Published May 6, 2025
Most of you know I’m not well. I don’t have the ability to write a story, so I’ll let others deliver the mail today.
SCOTUS Blog says:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon cleared the way for the Trump administration to enforce a Department of Defense policy prohibiting transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. With the court’s three Democratic appointees indicating that they would have denied the Trump administration’s request, the justices paused an order by a federal judge in Washington state that had barred the government from implementing the policy anywhere in the United States.
The timing is gutting for trans people.
92 years ago today, the Nazis raided the Magnus Hirschfeld Institute for Sexuality, where the first study of trans people was conducted, and burned all of its contents.
Fitting that today is also the day SCOTUS greenlights the project of the eradication of trans people from society in the US.
— Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) May 6, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has some words on the subject.
The photos have been in circulation for years. The alt text is by Gillian Branstetter of the ACLU.
The Queer Burning of May 6, 1933.
It was 92 years ago today that Nazis destroyed the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science, the first known sexology institute in the western world.
— Rep. Leigh Finke (@leighfinke.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Operated by the physician Magnus Hirschfeld, The institute pioneered research and healthcare for all matters related to sex, and sexuality, as well as putting forward education efforts on LGBTQ+ identities and inclusion.
— Rep. Leigh Finke (@leighfinke.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Specifically, Hirschfeld’s work was the earliest known to affirm and humanize trans and queer individuals during the liberal inter-war period in Berlin, offering corrected identity cards that matched individuals gender so they could publicly be themselves.
This work was not positively received.
— Rep. Leigh Finke (@leighfinke.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 3:19 PM
The clinic operated from 1919 – 1933. The Institute’s support for queer love and life almost immediately brought violence for years. Nazi Party officials and thugs eventually destroyed of the clinic and years of research and records inside the Institute.
— Rep. Leigh Finke (@leighfinke.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 3:19 PM
There is much to read about the Queer Burning of May 6 and I encourage everyone to know what happened to our transcestors then, and reflect on what is happening right now.
— Rep. Leigh Finke (@leighfinke.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Most Americans don’t even know or care, I’d wager. We are acceptable losses in this war.
How would you feel if you were me? If you were one of us? Maybe you agree with Trump.
If so, keep it to yourself.
In an absolutely devastating ruling, the Supreme Court has allowed the transgender military ban to go into effect.
This is shocking – the ban explicitly called transgender people dishonorable for being transgender. It is as clear as day soaked in animus.
www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docke…
— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) May 6, 2025 at 11:28 AM
To people saying “it’s a temporary ruling,” those people are missing the point.
This stay allows the military to IMMEDIATELY begin to let go of soldiers. Those soldiers will need jobs, pay, shelter.
And it clearly indicates where SCOTUS is on trans people.
— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) May 6, 2025 at 11:58 AM
But SCOTUS didn’t matter in 2016, remember?
“The court’s three liberals said they would have denied the application.”
www.npr.org/2025/05/06/n…— PortiaMcGonagal (@portiamcgonagal.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 12:14 PM
The anti-trans movement: I don’t want men harassing cisgender women in restrooms
Also anti-trans movement: Officer, please send a man into that restroom to harass cisgender women!
www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/…
— Andrew Joyce (@andrewjoyce.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 8:34 AM
I might add to this later. Right now I’m a wreck.
♥
Thank you
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Seriously, what’s wrong with us?
This isn’t just about one racist woman in Minnesota. It’s about a pattern that’s played out repeatedly in recent years—a sort of patronage system for bigotry that’s become embedded in conservative fundraising culture.
— The New Republic (@newrepublic.com) May 6, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Tell me again about white people’s “economic anxiety.”
Source: The Democratic Coalition.
What payoff were people expecting?
Also, a defining characteristic of this era in America is the notion that “liberals” and “woke” make the near and far right behave horribly. It’s the “you made me do it” excuse that just won’t go away.
We’re in trouble.
Lead photo by John M. Chase via Shutterstock.