Conspiracy theories and transphobia thus far fueling GOP midterm election plans

The right-wing social media ecosystem did their work to spread a lie about James Talarico's mental health. But then the lie was exposed, leaving them scrambling to backtrack.

I have my fingers crossed regarding the upcoming mid-term election because I refuse to take anything for granted. One thing is for sure at least right now - Trump and the Republicans are running scared and fearing a huge blue wave.

That is evidenced by an ugly rumor their ecosystem spread about one of the Democratic candidates giving them the vapors. It was a rumor which delightfully backfired.

 The possible MVP of the midterms is James Talarico, the Democratic senatorial candidate for Texas. He has led the controversial and corrupt state attorney general Ken Paxton in the polls, and it has the MAGA influencers worried. So worried in fact that they recently started a rumor that Talarico took an absence from the campaign because of a mental health episode and checked himself into a mental health center in Ohio. They were full speed in pushing the lie until it blew up in their faces:

 Over just a few days, it went from an admitted rumor; to some like former Los Angeles GOP mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt claiming they had actual sources; to winks and nods from Talarico’s GOP opponent Ken Paxton and President Donald Trump; to right-wing sites covering the still-baseless claims; to some attempted independent journalism that has been repeatedly promoted by Elon Musk. 

 By Sunday afternoon, a pair of right-wing influencers shared audio of what they said was a call with a mental health center in Ohio seemingly confirming that Talarico had just been released from its facility.   

. . . The story then exploded on the right. But it just as quickly fell apart.

The Bulwark and others obtained the full phone call showing the apparent employee had previously and repeatedly flatly denied any record of Talarico being at the facility. She only said the above quote after being unable to locate any records for a person who told her Talarico was her cousin and had been staying there. 

The timeline didn’t even match up. The influencer said the call was placed on Saturday evening, so that would mean Talarico would have been discharged Saturday evening. But Talarico had already appeared publicly in Texas the night before and did so again on Saturday night.

The mental health center, called the Lindner Center of Hope, has now denied Talarico was ever there: “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.” 

Talarico says he has never even been to Ohio.

The article goes on to point out which MAGA Republicans are either deleting their tweets, backtracking, or staying firm in an attempt to pick some sense out of the nonsense they started.

Then there are the attacks on transgender Americans. In spite of the fact that Americans are more concerned with affordability, healthcare, Trump's war with Iran, and other vital issues, Republicans are hoping visions of spooky transgender predators will get reap them as much success as it was claimed to have done in the 2024 elections.

With the help of Elon Musk, who has thus far spent $100 million (that's right -  ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS) on anti-trans ads targeting Democrats, Republicans are trying very hard to distract voters from Trump's dismal record and their above and beyond the call of duty acquiesces to his madness.

Let me break down their attempts in three columns:

Failure - With the help of Soren Aldaco, an anti-trans activist, Republicans ran an ad accusing Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democratic senatorial candidate, of supporting trans surgery for minors.  That attempt blew up in their faces when the certain facts - seen below - came out about Aldaco.

Maybe mixed success, but still tacky:

 

 Donald Trump shared this absolutely ridiculous ad attacking South Carolina senatorial candidate Annie Andrews, while mocking her as "Annie 'Trannie' Andrews."  Andrews responded back with an ad of her own, vocalizing anti-trans tropes:

“So I want you to hear me loud and clear: I don’t support biological men playing women’s sports and I don’t support — and haven’t ever performed — gender surgery for minors,” Andrews says.

Trump's attack was the latest in a barrage of anti-trans nonsense thrown at Andrews by ads from her opponent and the current Republican Senator Darlene Graham.  The ad can be seen as a possible mixed success because it made Andrews respond in a way which affirmed anti-trans tropes and have gotten some of her supporters angry with her.  Trust me when I say this because I am a South Carolinian and we are knee deep in this mess. Time will tell if Andrews' attempt to distance herself hurts her campaign.

Coming across as desperate:

California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is running this inane anti-trans ad in a bid to attract Spanish speaking voters.

From LGBTQNation:

Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is targeting Spanish-speaking voters with an AI-generated ad that shows a caricature of a trans girl playing soccer against high school girls. 

 . . . The ad is airing in Spanish, but the New York Post shared an English-language version. It appears to be entirely AI-generated, and it opens with a father kissing his high school-aged daughter on the forehead at a soccer game before she runs to the field. The father asks, “Who is that?”

 “New starter,” a man says without even looking up from his phone. “Last week she declared herself a girl.” 

 The player, portrayed as a cis man with a mustache who appears to be around 30, is shown pushing the high school girls around on the field. While this person is supposed to represent a high school-age trans girl, the AI portrayal looks so much like a cis man that even the Post described the character as “a transgender man” twice. 

 “Who allowed this?” the father, who is now inexplicably standing in the middle of the field, asks as dramatic music plays. 

 “That? That was me,” AI-generated Becerra, who is also in the middle of the soccer field, responds. The name “Xavier Becerra” appears on the screen, even though this isn’t a clip of Becerra. “I fought for boys to play in girls’ sports, and I’ll keep doing it as governor.” 

“What if they get hurt?” the father asks. 

 “Sorry,” AI Becerra says, smiling.

Hilton's ad can be seen as desperate because, as the article points out, Becerra is leading Hilton by double digits.

Equality Forum's LGBTQ History Month icons are varied and controversial

October is LGBTQ History Month and on an annual basis, Equality Forum spotlights 31 iconic figures of LGBTQ history. This year is no different, but I think the choices will be seen as controversial, particularly a former president of the United States and a senator who was assaulted on the Congressional floor because his stance against slavery.

In light of efforts by the Trump Administration and their allies to erase LGBTQ history, videos like this are vital to our community.

BUSTED! Anti-trans activist, GOP super PAC caught lying in campaign ad against Sherrod Brown

A Republican group is running a political ad featuring anti-trans activist Soren Aldaco. The ad accuses U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown of supporting trans surgery for minors and implies that Aldaco's transition was somehow Brown's fault. As seen by the graphic courtesy of a news report from ABC affiliate WEWS, the ad is highly deceptive on both accusations.

In the 2024 election, scapegoating trans people, particularly trans children, was deemed a winning issue for the Republican party. 

Two years later people are slowly finding out that responding positively to spooky Republican ads about trans athletes, trans prisoners, or "trans surgeries for minors" didn't do anything to improve their healthcare, bring down prices, bring back jobs, or keep us out of war. This means conjuring up images of transgender boogeymen for the 2026 midterms doesn't seem to be having the same impact it did in 2024. 

But Republicans continue go about this course of action and in Ohio, they just got publicly called out for lying

From them: 

 A reelection advertisement created by a Republican super PAC in support of Ohio Senator Jon Husted misleads viewers into thinking that a young person’s gender transition was somehow Democratic opponent Sherrod Brown’s fault due to failed state-level policies. There’s only one problem: the person in the ad is not from Ohio and was a legal adult when she transitioned. 

 On September 24, the Senate Leadership Fund, which bills itself as the “only outside organization solely dedicated to protecting and expanding the Republican Senate Majority,” debuted the ad, “Sherrod Brown Does Whatever Extremists Demand,” aimed at linking the Ohio Democrat with gender-affirming care for minors, an ongoing wedge issue in the upcoming midterm elections.

 In the ad, 23-year-old Texan Soren Aldaco states that after a “20-minute meeting,” doctors told her parents that she was transgender, which led to “hormone shots” and a “botched double mastectomy,” which caused her “years of trauma.” She claims in the video that the surgery happened when she was a child. 

 After telling her story, Aldaco then links her personal situation to Brown’s alleged pro-trans policies, saying that Brown “supports sex change surgery for minors” and “admitted he would never oppose it.” Aldaco closes the ad by saying that Brown does “whatever extremists demand,” including “anything to hold onto power.” 

According to them, ABC affiliate WEWS and Politifact revealed that the ad is a highly deceptive.  WEWS ran a news segment about it (see graphic above.) Politifact posted a segment about it.

From Politifact: 

When contacted by PolitiFact about the 2026 ad, Senate Leadership Fund spokesperson Chris Gustafson cited Brown’s July 19, 2023, interview with WSYX-TV in Columbus, Ohio. That was also the sole source cited in the group’s 2024 ad, and in its other 2026 Ohio ads.

 The segment discussed legislation backed by then-Sen. JD Vance, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which Brown opposed. The measure would have made it a felony for doctors to provide surgery or prescribe puberty blockers to anyone younger than 18.

 In the interview, Brown said, “A child’s health care decisions are between them, their parents, their families, their doctors — not politicians. I will never agree with anybody that wants to bring politics into the family situation with health care, period.’” 

 Gustafson said this means Brown “does not support any limitations on transgender or gender-affirming procedures on children.” The wording of the 2026 ad goes further than the 2024 ad, which also mentioned “puberty blockers.” Nothing in Brown’s remarks to WSYX shows that he would force surgery on anyone. 

 The ad remains up on Youtube and in response, Brown ran his own ad:

#OHSen: Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) is up on TV with this response spot on the trans issue -- Warren from Johnstown to camera: "Here they go again, those same attacks against Sherrod Brown" Mary from Granville: "With everything going on, that's what they're talking about?" Mike from Richwood: "In Ohio, it's against the law to perform transgender surgeries on kids. That's right, it's illegal"

— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) September 18, 2026

Anti-trans grifter Riley Gaines suffers major court loss against NCAA

Riley Gaines

From the online publication them:

A federal judge dismissed Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), accusing the organization of violating her Title IX rights, on September 28. This dismissal comes after U.S. District Judge Tiffany Johnson concluded that the evidence provided by Gaines’ team did not establish that the NCAA was a recipient of federal financial assistance, something that must occur in order for the Title IX law to apply. 

 The lawsuit in question was put forth by Riley Gaines and a group made up of both current and former female collegiate athletes back in March 2024 and centers their claim that the NCAA violated their Title IX rights by implementing trans-inclusive policies.

 . . . Gaines and her legal team plan to appeal the decision in order to continue their pursuit of suing the NCAA, per Politico. They must file a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit within 30 days to continue the lawsuit. 

 The evidence that Gaines’ legal team attempted to use in the lawsuit centers on money streams of the NCAA and the Department of Defense, both of which contributed money to the University of Indiana. Johnson maintained that the two organizations have separate funding streams, writing that “there is no evidence that the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds. Thus, Plaintiffs’ Title IX claims cannot proceed." According to Johnson’s order, “[the] department’s money went to the university and other research participants rather than to the NCAA.”

Riley Gaines is like a musician with subpar talent constantly putting out remixes of the one hit song she was lucky to have. Her attacks on trans athletes and the trans community are very pathetic, seeing that her claim to fame was tying for fifth place in a swimming meet with trans athlete Lia Thomas. It's obvious that her "concern" for women's sports is a huge con game in which she is playing culture warrior for that "wingnut welfare" money which is plentiful for those faking conservative activism. 

When she's not portraying the virtuous white virgin tied to the railroad tracks of woke by dastardly trans villains, you will find her attempting to earn her coins by crying foul over so-called vital things such as Black Santas.  That is when she isn't having verbal fights with more successful athletes such as Simone Biles in embarrassingly blatant attempts to catch the proverbial "hem of their garment" so that she has at least a brief flicker of fame. That sort of thing is always good for a generous five minutes on Fox News for Gaines.

Seeing that as the case, this loss she just suffered in court should be good for maybe 10 minutes of pandering from a Fox News host Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters, or Laura Ingraham. It really doesn't matter because I can't tell those folks apart. They are bad combinations of the Borgs from Star Trek and The Stepford Wives.

'Recent articles show how Republicans are using transphobia to distract women, LGBs from harmful policies' & other Mon/Tue news briefs

Editor's note - two leading items in this evening's news brief post should be a clue to transphobic LGBs, and women that their anti-trans hysteria is being manipulated by Republicans to distract them from the actual harm being done by their policies.

Education Department formally rescinds Title IX protections for LGBTQ students - The "pick me" and the transphobic LGB folks were warned. There is no separating the LGBTQ community. When one of us gets attacked, we all get attacked.

A “monstrous injustice”: Trump admin announces pro-LGBTQ+ antidiscrimination rule ends tomorrow - More details about this vile happening. 

Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States With Abortion Bans - This is an issue from earlier this month. I don't think it got as much attention as it should with all of the nonsense about trans athletes and idiots causing problems with the WNBA. Republicans like to appeal to anti-trans hysteria by asking folks "what is a woman." Now you can tell them "A woman is someone whose rate of death from ectopic pregnancies have doubled while y'all distract us with transphobic bullshit." 

Fox pundits enraged that Obama praised women leaders without being transphobic - More of the same from Fox News. 

A Different World returns with a refreshing take on a coming-of-age queer story - As a black gay man, I've always felt disconnected to the original iteration of A Different World because there were no LGBTQ storylines. In the show's defense, this was a period of time in which there were very few LGBTQ storylines on any shows because of the controversy it would cause. THANK YOU A Different World for addressing situations regarding LGBTQ students on HBCUs. And doing it rather well, I see.

 The US deported LGBTQ migrants to countries where homosexuality makes them a target - And I bet it's deliberate. More proof that the transphobic LGBs who voted for Trump (yes there are some) are writing death warrants for our community.

MAGA millionaire using Washington state anti-trans ballot measures to gain tax cut

According to LGBTQNation, a millionaire hedge fund manager and ally of Donald Trump is behind two Washington state anti-trans ballot measures in a scheme which could get him a tax cut and girl athletes subjected to genital tests.

 Brian Heywood, a hedge fund manager and close ally of President Donald Trump, is the “villain we’re up against,” Libby Watson, campaign manager for No Hate in WA State, tells LGBTQ Nation. That organization is the collection of non-profits, parents, medical professionals, students and teachers arrayed against Heywood’s self-funded right-wing political action committee, Let’s Go Washington. 

The group is behind two initiatives that Watson and No Hate are organizing against. 

 Initiative 638 would ban trans girls from school sports with a requirement for genital exams or other forms of testing to confirm the sex of every girl in the state who wants to play sports. Initiative 001 outs LGBTQ+ students to families, repeals records protections from the victims of child abuse, and opens confidential school meetings between students and counselors for inspection. 

 Together, they’re a one-two punch attacking what MAGA supporters of the anti-LGBTQ+ Let’s Go campaign characterize as “gender ideology” and the “transgender agenda.” 

According to the article, there is a third component to the anti-trans ballot measures.

After qualifying the two culture war initiatives for the ballot, Heywood ran a separate signature-gathering campaign to qualify Initiative 645, which would repeal the millionaires’ tax recently passed by the Washington legislature that established a 9.9% tax on income over $1 million per year. Let’s Go Washington is packaging all three together in their Yes campaign. 

 “Ultimately, what he really cares about is not being taxed, and so he’s using students, the trans kids, LGBTQ+ youth as a scapegoat to rile up his base with the hope that he can turn out enough conservatives and persuade enough voters to vote yes on all three initiatives,” Watson says. “It’s not about fairness in girls’ sports.”

You can read the entire article from this site.

Transphobes reintroduce faulty Finnish study while ignoring its credibility issues

JK Rowling and other transphobes are amplifying an anti-trans study as if it is new. In reality, it an old piece of nonsense which was called out in April for inaccurate conclusions and the author's problems with bias and objectivity.

The tweet above is from arch transphobe JK Rowling amplifying a study which claims that gender-affirming care does not improve the mental health of trans youth.

Rowling and others amplified this study last weekend while arguably implying that it is a new discovery. That implication would be a lie.

The study came out in earlier this year and when it did, many people called out its errors which can be summarized by the graphic below:

For those who want more intricate information other than a graphic, I wrote a blog post about it. My post included a wonderful critique of the study by Dr. Laura Targownik, who has been called "a prominent leader in advocating for gender equity and transgender health rights within the medical profession."

I also wrote a second post calling attention to the fact that the author of the study had a serious conflict of interest which put to question her objectivity. I said the following in the piece:

According to trans activist and substacker Erin Reed:

The study, published in the low-impact journal Acta Paediatrica, comes from Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a Finnish psychiatrist with extensive ties to at least one anti-LGBTQ+ hate group and a history of anti-trans political advocacy. The study uses Finnish registries and psychiatric visit data to support these conclusions. However, a closer examination reveals the study to be fatally flawed: it does not actually measure what it claims to measure, its headline finding is a massive artifact of surveillance bias, the clinics practices were abusive, and it operates within a system where its findings were essentially baked in from the start—regardless of what the actual mental health impacts of gender-affirming care might be.

The anti-trans hate group Kaltiala is connected to is SEGM - the same group which praised her study. 

In a piece Reed wrote in June 2024:

Importantly, members and associates of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) have recently played a significant role in the Cass Review, a supposedly “independent” review now being cited to crack down on transgender care in England and the United States. Recent investigations revealed that multiple SEGM members and associates were part of advisory groups to the review with secret memberships. One such person was Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a Finnish psychologist who prominently presented at the latest SEGM conference and has been closely associated with SEGM, which denies her membership due to the organization having “no official members.” Dr. Kaltiala facilitated a meeting between Dr. Cass and Dr. Patrick Hunter, a DeSantis medical board pick and member of Genspect. Dr. Cass later shared information with the team according a letter obtained exclusively by this publication. Dr. Kaltiala went on to “meet regularly” with the DeSantis appointees and even testified in favor of Florida’s ban on transgender care.

What's interesting about that particular post was the visceral reaction I received by some who read it and others who obviously did not. I don't think I have ever received such an ugly reaction from anything I had published before:

These comments didn't upset me because it was obvious that I struck a nerve amongst the wolves. That's why I am amazed at how some of the same individuals are attempting to polish up the study while ignoring its past controversies in a sad attempt to make it seem new and fresh.

Then again, I am amazed, but I really shouldn't be. Nor should I be completely shocked.