Intersex People

‘We Take Care of Each Other’: Building Community in a Brutal Political Moment

PUBLISHED 12/1/2025 by

The Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP) has never had it easy. Founded in 2004 by Alexander L. Lee, TGIJP’s mission was simple enough on paper: Provide legal services to incarcerated transgender, gender-variant and intersex Californians. 

How are formerly incarcerated Black and brown transgender, gender-variant and intersex people managing to do this work in the nightmare that is 2025? 

The answer is simple: We take care of ourselves, and we take care of each other, just like we always have. 

(This essay is part of a collection presented by Ms. and the Groundswell Fund highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy.)

A Century After the Eugenics Movement, the U.S. Is Again Barring Disabled Immigrants

PUBLISHED 11/20/2025 by

This month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructed visa officers to consider obesity and other chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, as justification to deny people visas to the United States.

Many were outraged and shocked, observing the Trump administration’s new expansion of the “public charge” rule—directing visa officers to deny entry to people with disabilities, chronic illnesses or age-related conditions—as a modern revival of eugenic immigration policy designed to exclude, control and institutionalize disabled and marginalized people.

When Trump first took office in 2016, the Trump administration broadened the definition of public charge to include people who receive SNAP benefits, medicaid, housing assistance, childcare subsidies and more. This new rule was published in 2019 and went into effect in 2020 and early 2021; President Biden ended the use of this public charge rule definition in March 2021, returning it to the older but still restrictive version. Following Trump’s new rule, visa denials based on the “public charge” rule exploded during Trump’s first residency, rising from just over 1,000 denials in 2016 to over 20,000 in 2019, and it had disastrous effects.

As the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) found, broadening this public charge rule led many people to reduce or stop using benefits or services for themselves.

Why Authoritarians Always Come for Gender Studies First

PUBLISHED 6/26/2025 by

We all know that Trump and the Republican Party are coming for higher education. But, what many don’t know is that in this century, authoritarians come for gender studies first.

I would be nearly hopeless about the future of gender studies in the U.S. if not for a valuable lesson I learned teaching gender studies in Russia: Critical thinking is difficult to destroy. It will fester in the cracks and fissures left behind by the regime. And, when the regime collapses—as all authoritarian regimes eventually do—gender studies will return with the skills and courage to teach about how the world really is, not how many on the far right wish it would be.

This Public School Program Is Grooming Kids to Hate Through Bible Study

PUBLISHED 5/22/2025 by

When you think about Bible study, images might pop into your head of kids learning principles like forgiveness or loving thy neighbor, and that’s just what LifeWise Academy advertises on its website: “a supportive and inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels valued.” But for many parents and LGBTQ kids in at least 591 American public schools with LifeWise programs, that’s far from the truth.

LifeWise Academy is a conservative Christian organization that takes public school students off school property to “integrate a Bible class into their weekly class schedule.” For an hour a week, students from kindergarten through 12th grade learn about religious concepts rooted—in part—in homophobia and transphobia. LifeWise’s growth in the U.S. reflects a trend of politicians and lawmakers attempting to incorporate Christianity in public schools and minimize LGBTQ representation.

‘Feminism, Fascism and the Future’: Sociologist Laurie Essig on Dissolving Democracies in Russia and the U.S.

PUBLISHED 4/22/2025 by

Sociologist and author Laurie Essig has decades of experience studying and visiting Russia (and before that, the Soviet Union). Her first book, Queer in Russia, chronicles and analyzes the time between the dissolution of the USSR and the solidification of Putin’s non- (or anti-)democratic rule in Russia.

As Trump’s second term intensifies anti-gender rhetoric, sociologist Laurie Essig draws chilling parallels between rising U.S. authoritarianism and decades of state-sponsored repression in Putin’s Russia.

“One of the things we can learn from Russia is just how important resistance is. There were moments when things could have gone differently. They didn’t, but I don’t think that was pre-ordained. …

“Every strongman, every dictator we look at, had anxiety about masculinity.”

Keeping Score: Executive Orders Attack Trans Community; Americans Need Paid Leave and Childcare Policies; Unvaccinated Measles Cases Soar

PUBLISHED 3/4/2025 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Trump’s executive orders continue to threaten trans people’s safety, jobs and rights; policies like paid family leave and universal preschool are incredibly popular; measles spreads among unvaccinated populations; Congress signals their plan to cut SNAP and Medicaid; women’s college basketball teams will be paid for March Madness games; almost a quarter of Gen Z adults are part of the LGBTQ community; and more.

What My All-Male Students Could Teach the President About Sex and Empathy

PUBLISHED 2/24/2025 by

I teach gender studies at Wabash, an all-male college. Our elective introductory course is always waitlisted. The students, mostly from the Midwest where sex ed is virtually nonexistent in public schools, are eager to study the biology and sociology of sex.

Most of my students know nothing about sex ed when they enter my class. But too many men like them—without knowledge about chromosomal sex, hormonal sex, gonadal sex, or intersex conditions—go on to legislate human bodies, define what is “natural,” and punish doctors who professionally advise patients on the best healthcare options for their well-being.

Keeping Score: Devastating Attacks on USAID; Louisiana Indicts N.Y. Doctor; Autumn Lockwood Is First Black Woman Coach to Win Super Bowl

PUBLISHED 2/12/2025 by | UPDATED 6/26/2025 at 2:46 P.M. PT

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Musk and Trump’s USAID attacks have devastating impacts; 80% of the clean energy investments from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act—which Trump wants to roll back—are in Republican congressional districts; Louisiana indicts a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills; new executive orders go after workers and LGBTQ people; the Laken Riley Act was signed into law; childcare costs affect the health of parents; and more.

Transphobia in Women’s Sports Is Dangerous for All Women

PUBLISHED 9/12/2024 by

Olympic athlete and women’s boxing gold medalist Imane Khelif recently became a target for anti-trans activists and know-it-all couch potatoes. They decided Khelif was a man based on her perceived appearance and strength, rather than actual facts. So hyped are the anti-trans police that any woman who doesn’t seem to conform to gender norms is suspect and fair game, particularly if she’s public and successful. This is dangerous for all women, no matter their gender identity, and especially women of color.

If we accept transphobes’ arguments against all trans women in all sports, we inevitably accept a set of assumptions that harm women, trans and cis alike.

Chromosome Count: Who Gets to Decide Which Athletes Are ‘Feminine Enough’ to Compete?

PUBLISHED 8/12/2024 by

At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, a right-wing media firestorm spread disinformation that Imane Khelif of Algeria was transgender. As this article from the October 1988 issue of Ms. reminds us, sex testing in women’s sports is nothing new—and its origins are blatantly unscientific.

“Sports are not democratic. They’re elitist. The tallest play basketball. The shortest are jockeys. The ultimate would be to break the Olympics into biological classes and run them like the Westminster Dog Show.”