kae Petrin.

Investigating LGBTQ+ stories often means piecing together fragmented info from NGOs, community groups, and public records. But when done well, these investigations expose systemic failures that affect everyone.

louie, a chocolate lab, looking at the camera with big brown eyes with a stuffed sloth in his mouth

the face of a dog who doesn't know he's going to spend tomorrow being trained to wear snow booties

The Very Official 2025 FOIA Advent Calendar

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING EVERYONE (or everyone who is a FOIA nerd): There's a public records request advent calendar.

h/t Cam Rodriguez docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

a group of children are sitting at desks in a classroom with a man standing in front of them . ALT: a group of children are sitting at desks in a classroom with a man standing in front of them .

bahahahaha

Doxers Posing as Cops Are Tricking Big Tech Firms Into Sharing People's Private Data A spoofed email address and an easily faked document is all it takes for major tech companies to hand over your most personal information.

NEW: Doxing-for-hire services are using forging emergency data requests from law enforcement to trick major tech companies like Apple and Amazon into handing over people's private information. @davidgilbert.bsky.social w/ the scoop: www.wired.com/story/doxers...

Lawsuit alleges Baker “ran in the opposite direction and left her to die,” and knew that “Rivera’s death would prevent her from making disclosures that would likely destroy his relationship with his long-term girlfriend." @schuba.bsky.social @ctoner.bsky.social

illinoisanswers.org/2025/12/10/f...

Family of Chicago Cop Killed in Botched Chase Sues Chicago Police Department and Partner Who Shot Her Officer Krystal Rivera's family says in the wrongful death suit that Officer Carlos Baker was struggling to accept her decision to end their romantic relationship when he shot her in the back in Chath...

Lawsuit filed by family of Krystal Rivera, shot to death by her partner Carlos Baker over the summer, alleges Baker was struggling to accept her decision to end their romantic relationship when he fatally shot her during a foot chase. #chicago @schuba.bsky.social @ctoner.bsky.social

an excellent analysis from @sophiavp.bsky.social!

Mapping Death: The Atlas of Victorian Coroners’ Districts In this guest post, Helen Rutherford explores what a unique atlas of Victorian coroners’ districts might tell us about technologies of knowledge and death investigation.

A new guest post by Helen Rutherford: 'Mapping Death: The Atlas of Victorian Coroners' Districts'
legalhistorymiscellany.com/2025/12/11/m...

We guarantee the death of most remaining newsrooms "We're not learning from the past. Instead, we're approaching this new era of generative AI much like we did platforms."

"We seem to have missed the key point here: These are corporations. They do not have a public interest incentive. They expect to profit in a burning world. And they will do what corporations do. We will lose. The public will lose."

shoutout @siphok.bsky.social

www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/we-g...

The Very Official 2025 FOIA Advent Calendar

Today's FOIA Advent Calendar (bit.ly/31-days-of-foia) prompt is a fun one: a list of blocked users on social media for an agency.

Some good sample language and instructions (for Twitter) here: www.muckrock.com/foi/charlott...

And a good pointer from FIRE here: www.thefire.org/research-lea...

Opinion | $27,000 a Year for Health Insurance. How Can We Afford That?

I really appreciate Zack Cooper's insights: $27,000 a Year for Health Insurance. How Can We Afford That? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/o...

ICE is tracking pregnant women all the way to the delivery room: ‘She was so afraid they would take her baby’ Pregnant immigrants in ICE monitoring programs are avoiding care, fearing detention during labour and delivery

New: Pregnant immigrant women are showing up to deliver their babies w/ surveillance smart watches on their wrists as part of an ICE monitoring program. They’re too afraid of being detained to have the watch cut off even when it’s medically necessary. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

One of the many reasons AI can't produce good writing is it can't hate its own writing. It can't think to itself "Maybe I'm illiterate" during the writing process. And that's essential

like seriously $250 deductible not joking

also did I mention i hate bloodwork? I don't recommend getting rlly sick if you hate bloodwork

anyway. i'll probably write this up more coherently later. aaaaaaaa. thank you @timesguild.bsky.social for the very, very, very good insurance that made so much of this possible

cam smiles at the camera next to a brown dog showing off one of his little teefers

it's not the end of the world by any means. i'm optimistic that things will improve, like they already have started to! managing a chronic condition is practically a FT job in its own right, and i'm proud of myself for trying my best to juggle it all.

an Ohio sunset, or the start of one, at least, over a farm field

i learned so much about my health, about medical billing, about insurance, about muting pharma ads so you don't have to hear side effects of the med you're on, about managing time and expectations (still working on that). accepting that i'll always be "sick" is also hard; i'm now immunocompromised.

me making a duck face for some reason while showing off a Holter monitor stuck to my upper chest

me taking a selfie in a bathroom, which shows a Holter monitor transceiver clipped to my belt loop. i'm giving a thumbs up to the camera

this past year or so, i juggled having a mercurial chronic illness with lots of field reporting, which was also a challenge. (like when I had to wear a 2 week Holter monitor, which meant bringing it literally everywhere and swearing up and down to sources that it wasn't a recording device lolololol)

me giving the sign of the horns to the camera while i'm in a hospital gown wearing a bright green mask. my eyes are squeezed shut

this has dominated so much of my year and figuratively and literally brought me to my knees at points. grateful to do physical therapy and hang out with my friends and walk the dog and report and sit and write (for a stretch of time, I couldn't even do that!) and not be in so much pain all the time

a brown dog with big eyes looking up and back at the camera

it is truly insane to me how in a year I got sick, then we figured out the problem, then I got sicker, then insurance approved something, and almost instantly I got like 60% better 60% of the time. i can actually do the stairs and play with my dog and do all the things people in the commercials do

2025 health wrapped:
- 7 crashouts in the patient parking lot
- 6 new medications
- 5 MRIs
- 4 x-rays
- 3 different specialists
- 2 insurances
- 1 EMG
and a partridge in a pear tree

People are going to die because of the pending insurance premium hikes. I know the terrain of discourse is inconsistent and goes through a tumble cycle every 24 hours, but I really think we need to hone in on this reality and drive it home for people.

An absolute horrific nightmare of two AI bots caught in a loop with each other is the perfect example of the total nothingness of AI “brains”.

relatedly: heatmap.news/climate-tech...

one week into this medication and I have had almost instantaneous relief from symptoms i've had for over 11 months. modern medicine rules

and oh no! silent cooperative?

80 feet! so 6-8 stories

Title 13 as of 7-31-2020.pdf share.google/vbtmRUTm0E7C...

good catch!