Balloon Juice – Late Night Open Thread: Trans Americans Gain Some Breathing Space
In Historic First, Montana House Democrats Elect Two Trans Lawmakers To Lead Them
open.substack.com/pub/erininth…— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) November 11, 2026 at 2:32 PM
the thing about this I think is that a lot of casual transphobia does not survive contact with an actual trans person. people get hopped up on online bullshit stories, but faced with a real life human being, all the air goes out of it
— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper.com) November 9, 2026 at 9:52 AM
Sarah McBride Didn’t Give Them the Fight They Wanted. She Won Anyway
www.them.us/politics…
#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA— Transgender World (@transgenderreport.com) November 11, 2026 at 11:44 AM
It ain’t easy, but…
… From the outside, people mostly saw a woman keeping her cool. Some admired her restraint. Others wanted her to fight differently, more loudly, more visibly. Meanwhile, she still had to walk into the building.
Rep. Becca Balint, the Vermont Democrat who has become her friend, has been beside her for some of those walks.
“I’ve been with her when people have tried to verbally harass her,” Balint tells The Advocate. “I get worried sometimes that people expect someone like Sarah to be perfect all the time in what she says and how she says it and how she shows up.”…
With Democrats taking back the House, McBride will return with two years of relationships and legislative experience — and an opportunity to show what she can do in the majority…
On June 9, at Equality PAC’s National Pride Gala in Washington, McBride took the stage as results arrived from South Carolina’s Republican primary for governor. Mace was running fifth.
“Congress’s top bathroom sheriff Nancy Mace is on the ballot, and while not all of the votes have been counted yet, she is in a respectful fifth place,” Sarah McBride just said. “I don’t like punching down and I believe in the politics of grace. So all I will say is happy Pride, Nancy.”
— Christopher Wiggins (@cwnewser.bsky.social) June 9, 2026 at 9:14 PM
…
Her political conversations extended beyond Congress. According to a source familiar with her campaign advising, McBride spoke with dozens of candidates and incumbents nationwide about answering anti-trans ads without compromising their values. Most of them listened.An analysis prepared by Pink and Blue Strategies for the Trans Freedom Alliance examined 1,188 Democratic digital and streaming-TV ads addressing trans issues or themes used to answer those attacks. Using AdImpact data compiled by AdHawk for January 1 through October 29, it classified $78.2 million in spending as pushback, compared with $1.6 million aligned with Republican positions—roughly 49 to 1…
as Harvey Milk said in the 1970s “They vote for us 3 to 1 if they know they know 1 of us” which is to say voters were 3 times more likely to support gay rights they were aware they knew even one gay person, even casual acquaintances.
true then, true now.— Henry (@henrythedog.bsky.social) November 9, 2026 at 5:27 PM
you’ll never see the reverse of this, the people who loved deeply their home states of Texas and Georgia and spent years feeling like it didn’t love them back, hell the people who literally left Texas because they or their kid was trans in the last 5 years
what does this win feel like to them?— Henry (@henrythedog.bsky.social) November 10, 2026 at 9:25 PM
There were 25 gay marriage referendums between 2004 and 2006. After a Republican wipeout in the 2006 midterms, there were only 5 more gay marriage ban ballot questions ever again.
— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) November 9, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post senses a change in the wind!
Nearly 97 percent of transgender people who received hormone therapy as teenagers did not regret it five years later, a study found.
Though some patients did regret medically transitioning, those rates are relatively low compared to other medical interventions.— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) November 11, 2026 at 1:30 PM
