Informed Dissent

Ben and Jamie are off planning puppy pride parades, so this week, Cori, Eliza and Lisa digest the Supreme Court case Mahmoud v. Taylor. We also talk about Pam Bondi’s directive, Nike’s funding of a study on trans athletes, and the doctor, Allan Josephson, who received $1.6 million settlement after his colleagues destroyed his career for speaking out about youth gender transition. A little background on I Am Jazz, and some read-alouds on YouTube of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding.

Lisa’s non-gender suggestion of the week: Bo Burnham’s INSIDE, and Phoebe Bridgers’ cover of one of his songs from the album, That Funny Feeling.

Cori’s: Harmonies board game.

Eliza’s: Phyllis Rose’s Parallel Lives

The five of us discuss the outcome of the For Women Scotland case and how the situation across the pond compares to the US. Plus news headlines.

* XX wrist bands are hate speech

* Trump admin seeks to limit GAC coverage

* Planned Parenthood Arizona

* Trump admin sues Maine

* World Pride might tell trans people “Do not come”

* British newspaper front pages

* Supreme Court decision coverage

* third spaces

* Pride is going broke… (LGB Courage Coalition)

* Malcolm Clark’s thread on detransitioned Moroccan influencer

* WaPo article about influencer

* Sarah McBride Atlantic interview

* Parallel Lives book

* Satan’s Silence book

* Lawrence Wright

* The Looming Tower

* My Trip to Al-Qaeda

* Drawing flowers

* Meghan Daum’s new book

Today we discuss news headlines, a recent court decision in Australia, and the excruciatingly bad Last Week Tonight episode about trans athletes.

* Colorado bills

* Title IX investigation team

* Female disc golfer protests

* Ted Cruz opens investigation

* UK pool tournament

* Montana legislation

* Maine sues

* Trump admin pulls funding from Maine’s prison system

* America First Legal refers Illinois school district to DOJ

* Bernard Lane on Australian judge’s decision

* Last Week Tonight

* Nevada sports

* Lisa’s piece on Last Week Tonight

* White Lotus finale

* Kemi hasn’t watched Adolescence

* Julie Bindel tweet

* Suzanne O’Sullivan - The Age of Diagnosis

Today we debate whether “gender-affirming care” is child abuse and discuss the concept of trans exceptionalism, and Jamie and Lisa tell us about a recent debate between Marci Bowers and Brianna Wu.

* ACLU sues Indiana

* Transphobic toddler

* Washington State blocks women’s sports proposal

* CA Dems block women’s sports and spaces bills

* Trans protester arrested in Florida bathroom

* Nevada reverses sports policy

* Maine hit with another funding block

* Fencing female takes the knee

* Politics and Prose talk with Jennifer Finney Boylan and Sarah McBride

* Brianna Wu/Marci Bowers debate

* Duke Symposium with Bowers

* Hostages doc

* Open Socrates

* BBC’s Don’t Tell the Bride

* Going Clear

* Remembering Satan

After going over the week’s gender-related news headlines, the gang discusses Tuesday’s “listening session” with New Hampshire Rep. Jonah Wheeler (D), hosted by the League of Women Voters. Jamie and Cori attended the listening session (i.e., struggle session), as did a lot of very angry New Hampshirites. It all made for some prime gender-culture-war podcast material.

* U.S. DoE investigates California DoE

* Ed. Sec. Linda McMahon’s letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom

* DoE’s Office for Civil Rights opens Title IX investigation into Portland Public Schools

* 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules in Idaho

* U of Maine complies

* Maine school officials do not comply

* Maine poll on sports issue

* Cheek swabs in World Athletics

* Trump Admin denied by DC judge

* New Hampshire bills

* Jonah Wheeler testimony on House floor

* Zoom hacked

* listening session coverage

* Jamie’s livestream part 1

* Jamie’s livestream part 2

* Amos Oz memoir

* Phyllis Chesler memoir

* Adolescence on Netflix

This week, Lisa tells us about a surreal conversation she had with a NYC school principal. This leads us to a discussion on how to reach people who interpret all gender heresy as cruelty.

Lisa’s Substack

Eliza’s Substack

Ben’s Substack

Cori’s Substack

Jamie’s Substack

The White Lotus AGP scene

Lisa’s piece on The White Lotus for UnHerd

Delaware legislation

Cori’s encounter in Delaware

Cori’s Montana testimony

Lisa, Cori, and Ben talk to NYC school committee about gender ideology

New Hampshire HB148

This week, Jamie, Cori, and Ben discuss Detrans Awareness Day and view a recording of Jamie’s recent testimony in Wisconsin. That takes us down a long and winding path into politics, authoritarianism, postmodernism, queer theory, and anarchy.

* Detrans Awareness Day

* Jamie’s testimony

* Dutch protocol

* Citizens United

* Mahmoud Khalil

* Making misgendering a crime

* Derrick Jensen

* Queer theory jeopardy

* zines

* Patty Hearst

* VIP retweet

This week we chat about Trump’s address to Congress, Jamie’s and Cori’s testimonies in New Hampshire, and the tragic story of Sam Nordquist, whose murder has been compared by the press to Matthew Shepard’s murder in 1998. We revisit that event and discuss how news outlets and activist organizations misrepresent the facts to fuel specific narratives. We plan to make this the first part of a series of “mythbusting” episodes.

* Trump address

* Al Green

* Payton McNabb story

* January Littlejohn

* transgender mice

* New Hampshire legislation

* The murder of Sam Nordquist

* The Book of Matt

* Common Man dip

* Ann Bauer tweet

* Noise

First, Jamie updates us on some West Virginia legislation, and we discuss the transgender military ban as well as Chris Rufo’s reporting on leaked discussions from an LGBTQ chatroom within the NSA. Then it’s on to the main topic of this week’s episode: pronouns.

* ‘Health committee targets loopholes in West Virginia’s gender affirming care ban’

* Clip from Jamie’s testimony

* Trans military ban update

* NSA sex chat

* Rufo’s interview with whistleblower

* $450,000 settlement for Ohio teacher who refused to use students’ pronouns

* Federal employees told to remove pronouns from email signatures by end of day

* Pronouns, free speech, and the First Amendment

* New Hampshire event, featuring Jamie and Cori

After discussing some recent developments in Kansas and Colorado (including a proposed law that would prohibit deadnaming dead people), we delve into last night’s event at Vermont’s Middlebury College. There, Manhattan Institute fellow Leor Sapir and the activist Brianna Wu debated the question, “What is the right public policy approach to transgender medicine?” The debate had everything—Leor’s smarts, Brianna’s obfuscations, some sort of wind instrument, and some very angry nonbinary people.

* The debate

* WaPo’s coverage of the Kansas ban on pediatric sex-trait modification

* Colorado detrans bill of rights

* Colorado proposed legislation

* Leor’s work for City Journal

* Fleabag

* We Were the Lucky Ones

* Paris When It Sizzles

* Butterfield 8