K Petrin

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?’”

Mississippi's Black Voters Brace for SCOTUS to Gut Their Political Clout - Bolts Black Mississippians won a key ruling last year in a case that challenges how the state elects supreme court justices. But the U.S. Supreme Court may soon weaken the Voting Rights Act and erase their ...

The reporting that @boltsmag.org is doing on the potential impacts of Callais (the case that could gut the remainder of the VRA) has been very good. You should be reading it!
boltsmag.org/mississippi-...

On February 20, officials at the "Central Office" ordered FCI Butner's medical director to terminate Ms. Pinson's hormone treatment. Declaration of Grace Pinson 14 (Feb. 24, 2024) (hereinafter "Feb. 24 Pinson Decl."). In the days that followed, prison officials made Ms. Pinson strip naked and subjected her to a demeaning visual cavity search in front of multiple male guards; they rifled through her personal and sensitive papers, including legal documents, and tossed them into a cell covered in feces, and extended her detention her in a segregation unit after she was supposed to return to general population. Id. i9 5-8. One of the officials who engaged in this conduct, Lt. Teague, told Ms. Pinson that if "you want to make it home alive, you need to stop sending stuff to that fucking judge." Id. 9 6. Lt. Teague told Elmer Moreno, another incarcerated person who conferred with class counsel about this litigation, that Mr. Moreno was being held in solitary confinement because he had "been talking to [Ms. Pinson's] lawyers." Id. 9 9. Summarizing his management philosophy, Lt. Teague informed Ms. Pinson: "T've told you before, and I'll tell you again, I don't give a fuck what that judge says, I do what I want." Id. " 6.

www.lawdork.com/p/trans-inma...

like this isn't 2012, there are no national queer rights orgs who are flush with cash. Everyone I speak with is dramatically cutting their budgets. And red state queer orgs are always fighting uphill on a shoestring budget.

My challenge to you today is to google a red state queer org and donate.

After that, I was taken to a new cell in the SMHU. Before I got in, Lt. Teague stopped me in front of the cell and said, "I've told you before, and I'll tell you again, I don't give a fuck what that judge says, I do what I want." I understood him to be referring to Judge Lamberth in this case. He then said, "you only have a little bit of time left in here. If you want to make it home alive, you need to stop sending stuff to that fucking judge, or you're not going to make it." He slammed my door closed at the end of that sentence.

Pinson says that she was told this past Sunday: “If you want to make it home alive, you need to stop sending stuff to that fucking judge, or you're not going to make it.”

Read the report at Law Dork: www.lawdork.com/p/trans-inma...

Breaking: Trans inmate's lawyers claim "egregious retaliation" in violation of court order Trans woman involved in a lawsuit challenging anti-trans policies says federal prison official told her on Feb. 22: “I don’t give a fuck what that judge says, I do what I want.”

Grace Pinson, a trans woman in prison told a federal court, “I think that it is important for the Court to know what is happening here,“ in alleging a horrifying pattern of abuse that her lawyers call “flagrant violations” by the Trump administration of a federal court order against retaliation.

To do this, anti-trans lawmakers in Kansas moved fast to change the law, overrode the governor’s veto, and pushed for the legal changes to go into effect nearly immediately. That kind of power—to void gender on official documents, to compel gender conformity—is terrifying and it will not stop here.

How Jeffrey Epstein sought to infiltrate the justice system New Epstein files emails show how Epstein tried to cultivate relationships with prosecutors and others involved in his case

NEW: (gift) A Miami Herald Investigation: How Jeffrey Epstein Beat the Justice System by @jkbjournalist.bsky.social and @clurhealy.bsky.social
www.miamiherald.com/news/politic...

Veiled in Secrecy, Anti-Trans Extremist Group Deceives Public — Assigned A new group reliant on hate and falsehood claims to represent “liberals” and “Democrats.” Its own words put the lie to its claims.

NEW: They're an extremist anti-trans group. They're supported by right-wing stalwarts like FIRE and the National Review. And they claim to be Democrats.

Who are they really? @billiejsweeney.bsky.social investgates Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender.

www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-new...

Screenshot of an email: Subject: [PIPEXP-1192] Login Access Request To: me Good morning Kimberly! =^uwu^=;; I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble logging into Jellyfin! It looks like your SSO account was indeed deactivated on 2025 Dec 15. According to our records, 1. On or about 2025 Nov 15, you were broken up with by ___, who noted this as a “final break” on vis event report sheet. I’m also seeing that Ve ticked the “Unilateral” box, meaning it isn’t contestable. 2. Our Salesforce shows you aren’t close to any other polycule members Unfortunately, our solo-poly access policy doesn’t allow us to extend resources to unpartnered members after the 30 day grace period following your break. This includes entertainment resources (Jellyfin / *darr / nzbget / Pornhub for Enterprise™ seat), as well as O365™, Adobe CC™, and shell access on the Nix clusters. We’re so sorry for your loss, cutie!! 😭💜 If you have any questions, you can reply to this email to generate another ticket, or you can contact zzzoeee@ from our Partner Infra team (note: three Zs and three Es in their LDAP, we have a lot of Zoes here!) —- Regards, ___ (🏳️‍⚧️she/her, UTC -5) Partner Infra Platform Experiences team As a courtesy, a copy of this email has been sent to your manager listed in Workday™ New name or pronouns? Dating someone new? Just visit go/update-me to update your account! Include this line in your email to comment on the ticket: 250e084a-b937-47a6-948d-b519112ad35a

sheesh, the only thing worse than getting kicked out of the polycule is finding out via jira ticket 😣

I unfollowed awhile ago because the account was boosting so much unverified stuff. It’s so disappointing and makes it difficult to point to reliable indie news pubs when there are big lists that include social accounts with glaring errors.