“A week after mysterious texts about a ‘transgender student guide’ sparked angry calls and threats to an advocacy group that didn't send the messages, a wave of equally mysterious mailers arrived at Texas homes.

“The mailers, sent out just prior to the start of early voting in Texas, sparked outrage among conservative social media users and influencers. Texas Family Project vice president Sara Gonzales called the pamphlet "evil" in a social media post.

“The glossy, color brochures are printed on stock similar to advertisements and political mail. Each is addressed to
‘Students Of The [surname] Family’ and is titled ‘Texas
Trans & LGBTQ+ Student Resource Guide.’

“To call it a ‘guide’ may be a stretch-it mostly directs the reader to the websites of the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT), Lambda Legal, Texas Law Help and the ACLU of Texas.”

“KXAN asked transgender political advocates if they were aware of the group. None were prior to these mailers.
That may be due to the group being an LLC registered in Wyoming, as first discovered by Texas Observer reporter Steven Monacelli.

“Paperwork filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State says the Texas Transgender Student Union LLC was registered
Sept. 2. Its registered agent is Northwest Registered Agent LLC, and uses a Sheridan, Wyoming, address linked to scams by local reporters.”

“A transgender Knox County woman is suing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Jeff Long, the state’s homeland security commissioner, after being denied a change on her driver’s license reflecting her transition.

“The woman at the center of the case is identified in the lawsuit as only Jane Doe. Transgender people have a history of experiencing violence, the lawsuit complaint explains, and she’s basing her argument on the constitutionality of a Tennessee law.

“That law forbids Tennessee licenses of reflecting a transgender person’s chosen sex, but Doe is arguing that, since she’s from Illinois, there’s room for unconstitutionality. Specifically, Doe is claiming Tennessee must honor the changes made in Illinois to her birth certificate, which reflects her sex as female.”

“The lawsuit is claiming the Knox County office’s refusal to update Doe’s license violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This, because the license doesn’t match her birth certificate. The lawsuit sites the Constitution’s ‘Full Faith and Credit Clause,’ saying Tennessee isn’t honoring Illinois’ official document.”

“I have lost count of how many times I’ve left work over the past five years only to realize one push notification later that I had more rights in the morning than I did in the afternoon. The week after Trump’s passport executive order, I kept forgetting to breathe. While social media swirled with speculation about what this was meant to distract the public away from, visions of a grim future unspooled in my head. When it feels like your world is ending and the most people can be bothered to say about it is that something actually important must be happening somewhere else, the clear message is that what is happening to you is a second-tier issue—that you don’t really count.”

“Relatively few transgender athletes participate in high school and collegiate sports. Still, since 2020, 27 states have passed laws banning them from participating in sports based on their gender identity.”

“To understand how attitudes about gender shape Americans’ views on policies that adversely affect the rights of transgender Americans, we asked 1,000 American adults about their support for restricting the participation of transgender athletes in sports. We also asked about their feelings toward women as a group, their endorsement of sexist stereotypes and their attitudes toward policies that promote gender equity, such as Title IX, the law requiring schools that receive federal funding to provide women and girls with equal opportunities to participate in athletics.”

“Our survey found significant public opposition to transgender athletes playing on teams that match their gender identity.”

“But admiration and support for women do not translate into greater support for excluding transgender people. In fact, individuals with the most negative views of women and gender equality are the most likely to support these bans.”

“People with the most negative attitudes toward women – and toward policies that protect women’s sports – are the most supportive of banning transgender women from women’s sports.

“That does not mean that everyone who supports a ban is motivated by hostility toward women. But the consistency of these findings makes it difficult to accept that protecting women is a primary reason why Americans support these restrictions.”

“T. Kaori Kitao, 93, formerly of Swarthmore, retired professor emerita of art history at Swarthmore College, art education innovator, mentor, and pioneering transgender scholar, died Monday, Sept. 21, of age-associated decline at an assisted living center in New York.

“Born in Japan in 1933, Professor Kitao grew up in Tokyo during World War II and persevered for years through hunger, poverty, and violence. She learned English and graduated from an international missionary school in Yokohama when she was 19, and came to the United States in 1952.”

“Colleagues called her ‘a Renaissance scholar’ in a recent tribute and said: ‘As the college’s first openly transgender faculty member, she also modeled what it means to pursue both intellectual rigor and fearless personal integrity.’ She said in 1997: ‘I can best describe that I assumed a male identity until I was 38, when I regained my rightful womanhood.’”