BROADview in Brief: Gender News of the week, and Non-Gender Recs

What have you been affirming yourself with?

One of the things I miss most about the Informed Dissent podcast is our ending: sharing something we’d seen, read, listened to, baked or cooked, etc, that wasn’t about gender, and which had enriched our lives. So I’ve decided to revive it here, along with the weekly roundup of gender news that I used to do. This week, it’s open it to everyone, but starting next week, it will be exclusive to paid subscribers. We can share our recommendations amongst each other.

I wish we had a centralized digital bulletin board to post all the new papers, events, talks, and news stories of the week. I know there are a million private group chats out there doing that, but how do we create something more ubiquitous?

In the meantime, some highlights of the week in gender:

• Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender, or DIAG, has been working on a detransitioners’ bill in Massachusetts. More here.

• Per The New York Times: “The Trump administration said this week that it would withhold more than $65 million in federal grants from magnet schools in three large school districts after they refused to overhaul their policies regarding transgender and nonbinary students or to change their diversity and equity programs.”

• Check out the new detrans.ai. A brief piece about it here.

• In Indiana: “A federal court has ruled that Indiana may now require biological sexes to be listed on birth certificates, denying the ACLU’s request to stop an executive order stripping transgender Hoosiers of the ability to update their gender markers on official documents,” per a local Fox affiliate.

• Wired reports: “The Heritage Foundation, which published Project 2025, and its spinoff, the Oversight Project, issued a call for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to designate ‘Transgender Ideology-Inspired Violent Extremism,’ or TIVE, as a domestic terrorism threat category. The push comes as President Donald Trump just signed an executive order that seeks to mobilize federal law enforcement against vaguely defined domestic terror networks.”

• Notorious gender doctor Johanna Olson-Kennedy has a new gig at the Gender Confirmation Center, after the shuttering of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ pediatric gender clinic. She/her—of if you want breasts later, you can go get them; I don’t send diabetic patients to therapy for insulin; and I don’t like how the data turned out so I’m withholding them from publication fame—“is proud to join Prosilio Gender Care, the newest addition to the GCC network located in Pasadena, CA, offering hormone replacement therapy (HRT), mental health, and surgical care, where she continues her work providing affirming healthcare for trans and non-binary individuals.”

• “Harvard hires drag queen named ‘LaWhore Vagistan’ as visiting professor.” A New York Post headline that needs no other introduction.

• According to Inside Higher Ed, a “Texas Ban on Transgender Course Content Sows Chaos.” Texas Tech limited teaching to “two genders,” following presidential executive orders requiring the same, and other institutions in the state are scrambling to figure out what is acceptable to say. For more, the Texas Tribune notes that “the federal and state governments want restrictions on recognizing trans and nonbinary people. Here’s how Texas’ higher education leaders are responding.”

• Minnesota is under pressure to limit girls’ and women’s sports to, well, girls and women. Per the Star Tribune, “The Minnesota High School League and the state’s education leaders ‘risk imminent enforcement action’ if their policy allowing transgender athletes to play high school sports remains, according to federal officials.”

• Liberty University has apparently fired a transgender employee, arguing that freedom of religion bestows that right upon them—though the Supreme Court ruled otherwise in the past. “Liberty University is seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed by former employee Ellenor Zinski. Zinski was hired as a man but came out as a woman in 2023. She was subsequently terminated for ‘open violation of Liberty University’s doctrinal statement,’” per a local ABC News affiliate.

• And finally, the same woman who went undercover as nonbinary to expose Kaiser Permanente’s laissez-faire gender affirmation program has continued her creative activism. Beth Bourne, of Davis, California, “stripped down to her bikini at a school board meeting last month in protest of the district’s policy on bathroom access by transgender students will not face criminal charges, according to authorities,” per the LA Times. For the play-by-play:

“Right now we require our students to undress for PE class, and I’m just going to give you an idea of what that looks like while I undress,” Bourne said while she stood behind the lectern and removed her shirt. The board members nervously looked at each other as Bourne continued to use her allotted three minutes for her public comment.

“So right now, this school district is saying that depending on a child’s transgender identity, they could pick which bathroom they want. Right now we have children self-identifying into different bathrooms,” she said as she removed her pants.

In case you were wondering, someone called the police, but, even if the powers that be couldn’t process Bourne’s message, at least they didn’t arrest her.

More quick summaries:

• Trump Has Doubled Down on Anti-Trans Provisions Amid Shutdown Fight Published: September 26, 2025 (Truthout) Republicans pushed votes on several “anti-trans” measures during government shutdown negotiations, including bans on Pride flags at bases, transgender bathroom access on military installations, and TRICARE coverage for “gender-affirming care.”

• Texas Attorney General Sues Pediatrician Over Gender-Affirming Care Ban Published: September 28, 2025 (PBS NewsHour) Texas enforced its ban on “gender-affirming care” for minors, via suing a pediatrician who provided it.

• Trump Administration Proposes Defunding LGBTQ+ Youth Suicide Lifeline Starting October 2025 Published: October 1, 2025 (The Trevor Project) The administration announced plans to cut federal funding for the 988 Lifeline’s LGBTQ+ subnetwork.

• Sarah McBride Addresses GOP Efforts to Restrict Trans Bathroom Access in Congress Published: October 1, 2025 (CBS News) Rep. Sarah McBride, a trans woman, criticized Republican proposals to limit bathroom use in federal buildings based on birth sex, calling it a distraction from pressing economic issues.

• New Supreme Court Term Spotlights Transgender Student Rights in Sports Published: October 2, 2025 (Education Week) The Court’s new session will review state laws barring transgender girls—or males—from girls’ and women’s athletics in Idaho and West Virginia.

And don’t forget: DIAG and other gender resistance types meetup in upstate NY on 10/19!

And now, to NON-GENDER, LIFE-AFFIRMING RECOMMENDATIONS!

· A new album, Underwater, by the band you should be listening to, Cuddle Magic!

· I finally watched Jimmy Kimmel’s return-to-air monologue. Guess what? I liked it, far more than I thought I would. What I didn’t like was that my pilates class at the Y has turned political, so that I heard about it while flapping my arms in the “hundreds.” Pilates-goers also suggested which various rallies people could attend. Please let me have non-political exercise!

· Something important I have recently discovered: Trader Joe’s 72% and 73% dark chocolate bars are as good as the fancy brands. You’re welcome.

· And finally: I love LA. That’s it. I love it. You know why I love it? Because of the plants that grow here. Night jasmine. Meyer lemons. Bay laurel. Rosemary. Also: an enormous owl flew by me, against a blazing orange sky. I love it because it is Not New York City. I am in desperate need of nature, and, yes, I get my nature on in this city.

Also, I love it because my friend Sammy lives here. Please share your gender news and your non-gender recommendations in the comments!