I’ll be real—the news this week is about as bad as could be expected. I know that, behind the scenes, we are all resisting in our own ways. More and more, this resistance is happening offline in private spaces, or in closed groups and encrypted servers, especially in response to recent news that the UK’s biggest DIY HRT website was shut down, stirring concern that other resources could be next.

So remember as this genocide against queer trans folks continues to make headlines, that the resistance may not be as widely covered, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t there, doing the work however we can. This is also your regular reminder to consider your digital privacy and security before diving in headfirst to the resistance.

In the news… the 4th Circuit became the first federal appeals court to uphold a state Medicaid ban on gender-affirming care for adults, with Erin Reed breaking down the ruling's most alarming implications — including language explicitly endorsing states' interest in compelling trans people to "appreciate their sex."

A new State Department rule has given ICE the legal rationale to treat any trans person's documents as fraudulent, effectively opening trans people to immigration enforcement regardless of citizenship status. Anti-trans hate groups have petitioned the FDA to create a mandatory registry of trans women using estrogen and impose sweeping prescribing restrictions — all achievable through existing regulatory authority, without new legislation. The Bureau of Prisons is ordering the tapering and discontinuation of hormone therapy for incarcerated trans people, which physicians say will cause serious, potentially irreversible harm.

On the wins side: a federal judge ruled that Aetna's blanket denial of facial feminization surgery for trans women constitutes sex discrimination under the Affordable Care Act, a landmark first.

In Idaho, Republicans passed a bill requiring medical providers to out trans minors to their parents. And In Texas, AG Ken Paxton has extended the state's youth care ban to mental health providers, meaning therapists and social workers now risk their licenses for delivering any care to trans minors affirming their identity. The ban is already cutting off hormone treatments for cisgender kids with unrelated medical conditions. A Texas court also issued a restraining order barring a New York retailer from selling chest binders in the state, based solely on Paxton's arguments that these count as “medical devices” and with no opportunity for the defendant to respond.

In the UK, NHS England banned new hormone prescriptions for trans youth under 18 — and the evidence reviews used to justify the ban excluded 97% of all relevant studies, through criteria specifically designed to guarantee that result. The ripple effects are already reaching adults, with GPs refusing to continue prescriptions for trans women who have been stable on hormones for years, and a policy expert warning that the NHS is capitulating to a small group of well-funded anti-trans campaigners.

Oppose a registry of trans women and transfeminine people on estrogen by submitting a comment to the FDA.

Beef up your OpSec. Work with your communities to be sure no one is spying on you when you engage in resistance.

Queer in Practice is a bit delayed, so we’ve got another Buy the Book up this week, going back into the archives to a vital 2018 text, Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson. But first, therapists respond to the Texas AG outlawing affirming talk therapy.