The World & Me: Beyond the Label of Bipolar Disorder

I was first diagnosed with PTSD and bipolar disorder, but later learned that I actually had borderline personality disorder—a condition that, like so many others, carries heavy stigma. What strikes me is not just the difficulty of navigating shifting diagnoses, but the way society layers shame onto mental illness itself. Instead of compassion and understanding, people living with these conditions often face judgment, stereotypes, and silence, which only deepens the struggle.

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Anti-trans activists release database flagging hospitals providing youth gender-affirming care [State Policy Network]

Do No Harm, a coalition of anti-trans doctors, nurses, and medical professionals, released a database of all the hospitals and medical centers in the U.S. that provide gender-affirming care for trans youth today.

Anti-trans activists release database flagging hospitals providing youth gender-affirming care

Wait until they find out about this!

Related:

Meet the influential new player on transgender health bills

The organization’s executive director, Kristina Rasmussen, previously was chief of staff to former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, and served as president of the Illinois Policy Institute [State Policy Network], a conservative think tank, according to her LinkedIn profile.

It won a $250,000 award last year called the Gregor Peterson Prize. Its previous recipients include the Center for American Liberty, led by Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer who advised former President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign and who is representing Cole in her lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente over gender-transition treatments she now says she regrets. The prize was announced in December at a summit held by the American Legislative Exchange Council [State Policy Network], a prominent provider of conservative model legislation.

Document: Atlas Network

LGBTQ community sounds alarm bells over Vance

LGBTQ community sounds alarm bells over Vance

In addition to a history of anti-LGBTQ statements, the Ohio Republican is the primary sponsor of at least two pieces of federal legislation threatening to sharply roll back transgender rights, including one proposal that aims to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors nationwide. 

That bill, the Senate version of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) Protect Children’s Innocence Act, would charge health care providers who violate it with a Class C felony, punishable by more than a decade in prison. It would also prevent institutions of higher education from providing instruction about gender-affirming care and cut funding for health plans that cover treatment.

Related:

Cis boys get gender-affirming surgeries more often than trans minors

Transgender kids rarely get gender-affirming surgeries — in fact, cisgender children are much more likely to get them, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Neoreactionaries

OIC, resistance groups condemn Israeli forces’ strip-search of Palestinian women as UN urges investigation

The United Nations has called for an investigation into the forced stripping of five Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers during a raid on their home in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil as the move also draws condemnation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

OIC, resistance groups condemn Israeli forces’ strip-search of Palestinian women as UN urges investigation

Related:

‘Most victims don’t speak up’: Israeli soldiers ‘regularly’ strip-search Palestinian women