Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 14h

I didn't have Alito suggesting that states can't rely on medical consensus for standards of care bc it's been "politicized" or "taken over by ideology" in the past—and then immediately citing SCOTUS' forced sterilization case on my bingo card.

My rundown on today:
www.huffpost.com/entry/suprem...

Supreme Court Appears Poised To Hand The Religious Right Another Win

The case could have sweeping implications for LGBTQ+ youth and the regulation of health care across the country.

www.huffpost.com

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 14h

incredible pov

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Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: I talked to scholars who study political contagion about how America’s freefall could affect the rest of the world. They are… concerned. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Is America contagious?

Scholars in political extremism are documenting the global spread of right-wing populism.

www.motherjones.com

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

jfc

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QueerAF @wearequeeraf.com · 5d

This Saturday after painstaking research and FOIs by @clairestranstalks.bsky.social with @whatthetrans.com, we'll publish 'The Gender Clinic Files' in our newsletter:

A new investigative series exposing deep structural issues with UK Transgender healthcare

Sign up 👉 www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

Second, as more than half the country has passed bans on best practices for gender-affirming care, conservatives, like RFK Jr. are pushing so-called "exploratory therapy" as an alternative to puberty blockers and HRT. LGBTQ+ advocates have warned that this is "conversion therapy" under a diff name.

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

Chiles v. Salazar is significant for a number of reasons. In recent years SCOTUS has handed the ADF several wins, including allowing Christian cake makers and wedding website designers to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people all in the name of religious freedom.

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

I also spoke with Ryan Kendall, who was subjected to conversion therapy as a teen, and shared his story as part of an amicus brief to protect CO's law.

The case is personal to Kendall who spent his 20s advocating for conversion therapy bans. "They could wipe out my life's work in one court case."

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

Today, 23 states and Washington D.C. have bans prohibiting conversion therapy practices -- and these laws have received bipartisan support.

Major medical institutions have found that "conversion therapy" leads to high rates of suicidality, depression, and anxiety -- and obviously doesn't work.

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

This isn't the first time the ADF or conversion therapy advocates have tried to bring a case like this to the highest court. ADF argues that 1A protects Chiles' speech even in a professional context - tho CO's law is about protecting youth and regulating the care administered by licensed therapists

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

Chiles, who denied any desire to offer such counseling, says she fears getting fined or losing her license due to this law. So TL;DR she wants to be able to offer therapy to kids who want to...detransition or stop being gay

This is another classic ADF hypothetical scenario.

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

CO's law bars therapy practices that attempt to change a minor's gender identity or sexual orientation.

Plaintiff Kaley Chiles says the ban restricts her ability to properly counsel minors who want "to resist same-sex relationships or align the client's sense of identity and biological sex."

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 1d

The Supreme Court will hear arguments about Colorado's conversion therapy ban tomorrow. In Chiles v. Salazar, a Christian therapist - repped by the Alliance Defending Freedom - claims that CO's 2019 ban on conversion therapy infringes on her freedom of speech.

www.huffpost.com/entry/suprem...

Supreme Court To Hear Major LGBTQ Case That Could Have Devastating Effects On Youth

A Christian therapist is challenging Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy, claiming it violates her right to free speech.

www.huffpost.com

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Kristina Cooke @kristinacooke.bsky.social · 4d

I spoke to a Venezuelan woman who was arrested in this raid and later released with her 4yo son. She said agents broke down their door, pointed guns at them and made sexualized remarks about Venezuelan women. When she returned to her apartment it was boarded up and all her possessions were gone.

Ted Hesson @tedhesson.bsky.social · 4d

US Border Patrol raid sweeps in citizens, families as Chicago crackdown intensifies, w/ @reneehickman.bsky.social @kristinacooke.bsky.social www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...

US Border Patrol raid sweeps in citizens, families as Chicago crackdown intensifies

U.S. Border Patrol agents deployed to Chicago led a late-night raid on an apartment building this week, rappelling from helicopters onto rooftops and breaking down doors in an operation authorities said targeted gang members but which swept up U.S. citizens and families.

www.reuters.com

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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 5d

The Heritage Foundation’s right-wing publication is reporting that the Kash Patel FBI has terminated its longstanding relationship with the Southern Poverty Law Center, one day after severing its relationship with the ADL. www.dailysignal.com/2025/10/03/b...

BREAKING: Kash Patel's FBI Cuts All Ties to Southern Poverty Law Center

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed to The Daily Signal that the bureau has cut all ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

www.dailysignal.com

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 6d

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

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Matt Pearce @mattdpearce.com · 8d

“What we found was … a mix of lawyers blaming IT issues, personal and family emergencies, their own poor judgment and carelessness, and demands from their firms and the industry to be more productive and take on more casework. But most often, they simply blame their assistants.”

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 8d

Spent many (many!) hours pulling legal explanations and apologies from lawyers who were caught using AI that hallucinated in which they explained to a judge why they used AI. The explanations are astonishing and extremely good:

www.404media.co/18-lawyers-c...

18 Lawyers Caught Using AI Explain Why They Did It

Lawyers blame IT, family emergencies, their own poor judgment, their assistants, illness, and more.

www.404media.co

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ghostly gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 12d

If you're a student at Angelo State University (or know one!!) with thoughts on the school's new policy barring discussions of transgender identity in classrooms, I'd love to talk to you for a story I'm working on. DM me on here, or find me on Signal at kissphoria.57

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Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 15d

What it sounds like when philosophers who are also anti-trans activists submit an amicus brief to a US court where they argue for banning trans girls and women from women's sports.

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the option of interpreting the Idaho and West Virginia
statutes as motivated by the justified aim of excluding
all males from female sports, it is quite invidious to
interpret them as instead motivated by the unjustified
aim of excluding males who identify as female in par-
ticular.
Consider a simple analogy. Imagine that we are
back in Medieval Europe. Gold is the currency of the
land. Consequently, many merchants prefer to accept
gold and only gold as payment. However, a new move-
ment is afoot, whose members are known as the alche-
mists. The alchemists purport to have found a way of
turning iron pyrite (fool’s gold) into gold. Some people
are convinced by the claims of the alchemists, though
many others are not. This difference in attitudes
starts to lead to time-wasting interactions in which an
alchemist or fellow traveler tries to purchase a good
using iron pyrite from a merchant who, unmoved by
well-publicized insistence on the part of the alche-
mists that only irrational prejudice could lie behind
lingering doubts about the possibility of converting
iron pyrite into gold, continues to insist on only ac-
cepting gold as payment. One such merchant, whose
unofficial working policy has hitherto been to accept
only gold as payment, decides to make his policy offi-
cial by putting up a sign on his store saying, “Only
gold accepted (no iron pyrite!).”

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 15d

i waited until college to watch the last episode bc i was so sad that it was only one season and damn it hit

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Henry Carnell @hencarnell.bsky.social · 22d

I highly recommend that you read @leximcmenamin.com's latest:

"When the WSJ reporting came out, I knew it didn’t matter if it was true or false; the damage was already done. It’s not about truth or reality. It’s about demonization and easy targets and reaffirming their own rhetoric."

The Cut @thecut.com · 22d

The right was so quick to blame “trans ideology’ for Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week that no facts will be enough to convince them otherwise.

They Want Charlie Kirk’s Killer to Be Trans

The right was so quick to blame “trans ideology’ for Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week that no facts will be enough to convince them otherwise.

www.thecut.com

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 22d

“If there was a shooter...on campus, that’s basically how we’re treating ICE," one teacher said.

Teachers, tenant advocates and immigration organizers are patrolling schools, organizing grocery runs, and educating families on their rights as LA braces for new ICE raids after last wk's SCOTUS ruling

Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 23d

Los Angeles teachers are patrolling the streets, linking w immigration/ tenants’ advocates, and repurposing lockdown policies designed to protect students from active shooters or wildfires — all to protect them from ICE

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social and I report

www.huffpost.com/entry/los-an...

This School District Is Preparing ‘Lockdowns’ — But Now It’s Not Just For Shootings

They’ve spent years preparing for natural disasters and school shootings. Now, they are ready to do lockdowns in response to immigration raids.

www.huffpost.com

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Lil Kalish @kalish.bsky.social · 23d

Los Angeles teachers are patrolling the streets, linking w immigration/ tenants’ advocates, and repurposing lockdown policies designed to protect students from active shooters or wildfires — all to protect them from ICE

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social and I report

www.huffpost.com/entry/los-an...

This School District Is Preparing ‘Lockdowns’ — But Now It’s Not Just For Shootings

They’ve spent years preparing for natural disasters and school shootings. Now, they are ready to do lockdowns in response to immigration raids.

www.huffpost.com

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David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 26d

SCOOP

“I have folks claiming my information is all over 4chan telling me in the same breath that they hope I get ‘raped and killed’" @rachelgilmore.bsky.social tells me, after her information was posted to a site called Charlie's Murderers

www.wired.com/story/right-...

Right-Wing Activists Are Targeting People for Allegedly Celebrating Charlie Kirk's Death

Extremists and an anonymously run website are posting identifying details about people accused of celebrating Charlie Kirk's murder online. Some of those targeted are now getting death threats.

www.wired.com

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ghostly gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 26d

Wow: Texas quietly dropped its lawsuit against Dr. Hector Granados, an El Paso pediatric endocrinologist who Ken Paxton called a "scofflaw" for allegedly violating the state's ban on providing hormones / puberty blockers to trans kids:
apnews.com/article/tran...

Texas drops lawsuit against doctor accused of illegally providing care to transgender youth

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office says one of the first doctors in the U.S. accused of illegally providing care to transgender youth under GOP-led bans was found not to have broken the law.

apnews.com

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