K Petrin

This News is So Gay (3/4/26): Reporting on LGBTQ+ Orgs Who Are Actually Doing Pretty Darn Well Featuring: Ben Jodway (The Buckeye Flame) and Gisselle Medina (Fresnoland)

NEW PODCAST EPISODE!

This News is So Gay (3/4/26): Reporting on LGBTQ+ Orgs Who Are Actually Doing Pretty Darn Well

Featuring: @bjodway.com (The Buckeye Flame) and Gisselle Medina (@fresnoland.bsky.social).

thebuckeyeflame.com/2026/03/04/t...

States Move to Limit Access to H.I.V. Treatment

Tens of thousands of Americans are losing access to treatment for H.I.V. as nearly 20 states impose restrictions on assistance programs and several others weigh such changes.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/h...

“The Secret Agent”: Kleber Mendonça Filho on His Oscar-Nominated Film Set During Brazil’s Dictatorship The Secret Agent is one of the most celebrated international films of the year. It has been nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor. The film stars Wagner Moura and is set in ...

The Secret Agent, which has been nominated for four Oscars, is set in Brazil in 1977 during the final years of the military dictatorship. We speak with the film’s director and screenwriter, Kleber Mendonça Filho.

Join us as we chat with Neus Vidal from Seek Initiative and Vitor Baptista, Bruno Morassutti, and Igor Laltuf from Fiquem Sabendo. We dive into international public records, focusing on EU-based and… International Public Records FOIAFriday

In case you missed FOIAFriday, MuckRock sat with @fiquemsabendo.com.br and Seek Initiative to discuss how they tackle public records work in the European Union and Brazil.

Watch the full session on YouTube:

The Supreme Court Keeps Finding New Ways to Make Discrimination Free In USPS v. Konan, the justices denied that mail carriers who refused to deliver to a Black landlord should pay damages. The ruling makes it even harder to sue the government for blatant racism and rec...

MY LATEST: "If there’s no right to obtain damages when a racist postal worker refuses to deliver mail because he’s big mad a Black woman owns a couple pieces of property, then the postal service has no financial incentives to stop racist employees from tossing Black people’s mail into a river."

Anti-Abortion ‘Bounty Hunter’ Laws Spread from Texas Across U.S. Analysis: Several GOP towns and states now allow residents to sue each other for getting abortion care. The reward: money. In February, Kansas passed a similarly designed trans bathroom ban.

“Bounty hunter” laws designed to incentivize people to sue their neighbors for getting an abortion are spreading throughout the country. @queenmab.bsky.social reports:

‪NPR‬ ‪@npr.org‬ · 2h One of the most influential groups in hip-hop honors its legacy and the late Trugoy the Dove with a set of classics and new material. n.pr/4cj2DZE De La Soul: Tiny Desk Concert One of the most influential groups in hip-hop honors its legacy and the late Trugoy the Dove with a set of classics and new material. n.pr 5 79 369 gary7379.bsky.social ‪@gary7379.bsky.social‬ Follow Where's that hard-hitting political and social commentary that got you banned by the right? I couldn't give a damn what you think about hip hop. Unless you step up and become relevant again I'll have to move my albeit meager financial support from NPR to PBS.

an incredible website where everyone is normal and people know the difference between NPR The News and NPR the Tiny Desk.

Minneapolis is a precursor—and an opportunity As our government targets, abducts, and kills us, in Minneapolis we are presented with an opportunity to rely on each other in ways that are ancient but feel new

What is happening in Minneapolis is a precursor to a vile national operation that is eugenic & supremacist at its core.

As our government targets, abducts & kills us, we are being presented with an opportunity to rely on each other, writes @autumnmeghanbrown.bsky.social in an op-ed.

Congrats!!

imo the threat posed by CBS News and CNN getting absorbed by pro-regime billionaires isn't that they're going to produce right-wing slop that convinces people to be right-wing, it's the dismantling of newsrooms capable of doing investigative reporting on the administration. Fewer eyes on the street.

We also highly encourage reading @mjoel17.bsky.social's guide!

Idaho considers an 'apocalyptic' choice for disabled people and families Difficult budget decisions in a number of states are threatening vital programs for disabled people at home and caregivers in the workforce.

“I’d probably have to quit my job. I need to make sure she can spend time with friends and her boyfriend, but she would still be more socially isolated,” Walters said.

@slooterman.bsky.social reports for @19thnews.org.

Transgender people in Kenya just won a major court victory - LGBTQ Nation A trans woman arrested for "impersonation" sued and a judge ordered Parliament to pass a law protecting trans rights.

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social [Kenya cont]
This is the first time a Kenyan court has explicitly ordered the State to create trans rights legislation and a first anywhere on the African continent. 2/2

Trump Officials Attended a Summit of Election Deniers Who Want the President to Take Over the Midterms The meeting’s participants included Kurt Olsen, a White House lawyer charged with reinvestigating the 2020 election, and Heather Honey, the Department of Homeland Security official in charge of electi...

Several high-ranking US election officials -- including the DHS official in charge of election security -- attended a summit last week where prominent election deniers called on Trump to declare a national emergency to take over the 2026 midterms.

New, @dougbockclark.bsky.social @propublica.org

How Kansas Republicans weaponized the law to target 300 trans driver's license holders SB 244 was put into effect virtually overnight, causing chaos, panic and fear in the trans community.

New — I spoke to eight trans people in Kansas about the new state law that invalidated their driver’s licenses overnight, what’s it’s like to live there right now, plus details of two DMV emails exclusively obtained by The Handbasket that shed light on the law’s chaotic and cruel rollout:

Bill Gates, Seattle’s Favorite Philanthropist, Faces Campus Reality Check from UW Student In light of the Epstein files, should Bill Gates' name be on a building at University of Washington?

"There's a specific kind of lie that powerful men tell when the walls start closing in: the minimizing lie, the "it wasn't what it looked like" lie, the "I was barely there" lie. Bill Gates tried that last one earlier this month.

www.thestranger.com/news/2026/02...

Conde Nast just sold them.us to the parent company of Out, The Advocate, etc. so there goes like 95% of the trans staffers at the company (after they got rid of 2 of us in November <33)

The Trump administration is trying to erase Black history. These writers are keeping it alive. At a time when Black history is being removed from schools, museums, and parks, Black journalists are fighting to tell a more inclusive American story.

At a time when Black history is being removed from schools, museums, and parks, Black journalists are fighting to tell a more inclusive American story.

As transgender Kansans grapple with a challenging new reality today, and the rest of the nation watches what’s happening in the Sunflower State, here’s a thread of @kansasreflector.com stories and opinion pieces about SB 244. (1/15) #ksleg #trans #lgbtq

Trans Kansans struggle with reality of Legislature’s cruelty as driver’s licenses are invalidated • Kansas Reflector The Kansas Department of Revenue this week sent a letter to Kansans affected by a new law, which took effect Thursday, that requires the gender marker on a driver’s license to match a person’s sex at ...

Our latest: Transgender Kansans react to the overnight cancellation of their driver’s licenses. (16/15)

Trans men file lawsuit over Kansas law that restricts bathroom use and invalidates driver's licenses • Kansas Reflector Two transgender men from Lawrence are suing the state over a new law that invalidates driver's licenses and restricts bathroom use based on sex assigned at birth, citing numerous constitutional rights...

A lawsuit has now been filed against the state by two trans men. (17/15)

INSTITUTE FOR 2026 IIJ Freelance Conference Register at TheID.com NDEPENDENT URNALISTS - March 5 and 6, 2026 – live, online Reporting with Care Michelle Cyca Bureau Chief, The Narwhal Luisa Ortiz Pérez Executive Director, Vita-Activa.org Lewis Raven Wallace Author of Radical Unlearning Ann Marie Awad (Moderator) The IIJ

Reporting on sensitive issues can be a two-way street. Find the strategies you need to care for yourself & your sources at the IIJ conference. Featuring insights from @michellecyca.com, @mdrnetorg.bsky.social, and
@lewispants.bsky.social. Register now: theiij.com/sessions-26

The Poetics of Malcolm X On the poetry that influenced the Civil Rights trailblazer and the art he inspired.

“I’m a real bug for poetry,” Malcolm wrote in prison. “When you think back over all of our past lives, only poetry could best fit into the vast emptiness created by man.” I explore the poetic sensibility of Malcolm X for @inthesetimes.com: inthesetimes.com/article/poet...

It's kind of crazy that the AP now takes donations, but the far crazier thing would be if the AP went away.

Because the NYT, no matter how much money it rakes in from Wordle and Wirecutter, will never put a full-time reporter in a state capital like Pierre, South Dakota.

apnews.com/donate?targe...

Happening now!

Federal Prisons Bar Gender-Affirming Care for Trans People ‘People will die,’ an advocate warns, as standard treatments for gender dysphoria are replaced with therapy and antidepressants after Trump’s order.

The new policy denies trans people access to surgery, clothing or toiletry items that align with their gender identity. People behind bars on hormone medications will be forced to taper off them.

Instead, the primary treatments will be therapy and psychiatric medications like antidepressants.

Community Calls and Standups OpenNews connects a network of developers, designers, journalists, and editors to collaborate on open technologies and processes within journalism. Alongside our community, our mission includes…

Join us at the OpenNews community call at noon ET today! We're chatting about better gatherings for journalists. With two big conferences coming up next month, it's a timely opportunity to discuss why and how we meet and if there's anything we can do better.

See you in an hour!

How a Free Speech Group Helped Right-Wing Dark Money Undermine Protections for Trans and Nonbinary Students The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression weighed in on a case brought by Parents Defending Education in Ohio.

Notably, the Koch-funded FIRE has come to the defense of this organization.

Another anti-trans group the “free speech” org has defended.

What a coincidence that it keeps ending up on the side of these groups!

www.importantcontext.news/p/how-a-free...

As state laws targeting trans people have multiplied, news coverage has shifted away from documenting their real-world impact. JSK Fellow Kae Petrin examines why newsroom attention often turns to political strategy and cultural controversy instead of enforcement and consequences. buff.ly/pGwMOyy

“Sometimes people assume that data, because it is produced through scientific methods, is inherently more accurate than, say, a quotation from a person. But data is still designed by people. In the case of polls, someone decides, ‘How are we going to write the language for this question?’”