 |
| 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
 |
| 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.
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.”
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.”
 |
| 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:
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:
 |
| Vice President JD Vance |
From The Advocate:
Vice President JD Vance reached for satanic panic Monday while campaigning in Kansas, falsely describing the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as devil worshipers and mangling the group’s name in the process.
Vance appeared at a MAGA Inc.-organized rally at Webco Manufacturing in Olathe to support Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, who faces the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a prominent United Methodist pastor and Democrat, in November. State Senate President Ty Masterson, the Republican nominee for governor, also attended, according to the Kansas Reflector.
Hamilton “proudly supported a drag group called Our Ladies of Perpetual Indulgence,” Vance claimed. No organization by that name exists. He apparently meant the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the 47-year-old volunteer network of queer and transgender nuns. Vance called the Sisters “the devil worshiping group that was saying special blessings before LA Dodgers games” and an “anti-Christian hate group.”
The Advocate refuted that lie:
The Sisters do not worship the devil. Their stated mission is community service, human rights advocacy, spiritual outreach, and combating shame and bigotry through humor. The organization has raised money for community nonprofits and became an early provider of sex-positive safer-sex information during the AIDS crisis.
The Dodgers did not invite the Sisters to bless baseball games. The team honored the Los Angeles chapter with a Community Hero Award before its June 16, 2023, Pride Night game, recognizing its charitable work. Catholic leaders and conservative politicians opposed the honor because the Sisters satirize Catholic imagery — criticism Vance inflated into a tale of devil worship.
Vance offered no evidence that Hamilton or his church contributed money directly to the Sisters or endorsed every PrideFest participant. He also claimed Hamilton considers being white and eating meat sinful. The Kansas Reflector reported that those accusations were assembled from old sermon excerpts stripped of context.
Bear in mind that this is the same JD Vance who, during the 2024 election, helped Donald Trump spread the ugly lie that Haitian immigrants were kidnapping and eating people's pet dogs and cats. '
When confronted about this, Vance pretty much admitted that the story was a lie by saying:
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do."
During the same time frame of him lying on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Hamilton, Vance also filmed a plea begging voters to give Trump and the Republicans "another chance" as the midterm elections approach. He did this due to the strong possibility that voters, fed up with Trump's incompetence, will give control of Congress to the Democrats.
With his lie, Vance is giving voters good reason not to be taken in by his ridiculous begging.
As for this voter, I have only one thing to say to Vance - Pretend that I am a couch and kiss my ass.
