Orion Rummler

Miss Major died at home on Monday, surrounded by loved ones. She is survived not just by immediate family, but by thousands of LGBTQ+ people who keep her memory alive. They remember her as more than a legendary activist; she’s a mother to a community that she held close, especially when it got dark.

She mused about the people she had lost. Keeping her friends’ memories alive got tiring, she said, because there were so many to remember. First you forget their face, then you forget how they sound, then you lose what they smelled like.

“I’m not going back,” she told me. “These kids don’t know what it was like then, what we had to go through, how we had to fight. Somebody’s gotta light a fire under their ass and get them up and going.”

After the White House, after the bar, I sat down with Miss Major in her hotel room that evening. She was tired from the day. She’d just started eating dinner, but had lost her appetite after thinking about the long fight ahead.

That same day, Miss Major made her third visit to the White House for a sit-down with two Biden officials.

She told them how trans people are hurting, how trans women are being killed. She demanded action. The White House sought insights from Miss Major on how to get more resources to trans people.

I watched Miss Major that day. Black trans women from her own generation looked on, as did young trans activists. They hung on her every word. Afterwards, they formed a line. Most knelt to speak on eye-level with her from where she sat, and she clasped their hands. She hugged almost everyone.

“Don’t step back and be in the shadows,” she said. “You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to, because I can’t do it alone.”

“Don’t be complacent now,” she told a group of locals at a D.C. gay bar in 2023. That summer, a rising tide of anti-trans bills prompted her to act. She saw those bills as part of an effort to force transgender people back into the 1950s.

Decades after Stonewall, she still put her body on the line for her beliefs. And she hated traveling.

She showed up to BLM protests and LGBTQ+ rallies in a motorized scooter. She traveled by car, plane and Amtrak to encourage young people to stand up against transphobia and to reject division.

Legendary transgender activist Miss Major dies at 78 Known as a surrogate mother of her community, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy leaves behind a legacy as a fierce advocate for trans and LGBTQ+ rights.

As the week ends, I'm thinking about Miss Major. She did not want the past, including Stonewall, to be used as an excuse for inaction. She demanded action from those in power. She called for unity among trans, nonbinary and gender non-conforming people amid escalating political attacks.

Anti-trans policies aren't preventing genital mutilation — they're disrupting efforts to stop it The bipartisan movement against female genital mutilation and cutting is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

A really clear-eyed look at a very big problem! From @jazzmyth.bsky.social and @oriion.bsky.social

thank you so much Julie!

The queer community still needs places for public sex | Xtra Magazine Sex party promoters, kink community leaders and educators refuse to shy away from the more explicit aspects of the queer experience

Bravo, @byadamrhodes.bsky.social, for this excellent piece in @xtramagazine.com about why queer community still needs places for public sex. (Because, well, it’s not just about sex. It’s about so much more).

The fight against female genital mutilation is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

And as the White House and elected Republicans falsely conflate female genital mutilation with gender-affirming care, it’s only getting worse.

Anti-trans policies aren't preventing genital mutilation — they're disrupting efforts to stop it The bipartisan movement against female genital mutilation and cutting is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

The Trump administration says it wants to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation.

Well, they're not doing that, experts and advocates say. They're actually making it harder to protect kids from mutilation.

New reporting from @jazzmyth.bsky.social and myself

Submit a confidential news tip to The 19th via Signal Here’s how to share information with us securely.

Our how-to guide here explains how to use Signal securely and what makes a good tip — useful information to know in general!

Talk to us; we want to help.

Trump plans could lower IVF costs for some — but fall short of his campaign promise The administration said employers will be able to offer standalone insurance for fertility treatments and that one major drugmaker will offer discounts for IVF drugs.

Trump's big IVF announcement is a retreat from his campaign promise. It doesn't make IVF available for all.

1. Employers don't have to offer the "fertility benefit" it creates
2. The benefit doesn't have to cover IVF
3. It could cover the conservative alternatives criticized by mainstream med

Submit a confidential news tip to The 19th via Signal Here’s how to share information with us securely.

☎️ BREAKING: We have a confidential tipline at The 19th. Our team uses a dedicated device for Signal tips and follows strict guidelines to protect source confidentiality.

We won’t request your identity unless absolutely necessary for verification or follow-up.

See below on how to use our tipline.

Fertility health care costs are prohibitive for many couples.
That includes Kerrie King and her wife, Kristi Ihrig. They’ve been trying to have a child for over 2 years and have spent almost 10k.

Their insurance doesn’t cover fertility treatments because of their gay relationship — which is common.

Trump plans could lower IVF costs for some — but fall short of his campaign promise The administration said employers will be able to offer standalone insurance for fertility treatments and that one major drugmaker will offer discounts for IVF drugs.

Trump just announced two moves that could lower the cost of fertility treatments for some Americans — but they fell well short of his campaign promise to make in vitro fertilization (IVF) available to all Americans at no cost.

New from my colleague @shefali.bsky.social and I

Anti-trans policies aren't preventing genital mutilation — they're disrupting efforts to stop it The bipartisan movement against female genital mutilation and cutting is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

Today's story, reported with @oriion.bsky.social, shows the consequences of the administration's actions on intersex advocates and anti-FGM/C advocates.

19thnews.org/2025/10/anti...

This is such an awesome series and it's great to see a major outlet like The Verge do a series platforming trans writers and reporters.

Queer and trans immigrants allege forced labor and sexual assault in Ice facility: ‘I was treated worse than an animal’ At the South Louisiana Ice Processing Center in Basile, detainees say they were forced into hard labor – and sexually assaulted and stalked by an assistant warden

Queer and trans ppl at a Louisiana ICE facility alleged they were recruited for unsanctioned work program, forced to do hard manual labor $1 per day. They said queer ppl were targeted by an assistant warden who stalked, harassed and sexually assaulted them.

NBC News’ 150 Layoffs Gut Black, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ Diversity Teams The cuts affected teams across the NBC News operation and came as the network no longer needed to support two different news operations. MSNBC has begun growing its own newsroom, hiring swaths of tale...

NBC Out has had some of the best coverage of LGBTQ+ news in the last few years. In a time when the Trump administration takes historic assaults on transgender people's rights, this feels short-sighted. Good journalism is good business.
www.thewrap.com/nbc-news-lay...

Anti-trans policies aren't preventing genital mutilation — they're disrupting efforts to stop it The bipartisan movement against female genital mutilation and cutting is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

The bipartisan movement against female genital mutilation and cutting is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

The future of being trans on the internet The internet has long been a source of information and support for transgender people. Now, trans rights and the internet itself are in a moment of crisis. What happens next?

I’m currently taking a break from dying under the weight of 40 wearables and deadlines to say I’m very proud of our site for putting together a package about being trans on the internet during these garbage times. 🏳️‍⚧️

www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

Extraordinary NEW story: We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days. @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social

Anti-trans policies aren't preventing genital mutilation — they're disrupting efforts to stop it The bipartisan movement against female genital mutilation and cutting is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

The fight against female genital mutilation is being co-opted by anti-trans activists, hindering urgent laws from being passed.

And as the White House and Republicans falsely conflate FGM with gender-affirming care, it’s only getting worse.

New reporting from @jazzmyth.bsky.social and myself

Anti-FGM/C advocates have been warning about this all year. But the admin and GOP lawmakers have doubled down.

DOJ said this July it would work with Congress on FGM/C laws to “more robustly protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation,” as part of plans to restrict gender-affirming care.

Greene’s bill would change the country’s legal definition of female genital mutilation (FGM/C) to include gender-affirming care.

This is wrong, anti-FGM/C advocates say. This conflation is hurting their cause, confusing lawmakers and thwarting protective bills.