I'm looking to speak with LGBTQ+ WNBA fans about their thoughts, feelings and responses to Sophie Cunningham's comments on trans athletes and the league's response thus far for a story @19thnews.org. My DMs are open and I'm ready to listen! 👂🏀

Similar initiatives will appear on the ballot in Arizona and Colorado but unlike those measures, which would broadly require schools to designate athletic programs as definitively male, female or co-ed, Washington state’s initiative applies to only girls’ sports.

How Washington state’s sports ballot measure will impact all girls

A ballot initiative to bar transgender girls from girls’ teams would require all girls to ‘verify’ their identity.

19thnews.org

Lawmakers in left-leaning states have repeatedly rejected attempts to bar transgender student-athletes from competing in line with their gender identity. This fall, the question will go straight to voters in two blue states and one swing state. New @19thnews.org: 19thnews.org/2026/07/tran...

The fight over trans girls’ sports participation moves to the November ballot

State ballot measures seeking to restrict transgender student-athletes’ participation in school sports will appear before voters in November.

19thnews.org

Some personal news: I've made the difficult decision to leave @thehill after 4 years. I've loved so much of my time here, and feel beyond lucky to have been able to tell the stories I did alongside some incredible journalists. I’m not entirely sure what’s next for me yet. Hopefully more news soon💛

In Puerto Rico, the age of majority, or legal adulthood, is 21, making its ban on care for minors one of the most restrictive of any U.S. state or territory. (Most U.S. laws ban care up to 18 years old. Laws in Alabama and Nebraska ban care up to 19 years old) thehill.com/homenews/lgb...

"Trans people are going to die, and they don’t care. Humor helps us look at it. ...We don’t have to look away if we can laugh at it.” With LGBTQ+ rights in peril, trans and queer comedians' stars are rising. They're making us laugh in bleak times & reimagining how comedy can be a tool for change

With their rights in peril, LGBTQ+ comedians are using humor to dilute fear

The 19th spoke with four queer comedians about making the world seem funny right now through looking for jokes in the horrors, dissociating, and rethinking how to talk to straight people.

19thnews.org

ICYMI: This morning, Hegseth confirmed the Navy is renaming the ship named for Harvey Milk, a Navy lieutenant, gay rights activist and the first gay person elected to public office in California before he was killed. "People want to be proud of the ship they're sailing in." x.com/SecDef/statu...

The authors of the titles at the center of this case told me back in April that their books are incredibly personal — some of them are about their own children or based on their own childhood experiences. These aren't just storybooks, they're the stories of real people. thehill.com/homenews/lgb...

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨In its fourth decision, the Supreme Court holds that parents who object to LGBTQ books in the classroom have a First Amendment right to "opt out" their children from seeing those books. Alito writes for the 6-3 majority, with all three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

HUGE NEWS: The Senate Parliamentarian has struck the ban on Medicaid dollars for gender-affirming care trans people from the One Big Beautiful Bill! www.budget.senate.gov/ranking-memb...

Byrd Rule Violations Continue to Mount on the Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” | U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget

The Official U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget

budget.senate.gov

“Liberation Weekend was a celebration, but it was no party at the end of the world—it was the repeated insistence of a people under attack that the world they’ve created cannot and will not end.” Thank you @pitchfork.com for spreading the word of @liberationwknd.bsky.social. Here’s to next year?

Liberation Weekend: The Trans Punk DIY Music Festival That Could Spark a Movement

Across two days in Washington, D.C., local and national acts threw a sweaty party to publicly reject the Trump Administration’s anti-trans legislation and raise money for the Gender Liberation Movemen...

pitchfork.com

More than 100 celebrities across the entertainment industry are calling on President Trump’s administration to protect an LGBTQ youth crisis service’s funding amid broader spending cuts. thehill.com/homenews/lgb...

The Education Department is declaring June 'Title IX Month' in an obvious hit at Pride. Says it will highlight actions throughout the month "taken to reverse" the Biden admin's "legacy of undermining Title IX," which it says bars trans girls from girls' sports/spaces. www.ed.gov/about/news/p...

U.S. Department of Education Recognizes June as ‘Title IX Month’

U.S. Department of Education Recognizes June as ‘Title IX Month’

ed.gov

NEW: These families say they're leaving the U.S. because of its anti-transgender climate For @nbcnews.com: www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-...

These families say they're leaving the U.S. because of its anti-transgender climate

One of the families said they decided to move from Colorado to New Zealand after their 9-year-old trans daughter’s health care was interrupted.

nbcnews.com

Hello! I'm working on a story about the Trump administration's trans military ban and would like to hear how service members are preparing for/navigating the new policy. If that sounds like you, I'd love to hear from you! Reach me here or on Signal at bmigdon.84

Hello! I'm working on a story about the Trump administration's trans military ban and would like to hear how service members are preparing for/navigating the new policy. If that sounds like you, I'd love to hear from you! Reach me here or on Signal at bmigdon.84

Another Dem/potential 2028 candidate signals an openness to limiting trans girls' participation in sports, but says decisions should be left to school boards/athletic associations. "There are some sports that some of these trans children should not be playing." thedispatch.com/article/rube...

Will Ruben Gallego Lead Democrats Out of the Wilderness?

The Arizona senator prevailed where Kamala Harris failed. Can he repeat that success nationwide?

thedispatch.com

Via Axios: Democrats are trying to use the Byrd rule to strike some parts of the reconciliation bill. Chief among them: -The ban on care for transgender people in Medicaid and CHIP -the moratorium on AI regulation -REINS Act -Permitting reform -immigration fees www.axios.com/2025/05/28/t...

5 parts of Trump's budget bill that risk being axed by Senate rules

Sources from both parties pointed to these issues as some of the likely major fights.

axios.com

'Heightened Scrutiny' details the high-stakes Supreme Court case over trans health care I spoke to the film's director @samfeder.bsky.social and producer Amy Scholder, for @nbcnews.com: www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-...

'Heightened Scrutiny' details the high-stakes Supreme Court case over trans health care

The new documentary follows ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio as he argues before the high court against Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

nbcnews.com

Per her MileSplit stats, the athlete Trump is talking about never competed on any hs team other than the girls', so his claim that she was "less than average" pre-transition is based on nothing. She's ranked 3rd in the triple jump in California (& 13th nationally), so she's not "unbeatable" either.

Brooke Migdon@bmigdon.bsky.social · last yr.

On Truth Social this am, Trump orders local California authorities to block a transgender high school athlete from competing in the state finals and threatens to revoke the state's federal funding, "maybe permanently." Says he's speaking w/ Newsom today.

On Truth Social this am, Trump orders local California authorities to block a transgender high school athlete from competing in the state finals and threatens to revoke the state's federal funding, "maybe permanently." Says he's speaking w/ Newsom today.

Republicans in Utah commissioned an investigation into gender-affirming care for trans youth after banning it in 2023. They're now rejecting the findings of that investigation which showed access to care reduced suicides and improved "positive mental health and psychosocial functioning outcomes."

Utah lawmakers’ own study found gender-affirming care benefits trans youth. Will they lift the treatment ban?

The Utah Legislature's own newly-released study found that gender-affirming care benefits trans youth. Now, will lawmakers lift the treatment ban?

sltrib.com

Something to note: Some health policy experts and lawmakers I spoke with said the measure's funding restrictions for trans health care may violate the Senate’s “Byrd rule” preventing reconciliation measures from being used to pass “extraneous” legislation. 1/2

Brooke Migdon@bmigdon.bsky.social · last yr.

House Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” would prohibit Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender-affirming care and remove "gender transition procedures" as essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act. Here's what that means + what a path forward may look like: thehill.com/homenews/lgb...

House Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” would prohibit Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender-affirming care and remove "gender transition procedures" as essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act. Here's what that means + what a path forward may look like: thehill.com/homenews/lgb...

The Trump admin has been trying to prohibit ACA coverage of gender-affirming care for awhile. Check out my story here for more info If this goes through, insurers could drop coverage for trans people entirely or trans patients could see higher out-of-pocket costs; along with marketplace cuts

Health care could get more expensive for transgender people under a new Trump rule

The proposed rule affects access to “essential health benefits” like hospitalization, mental health services and prescription drugs.

19thnews.org

If you think this provision could impact your access to care and want to talk about it, feel free to contact me here or on Signal @ bmigdon.84

Brooke Migdon@bmigdon.bsky.social · last yr.

This would upend care for potentially hundreds of thousands of trans people nationwide. An estimated 276,000 trans adults were enrolled in Medicaid in 2022, according to the Williams Institute. williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications...

New: Not only would Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” ban gender-affirming care via Medicaid, it would ban insurance under the Obamacare exchanges from covering it as an essential health benefit www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Trump’s ‘One, big, beautiful bill’ would transgender care on Medicaid and Obamacare

‘It's one more example of health care that they're trying to rip away,’ Rep. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress, tells The Independent

independent.co.uk

Related: a new @williamsinstitute.bsky.social report out this morning shows LGBT adults are more than twice as likely to rely on Medicaid as their primary source of health insurance. williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications...

Brooke Migdon@bmigdon.bsky.social · last yr.

This would upend care for potentially hundreds of thousands of trans people nationwide. An estimated 276,000 trans adults were enrolled in Medicaid in 2022, according to the Williams Institute. williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications...

This would upend care for potentially hundreds of thousands of trans people nationwide. An estimated 276,000 trans adults were enrolled in Medicaid in 2022, according to the Williams Institute. williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications...

Oriana González@oriana.bsky.social · last yr.

House Republicans' managers amendment to the reconciliation bill is out It now explicitly prohibits Medicaid from covering gender-affirming health care for transgender people *overall* The reconciliation bill initially only targeted people under 18 amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/R...

House Republicans' managers amendment to the reconciliation bill is out It now explicitly prohibits Medicaid from covering gender-affirming health care for transgender people *overall* The reconciliation bill initially only targeted people under 18 amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/R...

Update: Staffers for several Dems listed here told me they did not have meetings scheduled with WoLF (see replies). But WoLF says they actually *did* have meetings on the books. They say Dems were intimidated into canceling them. womensliberationfront.org/news/democra...

Brooke Migdon@bmigdon.bsky.social · last yr.

Inbox: The Women’s Liberation Front, an organization that denies the existence of transgender people, says it plans to meet with several members of Congress next week, including more than a dozen Democrats.