Comments on: The LGBTQIA+ News Post, September 18, 2025: The Fire This Time

The LGBTQIA+ News Post, September 18, 2025: The Fire This Time

mephron — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 10:54:50 -0800

Welcome to the LGBTQIA+ News Post for September 18, Rage Edition. It's in the blood, it's in the will, it's in the mighty hands of steel.

The Bad News And boy is some of it really bad... We've all been following the Charlie Kirk shooting. To summarize the issues that this particular kind of post would address:

No, the shooter was not transgender.
Messages handed over to the police from the shooter's roommate, who some news outlets have reported is transgender and who the shooter seems to indicate was also their romantic partner, have been released to the press and indicate some of his possible motives.
No, despite what numerous news outlets including the Wall Street Journal claimed in the initial breathless rushthere were no "pro-trans messages" on the bullets; they were all Internet memes or Helldivers 2 references.
A transgender woman in Seattle was threatened when people online stated she was the shooter, when a Shitter account that talked about Kirk being killed a couple of days before the incident also retweeted a joke of hers. That is the only connection between the two.
The New York Post has been kicking up anti-trans propaganda, continuing to find new and idiotic ways to blame trans people in embarrassing ways.
On Fox News's Fox and Friends, commentator and wife of the most cowardly transportation secretary in American history Rachel Campos-Duffy suggested "the drugs they take" (the "they" in question being trans people) might be responsible for the Kirk shooting, following up with, "What do those drugs do to their body, their minds?" (I can tell her that for me, mentally, it made me much happier, so shove it, you harridan.)
This week's Mortal Kombat involving Nancy Mace puts her against Ilhan Omar. Mace said that Omar "celebrated" the shooting and should go back to Somalia, and Omar retaliated that Mace should go into rehab. Mace filed a measure to have Omar stripped of her committees, which failed in the House 214-213 with four Republicans crossing the aisle to vote for tabling it.

As a quick summary for a horrific potential situation coming up, first Rep. Nancy Mace (R-Her Own Anus) had a transphobic rant of hideous intensity, saying of trans people, "these people are violently ill and should be in a straight jacket with a hard steel lock on it". Then on the professional cattle-feces-producing machine known as Newsmax, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Narcotics) went even further, calling trans people 'domestic terrorists', that trans people were "bred by the progressives and the liberal media", and declaring:

"[Trans people] have legitimate psychiatric issues...we have to do something about this, we have to treat these people, we have to get them off the streets and we have to get them off the internet and we can't let them communicate with one another. I'm all about free speech, but this is a virus. This is a cancer that is spreading across this country."

This appears to be the starting point of Stage 9. The head of the current Regime was asked a question by Margerine Traitor Greene's besuited boy-toy Brian Glenn, beginning with showing a picture of a Progress Pride flag on 14th St. in DC, asserting that, "A lot of people are very threatened by this flag. Would you be opposed to taking this flag down?" Herr Narrenführer replied, "Well, I wouldn't be. Then they'll sue, and they'll get freedom of speech stuff. So that'll happen. But I would have no problem with it." ICE has ended all gender-affirming care at a facility in Colorado. It was one of two that still provided it. In Michigan, Rep. Josh Shriver, an open bigot who has filed bills to overturn marriage equality and classify abortion as homicide and self-declared "Michigan's most conservative state representative", filed a bill this week to ban all online pornography entitled the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act. In the definition of "pornography" for the bill, this noble little bastion of conservativism included :

Is a depiction, description, or simulation, whether real, animated, digitally generated, written, or auditory, that includes a disconnection between biology and gender by an individual of 1 biological sex imitating, depicting, or representing himself or herself to be of the other biological sex by means of a combination of attire, cosmetology, or prosthetics, or as having a reproductive nature contrary to the individual's biological sex.

As written this would include drag queens, family photos where a member of the family is trans, and selfies of trans people. This guy is the avatar of GOP assholery. Over in the United Kingdom, we see that Health Secretary Wes Streeting is saying that the study on puberty blockers is going slowly. The two year study, to categorize the long-term effects, was recommended by the Cass Report, and therefore probably has no good basis at all. In addition, the wait times for trans people to see a gender affirming care clinic has gone up, and Streeting claims there is more money being sent to deal with these waits, although whether or not to help or just deny people faster is unknown. In Wales, Reform UK has been growing in popularity and may win the Senedd (the parliament of Wales) if the vote happened now. It also would give, if a national vote came now, 271 seats for Reform UK in Parliament, up from the current five. Reform effectively states that Trumpism is the way to go. Please, people of Britain, wipe the smirk from the face of Nigel Farage. In corporate news, we can no longer call the company by name after both founders resigned in protest for what they violations of their company's contract with Unilever. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded the ice cream brand that bears their first names 47 years ago, and now both have left. And One Million Moms is ...am I reading this right? OK... protesting Wendy's for a tie-in with the Netflix series Wednesday. Anything to stay relevant when all the LGBTQIA+ hate is being taken up by the feds, I guess... The Good News Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) have filed a bill to write the 988 crisis hotline for LGBTQIA+ youth into law and revive the hotline.

"We are in the middle of a mental health crisis, and the 988 lifeline saves lives, plain and simple." "There is absolutely no good reason that Donald Trump took away this specialized help for our LGBTQ youth. Mental health does not see partisan lines or geography, and I'm proud to be working with Democrats and Republicans to do what's right and ensure that all kids have access to the help they need – regardless of who is President."

Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) is pushing back against an amendment to the NDAA banning pride flags in the military. Nine Democratic attorneys general released a video pledging they will "never stop fighting" for trans students. The video hast statements from Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield. In Orlando, The owner of restaurant Se7en Bites, Trina Gregory has offered up 49 parking spaces for members of the community to paint at a recent event dubbed "Parking Space for Pride — A Rainbow Connection." The lot is on privately owned property and is not subject to enforcement of a law, signed by anti-LGBTQ+ Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in July, directing the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to remove all "surface art" from crosswalks and intersections, regardless of any underlying political message. She stated, "If they want to erase symbols of pride and acceptance, then we'll create even more of them." This year at the Emmys, there was a huge show of support for the LGBTQIA+ community, including members of the community winning about one-third of the awards. Winners include:

Travis Tillman for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role in Apple TV+'s Severance, both the first Black man and the first openly gay Black man to win the award.
Hannah Einbinder for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on Hacks. She also said, "Go Birds, Fuck ICE and Free Palestine!" as part of her speech. The openly bisexual actress stated, "I feel like it is my obligation as a Jewish person to distinguish Jews from the State of Israel, because our religion and our culture is such an important and long-standing institution that is really separate to this sort of ethno-nationalist state."
Somebody Somewhere star Jeff Hiller's first-time win for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Alan Cumming accepting the award for Best Reality Competition Program while wearing a pink and blue pin by jewelry company Tatty Devine, of whch he said, "it's got trans colors, and it says 'not a phase,' because it's not."
British actress Erin Doherty took home the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, and gave a shout-out to her partner Sinéad Donnelly in her speech.
Hunting Wives stars Brittany Snow and Malin Åkerman nodded to their characters' same-sex romance while presenting the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. "I don't mind waiting for you to come out..." Åkerman said after Snow joked that she was "really slow to come out" onto the stage.

In an open letter to the UK's EHRC, more than 650 British businesses have stated that a ban of trans people from 'single-sex' spaces would be "unworkable". The letter, organized by British groups the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance and Safe Space UK, said the EHRC 'guidance' would be "incompatible" with their values. Web site Hard Drive has (jokingly) explained why Elon Musk hates trans people. "Elon we know the real reason you hate trans people is because they're all better at video games than you." mic drop Hey, in New York, it's Fashion Week! So that means we get some news on models. Let's look at Vivian Jenna Wilson's runway debut for Alexis Bittar's Spring/Summer 2026 collection, and Kai Shreiber opened the Jason Wu show. The two models got rave reviews on their work. For those unaware, Vivian Jenna Wilson is the estranged daughter of a guy who is upset that trans people are better at video games than he is, and Kai Shrieber is the daughter of Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber. The Cinnamon Roll Report Pedro Pascal interviewed his sister Lux Pascal for Elle Magazine where they talked about their childhoods, their dream roles, and the joys of playing trans roles. The interview in Elle can be found here. Be well, friends. If you have news I missed or you want to share your personal triumphs, bring them here! Let us know your joys. You've got the Touch You've got the power When all Hell's breaking loose You'll be riding the eye of the storm You've got the heart You've got the motion You know that when things get too touch You've got the Touch

By: mittens

mittens — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:12:14 -0800

I got a campaign text the other day from one of Mace's opponents in the SC governor race, calling her soft and flip-floppy on transgender issues. So...y'know.

By: kristi

kristi — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:35:05 -0800

Thank you for this extensive post, mephron, and for all the helpful links. I'm so heartened by those attorneys general - I feel like attorneys general have been doing outstanding resistance work in the past 9 months. Rob Bonta in particular filed a lawsuit in August (along with several other states) to protect access to gender-affirming care and way back in February reminded California hospitals and federally-funded healthcare providers of their ongoing obligation under California anti-discrimination law to provide gender affirming care. (I'm just imagining all the good we can do with all this energy once we get the bigots out of power, sigh ... ) I appreciate this post, and all your posts, mephron. Thank you for this. (Also, I'm not sure Pedro Pascal had fully registered on my radar before your posts, so I'm especially grateful for the Cinnamon Roll Reports!)

By: xedrik

xedrik — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:08:27 -0800

Thank you for these posts, mephron. Especially the Cinnamon Roll Report. Gods, I need something like this to look forward to. I went to a mixer last night for our town's Pride Festival org, the first time I've been able to make it to one of these. Got to connect with a bunch of wonderful people, share stories, share hugs. One of the people shared something, and I'm paraphrasing here, but, "That's why Queer Joy is so powerful. We've had to endure so much for so long, that when we have these moments of joy with each other, they're powerful beyond measure." Trying to find and share those moments of joy where I can. Thanks for being a part of that. <3

By: mephron

mephron — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:12:22 -0800

Now It Can Be Told: the CRR started as a joke bit by me and has become one of the palate cleansers. It's the last thing I do before posting, just to make me feel better when things are so shit.

By: hoyland

hoyland — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:44:17 -0800

and way back in February reminded California hospitals and federally-funded healthcare providers of their ongoing obligation under California anti-discrimination law to provide gender affirming care. What's he done about Kaiser, then? (I don't know about the status of LA Children's, either. Kaiser is saying they'll pay for non-Kaiser surgeons, but I don't think anyone's making that happen. They definitely fucked a bunch of people.)

By: kristi

kristi — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:54:04 -0800

hoyland, it looks to me like the lawsuit against the administration is a big part of Bonta's ongoing response. Indivisible encouraged members to thank him and also to push him to do more about Kaiser and other providers ... I guess it's just not entirely clear what the best course of action would be, other than having the illegal order thrown out. Assuming I'm looking at the right case, it's currently awaiting a ruling.

By: zompist

zompist — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:31:22 -0800

FWIW, that Michigan idiot's bill would ban several of Shakespeare's plays, as well as the Odyssey, Some Like It Hot, Peter Pan, and Huckleberry Finn. And Bart Simpson and Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

By: mittens

mittens — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 13:42:31 -0800

that Michigan idiot's bill would ban several of Shakespeare's plays I'm still trying to figure out how their hospitals would function once all the VPNs became illegal.

By: i used to be someone else

i used to be someone else — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 14:46:52 -0800

it's interesting to note that conservatives do actually see trans women as women when it's convenient—even though she was the snitch and sent in the info to the FBI, they're still choosing to blame her for what a man did also I suppose the lesson is maybe don't snitch in this broken, backwards country

By: jumpercake

jumpercake — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:04:57 -0800

The Emmy-winning actor from Severance is named Tramell Tillman. He is a delight in this role!

By: kokaku

kokaku — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:23:36 -0800

FWIW, that Michigan idiot's bill would ban several of Shakespeare's plays... and Bugs Bunny! (little me had nooooo idea who we'd become)

By: evilmomlady

evilmomlady — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:39:35 -0800

As always, thank you mephron, for doing this really hard work. I'm glad you're here. On the positive news side, translifeline.org is going stronger than ever, has some interesting things to say about the 988 hotline, and is preparing to resume making microgrants!

By: mittens

mittens — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 16:46:32 -0800

(wait, mr milchick is gay? two seasons in and i'm only now hearing this?!)

By: aintnolobos

aintnolobos — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 20:23:46 -0800

Ken Klippenstein: FBI Readies New War on Trans People The Trump administration is preparing to designate transgender people as "violent extremists" in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder, two national security officials tell me. [...] "They are cynically targeting trans people because the shooter's lover was trans," one senior intelligence official tells me. "The administration has convinced itself that the Charlie Kirk murder exposes some dark conspiracy." The senior official explains that there is no process per se for dealing with trans people as a "threat group," but feels that trans individuals will be increasingly targeted under the banner of "violent extremism." Under the plan being discussed, the FBI would treat transgender suspects as a subset of the Bureau's new threat category, "Nihilistic Violent Extremists" (NVEs). The Trump administration first created the NVE designation earlier this year to replace the Biden-era label "Anti-Authority and Anti-Government Violent Extremists" (AGAAVE), created to categorize January 6 rioters and other right-wing groups. The new classification, sources say, gives Trump officials political (and media) cover. Rather than directly naming transgender people as some enemy, the White House has preferred euphemisms like "gender ideology extremism." On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order establishing federal policy as defining sex as an "immutable biological reality" of male and female. He also signed an order to keep transgender individuals out of women's sports. This order directed federal agencies to enforce laws based on the definition and to cease funding for anything that "promote[s] gender ideology." [The] Kirk killing has broken any hesitance to declare an all-out war on trans people directly, even amongst the anti-trans Trump inner circle. Take, for instance, White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka, who prior to Kirk's murder, despite his prodigious output on X, had never tweeted the word "trans" during the second Trump term. The day after Kirk's assassination, though, Gorka posted three separate Tweets on X about "trans shooters." Gorka is the highest level counter-terrorism official in the Trump administration. Today, Donald Trump Jr. summarized the mood of his father's circle, saying on X: "What is the greatest domestic terror threat facing America: ANTIFA or TRANTIFA?" Prosecutors have already made clear that they are placing transgender identity at the center of their case against Kirk's alleged killer, Tyler Robinson. The indictment refers to transgender issues three separate times [...] Yesterday, President Trump announced he was designating Antifa as a "MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION"'; the White House is reportedly drafting an executive order to that effect. Mainstream media outlets mocked the move, pointing out that only groups with overseas connections can be formally listed as foreign terrorist organizations. But that criticism overlooks the fact that the FBI has the authority to designate and watchlist domestic "terrorists" secretly (there are some 4,000 Americans so named, with no foreign nexus.) Kash Patel has said that the FBI is looking at Robinson's entire network of contacts, well beyond the 20 people in his Discord friend group. (The leaked chat messages from the group that I published earlier this week do not suggest anything close to conspiracy.) It's perhaps not too surprising that the Trump administration's war on "diversity, equity and inclusion" is now encompassing the transgender community. But while the DEI crackdown is likely to be reversed by subsequent administrations given the sheer number of people it affects, a federal designation of trans people — who account for a far smaller number — as violent extremists portends a longer term campaign. The practice, now deeply embedded as a result of two decades of the global war on terror, includes constructing link-analysis diagrams of friends and friends of friends, monitoring social media, opening more intrusive investigations to collect intelligence on potential extremists, watchlisting people, and even arresting people preemptively — all in the name of public safety.

By: evilangela

evilangela — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 20:56:16 -0800

I have to share this really badass song and video by a trans musician. Per Ink - Murderer

By: justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow

justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 22:15:25 -0800

"Nihilistic Violent Extremists" (NVEs) Say what you will about the tenets of electoralist centrism, at least it's an ethos. The shear preposterous stupidity of it all just adds insult to injury.

By: jenfullmoon

jenfullmoon — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 23:34:12 -0800

Did Ben quit? So far I've only been able to find articles about Jerry quitting. I haven't seen a notice that Ben quit. If not, why hasn't he quit?!

By: an octopus IRL

an octopus IRL — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 05:21:52 -0800

Ken Klippenstein: FBI Readies New War on Trans People I saw this, plus reports of something in support of the idea from the Heritage Foundation. I have no idea how real this is, what it would mean, and how worried to be but having people talk constantly about how you're crazy and dangerous and deserve to be attacked when you desperately need protection feels really bad.

By: mephron

mephron — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 09:33:40 -0800

jenfullmoon: he quit in 1996.

By: non canadian guy

non canadian guy — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 13:04:56 -0800

In Michigan, Rep. Josh Shriver, an open bigot who has filed bills to overturn marriage equality and classify abortion as homicide and self-declared "Michigan's most conservative state representative" Fun fact: Schriver is based out of Oxford. Yep, that Oxford. Also, according to a couple people who claim to have gone to college with him (on Reddit, so take it FWIW) he was relatively normal until he fried his mind on psychedelics.

By: BuddhaInABucket

BuddhaInABucket — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 10:39:44 -0800

Yesterday I went to a local kids toy and book store with my husband and son. I asked if there were any books with gay families, and the proprietor told me that they stopped carrying them because the subject matter was too sensitive. I told her that by taking those books away, she had decided that she would rather make bigots comfortable than my family, and she said "I hope you understand." I gave her back what I was going to buy, told her my money was sensitive too, and left. The toy store was in Orange County, CA. Not the most conservative part, not the most liberal part, but in a neighborhood where enough of the stores and restaurants have "everyone is welcome here" signs that I really wasn't expecting that. It was such a dumb unexpected way for me to feel scared to live here in the middle of my lovely day taking my 2 year old on his first train ride to get ice cream and toys. He had a great time, at least. I had to paste on a smile and play pretend that what he experienced isn't going to be the last time someone treats his family as something strange and unacceptable.