Rian: 30-something, resident physician/surgeon. Truly excessive number of degrees. Sometimes I write stuff also (ao3 Vespasiana). Queer, she/he, [no further information available]. icon by bisexualrowena, header by lordwhat
So You Want To Know What’s Up With That Gay Angel - Masterpost
Well, congrats! You’ve found your way to the SPN “speed” watch masterpost, which is written by someone who hadn’t seen a single episode of this show until 2018. This is important, because it means I’ve watched this whole show in very recent memory, and also don’t have any baggage left over from the 2012-13 SPN heyday, because somehow I managed to remain blissfully unaware of the peak cringe fandom days while they were happening.
The Flint water crisis began in 2014, after lead-contaminated drinking water was found to be leaching out from aging pipes into homes citywide.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Natural Resources Defense Council, with help from other activists and nonprofits, have released statements on the recent progress, celebrating the milestone.
The statements which they chalk up the crisis to “cost-cutting measures and improper water treatment,” that the state “didn’t require treatment to prevent corrosion,” after a “a state-appointed emergency manager” switched the water supply to the Flint River.
There is no safe level of lead exposure; each nanogram causes harm. In addition to long-known risks, such as damage to children’s brains and certain cancers, there is also significant evidence that exposure to lead is linked to numerous cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and heart attack.
The coalition mobilized the citizenry and filed a lawsuit against Flint and Michigan state officials to secure safe water. The result was a settlement in March 2017, under which a federal court in Detroit ordered Flint to give every resident the opportunity to have their lead pipe replaced at no cost, as well as conduct comprehensive tap water testing, implement a faucet filter distribution and education program, and maintain funding for health programs to help residents deal with the effects of Flint’s tainted water, according to the NRDC.
The coalition then returned to court six times in six years to ensure the city and state kept to the timeline, which was delayed by COVID-19, and other reasons which The Detroit News described as “spotty record-keeping” and “ineffective management.”
On July 1st, the State of Michigan submitted a progress report to a federal court confirming that, more than eight years after the settlement, nearly 11,000 lead pipes were replaced and more than 28,000 properties were restored where the maintenance had taken place.
Of the 4,200 buildings where lead pipes are known to still be in service, their owners have either left the properties vacant, abandoned, or have declined the free replacement under the Safe Water Drinking Act. The coalition has said it will continue to monitor city and state progress on these remaining lines.
“Thanks to the persistence of the people of Flint and our partners, we are finally at the end of the lead pipe replacement project,” said Pastor Allen C. Overton of the Concerned Pastors for Social Action, one of the organizations that sued the city. “While this milestone is not all the justice our community deserves, it is a huge achievement.”
!!!
We CAN fix things. IT TAKES TIME, but we can do it!!!!
another link since the Detroit news one in there is paywalled:
Firstly, all thoughts are my own and not tied to my employer etc. etc. etc.
With that out of the way, I understand the sadness and the frustration and the disappointment that such a lovely place (and so many other buildings) burned down. But I have long said that when it comes to disaster losses, we need to be more accepting of the impermanence of things. Nothing lasts forever, and it’s okay to mourn things when they’re gone, but that’s life. You can’t let it consume you. The lodge burning down doesn’t mean you can’t remember all your favorite times there, or that there won’t be a way in the future for people to make new memories in the same place. It’s not the first time the lodge has burned down, after all!
Now, as for the anger and blame that’s being hurled around about the response to this fire: everyone needs to cut it the fuck out. A building is not worth the lives of the people out on those firelines. They did what they could against a fast moving, massive wildfire that was started by natural causes, but in the end nature won out. There is only so much you can do in those circumstances, especially with historic wooden structures.
This is not the end of tourism on the North Rim, it’s just a change. Something new will come, and what that is will be an important conversation between the NPS, the local communities, and other interested parties. For everyone who loved the Lodge and other things that were lost to this fire, I urge you to (in a few weeks, when things have calmed down a little) reach out to your local NPS office and volunteer groups and elsewhere to see what you can do to help. There’s going to be a lot to do, and as we all know departments like NPS are really hurting right now due to all the governmental chaos.
Now, on a more personal note, here’s what I would like to see happen going forward:
Rebuild the Lodge with the latest fire safety standards in mind while maintaining the original look and feel as much as possible, and explain it. Put up permanent placards around the new lodge explaining why different materials were chosen, why design changes were made, etc..
Where possible and safe, leave some evidence of the fire’s effect on the original building. Maybe don’t put a new roof on one of the semi-outdoor areas, and leave the burned beams, IDK. Put placards there too.
Involve the local community in the recovery process. You know those stands where you slot your phone in and then take a picture and email it in to a scientific study to monitor the growth of plants or something? Put those up everywhere and use the submitted photos to post about the rebuilding and regrowth process and show timelapses and all that. And do other things, like working with local companies and really highlighting their contributions.
Have a memorial wall somewhere in the new lodge where people can leave pictures and write down their memories of the old lodge. Embrace the grief.
Give a way for tourists to learn about and participate in the recovery process as well. Maybe community replanting areas they can visit, or have ranger led hikes where everyone gets a seed shaker of local seeds.
Signage signage signage. Put signs explaining the fire ecology of the area, what happened with this fire, how things regrow after fire, all of that.
Make sure to have tons of fire safety information everywhere. Not just how to avoid human caused fires, but how to stay safe if you are out exploring the area and a fire starts.
As someone who works in the field, I want to add to this post that if you want to support NPS sites during this administration, the BEST way to do that is through their various friends’ organizations. The funding they get from friends’ groups does not have the same restrictions on it as the funding they get from the DOI, and can’t be snatched away by DOGE. These nonprofits are all very committed to working closely with parks to get them the things they need most, whether that’s a new visitor center or new SAR equipment. The Grand Canyon Conservancy is GRCA’s friends’ group, I’m sure they’d appreciate support right now while they’re supporting the park.
I’m starting to gain insight into why people turn into conspiracy theorists. Some topics are so totally neglected that it looks like they were intentionally and maliciously erased, instead of falling victim to arbitrary lack of interest.
I think it’s a vicious cycle; when people don’t know something exists, they’re not curious about it. Also, people use conceptual categories to think about things, and when a topic falls between or outside of conceptual categories, it can end up totally omitted from our awareness even though it very much exists and is important.
This post is about native bamboo in the United States and the fact that miles-wide tracts of the American Southeast used to be covered in bamboo forests
@icannotgetoverbirds It already is a maddening, bizarre research hole that I have been down for the past few weeks.
Basically, I learned that we have native bamboo, that it once formed an ecosystem called the canebrake that is now critically endangered. The Southeastern USA used to be full of these bamboo thickets that could stretch for miles, but now the bamboo only exists in isolated patches
And THEN.
I realized that there is a little fragment of a canebrake literally in my neighborhood.
HI I AM NOW OBSESSED WITH THIS.
I did not realize the significance until I showed a picture to the ecologist where i work and his reaction was “Whoa! That is BIG.”
Apparently extant stands of river cane are mostly just…little sparse thickety patches in forest undergrowth. This patch is about a quarter acre monotypic stand, and about ten years old.
I dive down the Research Hole™. Everything new I learn is wilder. Giant river cane mainly reproduces asexually. It only flowers every few decades and the entire clonal colony often dies after it flowers. Seeds often aren’t viable.
It’s barely been studied enough to determine its ecological significance, but there are five butterfly species and SEVEN moth species dependent on river cane. Many of these should probably be listed as endangered but there’s not enough research
There’s a species of CRITICALLY ENDANGERED PITCHER PLANT found in canebrakes that only still remains in TWO SPECIFIC COUNTIES IN ALABAMA
Some gardening websites list its height as “over 6 feet” “Over 10 feet” There are living stands that are 30+ feet tall, historical records of it being over 40 feet tall or taller. COLONIAL WRITINGS TALK ABOUT CANES “AS THICK AS A MAN’S THIGH.”
The interval between flowering is anyone’s guess, and WHY it happens when it does is also anyone’s guess. Some say 40-50 years, but there are records of it blooming in as little time as 3-15 years.
It is a miracle plant for filtering pollution. It absorbs 99% of groundwater nitrate contaminants. NINETY NINE PERCENT. It is also so ridiculously useful that it was a staple of Native American material culture everywhere it grew. Baskets! Fishing poles! Beds! Flutes! Mats! Blowguns! Arrows! You name it! You can even eat the young shoots and the seeds.
I took these pictures myself. This stuff in the bottom photo is ten feet tall if it’s an inch.
Arundinaria itself is not currently listed as endangered, but I’m growing more and more convinced that it should be. The reports of seeds being usually unviable could suggest very low genetic diversity. You see, it grows in clonal colonies; every cane you see in that photo is probably a clone. The Southern Illinois University research project on it identified 140 individual sites in the surrounding region where it grows.
The question is, are those sites clonal colonies? If so, that’s 140 individual PLANTS.
Also, the consistent low estimates of the size Arundinaria gigantea attains (6 feet?? really??) suggests that colonies either aren’t living long enough to reach mature size or aren’t healthy enough to grow as big as they are supposed to. I doubt we have any clue whatsoever about how its flowers are pollinated. We need to do some research IMMEDIATELY about how much genetic diversity remains in existing populations.
it’s called the Alabama Canebrake Pitcher Plant and there are, in total, 11 known sites where it still grows.
in general i’m feral over the carnivorous plant variety of the Southeastern USA. we have SO many super-rare carnivorous plants!!!
Protect the wetlands. Protect the canebrakes because the canebrakes protect the wetlands.
Many years ago I did some (non-academic) research on native canes in the USA because I thought I remembered seeing a bamboo-like something in the wild that I’d been told was native, and I thought it might make a nice landscaping accent. But the sources I found said something like “unlike Asian bamboos, the American equivilant barely reaches the height of a man”, and I went “nah, that is exactly the wrong height for anything.” But if it gets 10 feet and up, I think there are a lot of people who would be VERY happy to use it as a sight barrier in public and private landscaping, and if it means putting in a bit of a wetland/rain garden, all the better. The lack of a good native equivelant to bamboo is something I have heard numerous people bemoan. Obviously it’s very important to protect wild sites and expand those, but if it’d be helpful, I bet it wouldn’t be hard to convince landscapers to start new patches too.
For instance, a lot of housing developments, malls, etc. seem to set aside a percentage of their land for semi-wild artificial wetlands (drainage maybe?) planted with natives, and then block the messy view with walls of arbovitae or clump bamboo from asia - perhaps it would be a better option there?
Good Lord. Arundinaria isn’t just a better option, it’s perfect.
I was in the canebrake near my house again this morning, and river cane is extraordinarily good at completely blocking the view of anything beyond it. It is bushier and leafier than Asian bamboos, and birds like to build nests in it. It would make a fantastic privacy barrier.
The cane near my house is around 10-12 feet tall. This species can reach 30 feet or more, but I think it needs ideal conditions or to be part of a large colony with a robust system of rhizomes or something.
It grows slowly compared to Asian bamboos, and seems to need some shade to establish, so it would take time to become a good barrier, but no worse than those stupid arborvitae.
plants like this were often intentionally cultivated in planter boxes as a form of water filtration and civil engineering by a bunch of indigenous nations.
There’s a reason why Native Americans cultivated canebrakes.
Well, several reasons. As y'all may know, bamboo is stronger than any wood, and therefore it makes a fantastic building material.
The Cherokee used, and still use, river cane to make fishing poles, fish traps, arrows, frames for structures, musical instruments, mats, pipes, and absolutely gorgeous double-woven baskets that can even hold water.
This stuff is, no joke, a viable alternative to plastic for a lot of things. The seeds and shoots are also edible.
Uh I know this is out of left field but I work in plant cloning - it’s a lot easier than you’d think to do for plants and it’s honestly a really important conservation tool, and good for making a TON of seedlings in a short amount of time. I can look into this genus for like, cloning viability?
I know about reproducing plants from cuttings, rhizome cuttings have proven doable with this species.
Hi y'all, reblogging the Canebrake Post again. It’s been over a year since I fell in love with the coolest plant ever. I’m trying to bring it back but I am very small so if any of y'all have a Canebrake nearby you might wanna talk to the owners and contact some local parks and nature preserves yeah?
A lot of people are asking how to distinguish Rivercane from invasive bamboo species. This link should help you!
Here’s some distinguishing traits I’ve observed myself:
River cane has a really full, bushy, leafy look that makes it really hard to recognize as bamboo from a distance, because the stems are harder to see. The shape of the individual cane with its branches and leaves is narrow, because the branches spread out very little, but the foliage is DENSE. It’s like a plume.
River cane is stronger, denser and heavier than invasive bamboos I’ve seen.
River cane stems are always green all the way around, no yellow (unless the plant’s been dead for a good long time)
River cane stems feel smooth like plastic to the touch. The common invasive bamboo I’ve seen here, when you run your hand upwards along it, the stem feels awful like sandpaper.
The biggest way to distinguish them: River cane grows 6-4 feet tall when it’s in little patches, and up to 10-12 feet when it’s in a large size patch (like, the size of a backyard) It is known to reach up to 15 feet tall nowadays and historical records claim heights of 30 feet or more in fertile river valleys. I really want to stress that it’s RARE for it to get big. A canebrake will almost always be many times wider than it is tall (sometimes they grow in very long strips along fence rows)
The best time to look for it is in winter before things leaf out, because it’s evergreen and grows in dense masses, making it easy to spot.
Some more cool stuff i’ve found out—River cane was a common food of bison! Earliest European settlers reported canebrakes so big that “100 bison could graze on a single canebrake.” Apparently it used to make extremely high quality forage for livestock, before it was mostly destroyed.
European settlers apparently set their pigs loose in the canebrakes purposefully to destroy them, because the pigs would root up the nutritious rhizomes and kill the plant. Thinking of the relationship between Bison and Canebrakes, and the relationship between Eastern Native Americans and Canebrakes, and the relationship between Plains Native Americans and Bison…it seems like a pattern, huh?
In the case of both bison and canebrakes, they were a fundamental part of their ecosystem, and fundamental part of the indigenous cultures that used them for every material, their musical instruments, their homes, their most advanced arts, and even food (Rivercane shoots are edible just like other bamboo, and supposedly the seeds are edible too!) but European settlers purposefully destroyed the species almost completely. I can’t help but wonder if there was a similar motivation.
Books that talk about Rivercane:
Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry by Sarah H. Hill talks about rivercane a LOT and gives tons of details of its uses and history.
Saving the Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction by Georgann Eubanks has a whole chapter about Rivercane.
Venerable Trees: History, Biology and Conservation in the Bluegrass is a book about Kentucky, but it talks about rivercane’s importance including its relationship with bison. It’s only a couple pages out of the whole book but it’s still great information.
By the way, though, if you read any very early European account of Kentucky, the word “cane” is everywhere. It’s just such a nondescript word it’s hard to realize its significance.
On a more personal note…god, I love this plant. Here’s another photo I took. When you’re in the canebrake, it feels so cut off from the rest of the world; it’s shaded, quiet, cool, and someone 10 yards away couldn’t even see you.
i actually talked to my neighbor that I learned owns the canebrake. She had no idea what it was but she was excited to learn about it! It was a lovely conversation.
Apparently, she knew I had been down there a bunch of times and thought nothing of it. She said “Yeah I told my husband, If you see her down there, just leave her alone she’s doing her thing.” In the most sincere way possible, God bless this woman
She said I could transplant all I wanted, too. This was great! …but I quickly learned how RIDICULOUSLY HARD it is to transplant from a canebrake of this size. The rhizomes are so big and tough, a shovel can hardly get through them, and unless you’re at the edge of the canebrake, there’s a thick mat of them going every which way. I was driving my whole weight down on this shovel and it kept just denting the rhizome and glancing off.
I did get some transplants but each one took like half an hour because I was fighting for my life!
Also, with a canebrake this size, it doesn’t grow little canes that will later become bigger—it shoots up tall canes in a single season. The youngest canes, more accessible and toward the edge of the canebrake, were significantly taller than I was. I cut the top off of one transplant for ease of handling—I had a pair of hand pruners with me that were usually perfectly useful for small limbs, but I could barely get these things through the cane, it’s just so strong and dense.
Someone research the material properties of this stuff ASAP. It’s insanely strong.
Hi everyone, it’s the river cane post again!
Here is some YouTube videos that talk about river cane!
River Cane Renaissance, Episode 1. This guy has devoted a large part of his life to studying Rivercane and now works with the eastern band Cherokee to try and bring it back.
These videos barely have any views or comments, but y'all can help! We can spread the knowledge.
Hi everyone.
This is exactly what you think it is.
So i’m in contact with a couple of plant nurseries.
Visiting some of my baby canes in the site where they were planted! They’re looking good!
Big things are happening.
For privacy reasons, I share details online of my real world activities only reluctantly, and not very often. But don’t be bamboozled into thinking I have forgotten the Canebrakes. It’s exactly the opposite.
I have done a lot of networking and made a lot of contacts. I am not alone. There are other people with a story exactly like mine: first, they heard an offhanded mention of forests of American bamboo, which shattered everything they thought they knew about their environment. Next, they became crazed with fascination, searching for knowledge with insane ferocity. Then, they realized that river cane is not only a plant, it is a keystone species symbiotic with indigenous cultures for thousands of years, and it was almost destroyed due to the subjugation of its habitat and the genocide of its caretakers.
The canebrakes’ devotees have been working tirelessly to compile every single scrap of information on canebrakes that exists in writing. Every record, every primary source, every historical mention, every comment and conjecture. I have been given access to some of this priceless treasure trove. The wealth of information is amazing, but even more amazing is how much is still unknown.
The history, properties, and ecological importance of the canebrakes is so much more than I imagined.
For example, the massive amounts of seeds produced by huge canebrakes in flowering events fed the passenger pigeon flocks. Likewise the Carolina parakeet was also dependent on canebrakes, and the extinct Bachman’s warbler was a canebrake specialist. The destruction of canebrakes could be responsible for why these birds went extinct.
Canebrakes were absolutely fundamental to the indigenous peoples of the Southeast, providing for their every need. Food, shelter, containers, tools, music and art. The settlers foolishly thought the indigenous peoples were not “advanced” enough for metal tools, but in truth, they already had a material superior to metal. River cane by weight is stronger than steel. You can make knives and blades out of it.
I am excited for the future. It seems like momentum is building to save the river cane and bring back the canebrakes, and I am hoping to join together with all the other like-minded people to accomplish this task.
call me a dirty communist radical but I think everyone should know if they live near toxic waste
if youre in the united states and would like to learn new and terrible things about where you live, you can visit the EPA’s Environmental Justice Screening map and put in your location or zipcode
click on superfund proximity to see how close you are to a superfund site (location contaminated with hazardous material)
heres Niagra Falls NY! google love canal!
its a good tool to see what environmental factors could be harming your health that you may not know about. this is not limited to toxic waste so look around at it
my favorite is looking at roads. there are some interesting correlations. Here is a map of Buffalo NY with traffic proximity
here it is again but with where people are getting asthma :P
crazy
heres where the people of color live in Buffalo btw
in case you where wondering what the explanatory factor here is, its the 6-lane expressway that they ran through a residential community in the 50s. a redlined neighborhood btw. the road used to be beautiful parkway. thank you Urban Renewal, thank you Robert Moses, and thank you Kensington Expressway
anyways yeah um environmental health issues are super insidious and not talked about enough. i know thinks seem daunting and scary when we talk about environmental problems, things like climate change are huge and all-encompassing. The way you can make the most impact, real tangible impact is by learning about things local to you!!!!
learn about them, talk to other people about them, organize or find a way to get involved with orgs that already exist. grassroots activism is infinitely more effective than they want you to know and its your responsibility to yourself and your neighbors to try to make things better good luck I love you all
One day I showed up to D&D and one of the guys in our group, before we could even start playing, was like “guys, look at this thing I found.” And pulled up either this exact map or a very similar one that cross checks environmental hazards from industrial facilities with average income (more detailed than by zip code, it was pretty cool). And we use a big TV embedded in the game table for maps and stuff, which he pulled this up on, so we spent like half an hour looking at where we all lived and going “oh. Shit.” And then we sat there a bit kind of ambling through some cool down small talk.
And like, the thing that kind of made it real for everyone was the context of it being on the screen we use to look at world maps for a fantasy game. It was very surreal for some of the guys at the table, the more conservative ones in particular, like they could see the map and it was showing them the forces of Mordor marching to their doorstep. And for a short time they understood that there are actually vast and evil forces in this world that they could defeat with a weapon, they were just large corporations commiting environmental crimes with very well protected CEOs and fantastic lawyers.
check out your location while you can!!! Part of Trumps immediate changrs includes getting rid of public information sources like this one. I don’t know if they will keep this website up for much longer so go on and download any reports or pollution information you might want
so as of today, February 5th 2025 this website is down. This is coinciding with mass censorship of other government agencies online from the Trump administration. Those who were able to download their data before the removal, keep it and learn it and share it with your peers. Those who did not get the chance, know that there are other avenues and follow them. Information is power and they are trying to take it away from you. Do not let them.
here are some other mapping resources from the notes. this is not everything, but it is a start.
look into the history of your area and TALK ABOUT IT. be annoying and loud about it. don’t stop learning and don’t stop talking.
update! here is a clone of the website, thank you @boots-fastened-slip-fashion for linking this in the replies I’m putting it here so it can be accessed along with the other sites :)
hey! if you’re in the notes worrying about how the website is down, you should be rbing this version, which has a replica of the site and a bunch of other resources!!!
Adult realization: you will make mistakes, you will act irrationally. You will commit some wrongs that cannot be fully righted. People will dislike you and misunderstand you for all sorts of reasons. None of these make you a bad person. All you can do is try your best to be kind and just to people, grow and learn.
in addition: Trying to avoid ever doing these things will cost you in ways you cannot comprehend until you stop and accept this.
“North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) has vetoed several anti-diversity bills, including one that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender inmates in the state prison system.
The bill is H.B. 805, which bans the state from paying for gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy and surgeries for transgender inmates. It would have also required the state to keep a copy of a transgender person’s original birth certificate if they have the gender marker on it updated, and it included language saying that there are only two genders, male and female…
The other three bills that Stein vetoed on Thursday [July 3, 2025] were related to diversity measures. One of the bills would have cut funding to schools that engage in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Another bill would have banned diversity training and staff positions at state agencies, and it also would have banned state funds from being used for diversity initiatives at those agencies.”
“A three-judge panel for the Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals ruled that gender-affirming care for minors constitutes an essential medical treatment for trans youth and that the ban on gender-affirming care is in violation of a state constitutional amendment. Originally passed by Republicans to undermine Obamacare, the amendment is now being used to prevent federal or state intervention in denying any form of essential healthcare…
In a smart move, the plaintiffs argued that gender-affirming treatment be considered essential medical treatment, pointing to the numerous medical studies proving its effectiveness in treating gender dysphoria and improving the mental health and well-being of transgender adolescents. For that reason, they argued, it should protected under Ohio’s Health Care Freedom Amendment.
…In [passing the constitutional amendment], they inadvertently gave Ohioans broader constitutional protections around healthcare because the amendment prohibits any law from banning “the purchase or sale of health care or health insurance” or even imposing a fine on such purchases.”
“Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed three anti-transgender bills passed by her state’s Republican legislators. Though the bills passed largely along party lines, Republicans are unlikely to override Hobbs’ veto since their numbers in the state House and Senate fall short of the required two-thirds majority votes needed to do so. Arizona is largely considered a red state…
Of the three bills, H.B. 2438would have prevented any gender marker changes on people’s birth certificates (even if they underwent gender-affirming surgeries), S.B. 1694would have denied funding to any college or university teaching about “gender identity,” and H.B. 2062 would have ended all legal recognition of trans people in the state…
Transgender journalist Erin Reed noted that, in 2023, Hobbs signed executive orders requiring state employee healthcare plans to cover trans-related gender affirming surgeries, extending LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections to state employees and contractors, and banning conversion therapy, the widely debunked pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Republicans threatened to sue her over the anti-discrimination protections…”
“An anti-trans measure in US president Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act has been dropped at the last minute in a small victory for the LGBTQ+ community.
The legislation struck the ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care after the Senate parliamentarian found it did not comply with the Byrd Rule.
Named after Senator Robert Byrd, the Byrd Rule aims to prevent irrelevant matters from being included in budget reconciliation legislation…
In earlier drafts, the so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” included a provision that would have ended Medicaid payments for “gender transition procedures” for people of all ages, and introduced narrowly rigid definitions of “sex,” “female,” and “male” that some experts believe would have far-reaching implications, beyond access to healthcare. However, amid a flurry of revisions and amendments, the controversial ban on gender-affirming care was removed shortly before Senate Republicans voted to pass the legislation on Tuesday.
Though there are many other aspects of the bill that will severely limit millions of Americans’ access to healthcare, trans rights advocates see the removal of the ban on Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care as a win. [Note: Over 20% of trans people are on Medicaid Source]
"Billie Butler, a transgender woman who ran for the New Hampshire House of Representatives as a Democrat, defeated her opponent, Republican Ken Hilton, in a special election held this past Tuesday. Butler won with 964 votes to Hilton’s 774. Butler will be representing the Strafford 12 district.
Strafford 12 is a multi-member district in Strafford County, consisting of two towns: Rollinsfield and Somersworth. Of the registered voters in the districts, 33% identify as Democrats, 27% identify as Republicans, and 41% are unaffiliated…
According to this map created by independent journalist Erin Reed, New Hampshire is a high-risk state for legislation that could harm transgender people… For this reason, Butler’s win is considered a step towards increased trans representation in politics.”
“Delaware’s Democratic governor on Friday signed an executive order protecting recipients and providers of gender-affirming care in the state.
The order, signed by Gov. Matt Meyer at an LGBTQ+ community center in Rehoboth, makes Delaware a “shield state” for trans people and bans state agencies from providing “medical records, data or billing information, or utilizing state resources” that could help any criminal or civil investigation against someone receiving or providing gender-affirming care.
California, New York, and 12 other states, and Washington, DC, have similar protections for trans people and their medical providers. Residents, along with patients traveling to shield states, can receive care without fear of retribution.
“In Delaware, we cherish privacy, dignity and the right to make personal medical decisions,” Meyer said at the signing ceremony. “Everyone deserves the freedom to access healthcare rooted in science and compassion.””
“The number of out LGBTQ+ elected representatives in the U.S. rose in the last year, continuing a steady upward trend that has lasted through the Trump era, according to a new report.
On Tuesday, the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute released its annual Out for America report, which tracks the number of out LGBTQ+ elected representatives nationwide and at all levels of government. This year’s report showed an overall 2.4% increase in out LGBTQ+ representation between June 2024 and May 2025 and a 198% increase since the organization, which provides training and support for out candidates, first launched the report in 2017 (during President Donald Trump’s first term in office).
“This year’s Out for America report shows the resilience of our LGBTQ+ elected leaders,” LGBTQ+ Victory Institute President and CEO Evan Low said in a statement. “Despite hateful rhetoric plaguing the 2024 election cycle, LGBTQ+ elected officials won at the ballot box and made history.” …
According to the 2025 report, the number of out LGBTQ+ elected officials of color rose by nearly 7% since last year. The number of out Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) elected officials grew the most (32.6%), while the number of multiracial officials increased by 28.6%, and the number of Black representatives grew by just over 4%. LGBTQ+ Latinx representatives remain the largest non-white group of out elected officials, holding steady at 193, the same as last year’s total…”
“The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Yeztugo (aka. lenacapavir or LEN), a twice-a-year injection that stops HIV from replicating inside cells, thereby reducing the risk of transmitting the virus to other people by 96%. HIV advocates hope it will help reduce national transmission rates because the medication is easier to take than the many current once-a-day medications.
“This is the single best opportunity in 44 years of HIV prevention,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), an HIV advocacy nonprofit group, according to NBC News. The FDA approved the drug after Gilead Sciences, the drug’s developer, found it to be overwhelmingly successful early into Phase 3 clinical trials last September.
“The approval of LEN is a much-needed boost for HIV prevention, given the strength of the science and the simultaneous disruption in HIV programs globally,” Warren added.”
Hey, if you did work over the past few weeks to try to stop the GOP’s obscene and murderous budget: thanks. It ended up without the AI regulation ban, the trans healthcare ban, the western lands sell off, and without its stupid name being official.
It passing was a major loss for everyone in this country including the very wealthy and other people who believe they will be able to be better off from it.
But also, it passing was not as bad as it could have been and it took the ongoing effort of huge amounts of people to even make that a possibility, so if you were part of that, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you.
Allow the dopamine to trickle into your brain–actually feel the gratification. Loss and catastrophe are not inevitable. We are in it for the long haul.
uhhhh i’m insane and apparently have too much time on my hands??? here you go *waves in this general direction*
Doctor Michael “Robby” Robinavitch uses the Littmann Cardiology IV All Black 6163
Doctors Heather Collins, Mel King, Dennis Whitaker, Trinity Santos and Frank Langdon as well as Nurses Jesse, Princess, and Mateo all use the Littmann Classic III Black 5620
Nurses Dana, Donnie, and Perlah, as well as Doctor Yolanda Garcia use the Littmann Classic III Grey 5621
Doctor Victoria Javadi use the Littmann Classic II in Chocolate & Copper 5809
Doctor Cassie Mckay uses the Littmann Cardiology IV in Hunter Green 6155
Doctor Samira Mohan uses the Littmann Cardiology IV in Black 6152
healthcare opinion: cardiology littmann absolute power move and very expensive and everyone knows it. an all-black too? 99% confident it was a gift from adamson.
copper/chocolate littmann screaming legacy status and definitely a placement/graduation gift. (i could never, too flashy)
green littmann says i do street med and i don’t give a fuck (and also “i am NOT losing this one”) lmao
