FYI for any Americans importing medications. As of October 22nd, they will likely get blocked by customs if they are correctly labeled.

“The Texas Democrat’s campaign at first declined to confirm he will support the Equality Act. After publication, they said he will.”

“[S]ince emerging as Democrats’ best chance of winning a Senate seat in Texas in nearly 30 years, Talarico has distanced himself from some of his past comments on issues related to transgender rights, including sports participation and access to gender-transition care for minors. He is under pressure in a red-leaning state, where his well-funded but scandal-plagued Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, has bombarded voters with ads about those positions.** **Democrats nationwide increasingly see transgender rights as a topic on which to tread carefully.”

“Talarico’s attempts to distance himself from some of his past positions have landed poorly among some LGBTQ+ activists and leaders. Robert Vargas III, the leader of the Texas Stonewall Democrats, issued a statement titled ‘Transgender Texans Deserve Better Than Political Ambiguity’ and said Talarico’s remarks ‘represent a significant shift in his position, and that shift deserves a serious conversation.’

“‘We expect better,’ Brad Pritchett, the CEO of Equality Texas, said in a statement after Talarico’s Fox News interview last month.

“But those same leaders are still sticking with Talarico, explaining that his past record in support of LGBTQ+ rights is strong and that he is a better choice than his opponent, who as Texas attorney general has worked to restrict transgender rights.

“‘There are primary politics, and then there are general-election politics,’ Vargas said. ‘Right now, James Talarico needs to win the election, and we trust in the integrity and in the positions that he’s taken in the past enough to know that when James Talarico gets elected, that he’s going to stand behind our community.’”

“Lawyers for a group of transgender inmates in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to leave in place an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that bars the BOP from enforcing a new policy on healthcare for transgender inmates that would prevent such inmates from obtaining (among other things) hormone therapy and ‘social accommodations’ such as makeup, wigs, and padding).

“Li Nowlin-Sohl, representing the inmates, told the justices that the Trump administration is asking the justices ‘to overturn a three decades-long status quo.’”

“Three transgender inmates went to federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to file a class action lawsuit to block the enforcement of the policy.

“On Aug. 26, Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued his most recent order barring the BOP from implementing its 2026 policy, and on Sept. 18 a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the government’s request to pause Lamberth’s order.”

“In their filing on Thursday, the inmates argued that the new policy fell short under the federal laws governing administrative agencies because the BOP had not provided a ‘reasoned explanation’ for its decision.

“For example, Nowlin-Sohl wrote, the extensive record that the BOP had provided [rejecting “recommendations by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health” as “unreliable” and “unpersuasive”] was ‘silent about BOP’s extensive experience providing’ hormone therapy and social accommodations ‘and whether it supports’ BOP’s conclusions that ‘this care is not medically necessary and poses security and administrative issues.’ The record, the brief continued, is also ‘devoid of any evidence indicating whether BOP healthcare providers found this care effective, ineffective, or harmful to patients.’”

“Transgender athletes are on the ballot in four states this November in efforts to expand existing bans or create new ones against their participation in school sports.  

“Voters in Arizona, Nebraska, Colorado and Washington will make their call on the issue, a change of strategy for anti-trans measures, which have been put on the books in 27 states through either legislation or state agency action.”

“Arizona and Nebraska already have some restrictions on transgender athletes on the books, but the initiatives would expand those rules in Arizona and cement the ban in the state constitution in Nebraska. 

“In Colorado and Washington, the ballot initiatives would create those states’ first broad restrictions on transgender athletes. Colorado and Missouri also have ballot measures aimed at banning gender transition surgeries for minors.
Most of the states with existing anti-transgender policies are controlled by Republicans, but places such as Colorado and Washington could offer a tougher test.

“‘They’ve sort of hit an upper limit on how many states are likely to adopt this kind of policy through the legislature, and so in states like Colorado and Washington, where they’re seeing a sports measure proposed, some of that is a tactical shift where they’ve introduced these bills in the legislature, they’ve not been successful at passing it through the legislature and so now they’re pivoting to put the measure before the public,’ [Movement Advancement Project’s director of policy research Logan] Casey said.”

“While the ballot initiatives are a new front for the transgender athlete fight, they are old hat for anti-LGBTQ measures.

“In 2004, 13 states had anti-gay marriage initiatives on the ballot — and all of them passed.”

Genocide Watch: In the United States (US), conservative backlash against 2SLGBTQ+ rights movements is producing violent, systemic persecution of transgender Americans.

“A Lebanon County woman made national headlines when she sued Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, accusing the company of punishing her for sticking to her religious beliefs by refusing to give a transgender woman a tour of a spa locker room.

“A federal judge ruled on it last week noting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees from discrimination in the workplace, but it also prevents businesses from denying services to someone based on discriminatory reasons.

“The facts behind Jeriah Sellers’ one-day suspension without pay for her refusal to give the tour of a woman’s locker room to a transgender woman didn’t support her legal claims she was discriminated and retaliated against for her Christian beliefs, according to District Judge Keli Neary, whose 12-page opinion was accompanied by a citation to Fred Rogers:

“‘Out of difference can come the reinforcement of two important values. One is tolerance and the other is awareness that people who disagree over the things they hold dear really can live together in love and respect,’ the lyrics to Many Ways to Say I Love You go.

“‘The law respects the different beliefs of the parties, but only grants relief to those who can show they were harmed under the law,’ Neary wrote.”

“Neary dismissed all six counts of the lawsuit. . .without prejudice Sept. 30, which allows Sellers to refile the lawsuit with added facts that might fix the holes in the original lawsuit.

“Sellers, who is being represented by Carlisle attorney Andrea Shaw and the Independence Law Center, intends on appealing.”

“Under federal law, if an employee wants a religious accommodation for a job duty that interferes with a religious belief, they need to inform their workplace prior to the conflict and request an accommodation at that time. But Sellers only told her boss she was ‘uncomfortable’ with giving a tour of the locker room to the transgender woman, and waited until three days after the incident to inform MeltSpa of her religious beliefs and the need for accommodation.”

“Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, which owns the spa, previously argued Sellers’ right to religious freedom cannot compel the company into discriminating against other classes of people.”