#dei

Source

DOGE as an organization has been linked to 300,000 deaths due to its cuts and multiple significant data breaches. All the while, DOGE did not actually reduce the government’s deficit. 

[...]

After watching hours upon hours of this footage, what stands out to me is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the arrogance. The surefootedness that this was the correct thing to do despite no experience in government. The presumption that they were entitled to use their own uninformed judgement to cut funds to things that they don’t personally value but do positively impact others. Even by their own metrics of merit based activity, this campaign was a failure. Fox believes these particular cut contracts did save hundreds of millions of dollars, but the cuts ultimately did not reduce the deficit. Not even close. It makes for strangely captivating viewing, seeing someone part of a team that has caused so much damage coldly explain the flawed thinking behind what they did. The answers are sometimes defensive and coached because they’re in a lawsuit, of course. But taken as a whole they show at least these members of DOGE are essentially unapologetic for what they did.  In a statement published last week, American Council of Learned Societies ​​President Joy Connolly said, “Our lawsuit reveals this administration’s contempt for that principle and for public investment in research for the common good. DOGE employees’ use of ChatGPT to identify ‘wasteful’ grants is perhaps the biggest advertisement for the need for humanities education, which builds skills in critical thinking.”

While I'm at it.

^via LGBTQ Nation, September 2, 2025. They were playing Pink Pony Club on the kazoos, it was in Seattle, and yes, there is video.

^"Since the president took office in January, over 20 hostile shareholder resolutions were filed demanding companies shed their commitment to DEI, including Visa, Deere, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Levi’s, American Express, Coca-Cola, Berkshire Hathaway, McDonalds, Amazon, Netflix, Walmart, Alphabet, American Airlines, Caterpillar, Best Buy, Mastercard, and Costco, according to Fortune...

But across those annual meetings, shareholders (representing over $9.8 trillion in value) have voted with management to continue DEI policies and programs.

Those decisions weren’t based on altruism alone, if at all: HRC’s study backs up previous research demonstrating that companies embracing DEI are more profitable than their peers that don’t."

-via LGBTQ Nation, August 27, 2025

"According to Jinsiangu, a Kenyan intersex, transgender, and gender non-conforming (ITGNC) rights group, the court recognised Chepkosgei’s right to self-identity and gender, declaring her “notably recognised as a transgender individual” to ensure her rights are guaranteed...

In a groundbreaking move, the court went beyond addressing the specific violations experienced by the petitioner.

Justice R. Nyakundi directed the Government of Kenya to initiate and table a bill addressing the rights of transgender persons, with Parliament instructed to take the necessary steps to enact protections and recognition in law.

The judge also awarded Chepkosgei 1,000,000 Kenyan Shillings (approximately R137,000 / USD 7,700) in general damages. [Note: And that stretches a LOT further in Kenya, where the average monthly after-tax salary is just $413, making the reward a bit less than 2 years of salary.]

-via Mamba Online, August 21, 2025

"The Advocate General for the European Court of Justice is recommending that all EU member states be required to issue identity documents reflecting their citizens’ “lived gender identity.”

The Court’s AG Jean Richard de la Tour argued that national rules that do not allow legal gender recognition may violate European Union law, including the right to free movement and residency across all EU member states...

While the Advocate General’s opinion is only advisory, the verdicts in about two-thirds of cases argued before the court align with an AG’s recommendation."

-via LGBTQ Nation, September 4, 2025

"A federal judge has sided with a sorority that inducted a transgender sister after several other members sued over the definition of the word “woman.”

“Having considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with [the sorority’s] contractually valid interpretation of its own Bylaws,” U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in his ruling.

...the judge rejected their arguments again, noting that Kappa Kappa Gamma’s bylaws don’t define the words “woman” or “women” to be exclusively referring to cisgender women. He even noted that the sorority “published and distributed multiple texts” showing that its interpretation of those words is trans-inclusive, so the plaintiffs can’t claim that their contract with the sorority was understood to mean that trans women would be excluded."

-via LGBTQ Nation, August 26, 2025

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) announced a landmark free hotline for LGBTQ+ people in the state. Offered in both English and Spanish, the first-of-its-kind service launches today and will provide legal advice regarding housing, safety, health care access (including gender-affirming care), discrimination, identity documents, and more.

Pritzker announced the initiative, called Illinois Pride Connect, at an August 21 event with the Chicago Legal Council for Health Justice, which will run the hotline. “For us to be able to go on offense, and not be on defense, is what I love about this state,” he said.

“Building upon the state’s transgender and gender-diverse wellness and equity project that we launched at the beginning of 2024, we will be the only state in the entire United States that provides free legal advice to protect the LGBTQ community,” he said."

-via LGBTQ Nation, August 25, 2025

"A federal appeals court has ruled that West Texas A&M University’s ban on student organization drag performances violates the Constitution’s First Amendment protections of free speech. The court’s Thursday ruling overturns a 2023 district court ruling in favor of the university.

FIRE’s lawsuit also claimed that Wendler’s actions violated a campus free speech law signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in 2020, which explicitly forbids universities from taking action against student organizations “on the basis of a political, religious, philosophical, ideological, or academic viewpoint expressed by the organization or [its] expressive activities.”

In its 2-1 decision issued last Thursday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie H. Southwick (an appointee of former President George W. Bush) wrote that theatric performances and drag shows, “plainly involve expressive conduct within the protection of the First Amendment.”"

-via LGBTQ Nation, August 19, 2025

"Five Virginia school districts are refusing to revoke their transgender-inclusive policies that allow trans kids to use facilities matching their gender identity [and other policies about pronouns and sports teams], even though the current presidential administration has frozen the districts’ congressionally approved federal education funding over the matter.

The school districts — Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William — say that their policies are required by Title IX, the federal law prohibiting educational discrimination based on sex. But while the previous presidential administration interpreted the law as requiring schools to maintain trans-inclusive policies, the current one has claimed that such policies harm cisgender female students.

...The letter [from a local LGBTQ regional coalition] notes that over 3,000 Virginia families, teachers, and residents signed letters supporting the districts’ pro-trans policies in the face of “unprecedented federal pressure,” adding, “These policies and practices foster a culture that affirms the dignity of each student and celebrates our diversity as individuals.”