The Department of Education is merely doing what every governmental agency in NAZI Germany did. That is, they are demonstrating to the public that a minority community is actually a non-human entity. Once they succeed in convincing the general population that we are not only a threat, but also not human (i.e. demonic), it will be easy to convince them that the logical, nay moral, solution is extermination. Hyperbole aside, this has played out before. The goal is to turn this into a holy war (i.e. reject the physical evidence and only accept what is being preached). We have to keep pushing back, and have to recognize that our very existence is under threat.
It's fueled by hatred against the "demonic" to be sure, but it's gained more popularity because the language of disease and virality (think "social contagion", "woke mind virus," etc.) as metaphors of dehumanization seem much more tangible in the wake of the pandemic. Ironic that the same sort of people who didn't believe in a literal disease as it was actively killing people are more concerned with a "moral" pandemic than an actual pandemic.
The religious right is a junior partner in the current conservative coalition. The rhetoric they are using is not appealing to the bible, but rather to feminist rhetoric. Which is why plenty of "progressive" liberal types are happy to stand by and watch this happen.
The call is coming from inside the house, I'm afraid.
I don't agree. If you go to a women's march, 95% of the women there are non-TERF feminists. TERFs merely make the most noise. And IMO, they are the antithesis of feminists anyway. They reduce women and men to nothing more than reproduction and reproductive organs.
I don't know if your "95%" claim is entirely accurate, but I also don't think it's something that can be easily measured. I believe many people are willing to make anodyne statements of support along the lines of "just let people be what they want", but when it comes to the actual material policies that affect us - access to gendered spaces, access to healthcare, non-discrimination policies - opinions suddenly become a lot more "nuanced", and not in our favor.
Regardless, your opinion of what feminism ought to be is not the same as what feminism has been about in practical effect. To make the same point I was trying to make earlier: we must come around to the fact that people leading the charge against us are not all or even mostly evangelical Christians; if that were the case, the administration would be pushing much harder on other issues of importance to that faction, but instead their ire is focused particularly on trans people, precisely because of their appeal to middle-class liberals and feminists who see trans women as a unique threat to their privacy and safety.
It's not holy war; it's a destructive and radical ideology that was birthed, in large part, by a feminist movement that equates being born with a penis to being a violent predator; one that sees trans women as "men" who are replacing women; one that has a broad appeal among people who aren't particularly religious or conservative but who have been immersed in a culture that worships the victimhood of cis (white) women.
It indeed DOES seem to be a "holy war." The politics of this administration are many-faceted. Many malign forces have come together to elect those in power and to have their policies implemented. Among those is the religious right, whose premier policy arm is the Heritage Foundation. The founding mission of the Heritage Foundation was to cloak religious policy with secular framing, so as to shoehorn it into law, despite separation of church and state.
Imara Jones (Translash Media, "The Anti-Trans Hate Machine") published an excellent podcast series that explored the religious origins of anti-trans animus and the deep pockets that are funding this holy war on the entire LGBTQ. Trans people are merely the starting point, because we are the easiest targets.
Put into a nutshell, the religious right wants LGBTQ people gone because they consider us ungodly and feel that god will punish any society that allows us to live our lives in peace. Yes, it's stupid, but that's what motivates them. And they've got a LOT of money to front multiple think tanks and lobbying organizations and to buy political favor. You'd better believe they have an agenda (called "Mandate for Leadership," a.k.a. Project 2025), and they want it implemented. We do share space with other issues such as abortion, but we are HIGH on their list of priorities.
As for the TERFs, the religious right has worked diligently to amplify their messaging. They are allies. It's why they are so incredibly loud. But they are the extremist wingnuts. Their beliefs - that women are defined by their reproductive organs - that they are weak and vulnerable - are actually quite anti-feminist.
FAIW, I remember lobbying for trans and LGBTQ rights in 2020 Virginia with my partner. At the end of a really exhausting day, we had dinner in a nearby cafe and encountered a couple dozen women who had successfully lobbied the VA legislature to pass the ERA (making VA the 38th state). They included us in their celebration, knowing that we had been working damned hard for transgender rights. We shared stories of our lobbying experiences that day. I felt completely welcome in that group. Nobody disparaged me. And I was so happy to celebrate with them, because I knew how ebullient my mom would have been on that day. She was a follower of Gloria Steinem.
The Department of Education’s decision to target middle school students for participating in co-ed cheer squads is reckless, cruel, and fundamentally un-American.
This is not about fairness in sports.
It is about using the power of the federal government to intimidate children, punish schools, and enforce an ideological agenda that has nothing to do with education.
Middle school cheerleading is not a contact sport, not a competitive advantage arms race, and not a legitimate civil rights concern.
It is an extracurricular activity centered on teamwork, school spirit, and inclusion.
Dragging children into federal investigations over co-ed participation is an abuse of authority and a grotesque distortion of Title IX’s purpose.
Title IX was enacted to expand opportunity, not to weaponize bureaucracy against kids who do not conform to rigid gender expectations.
Threatening schools for allowing inclusive, co-ed cheer squads undermines local control, tramples common sense, and sends a chilling message to students that their government views them as political targets rather than children deserving of protection.
This campaign does real harm. It stigmatizes students, invites harassment, and pressures schools to exclude kids simply to avoid federal retaliation.
That is not safeguarding education. That is authoritarian overreach masquerading as compliance.
I reject the idea that the federal government should be policing middle school activities to score culture-war points.
The Department of Education should be defending students’ right to learn, belong, and participate safely in school life, not bullying districts into exclusion and fear.
Hands off our kids. Hands off our schools. And stop using children as collateral damage in a manufactured political crusade.
In a way this can help us. The Department of Education (and the entire regime) comes away looking like monstrous bigots while the school district acts reasonably, responsibly, and compassionately. Following state law without harming anyone in the process a win-win. The student gets affirmed with the institutional support along with (probably and hopefully) support from her friends and squad members. Spreading the word about this egregious overstep by the administration is up to all of us. LIKE AND SHARE!
From the regime famous for it's Dear Leader walking into underage girl's dressing rooms without announcing himself and then saying he love being able to just "Walk in there - to, uh, inspect - because I own the pageant, and there's the girls, some of them in their underwear and some of them naked".
The pedophile-in-chief complaining about non-existent men transitioning just to get into women's bathrooms and locker rooms . . .
Garddamn I wish this regime would collapse and fade into nothingness.
Commented before I saw that you had had the exact same thought 2 hours before me. I wish I could take comfort in our like-mindedness, but I am sure we would both rather the phenomenon had never offered us the opportunity to be in sad agreement.
How petty can the administration get? Super petty. But so too can some residents of small town America, such as Newport, Maine. In 2024, voters in Newport, a rural community of about 3000, voted for Trump by a 2-1 margin. My guess is that one or more transphobes in Newport complained to conservative media or officials who brought the matter to the attention of federal officials at DOE. I also bet that most folks in Newport probably don't care enough to make a big deal of the matter and would rather let the school to make the call. The more cruel and intrusive conservatives get, the more the majority of Americans will recognize the danger inherent in such cruelty and intrusiveness, and turn against MAGA. One thing I know for certain is that the hard working, intelligent, and compassionate governor of Maine, a long time ally of the LGBTQ community, will respond to this forcefully and appropriately.
Once again the MAGAT Department of LITTLE to Nonexistent Education has another Hate Filled Rant about the Culture War against our GENITALIA! This Fascist Government hates Educated Americans,Especially Women who have what they don’t…a pair of Balls! But these Cretinous people are not limited to just MAGAT REPUBLICANS, the Corrupt Centrist Democrats are just as culpable as the Oily-Garcs that OWN THEM! DOWN WITH THIS FASCIST GOVERNMENT AND DOWN WITH ALL TYRANTS!!! 😈🔥🖕🏽
It's far more unfair to leave trans girls and women in the cold on everything than it might be to let them compete in many of the female-participant sports. For the government to be persecuting minors who are trans is one of many signs that we're at the end of this system of government functioning. I hope something can intervene, to stop Trump and anyone who can't get along with others.
Just hard to imagine the type of cruelty and evil required in a person to employ the weight of a federal agency to attack a single middle schooler trying to do cheer.
'...the federal government wants to avoid acknowledging the existence of trans people at all. They use transphobic epithets to get their message across, referring to trans teenage girls as “biological men.”
Avoid acknowledging the existence of trans people, yes - and also, referring to trans girls of middle-school age as 'men' makes them seem *large and threatening*, rather than what trans girls, cis boys, and AMAB nonbinary kids of that age actually are, which is, on average, a good bit shorter than the cis girls.
This administration actively wants to put girls in boys' bathrooms and locker rooms. Democrats have the easiest layup in history, and few of them are taking it.
The Department of Education is merely doing what every governmental agency in NAZI Germany did. That is, they are demonstrating to the public that a minority community is actually a non-human entity. Once they succeed in convincing the general population that we are not only a threat, but also not human (i.e. demonic), it will be easy to convince them that the logical, nay moral, solution is extermination. Hyperbole aside, this has played out before. The goal is to turn this into a holy war (i.e. reject the physical evidence and only accept what is being preached). We have to keep pushing back, and have to recognize that our very existence is under threat.
And it should be obvious to anybody who is paying attention that yes, this country really IS being run by Nazis.
It's fueled by hatred against the "demonic" to be sure, but it's gained more popularity because the language of disease and virality (think "social contagion", "woke mind virus," etc.) as metaphors of dehumanization seem much more tangible in the wake of the pandemic. Ironic that the same sort of people who didn't believe in a literal disease as it was actively killing people are more concerned with a "moral" pandemic than an actual pandemic.
The religious right is a junior partner in the current conservative coalition. The rhetoric they are using is not appealing to the bible, but rather to feminist rhetoric. Which is why plenty of "progressive" liberal types are happy to stand by and watch this happen.
The call is coming from inside the house, I'm afraid.
It's not mainstream feminist rhetoric. It's TERF rhetoric, if a TERF can even really be considered a feminist.
It's sort of splitting hairs. TERFs ARE the mainstream of feminism in 2026, and the sooner we come to terms with this, the better.
I don't agree. If you go to a women's march, 95% of the women there are non-TERF feminists. TERFs merely make the most noise. And IMO, they are the antithesis of feminists anyway. They reduce women and men to nothing more than reproduction and reproductive organs.
I don't know if your "95%" claim is entirely accurate, but I also don't think it's something that can be easily measured. I believe many people are willing to make anodyne statements of support along the lines of "just let people be what they want", but when it comes to the actual material policies that affect us - access to gendered spaces, access to healthcare, non-discrimination policies - opinions suddenly become a lot more "nuanced", and not in our favor.
Regardless, your opinion of what feminism ought to be is not the same as what feminism has been about in practical effect. To make the same point I was trying to make earlier: we must come around to the fact that people leading the charge against us are not all or even mostly evangelical Christians; if that were the case, the administration would be pushing much harder on other issues of importance to that faction, but instead their ire is focused particularly on trans people, precisely because of their appeal to middle-class liberals and feminists who see trans women as a unique threat to their privacy and safety.
It's not holy war; it's a destructive and radical ideology that was birthed, in large part, by a feminist movement that equates being born with a penis to being a violent predator; one that sees trans women as "men" who are replacing women; one that has a broad appeal among people who aren't particularly religious or conservative but who have been immersed in a culture that worships the victimhood of cis (white) women.
It indeed DOES seem to be a "holy war." The politics of this administration are many-faceted. Many malign forces have come together to elect those in power and to have their policies implemented. Among those is the religious right, whose premier policy arm is the Heritage Foundation. The founding mission of the Heritage Foundation was to cloak religious policy with secular framing, so as to shoehorn it into law, despite separation of church and state.
Imara Jones (Translash Media, "The Anti-Trans Hate Machine") published an excellent podcast series that explored the religious origins of anti-trans animus and the deep pockets that are funding this holy war on the entire LGBTQ. Trans people are merely the starting point, because we are the easiest targets.
Put into a nutshell, the religious right wants LGBTQ people gone because they consider us ungodly and feel that god will punish any society that allows us to live our lives in peace. Yes, it's stupid, but that's what motivates them. And they've got a LOT of money to front multiple think tanks and lobbying organizations and to buy political favor. You'd better believe they have an agenda (called "Mandate for Leadership," a.k.a. Project 2025), and they want it implemented. We do share space with other issues such as abortion, but we are HIGH on their list of priorities.
As for the TERFs, the religious right has worked diligently to amplify their messaging. They are allies. It's why they are so incredibly loud. But they are the extremist wingnuts. Their beliefs - that women are defined by their reproductive organs - that they are weak and vulnerable - are actually quite anti-feminist.
FAIW, I remember lobbying for trans and LGBTQ rights in 2020 Virginia with my partner. At the end of a really exhausting day, we had dinner in a nearby cafe and encountered a couple dozen women who had successfully lobbied the VA legislature to pass the ERA (making VA the 38th state). They included us in their celebration, knowing that we had been working damned hard for transgender rights. We shared stories of our lobbying experiences that day. I felt completely welcome in that group. Nobody disparaged me. And I was so happy to celebrate with them, because I knew how ebullient my mom would have been on that day. She was a follower of Gloria Steinem.
The Department of Education’s decision to target middle school students for participating in co-ed cheer squads is reckless, cruel, and fundamentally un-American.
This is not about fairness in sports.
It is about using the power of the federal government to intimidate children, punish schools, and enforce an ideological agenda that has nothing to do with education.
Middle school cheerleading is not a contact sport, not a competitive advantage arms race, and not a legitimate civil rights concern.
It is an extracurricular activity centered on teamwork, school spirit, and inclusion.
Dragging children into federal investigations over co-ed participation is an abuse of authority and a grotesque distortion of Title IX’s purpose.
Title IX was enacted to expand opportunity, not to weaponize bureaucracy against kids who do not conform to rigid gender expectations.
Threatening schools for allowing inclusive, co-ed cheer squads undermines local control, tramples common sense, and sends a chilling message to students that their government views them as political targets rather than children deserving of protection.
This campaign does real harm. It stigmatizes students, invites harassment, and pressures schools to exclude kids simply to avoid federal retaliation.
That is not safeguarding education. That is authoritarian overreach masquerading as compliance.
I reject the idea that the federal government should be policing middle school activities to score culture-war points.
The Department of Education should be defending students’ right to learn, belong, and participate safely in school life, not bullying districts into exclusion and fear.
Hands off our kids. Hands off our schools. And stop using children as collateral damage in a manufactured political crusade.
This is a co-ed squad. That means boys & girls. But no trans. Stop making sense.
In a way this can help us. The Department of Education (and the entire regime) comes away looking like monstrous bigots while the school district acts reasonably, responsibly, and compassionately. Following state law without harming anyone in the process a win-win. The student gets affirmed with the institutional support along with (probably and hopefully) support from her friends and squad members. Spreading the word about this egregious overstep by the administration is up to all of us. LIKE AND SHARE!
And the beat goes on
From the regime famous for it's Dear Leader walking into underage girl's dressing rooms without announcing himself and then saying he love being able to just "Walk in there - to, uh, inspect - because I own the pageant, and there's the girls, some of them in their underwear and some of them naked".
The pedophile-in-chief complaining about non-existent men transitioning just to get into women's bathrooms and locker rooms . . .
Garddamn I wish this regime would collapse and fade into nothingness.
Commented before I saw that you had had the exact same thought 2 hours before me. I wish I could take comfort in our like-mindedness, but I am sure we would both rather the phenomenon had never offered us the opportunity to be in sad agreement.
Thank you for this report.
How petty can the administration get? Super petty. But so too can some residents of small town America, such as Newport, Maine. In 2024, voters in Newport, a rural community of about 3000, voted for Trump by a 2-1 margin. My guess is that one or more transphobes in Newport complained to conservative media or officials who brought the matter to the attention of federal officials at DOE. I also bet that most folks in Newport probably don't care enough to make a big deal of the matter and would rather let the school to make the call. The more cruel and intrusive conservatives get, the more the majority of Americans will recognize the danger inherent in such cruelty and intrusiveness, and turn against MAGA. One thing I know for certain is that the hard working, intelligent, and compassionate governor of Maine, a long time ally of the LGBTQ community, will respond to this forcefully and appropriately.
Thank you for the reporting! I wonder if this cruelty will wake up our "moderate" senator Susan Collins. Doubtful.
(insert bitter laugh-track here)
No, you haven't violated any laws. The thing is, you haven't abused children the President wants to see abused.
"I hope you know that this will go down on your permanent record
Oh, yeah? Well, don't get so distressed
Did I happen to mention that I'm impressed?" - Kiss Off, Violent Femmes
Once again the MAGAT Department of LITTLE to Nonexistent Education has another Hate Filled Rant about the Culture War against our GENITALIA! This Fascist Government hates Educated Americans,Especially Women who have what they don’t…a pair of Balls! But these Cretinous people are not limited to just MAGAT REPUBLICANS, the Corrupt Centrist Democrats are just as culpable as the Oily-Garcs that OWN THEM! DOWN WITH THIS FASCIST GOVERNMENT AND DOWN WITH ALL TYRANTS!!! 😈🔥🖕🏽
It's far more unfair to leave trans girls and women in the cold on everything than it might be to let them compete in many of the female-participant sports. For the government to be persecuting minors who are trans is one of many signs that we're at the end of this system of government functioning. I hope something can intervene, to stop Trump and anyone who can't get along with others.
Shouldn't open to everyone mean open to everyone?
Just hard to imagine the type of cruelty and evil required in a person to employ the weight of a federal agency to attack a single middle schooler trying to do cheer.
Attacking trans people is easier than working to truly benefit American schools.
'...the federal government wants to avoid acknowledging the existence of trans people at all. They use transphobic epithets to get their message across, referring to trans teenage girls as “biological men.”
Avoid acknowledging the existence of trans people, yes - and also, referring to trans girls of middle-school age as 'men' makes them seem *large and threatening*, rather than what trans girls, cis boys, and AMAB nonbinary kids of that age actually are, which is, on average, a good bit shorter than the cis girls.
This administration actively wants to put girls in boys' bathrooms and locker rooms. Democrats have the easiest layup in history, and few of them are taking it.