Madison Pauly

@msjpauly.bsky.social

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Reporter covering gender and politics at @motherjones.com, part of the Center for Investigative Reporting Tips to mpauly at motherjones dot com Signal: madisonpauly.15 https://www.motherjones.com/author/madison-pauly/

An excerpt from the article says: Their reaction also had something to do with family pride. The Wiscount name is synonymous with Tremont: Joe’s mom taught third grade here for 37 years; a veterans’ memorial park on Main Street bears a carving of his late father. On a recent night at the local gun club, 20 out of 23 people at the bar were Wiscounts, Lara recalled. “We were very upset and concerned about the town’s name being attached to it,” Joe said. Besides, Lara added, “You have to do the right thing. I was in education for 30 years, because I care about kids, I care about people.” So they decided to begin organizing their neighbors.

An excerpt from the article says: A week later, Joe’s cousin, Jennifer Devine, spearheaded a protest along Main Street. Dozens of people chanted “ICE out” on the sidewalk, despite a downpour. “I’m willing to fight,” swore Devine, who lives down the road from the Wiscounts and works the night shift at the Amazon distribution center. “If that place is functional, I told my husband, I’ll be up there every day protesting.”

An excerpt from the article says: Some voters have begun to equate the big corporations that cause environmental hazards and raise the cost of living with the Trump administration. Brandon Albert, a 33-year-old mechanic who rents an apartment in Tremont, sees the ICE warehouse as part of the same overarching trend of exploitation—“corporate America capitalizing on small town USA.” Albert voted for Trump in 2024, but “I do regret it,” he says. To him, Trump’s chosen sides, and he’s with the corporations. “He’s becoming really anti-ordinary people and more big business.”

A screenshot of the NPR story reads: "That pressure has come in the form of this proposed rule, another rule that would bar federal Medicaid reimbursement for transgender pediatric patients, and a declaration from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that aimed to redefine the standard of care. (Interestingly, the press release issued when those actions were unveiled in December is now missing from the HHS website, as is the Kennedy declaration document.)"

The science on conversion therapy is unambiguous: it’s both ineffective and dangerous. All the way back in 2009, an American Psychological Association task force issued a landmark report documenting the lack of evidence behind sexual orientation “change efforts,” as scientists refer to them. Since then, APA has only strengthened its stance against both anti-gay and anti-trans conversion efforts. In October 2015, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration published a report concluding that sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts were “coercive, can be harmful, and should not be part of behavioral health treatment.”

a basket of green-to-orange sungold tomatoes

Excerpt from Teen Vogue article: "There are some professional transphobes who have deluded themselves into thinking that there is no evidence that trans people do anything more than threaten to take their own lives to manipulate others into getting our way. Those of us on the ground, who have trans friends, who are up all night making sure a trans friend having a mental crisis is able to work their way through it, know the truth."

The majority and JUSTICE THOMAS make much of recent changes to
the routine provision of gender-affirming care to minors in Norway, Sweden, and England. Ante, at 3–4, 23; ante, at 13–14 (concurring opinion).
While all three countries have committed to researching further the risks
and benefits of prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to adolescents, none has categorically banned doctors from providing patients
with all gender-affirming care where medically necessary. See Brief for
Foreign Non-Profit Organizations as Amici Curiae 4–13.

The dissent argues that our analysis “may well suggest that a law
depriving all individuals who ‘have ever, or may someday, menstruate’ of access to health insurance would be sex neutral merely because not all women menstruate.” Post, at 23–24 (opinion of SOTOMAYOR, J.). But such a law is different from both SB1 and the law at issue in Geduldig. As we have explained, SB1 regulates certain medical treatments, see Tenn. Code Ann. §68–33–103(a)(1); Geduldig involved a state disability insurance system that excluded certain pregnancy-related disabilities from coverage, see 417 U. S., at 487–489. The dissent’s hypothetical law, in contrast, does not regulate a class of treatments or conditions. Rather, it regulates a class of persons identified on the basis of a specified characteristic. Neither our analysis nor Geduldig speaks to a law that classifies on such a basis.

By the same token, SB1 does not exclude any individual
from medical treatments on the basis of transgender status
but rather removes one set of diagnoses—gender dysphoria,
gender identity disorder, and gender incongruence—from
the range of treatable conditions. SB1 divides minors into
two groups: those who might seek puberty blockers or hormones to treat the excluded diagnoses, and those who might
seek puberty blockers or hormones to treat other conditions.
See Tenn. Code Ann. §68–33–103. Because only
transgender individuals seek puberty blockers and hormones for the excluded diagnoses, the first group includes
only transgender individuals; the second group, in contrast,
encompasses both transgender and nontransgender individuals.

A screenshot of the Mother Jones article reads:

Renee
Mother of Brooke (pseudonym), 17

On talking to Brooke the night after learning that Brooke had told friends she was going to kill herself: I went into their room, and they’re like, “Hey, what are we reading tonight?” And I said, “You know what? We’re not reading tonight.” “We’re not?” And I said, “No, we’re not reading tonight.” I said, “We’re talking.” And I said, “I have a question.” And they said, “Yeah?” And I said, “Is this the seventh birthday thing?” And they started crying and said, “Yeah.” She said, “I’m in the wrong body, and I’m a freak.” And I said, “You are not a freak.” I said, “You are wonderful.” And I said, “You have a beautiful heart and a beautiful soul, and we’re gonna figure this out, and that’s it.” She said, “I can do this.” And I said, “You can do this.” And she said, “What about Dad?” And I said, “You don’t worry about your dad. Your dad loves you. We got you.”

Listen to Renee tell her family’s story (Renee’s voice has been altered to preserve her family’s anonymity):

A screenshot of footnote 42 of the opinion reads: "Further: Section 4 of the Healthcare Order directs "immediate[]" action. In doing so, it makes no effort to ensure that a patient is weaned off any medical care they are currently undergoing in conjunction with their medical provider. Such an abrupt halt in. medical care, even if, as Defendants contend, that care is dangerous or ineffective, cuts against Defendants' argument that the policy is substantially related to protecting children."

Excerpt from an Inspector general report: "Misuse of the Intelink Collaboration Platform Application Services Is Systemic.... The IC IG received five separate submissions in fiscal year 2021 about IC individuals who misused the Intelink Collaboration Platform Applications Services. The submissions indicated a pattern of behavior by IC individuals that did not align with the terms of use of U.S. Government systems. For example, the submissions included allegations that IC individuals engaged in inappropriate political and social commentary, and used derogatory and offensive language while communicating with each other through the Intelink Collaboration Platform Application Services. ... INV initiated this investigation because of [redacted] unauthorized "audit" activities. INV did not address the IC-wide systemic misuse of the Intelink Collaboration Platform Application Services as this was outside the scope of INV's investigation.