I’ve felt like I’m living in two worlds all week, and neither of them are the present. I’m stuck on this realization that, accepting what genocide scholars are saying, if we do not stop what is happening right now to trans and gender-nonconforming people in the US and around the world, so many more of us are going to die in truly horrible conditions.
On the other side is the knowledge that if we do stop it, if we rise up against it and kick fascism to the curb for real, and perhaps even if we don’t, there will be people who continue to believe that this fear that has taken such deep root in my chest is unjustified, that we were hysterics, that we have been overreacting this entire time. And, of course, it is that kind of thinking that will land us right back here in this moment again and again.
So, I have been trying to find some joy. My parents are visiting me here in Oaxaca. I get to see them once every couple of years and try hard to make the most of it, even when things are awkward. (For the first time in my life, when we were out together and everyone split to use the bathroom, I had to follow my Dad into the men’s instead of going with my mom to the ladies’. It was weird, and weirder that it didn’t even occur to me that it would be weird.) But there has been lots of laughter.
Every day I remind myself that it is the little things. The joy. The love. The fight. The things that matter are the small, everyday, mundane things that keep us and our movements going. The other day, a friend of mine asked me, “What are you doing to take care of yourself?” I’m a bit embarrassed about how long it took me to think of something. But I’m also so grateful for the question, for the reminder that this work requires focused attention on care if I am to sustain it.
So, before we dive into the news this week, good and bad and worse, I’d love to ask, what are you doing to take care of yourself today, this week, this month?
The wave of clinic closures continued this week as federal threats drove major institutions to preemptively end care. University of Utah Health will stop all remaining gender-affirming hormone care for transgender youth by April 15, citing expected state and federal bans—affecting fewer than 150 patients, some of whom now face eight-hour drives to Colorado for continued treatment. Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Washington shut down its pediatric gender clinic immediately after the Trump administration threatened to cut Medicare and Medicaid funding, despite the fact that no hospital has actually lost such funding yet for providing gender-affirming care. This is the “compliance in advance” that Timothy Snyder writes about in On Tyranny.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against Rady Children's Health for closing its gender-affirming care program for patients under 19, arguing the San Diego hospital violated legally binding merger conditions requiring it to maintain specialty services through 2034 and obtain AG approval before reducing care. Meanwhile, six families at Children's Hospital Los Angeles successfully prevented the Trump administration from obtaining medical records of over 3,000 transgender children through a class-action lawsuit that forced the Department of Justice to withdraw the most invasive portions of its subpoena and scrub personally identifiable information from any records it receives.
Two Florida bills—HB 743 and SB 1010—passed their respective chambers this week, expanding restrictions on gender-affirming care by allowing the state Attorney General to pursue felony charges and $100,000 fines against any medical practitioner who "aids or abets" transgender patients in accessing care, with vague language that makes enforcement unpredictable. Tennessee gubernatorial candidate and state Rep. Monty Fritts called for capital punishment for parents and doctors who help children access gender-affirming care, saying "anyone who would try to disfigure a child through hormones or surgery, you might be eligible to capital punishment."
Seven pediatric bioethicists wrote in STAT News that the proposed federal ban on Medicaid funding for hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors is "deeply unethical," arguing the HHS report it's based on misapplies bioethics principles, ignores patient-reported outcomes, and fails to consider the serious harms of withholding care.
Despite the political assault, a new Fox News poll found Americans prefer Democrats' approach to transgender issues by 22 points (60% to 38%), with almost every demographic subgroup surveyed—including rural white voters, mothers, and white Catholics—expressing greater confidence in Democratic handling of the issue. The only group preferring Republicans’ approach were white evangelical Christians, i.e. the group behind the vast majority of anti-trans legislation.
Internationally, the Council of Europe voted 71-26 to pass a trans-inclusive resolution banning conversion therapy across its 26 member states, despite lobbying from anti-trans group Sex Matters urging rejection. In Canada, the New Brunswick Transgender Health Network is calling for establishment of a provincial gender-affirming care clinic to address wait times of up to five years, with 64% of Two-Spirit, transgender and gender-diverse individuals in the province reporting unmet health needs.
Get inspired by charitable surgical programs like the Pay It Forward program at Deschamps-Braly facial surgery clinic.
Watch out for predatory research. In a time when research is under attack, it’s understandable to want to encourage your clients or patients to participate in available programs. But remember that not all research is created equal. Researchers involved in this Northwestern cross-country study of trans young adults have a noted history of not just transphobia, but support for pedophilia and child sex abusers.
The Persistent Myth That Transgender Identity Is Just a Phase: TransVitae examines how academic research continues to frame trans identity as temporary or pathological despite decades of evidence, tracing recurring narratives that treat trans people as something to explain away rather than understand.
Trump is trying to end gender-affirming care for trans kids. Doctors and nurses are working hard to keep offering it: Marketplace reports on how providers are responding to hospital closures, featuring Colorado nurse practitioner Casey Cash and Dr. Stacie Johns who opened The Iris Center and are now fielding 20 requests per hour from families desperate for care.
What would a trans genocide look like? A Tucson Holocaust educator says we're already seeing it: As Arizona lawmakers advance bills regulating how trans people live and exist, a Holocaust museum director explains why genocide scholars find these legislative patterns deeply concerning.
Conversion therapy survivors speak out: The Trevor Project shares video testimony from survivors of conversion practices describing the lasting harm of these widely condemned tactics.
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This week original reporting is all about how to talk gun safety and mental health with LGBTQ+ gun owners and the gun curious. And for the Peer Reviewed column, we are learning all about moral panics with interdisciplinary social scientist Dr. Harry Barbee.
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If you struggled, as I did when I was asked, to think of the things you are doing to take care of yourself, I’d love if you took just one moment before closing this email to make a short list. Think of just 2-3 things you could do today, or this week, or this month to really nourish your body and soothe your spirit. We need people who are in this for the long haul. And if we are going to be in it for the long haul, we need to know where we find joy. As Emma Goldman is often summarized as saying, "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution."
BJ Ferguson
Founder, Well Beings News
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