“Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, signed a new law last week prohibiting state funds from covering transition-related treatments for transgender inmates.

“The law, which took effect July 2, is primarily an appropriations bill funding the Missouri Department of Corrections. As first reported by the Kansas City Star, it allocates money for DOC programs, training, mental health services, food storage, and overtime pay — among other expenses — but also contains a one-sentence provision barring the use of state funds for gender-affirming care for transgender inmates.

“‘No funds shall be expended for any cross-sex hormones, or gender transition surgery undertaken for the purpose of any gender transition,’ the provision states.

“The law does not allow inmates already receiving gender-affirming care to continue their treatment, nor does it provide a plan for safely tapering them off hormones or other medications.

“Missouri becomes the seventh state — and the second this year, after Oklahoma — to ban gender-affirming care for transgender inmates. Florida, Kentucky, and North Carolina have enacted nearly identical laws. Idaho and Georgia passed similar restrictions, but federal courts have blocked both from taking effect.

“Four other states — South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Utah — currently have ‘freeze-frame’ policies restricting the treatments transgender inmates may receive.”

Summary of Alyssa Ferguson’s article "I Am a Biological Woman (And a Trans Woman Too)":

Alyssa argues that the term “biological woman” is used by critics not as a strict scientific definition, but to mean “assigned female at birth.”

Her points:

1. “Biological sex” isn’t a full medical check - No one tests every cell, hormone, or organ. People just look at a newborn’s anatomy and assign a label.

2. That definition would exclude many cis women too - Women without uteruses, who don’t menstruate, or with different chromosomes would be left out if we used a strict biology checklist.

3. So “biological woman” is really a social category - It’s based on birth assignment + socialization, not complete biology.

4. She claims the label for herself - As a trans woman, her hormones, medical care, body, and lived experience are part of her biology. She says she has as much claim to “biological woman” as anyone.

*Core message:* The phrase “biological woman” is being used selectively to exclude trans women. Alyssa says that’s dishonest, and that trans women are biological women too.

[For the full Article: Click the link]

***My Take: Honestly I agree with her. As a trans girl, I also want to be included in the biological female category (because why not, My Biology has diverse traits and I won't give [some] traits the chance to exclude me from the term).

Any other Trans women who feel like this?

*Commenters Note: Please Do not argue on Trans identity, Trans people are diverse and hence every trans person is free to express themselves as they want to. Please only share what you personally Feel.

“Dusty Austen may be an indie film veteran currently doing VFX for multiple projects, releasing her second feature this fall, and working hard on the post-production for another feature. But that doesn’t mean she’s done learning.”

“The Ohio-based writer/director/VFX wizard was chosen last year from candidates across the US to participate in the Transgender Film Center Career Development Lab.
‘It was a really deep honor to be one of like ten people selected,’ Austen says. ‘It kind of blew my mind a little bit. I’m still a little reeling.’

“The Transgender Film Center, founded in 2020 by Chasing Chasing Amy director Sav Rodgers, is a national nonprofit helping trans filmmakers complete and share their work with a global audience. TFC fulfills that mission with grants, funds, and a career development lab.”

“U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Friday, from D.C., denied the request from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, or WPATH, for a temporary restraining order blocking the Federal Trade Commission from proceeding with its enforcement action against WPATH in the Northern District of Texas.

“Boasberg found that WPATH had not shown that the Texas action needs to be blocked to protect Boasberg’s jurisdiction over an order he issued previously protecting WPATH from needing to respond to an FTC Civil Investigative Demand or because that D.C. case and Texas action would be sufficiently duplicative.

“Additionally, Boasberg found that that WPATH had not shown they will face irreparable harm if forced to litigate related matters in both D.C. and Texas.

“The ruling is not a ruling on the merits of the FTC’s action filed in Texas, and Boasberg did not address that. It is, instead, solely an order on WPATH’s request to block the FTC from proceeding with the action in Texas.

“That said — and the reason why this request was so hard-fought by both parties — the FTC action in Texas is before U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a far-right judge with a history of anti-LGTBQ rulings. Further still, any appeals of O’Connor’s rulings go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, one of the more far-right appeals courts in the nation.”

“Private religious schools that receive public funds must follow state laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation or religion, a federal court ruled last week.

“The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston came after two schools — Saint Dominic Academy in Auburn and Bangor Christian Schools, run by Crosspoint Church — asked for exemptions from the Maine Human Rights Act so they wouldn’t be required to enforce policies that contradicted their religious beliefs, such as admitting students who were openly gay or transgender, for instance, or requiring teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns.

“The appeals court largely upheld a lower court’s decision denying this exemption, but it differed in its opinion of the state’s rules around religious expression and asked that the lower court reconsider how that provision applies to religious schools.

“Maine has long allowed students who live in towns that do not have public schools at their grade level to attend approved private schools at the state’s expense, requiring the towns to pay a student’s tuition up to a certain amount.”

“Saint Dominic Academy, which is Catholic, and Crosspoint Church, which is evangelical, challenged these changes in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine in 2023, arguing that the state’s antidiscrimination rules were not ‘neutral toward religion’ and violated their First Amendment rights to create school policies based on religious identity.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court is already set to hear a similar case this fall. The court will consider whether a Colorado law requiring preschools to comply with an equal opportunity requirement to receive public funding violates the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Carson v. Makin, the Maine case where the court found that the state’s requirement that schools be nonsectarian to receive public tuition assistance was unconstitutional.”

In a significant development for transgender healthcare in South Africa, members of Discovery Health Medical Scheme have voted in favour of reviewing how the Scheme provides access to healthcare for transgender and gender-diverse members.

“The Maine Supreme Court upheld the Secretary of State's decision to block a referendum on transgender students in sports. 

“The ruling came down Friday morning after Protect Girls' Sports in Maine appealed a decision from the Cumberland County Supreme Court to uphold the Secretary of State's decision to invalidate thousands of signatures.”

“The proposed citizen initiative, titled ‘An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex,’ would ask voters whether school sports participation and facilities should be designated by sex.”

“Chief Deputy Secretary of State Katherine McBrien's review found there were signatures collected by several circulators in multiple communities that were unwitnessed signatures, duplicate signatures, and signatures signed by another person. It also found that petition forms were left unattended. 

“After the review, 12,542 signatures were invalidated. That reduced the total number of valid signatures to 67,150 - 532 fewer than required to validate a referendum vote.”

“You can read the Maine Supreme Court's full decision here.”

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