Last week, genocide scholars at the Lemkin Institute issued a warning that the U.S. is entering early stages of genocidal processes against transgender people. Former presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars told Important Context that escalating rhetoric, policy attacks, and systematic exclusion match historical warning patterns.
Tomorrow, I'm giving a presentation at the Oaxaca Lending Library about transgender experiences of gender dysphoria. On my first slide are these two images.
In the photo on the left, four trans people stand outside the Magnus Hirschfeld Institute for Sexual Science, at the first International Conference for Sexual Reform in Weimar Germany, in 1921—the same year Hitler became leader of the Nazi party. On the right, the same location 12 years later after Nazi youth stormed the facility and destroyed it, along with decades of research.
I’m nervous about starting with these photos. The talk itself is about the different ways dysphoria shows up in the body, so these are a bit tangential to the content. And also, they are exactly the entire point of the talk.
I can’t help but wonder, looking at the first picture, if they could see what was coming, if they talked about it that day? I wonder when, if at all, in the decade between the two, other people believed them about what was about to happen.
Utah's House Speaker plans to make the state's hormone therapy ban permanent after Do No Harm alleged the state's systematic review of gender-affirming care contained methodological flaws, though lawmakers say they don't need data to support their position. A separate Utah bill would strip transgender people of discrimination protections, ban transgender pediatricians and teachers, ban birth certificate amendments, tighten bathroom restrictions, and force courts to favor unsupportive parents in custody battles.
Three hospitals are under federal investigation in Washington, Colorado, and Minnesota for providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth—care that's legal under state law—while the Trump administration agreed to delay exclusion notices for providers during ongoing litigation.
Vermont lawmakers introduced H.576 to establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund, which would support private clinics offering gender-affirming care outside federal funding reach. (I'm tracking state healthcare funds for a story coming soon—contact me if you know of similar efforts!)
If transgender athletes lose pending Supreme Court cases, the consequences extend far beyond school sports—combined with last year's Skrmetti ruling, defeat could accelerate exclusion across education and civil rights law despite transgender athletes making up a statistically negligible portion of participants.
Finally, using the data from the Movement Advancement Project (see the Research section below!), Erin Reed reveals the US’s internal trans refugee crisis: 400,000 trans people have left their homes for other states or countries amidst anti-trans hate.
Donate time or money to transgender healthcare funds at Point of Pride.
Track legislation at Trans Legislation.
Support the Oaxaca Lending Library hosting my presentation tomorrow.
Republicans are pivoting their anti-trans rhetoric away from children and toward all transgender people, with conservatives increasingly pushing to remove transgender people from public life entirely.
Madisyn Parisi fact-checked The New York Times' response to Trans News Network's recent interview with Billie Jean Sweeney, which cut to the heart of the newspaper's transphobic coverage patterns.
Trans liberation is your liberation: why the FBI targeting a transgender woman of color affects all of us and how we should respond.
Assigned Media examines how contempt is the foundation for the war on transgender people and America, bred on social media platforms and legitimized by mainstream outlets.
Trans Vitae explores why transgender people become highly skilled at emotional masking—how it develops as survival strategy in unsafe environments, why it's reinforced, and the long-term mental health toll.
Evan Greer writes for Erin in the Morning: with KOSA, Elizabeth Warren is betraying the transgender youth she claims to protect as the bill re-emerges during Democrats' existential crisis.
Research functions as harm reduction for trans communities by creating records that courts can cite and making it harder to claim care lacks evidence. The piece examines how political interference with studies creates evidence vacuums.
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New reported stories coming soon! Stayed tuned for articles in 2026 on…
Traveling for Affirming Surgery
Trans Healthcare Funds
Gays with Guns: risk, vulnerability, and safety
Building Affirming-Care Networks
Developing Client-Centered Transition Protocols
Advocacy for the Incarcerated
The Queer Sleep Crisis
Weekend Column
It has been surreal this week, using the word “genocide” out loud in conversation, or while practicing my presentation. A theme I keep coming back to in my art and my journaling is how mundane it is to continue to live through terrible times, how we all have to keep going about the business of keeping ourselves alive through it all.
But this past week has felt different. Integrated. I know I’m taking a risk by saying these words, that some people will choose to take me less seriously as a result. And I’m no longer willing to let that stop me. Don’t let it stop you either.
BJ Ferguson
Founder, Well Beings News