You Told Them. That Was the Deal.
Welcome back to the Watering Hole, a day late and twice as full. It opens on the worst of it: the Pentagon going through protected medical records to find the trans troops who told the truth back when telling the truth was the requirement. There is real joy further down, and you have earned the scroll to get to it.
The Pentagon is reading medical records to find the trans troops it missed. Several hundred outed in two months. The search is blunt enough that it is flagging people who were never trans. keep reading →
Mount Sinai beat the Justice Department in court twice. Then it handed over the trans kids anyway. Won in June. Won again on August 27. Signed the deal eight days later. keep reading →
One in three foster kids is queer. The rule that protected them is gone. The rule cost nothing and forced nobody to do anything. That is what made it repealable. keep reading →
Somebody pulled the Pride memorial tree out of the ground. The next day the AfD won a German state. Berlin planted a maple where the van hit. Somebody came back for the bench beside it. keep reading →
The federal government published a study arguing that supporting us makes you violent. No existing scale gave them the answer they wanted, so they invented one. keep reading →
Riley Gaines went to one WNBA game and was shocked to discover lesbians. Reader, she has described the customer base. keep reading →
A Tucson realtor went off at 35,000 feet. First class taped him to his chair. Two hours into Dallas to Newark, first class ran out of patience and found the tape. keep reading →
Two women tortured Sam Nordquist for a month. On Tuesday both got life without parole. Both of them, life without parole, on the same Tuesday. Seven people were charged in all. keep reading →
She lost her job over free chest binders. Georgia just paid her $250,000. The binders were still only a grant application. That was enough to cost her the job. keep reading →
Ten Italian bishops sat down in the Jesuit headquarters to talk about how to treat us. Convened by the Bishops' Conference itself, which is the part that is actually new. keep reading →
Alan Cumming beat RuPaul for the hosting Emmy, and a lesbian sci-fi show took four. Reality TV Host, in a field with RuPaul in it. Pluribus took four more. keep reading →
Four men jumped a guy in Lavender Heights. Six days later the block threw a party anyway. Nobody has been arrested. The Rainbow Festival filled the same block that Sunday. keep reading →
A drag king got into the Bake Off tent. Hours later another one got into Drag Race España. Two shows, same Monday, nothing to do with each other. The tent got Blü Romantic. keep reading →
Nick Offerman sat on three years of Ben Shapiro and spent it all in one sentence. Shapiro did inventory on the episode in 2023. The reply took three years and one sentence. keep reading →
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📅 the timeline: eight days from winning to folding
June. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla refuses a Texas grand jury the medical records of trans kids treated at Mount Sinai and NYU Langone, and shields their identifying details.
August 27. The Second Circuit declines to lift her protections while the government appeals. Mount Sinai is winning, in writing, twice.
September 4. Eight days later Mount Sinai signs a deal with the Justice Department: no more puberty blockers, hormones or surgery for anyone under 18, a financial penalty, and $2 million set aside for people who say the care harmed them.
No court ordered this. No ruling required it. The hospital says it settled to keep patient files out of a grand jury room, and that may well be true, and the kids are still cut off. Remember the eight days the next time an institution tells you it had no choice. Mount Sinai beat the DOJ in court twice, then folded
— Spencer
