Author | Lightnews

Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 8h

It should, but it’s also not a magic bullet. Mamdani has Obama-level talent, and the vast majority of politicians just don’t. I’ve seen movements build up around less charismatic candidates, though.

Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 9h

Trying to reconcile in my head that the House of Lords may be one of the dumbest things humanity has ever created and also they’re blocking a horrific attack on the civil liberties of disabled folks.

John Pring, DNS @johnpring.bsky.social · 22h

Peers derail government plans to hand some #DWP staff powers to use force against benefit claimants
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/peers-derail...

Peers derail government plans to hand some DWP staff powers to use force against benefit claimants

Government plans under controversial new legislation to give some Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff “morally dubious” powers to use force against benefit claimants have been derailed by …

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 9h

Voters don’t like taxpayer funded sex changes for incarcerated people. But also they don’t care much about it IF they’re convinced the candidate who supports them is going to do good things for them. If they have doubts, this sort of thing becomes a gateway to “They only care about the ‘others’.” /2

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 9h

Precisely what I told @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social @trentrichardnelson.bsky.social on their podcast a couple months ago. I realize it’s infuriating, but most voters don’t know that it’s infinitely easier to follow court orders mandating taxpayer funded sex changes than it is to make eggs cheaper. /1

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 19h

Again: Everyone misread why Trump's "Kamala is for They/Them" ad worked so well. Inflation was bad and it allowed Trump to say "woke Democrats care more about transgender people than they care about you." It wasn't just about trans people.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 11h

I’m not saying that there isn’t lived experience in coming from a family who doesn’t have the means to help their adult children out. But would it be functionally any different if she got by because husband had a high-paying tech job? Because this statement wouldn’t exist in that scenario.

Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · 14h

I see they couldn't even find anyone who would want this quote attributed to them.

“For the entirety of this campaign, Katie Wilson has sold herself to voters as a working class person struggling to get by – but, at the eleventh hour, it took just one hard question from a journalist to reveal the truth: Katie Wilson has never had to struggle because her parents are still paying her bills at age 43,” said a spokesperson for the Harrell Campaign. “We cannot risk handing over the reins of the city to someone who has never managed an employee, doesn’t track her personal finances or those of her one-person non-profit, and who lives off their parents’ paychecks. Bruce knows what it means to work hard for opportunity. He and his family have lived the challenges that Katie Wilson claims to understand, but has yet to experience.”

Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 21h

I can vouch that estrogen has been unbelievable for my skin, has put my HDL cholesterol normal range for the first time in my life, and makes my risk of getting prostate cancer near zero. But uh… it does a lot of other things that most cis men prob would not want.

OODA Stan Acct 🏳️‍🌈🇵🇸🇺🇦 @lampsofgold.bsky.social · 21h

Just to be clear btw this is based, cis women should take T if they want to, it’s dope and does stuff for ur body, so does estrogen and progesterone btw if cis men want to get in on the action

Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

Cis women in anti-trans religious communities are literally fucking medically transitioning, and the NYT buries this fact 1000s of words into the article.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 21h

Fun fact, you can sidestep a lot of this with a DHT blocker. Lots of other changes like a deeper voice that you can’t, though.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 22h

You argue that the extended assessment period done after puberty blockers are initiated doesn't have much value, which I agree with. I'm talking about the practice of doing a standard protocol of X number of assessments before they're prescribed.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 22h

Look, I agree with a lot of what you're saying in this article. But also, I'm extremely critical of anyone who suggests that shortening assessment times could create more false positives without explaining exactly how longer assessments prevent false positives. This is a major hobby horse of mine.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 22h

Here you’re assuming that there’s not value in clearing the cases quicker. There is value in that Tavistock was full of gender critical clinicians doing Freudian nonsense trying to talk kids out of being trans during those 6 sessions. Read Spilliadis’ case studies. They’re frightening.

The review notes that the average patient waited three years before accessing any gender services, before having an average of >6 appointments before seeing the endocrinologist who would actually prescribe blockers. There is an obvious consequence of this - the prospect of telling this adolescent to wait even longer to get more assessment will be received incredibly poorly, and create massive friction between the care team and patient, even if it is what is necessary. It also incentivizes those doing the assessments to make quick decisions to clear cases quicker, creating room for both false positives and false negatives. The system as it exists is the worst of both worlds

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 22h

How exactly is extended an assessment useful? The Dutch would (maybe still do) do shit like grill the kid and parents on whether they’d been molested and have them do a “draw a person” test. If people think Freudian nonsense leads to better outcomes, they should have to prove it.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 23h

I’m incredibly biased because I work for Claudia, so rather than give my 2 cents, I’ll leave you with @theurbanist.org’s endorsement write-up of her.

2025 General Election Endorsements » The Urbanist

# The Urbanist Elections Committee is excited to announce our 2025 general election endorsements, which span the region from Tacoma to Everett. Be sure to vote by November 4.

www.theurbanist.org

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

She co-chairs the King County/City of Seattle joint committee on responding to federal overreach.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

Ok, but if they wrote this headline my first instinct would be that they’re just getting in to your game.

Reposted by Lexi Koren

Julia Serano @juliaserano.bsky.social · 1d

it's been an open secret that some (def not all) anti-trans activists seem driven by trans feelings that they themselves possess but are trying to suppress. but this right here it's completely batshit!

Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

Cis women in anti-trans religious communities are literally fucking medically transitioning, and the NYT buries this fact 1000s of words into the article.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

Here's the thing. A doctor could prescribe off-label testosterone to adolescents assigned female at birth for "low energy" and not be in violation of any of the laws upheld in Skrmetti. The thing is that they'd still absolutely be prosecuted under said laws if any of those kids were trans.

eli shroom's altered ego @shroompunk.com · 1d

so if HRT is banned for trans reasons, can i just claim I need T for whatever the hell this is? or is it a prerequisite to be a transphobic shitbag?

Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

Cis women in anti-trans religious communities are literally fucking medically transitioning, and the NYT buries this fact 1000s of words into the article.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

NYT comments section validating the strong correlation between testosterone levels and starting a podcast.

I started testosterone pellets because I was having alarming brain fog, combined with the loss of energy and motivation that is common for a middle-aged working mother. I had accepted the latter, but needed something for the brain fog. The pellets took care of all of it. I was no longer forgetting why I had opened a computer browser right as I did it. I also started a podcast, which I absolutely would never have gotten around to doing without my increased motivation for life. I suppose I’m just on a regular dose because my libido improved but not like described in this article. I pay about $1200 a year, which is worth the life improvements I am experiencing.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

Look, I know the Supreme Court is going to rule that it’s unconstitutional to ban conversion therapy. But very curious where they stand on outsourcing your Freudian quackery to AI.

Membership now includes
RepairBot, your 24/7 Al assistant trained on the approach.
ROGD Repair and RepairBot were created by a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over a decade of experience working with trans-identified youth and their families, who now exclusively guides parents that know there must be a better path than
"affirmation."

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, they made a graphic for this back in the late 2010s.

Circle graphic contained all of the alleged causes for gender dysphoria, with transgender” being a bubble tinier than all of the others.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

As I also said after the Reddit posts, "Not vetting these people is how you get more Fettermans."

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

There's no good evidence that testosterone causes a high. But every gender critical hack claims it's the cause of mental health improvements in short term studies done on trans men starting T.

Their source? "It's common sense! Ask any dude at the gym on gear and they'll tell you about roid high!"

Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 1d

People are missing the strong undercurrent of anti-transmasc moral panic from this weird cautionary story that continually suggests testosterone causes a "high" without any sort of scientific justification for using that word.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/m...

‘I’m on Fire’: Testosterone Is Giving Women Back Their Sex Drive — and Then Some

www.nytimes.com

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

Ultimately, I think that's correct. I also think there's a line of thinking that goes something like: "We've tried electing the perfectionists and the nepo babies and the result is what we have now. Let's try electing the fuck-ups, because, at least we haven't tried that yet."

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

All of this is maybe a little bit harder of a story to swallow with Platner, though, because he didn’t have the same limited options coming out of high school as a lot of people who enlist. Then again, he was 18, 18-year-olds do rash things.

Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

My (very limited) understanding is that it’s a common experience for enlisted vets not to be able to succeed under American capitalism, partly because of trauma, partly because the military it just different than the civilian world, so they end up doing what they know.

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Lexi Koren @lexikoren.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, the Nazi tattoo he still had till yesterday is a dealbreaker. I argued last week we should still give this guy a serious look after his Reddit history was leaked. That “serious look” was about demonstrating he’s changed. Clearly he hasn’t.

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