Lex McMenamin (they/them)

@lexmcmenamin.com

45934 Followers 2945 Following

movement building reporter @us.theguardian.com forever philly, longtime nyc member @transjournalists.org TIPS: lex_mcmenamin.68 on Signal linktr.ee/lexmcmenamin

Lex McMenamin, wearing glasses and a green shirt, holds a piece of paper reading: Hi! I'm Lex McMenamin (they/them :) ) I'll be on r/politics @ 2 pm ET July 8th. u/guardian
Clockwise from top left: Daniel Estrada-Sanchez; Champagne Song and Rowan Gibson; Autumn Hill and Lydia Koza; Savanna Batten; Dario Sanchez; Elizabeth and Ines Soto; Meagan Morris and Hill
collage of: a tattoo flash sheet by Des Revol; black face masks; patches reading "fuck 12", "FTP", "ACAB"; a gun; Narcan spray
The introduction to Conflict Is Not Abuse by Sarah Sxhulman "I am grateful to the men and women who create books, and I forgive the men and women who make books necessary." - VOICE AT QUAKER MEETING, Peterborough New Hampshire
Dozens of women continue the relay of the labor and hunger strike saying, sisters. We are people and we demand justice. ” “We are mothers, daughters, The strikers assert the following additional demands: ● Release all the women, with priority given to women under the age of 21, women with medical conditions, and mothers. ● Initiate and carry to completion independent investigations of all allegations of abuse. Women report that they have made multiple complaints of sexual abuse against a female officer. ● Immediately restore all visitation privileges so that mothers, daughters, and family members can maintain meaningful contact with their loved ones. ● Expand access to legal representation and support. Many women detained at Delaney Hall face complex immigration proceedings without attorneys or adequate legal assistance. Continued pro bono legal representation is needed to ensure individuals have meaningful access to due process. ● GEO must contract cleaning services, so that people are not threatened to do labor for the benefit of a multibillion dollar corporation.
magazine cover for the Economist headlined "The Rise of Gen Z Socialism" depicting an iphone with stickers of Zohran Mamdani, "capitalism is cooked!", a watermelon, an anti-AI symbol, "freeze the rent!" and Zach Polanski, on a yellow background. on the side are beaded bracelets reading "eat the rich."
Governor Mikie Sherrill * @GovSherrilINJ x.com Last night, masked individuals at Delaney Hall attacked the barrier in the protected protest area and began aggressive and dangerous actions against Newark and New Jersey State Police, including throwing projectiles, utilizing the barriers as weapons, and lighting tires on fire in the street. These actions put both peaceful protestors and law enforcement in danger. The police were not in protective gear; they had been on location since early in the morning ensuring protestors and counter protestors had areas to exercise their rights safely. As these dangerous actions took place, additional support was needed to protect civilians and law enforcement. My number one priority will always be public safety, and I remain dedicated to protecting constitutional rights. We simply cannot let ICE surge into our community.
With their hunger strike, detainees have made four demands: an in-person meeting with Sherrill, the "immediate release of all prisoners", the quick adjudication of their immigration cases and an end to alleged internal pressure from ICE agents to self-deport. Detainees in at least five ICE facilities are undertaking active hunger strikes, according to the independent outlet LA Taco.
City of Newark * @CityofNewarkNJ •19m X MAYOR RAS J. BARAKA STATEMENT ACTIVATING CURFEW FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AT DELANEY HALL MAY 31, 2026 MAYOR RAS J. BARAKA STATEMENT ACTIVATING CURFEW FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AT DELANEY HALL "Due to the escalating situation at Delaney Hall and the increasing need for police intervention, immediate action is required to protect public safety. Multiple individuals have already been arrested and found in possession of weapons, underscoring the seriousness of the threat. "To ensure the safety and well-being of all residents, a mandatory curfew for a half-mile area surrounding Delaney Hall is being implemented, effective immediately. "Beginning at 12 a.m., Doremus Avenue will be closed to all pedestrian traffic. Vehicle access will be strictly limited to those with verified official business in the area. This curfew will remain in effect nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice. "Individuals found in violation of this curfew will be subject to enforcement actions. A warning to leave the area will be issued initially. However, any continued non-compliance will result in removal from the area and the issuance of appropriate summonses and/or further legal action." -NEWARK- 7 ill
street pavement outside the Delaney Hall detention center covered in chalk messages. the center of the image shows a list reading "Alice Paul, Bobby Sands, Martin Soto"
ICE officers in front of Delaney Hall
masked protesters on the street and sidewalk outside Delaney Hall
The front of the Delaney Hall ICE detention center where someone chalked “the people united” and “striking inmates show the way!”
Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bs... • 32m 32 House Democrats joined the GOP to vote to criminalize bail funds. clerk.house.gov/Votes/2026169 Jim Costa (CA-21) Joe Morelle (NY-25) Henry Cuellar (TX-28) Jared Moskowitz (FL-23) Sharice Davids (KS-03) Frank Mrvan (IN-01) Don Davis (NC-01) Chris Pappas (NH-01) Laura Gillen (NY-04) Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03) Jared Golden (ME-02) Josh Riley (NY-19) Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34) Pat Ryan (NY-18) Maggie Goodlander (NH-02) Hillary Scholten (MI-03) Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) Kim Schrier (WA-08) Adam Gray (CA-13) Eric Sorensen (IL-17) Josh Harder (CA-09) Darren Soto (FL-09) Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06) Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10) Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) Tom Suozzi (NY-03) Greg Landsman (OH-01) Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) Susie Lee (NV-03) Eugene Vindman (VA-07) Kristen McDonald Rivet (MI-08) George Whitsides (CA-27) ALT
Protesters at the NY Stock exchange holding a sign reading BILLIONAIRES ARE CLOWNS
Protesters at the New York Stock Exchange
Los Angeles, CA (April 24, 2026) — 80 Occidental college students and community members set up an encampment on the Academic Quad to demand that their college divests from weapons manufacturing, the prison industrial complex, and war profiteering. Occidental students collected over 600 signatures on a resolution calling on the College to divest from companies that profit off and enable israeli genocide. After the Board of Trustees refused to vote on the timely resolution, the students launched an encampment ahead of the Spring trustees meeting on April 27th to demand that the board vote on the resolution and take action towards divestment. “We are a new class of students calling on Occidental to uphold its stated values by divesting from companies that build the bombs which are used by the zionist state to obliterate families in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran. It’s been two years since the last encampment, and we have witnessed the College double down on genocidal investments and student repression.” – said Aurelia Mendez-Ortega On Monday April 27th, the Occidental College Board of Trustees will be meeting on campus to enjoy a extravagant meal while they authorize the further investment of our schools money into the military industrial complex, ICE detention centers, and surveillance technology. Students are calling on the University to divest from companies like Lockheed Martin, Palantir, Maersk, and Caterpillar that aid in the zionist military’s genocide in Palestine and facilitate their brutal warfare, surveillance, and ethnic cleansing around the world. “How can I go on as usual, while students in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran are murdered by the zionist state? We came to college to learn, not to have our tuition dollars invested into a the cult of death. ” — said Athya Paramesh who decided to join the encampment.
Opinion Guest Essay Why Aren’t the Kids Out Protesting Against Trump? April 14, 2026
image of a white brick wall overlaid with text reading: for a story at The Guardian, I'm looking to speak to 1-2 people who have had their community/ political organizing work impacted by being expected or forced to organize with someone who assaulted or harassed them, and that staying silent was "for the good of the movement" I know this is an extremely common story, but also one people can't always share with their name or face: anonymity or pseudonyms will be provided. I am trained in trauma-informed strategies in working with survivors, am a survivor myself, and take digital hygiene and sources' security extremely seriously. Please reach out over signal @ lex_mcmenamin.68 . I'll take this down when I have enough folks. Thank you.
Minneapolis does have an incredible history of organizing going back to the truck strikes of 1934 and co-op movements [of the 20th century]. I grew up on the West Bank of Minneapolis, which is now where much of the Somali community is, but used to be a super hippie community, and so the places around me were mostly anarchist-owned co-ops. It’s not the neighborhood that most American children grow up in. We have a different idea of what’s possible, because we have a city that kind of works a little differently and has a history of collectivism and taking care of each other. I think also because of what happened in 2020 [with George Floyd’s police murder setting off protests around the world], and even before that, with Jamar Clark and Philando Castile [who were shot and killed by police in 2015 and 2016], we’re reflexive organizers. It’s easy for us to get together and figure out how we’re going to approach something. But this has been totally different. Back then, people were putting a lawn sign in their yard that said Black Lives Matter. Now people are driving an immigrant person to work every day.
New York Times headline: Mark Zuckerberg Is Done With Politics He was once a backer of liberal causes. Then everyone seemed to turn on him. Now he wants to stay away from politics — if that’s possible.
posts on Twitter/X: Mary Karr, Poet/Memoirist/Professor @marykarrlit May 4, 2018 Deeply saddened by the allegations against #JunotDiaz & I support every woman brave enough to speak. The violence #DavidFosterWallace inflicted on me as a single mom was ignored by his biographer & @NewYorker as ‘alleged’ despite my having letters in his hand. But DFW was white. Mary Karr, Poet/Memoirist/Professor @marykarrlit that’s about 2% of what happened. tried to buy a gun. kicked me. climbed up the side of my house at night. followed my son age 5 home from school. had to change my number twice, and he still got it. months and months it went on 7:59 AM · May 5, 2018
Subject: Thousands of high schoolers protesting Inbox 7:38 PM ••. to me I understand you attention-seeking queers have the nuance of a train wreck, but this is less than 0.00001%. Big fckn deal. Sent from my iPad VIEW ENTIRE MESSAGE
Rhy: Being scared just makes me want to be more involved. My little cousins – my mom was just telling me about this – at school, they’re scared because people are telling them, you’re brown, you’re going to be deported. There’s no reason why people should be scared to walk outside. Arianna: You remember in 2016 when Trump got first elected, everyone in elementary school was crying because we all thought we were going to get “sent back to Africa”, even though none of us were Africans? Rhy: That’s so messed up. There’s no reason why this leader of our country is sending all these people into fear. Land of the free? I do not feel very free right now. The education part is really important, especially now, like in Texas, in Florida and all those places that are removing important history about immigrants. Be involved and don’t be afraid to protest. One suspension is not that deep if you are standing up for people you care about. Just be brave. Arianna: Yeah. Home of the brave.
mural by artist Barbara Kruger in Los Angeles at the MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary, reading: "WHO IS BEYOND THE LAW? WHO IS BOUGHT AND SOLD? WHO IS FREE TO CHOOSE? WHO DOES THE TIME? WHO FOLLOWS ORDERS? WHO SALUTES LONGEST? WHO PRAYS LOUDEST? WHO DIES FIRST? WHO LAUGHS LAST?"
screenshot of iPhone lock screen with an email notification from the Washington Post of a fundraising email
He was Henry Miller, and he didn’t labor in a butcher shop for long. By the early 1870s he was one of the richest men in California, a land baron who was known for exploiting the labor of itinerant homeless men to build a fortune in farming and cattle ranching. (Another Miller descendant, via a different branch of the family tree, is Tucker Carlson.) Miller’s name doesn’t appear in Bowles’ article, nor do his wealth-building practices. A witness before a congressional committee in 1914 labeled Miller’s practices, which included monopolizing water rights in the Central Valley by threatening their rightful owners with expensive lawsuits, “a cause of social unrest.”
KYRA NOONAN: IS ALSO JOINING US AS VP OF DEVELOPMENT. THIS IS A CRUCIAL ROLE. CBS IS SITTING ON A GOLD MINE OF IP—PROPRIETARY STORIES AND REPORTING THAT SHE IS GOING TO LEVERAGE INTO DOCUMENTARIES, SCRIPTED SERIES, AND FEATURE FILMS ALONGSIDE OUR TEAM AT PARAMOUNT. KYRA COMES TO US FROM THE FREE PRESS, WHERE SHE WAS THE HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT, AND BEFORE THAT WORKED WITH SAM LEVINSON ON THE FIRST TWO SEASONS OF EUPHORIA.
Weiss and Bowles, who got married in 2021 and have since had two children, now spent most Friday nights hosting Shabbat dinners at their Larchmont bungalow with a rotating cast of guests. Their close social circle became a coterie of L.A.-based journalists, screenwriters, and other industry folks, including Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, Kives, and WME partner Roger Green.
a hand holds a sign made out of cardboard reading "FIX YOUR HEARTS OR DIE - DAVID LYNCH"
Graph of Left-leaning protests during the second Trump admin outpace the first Guardian graphic. Source: Crowd Counting Consortium.
On Feb. 19, State Rep. Mauree Turner, Oklahoma’s only nonbinary representative, held a moment of silence for Benedict on the state house floor. In a video of the moment, Quorum Call reporter Tyler Talley observed that “while many members did quiet, some [members] continued with their conversations.” Last spring, Rep. Turner was censured within the Oklahoma state legislature for allowing a protester at a trans rights protest in the House to shelter in their office. “Every day I get more angry that we, politicians, no matter your party affiliation are aiding in a transgenocide,” Rep. Turner wrote in a statement posted to their Instagram. “I think about how after I read Nex’s obituary on the house floor, a Democrat came to me and said well we don’t know if they actually died because of the beating… But we absolutely do. Nex’ death is a direct result of a failed administration in a public school that didn’t value the life of a trans student. A failed administration that was empowered by a failed local government who has created open season, and more specifically a transgenocide in Oklahoma.”
4. Nex Benedict Has Been Gone a Year. What Have We Learned? / Lex McMenamin It can be difficult to know what to say in the face of widespread public apathy towards the harm being done to trans youth by the conservative ideological project. That’s why Lex McMenamin’s story for Teen Vogue marking the one year anniversary of the death of Oklahoma trans teen Nex Benedict last February was so remarkable. The piece captures both what is being lost and the lack of urgency about recapturing it in a brilliant bit of reporting and analysis. “Over this past year, there [was] this big reaction, and then it fizzled,” Adams tells Teen Vogue. “I was talking to my [Two Spirit, nonbinary] kid yesterday about what has happened over the past year, and what that feels like, what it looks like, and they said something like, 'It's weird that the world kept turning. It's weird that things just kept going after that.' People just tend to forget.”
To everyone who donated, thank you so much for exceeding our GoFundMe goal. Your financial support helped us with urgent expenses like rent and groceries, while your kind words and love kept our spirits high. Thanks to all of you, we're getting back on our feet. We couldn't be more grateful. With love, the laid off Teen Vogue team
This is Alice's friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice's wishes, this message is being shared at the time of her passing. Hi everyone, it looks like I ran out of time. I have so many dreams that I wanted to fulfill and plans to create new stories for you. There are a few in progress that might come to fruition in a few years if things work out. I did not ever imagine I would live to this age and end up a writer, editor, activist, and more. As a kid riddled with insecurity and internalized ableism, I could not see a path forward. It was thanks to friendships and some great teachers who believed in me that I was able to fight my way out of miserable situations into a place where I finally felt comfortable in my skin. We need more stories about us and our culture. You all, we all, deserve the everything and more in such a hostile, ableist environment. Our wisdom is incisive and unflinching. I'm honored to be your ancestor and believe disabled oracles like us will light the way to the future. Don't let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.
Lex McMenamin smiles at someone off camera in front of blue backdrop
Welcome to the Take, Teen Vogue’s politics newsletter, where we’ll keep you up-to-date on the organizers, politicians, and agents of change trying to save our world — or at least shift things for the better. I’m politics editor Lex McMenamin, and starting today, I’ll be explaining how we’re seeing current events, and sharing our coverage. On Saturday, an estimated 5 to 6 million people joined a No Kings rally in their area, likely becoming the largest recorded single-day action in the United States. But what does one day have to do with all the rest, if you're not sure how to sustain your resistance beyond an event? "Protest is a tactic; it is not a strategy on its own, and it should never be intended to stand on its own outside of a broader strategy," Indivisible’s Leah Greenberg, co-organizer of No Kings, told me the day before the rallies. So we’re sharing some key ways you can get involved in your community today, if you’re not sure where to start. Til the weekend! Lex
Charlie Day in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in front of a conspiratorial looking board
Journalist Plestia Alaqad Is Publishing Her Diaries From Gaza: "A Dystopian World" "Every time I read it, I just feel disbelief — is this real? Did I really live that? Are there still thousands of people in Gaza living that?” By Lex McMenamin
Pic of Plestia Alaqad overlaid with text from interview: Plestia Alaqad: I can't believe that it's almost — [she pauses] no, it's not almost, it's actually two years. Okay, I can't believe that it's been two years of this ongoing genocide. When I was reporting in Gaza for 45 days, these 45 days felt like 45 years. And now it's 200 days feeling like 200 years for the people who are actually still on the ground facing bombing, displacement and starvation, which is being used as a method by Israel. Israel is literally ethnically cleansing people in Gaza, and we're watching a genocide unfold live on TV.
meme format person 1: u good? person 2: no I live in America
Whereas Charlie Kirk became one of the most prominent voices in America, engaging in respectful, civil discourse across college campuses, media platforms, and national forums, always seeking to elevate truth, foster understanding, and strengthen the Republic;
The next day, September 11, with Kash Patel's FBI and Utah authorities in a scramble to locate the shooter, The Wall Street Journal reported that "an early bulletin circulated widely among law-enforcement officials" said there was "transgender ideology" on the bullet casings. There was no backup for this, but amid the government's bumbling to solidify details in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the suggestion that there might be some association with "transgender ideology" from a mainstream outlet predictably blew up right away. Other outlets immediately cast doubt on it, including the New York Times, hardly known for its sympathy to trans people. The same day, the Trans Journalists Association, of which I am a member, urged caution, noting that "transgender ideology" is "a term coined for and used in anti-trans political messaging to falsely equate identity with politics, which is a way to frame transgender identity as a political choice rather than an innate identity."
The trans-shooter myth, reports the Trace, a newsroom focused on gun violence, largely began circulating in 2023 around the aforementioned Nashville shooting, “as the right began rolling back LGBTQ rights in earnest.” As I’ve explained previously, trans people are over four times more likely than cis people to be victims of violent assault. Conversely, over the past decade, according to the Gun Violence Project, less than a tenth of one percent of shootings were committed by someone who identified as trans or nonbinary. Nonetheless, last week the Justice Department was reportedly considering how to ban trans people from buying guns. Two years later, and just a decade after the so-called trans tipping point, anti-trans harassment and violence is all the rage. Trans people are afraid to leave the country, let alone leave their houses. The right-wing ecosystem has gladly spent years creating these conditions, while Democrats have by turns avoided saying anything about them at all or, like in the past week, spending more time mourning the death of a guy who gleefully mocked Nancy Pelosi’s husband being attacked with a hammer than urging caution to protect a population that voted for Kamala Harris second only to Black women. It would almost be surprising, considering those numbers, how quickly 2028 hopeful Gavin Newsom praised Kirk, if Kirk hadn’t been Newsom’s first podcast guest.
two successive posts from journliast Phil Lewis, 8 min apart: 1. person suspected in fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk now in custody, FBI director says. 2. Utah's Commissioner of Public Safety, in a press conference, just said they do not have a suspect in custody
two protesters in front of the White House. one has a DC flag on thier back, the other holds a spray painted sign reading "What Trump order won't you obey?" the back of their shirt reads "believe Epstein survivors free DC"
college student smiling in sunglasses holding a trans flag and sign reading "CAMPUS CUP — want a free menstrual cup?"
Screenshot of a Bluesky post: Newsom led on gay marriage, and has done more for gay rights than practically any political figure in America today because of it.
In the late Lauren Berlant’s On the Inconvenience of Other People, they define “inconvenience” as “disturb[ing] the vision of yourself you carry around that supports… your fantasy of being in control,” arguing this is our primary way of coming to know one another. Disrupting this lie – that any of us are truly safe in a world with material conditions such as these – even just by existing or reacting to it, can result in your death.
But a different way to read the post is to see Altman hedging slightly in the face of potential progress limitations on the technology. Earlier this month, OpenAI released GPT-5, to mixed reviews. Altman had promised “a Ph.D.-level” intelligence on any topic. But early tests of GPT-5 revealed all kinds of anecdotal examples of sloppy answers to queries, including hallucinations, simple-arithmetic errors, and failures in basic reasoning. Some power users who’d become infatuated with previous versions of the software were angry and even bereft by the update. Altman placed particular emphasis on the product’s usability and design: Paired with the “Gentle Singularity,” GPT-5 seems like an admission that superintelligence is still just a concept.
Across the past couple of years — especially as younger people get more politically involved, or they face issues that they can tie back to the failure of politics — [we] see an awakening where people are saying, okay, you know what, I get it now. Texas is very different from New York... But I think our messaging was very clear: We can talk about social issues, we can make sure that we're not getting pulled into the culture wars, where Republicans are going after the LGBT community, trying to silence the voices of Black and brown people. But also have those conversations, those kitchen table issues that matter to people. People want to be able to afford a home. They want to be able to send their kids to well funded schools, and you can do both of those at the same time.
Two adds on the NYC subway for the app Facetune. One reads “look like you had 8 hours of sleep”; the other reads “look like your apartment has windows.”
Lex taking a mirror selfie in a t shirt that says “don’t mess with trans kids” and shorts
BOSTON—Below are highlights from today’s proceedings in the trial before Judge William G. Young in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts in a case challenging the Trump administration’s policy of ideological deportation. A senior Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official testified that the agency assembled a team in early 2025 to investigate student protestors. The team—referred to internally as the “Tiger Team”— rapidly compiled over 100 reports based on a list of 5,000 people identified on the Canary Mission website. The official, Peter Hatch, helps lead an office within ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division that compiles background reports on targets of the agency’s investigations. He was questioned by Alexandra Conlon of Sher Tremonte LLP.
Protesters with Extinction Rebellion protest Jeff Bezos’s wedding in Venice, Italy, June 28, 2025
Rather than going conciliatory on trans rights, Mamdani actively campaigned to trans New Yorkers, a number of whom are refugees from more conservative states’ discriminatory laws. He unabashedly embraced New York’s immigrant-heavy population, continuously recording social media content in different languages. Instead of trying to get on Joe Rogan’s podcast, as the Harris campaign reportedly attempted to do (or trying to become him — looking at you, Newsom), Mamdani went on Hasan Piker’s stream. In so doing, he was able to speak to those same constituencies who either felt burned or simply ignored by Democratic centrist campaign strategies.
Apartment windows with signs reading “ZOHRAN IS SEXY”
L-R: Julia Murray (Rivera's partner), Sylvia Rivera, and Chelsea Goodwin demonstrating during a rally in NYC's City Hall Park, on May 4, 2001. Murray holds a sign that reads "Trans Jobs Not Death." Mariette Pathy Allen/Getty Images