Amy Harmon

Marriage Equality and Trans Rights Are Two Sides of the Same Coin for Many

On the 10th anniversary of Obergefell, we talked to some of the same-sex marriage pioneers about the post-Skrmetti moment for trans kids. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/u...

The judge in a case challenging the Trump executive order to end gender-transition treatments for prisoners, and to house trans women inmates in men's prisons, has replaced his temporary restraining order with a preliminary injunction, signaling a more enduring pause. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

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Transgender Americans say Trump’s orders are even worse than feared.

There have been three executive orders on trans issues since Jan 20. I collected some reactions here. Please send me more, if you are able to share. I'm especially looking for specific examples of how they are affecting everyday life.

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Researchers Release Hawaiian Crows Back Into the Wild (Gift Article) Researchers are trying a new strategy to reintroduce Hawaiian crows, which have been extinct in the wild for two decades.

Hopeful news

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/c...

[...] cannot participate would satisfy intermediate scrutiny? Is that logically possible?
GENERAL PRELOGAR: Oh, yes, definitely.

KAVANAUGH: But looking ahead, do you think it's logically possible as a matter of constitutional decision-making to say that laws like the ones at -- the one at issue here do not satisfy intermediate scrutiny, but laws that restrict women's and girls' sports in a way that transgender athletes [...]

It also seemed important to Kavanaugh that trans athletes could potentially still be thrown under the bus if he agreed that trans medical bans were subject to heightened review, and Prelogar assured him of that:

I guess everyone's writing off Kavanaugh but I was struck that he followed up on the West Virginia-is-actually-like-Europe idea:
JUSTICE KAVANAUGH: Do you think that West Virginia law you mentioned is constitutional?
GENERAL PRELOGAR: I think it would likely satisfy heightened scrutiny.

Which States Have Passed Bans on Treatment for Transgender Minors? Transgender minors and their parents, guardians and doctors have challenged bans in 18 states, with mixed results.

By my count there were 18 challenges filed in federal and state courts across the 26 states that, since 2021, have passed gender-affirming care restrictions. Tried to sum up the state of play a bit here. Map by the great @fparis.bsky.social.

Supreme Court Decision Could Affect Other Trans Rights Cases (Gift Article) The ruling could set a precedent for several challenges to state laws regarding sports participation, bathroom use and health care for adults.

Hi @kredburn.bsky.social - yes he was quite confident about that. Less so on sports and bathrooms (tho those justices were very interested in sports, were they not)? Putting an open access link to my full story here for your followers. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/u...

Supreme Court Decision Could Affect Other Trans Rights Cases The ruling could set a precedent for several challenges to state laws regarding sports participation, bathroom use and health care for adults.

The chief counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom told me he thought Skrmetti would dictate the outcome of two cases now on appeal from the Fourth Circuit re: Medicaid and state health coverage for gender transition treatments for adults.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Transgender Care Case: Live Updates Assessing the court’s ultimate direction was complicated by the silence of one justice in the conservative majority, Neil M. Gorsuch, the author of a key case on employment discrimination. The court’s...

There will be lots of recaps of the Skrmetti arguments but for me reading the live-blog helps to capture the details. Plus you get my smart colleagues' smart commentary. I was just getting the hang of it when it finished up. www.nytimes.com/live/2024/12...

I plan to walk several hundred miles over the holidays and listen to all of them on audible. jk but maybe several hundred steps/day will do it. TY @ferrisjabr.bsky.social for the curation and wtf why weren't they all on best-of-2024. bsky.app/profile/ferr...

Ohio Governor Signs Bathroom Restrictions for Transgender Students The state is one of at least a dozen states to set restrictions on bathrooms for transgender students at public schools.

I haven't read thru all the other state laws on bathroom use, but a provision in the one Ohio's governor signed last week struck me as less-familiar: it explicitly prohibits schools and colleges from providing gender-neutral bathrooms that are multi-occupancy. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/u...

In case you wondered why Bluesky is good, I put in my profile that I am interested in people who are interested in ants and then I was followed by @dailyant.bsky.social aka, The Daily Ant.

fwiw, I asked if I could add hashtags to user-lists as a combined feed -- like to capture your #PopGen feed along with the PopGen-related starter packs -- but they said not yet.

It's only been 24 hours or so but so far so good! Does skyfeed have the same feature, where you can turn a starter pack into a feed?

Thanks so much to all the Starter Pack creators for the curation that is making this place legible for me. And to the @blueskyfeedcreator.com support people for answering my many questions with speed and clarity.

And this is @evolbrain.bsky.social’s SciComm Starter Pack as a feed — plus I have added some peeps to this one and will keep adding as I come across you all. Or when @evolbrain adds this feed will automatically capture those too. bsky.app/profile/did:...

This one is NYT people on Bluesky, from the Starter Pack created by @mccanner.bsky.social, as a feed: bsky.app/profile/did:...

And here is @chasewnelson.bsky.social ’s Molecular Evolution & Population Genetics Starter Pack, combined with @jlsteenwyk.bsky.social ’s Genomics Pts 1 & 2, as a feed. (The extremely helpful @blueskyfeedcreator people say the redundancies will be canceled out). bsky.app/profile/did:...

For example, here is @paisleycurrah.bsky.social's Trans Studies Starter Pack as a feed: bsky.app/profile/did:...

I've been using @blueskyfeedcreator.com to turn Starter Packs into feeds. I find it easier to keep up when my follows are sorted by topic. Maybe eventually I'll do my own lists, but this seemed good for now. If anyone finds them useful, you can follow or pin them too.

haha thank you. this must be what they mean about people being nice over here, i think i could get used to it. how bout that fly connectome.

Transgender Americans Voice New Anxiety About Trump Agenda President-elect Donald J. Trump has promised to “keep men out of women’s sports” and withhold Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that provide gender transition treatment to minors.

I wrote a little bit about what it was like for trans people to see transness deployed in Republican campaign ads as a symbol of absurdity and/or disgust, and the fear that more of that is coming. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/u...