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From a young age, I enjoyed playing around with gender roles, but it wasn’t until later in my adolescence that I started to have more complex thoughts about my gender identity. What I discovered, both in my childhood and later in my development, was that a lot of trans folks have similarly nonlinear approaches, or nonlinear journeys, to their trans lives. There were moments I was very attached to my femininity, and moments where I felt more masculine. Getting to exist on either side of this gender binary – and explore the middle ground between them – was invaluable. As a trans person and as a physician, I know just how important it is for young people and their families to be able to talk to trusted health care providers about the uncertainties they’re facing or the questions they have. However, as I was navigating this complex development, I did not have adults in my life to whom I could turn for guidance and support with my gender. When I was younger, I didn’t have access to ...

President-elect Donald Trump has made mass detention of immigrant communities a central part of his political platform. Trump’s cabinet nominees are reportedly laying the groundwork to expand detention capacity in cities around the country. The Trump administration's proposed plans include making detention mandatory, which would trap immigrants in abusive, inhumane conditions for years as they fight deportation. Immigration detention, or civil detention for those awaiting a determination of their immigration status or deportation, must be limited. Right now President Joe Biden can act to limit mass detention of immigrants by closing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities with egregious records of human rights violations and abuses and halt further detention expansion. The Facts During the last Trump presidency, ICE opened more than 40 new detention facilities, with the vast majority owned or operated by private prison corporations, whose business m...

Twenty minutes from where I grew up, in Owasso, Oklahoma, Nex Benedict was relentlessly bullied for being trans. This bigoted aggression continued for more than a year and, last March, Nex died after being physically beaten in a school bathroom. Nex is far from alone. According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention one in four transgender youth missed school because they knew they were unsafe. A Department of Education (ED) investigation found that Nex’s experience was part of a routine negligence to prevent sex-based harassment in their school district. Trans Day of Remembrance is an annual ceremony of mourning for the trans and gender non-conforming people whose lives were lost to anti-trans violence this year. In 2024, four of those lost were teenagers , like Nex. The youngest, Pauly Likens, was murdered at just 14. Memorializing our trans kindred we lost in the previous year started with the 1998 death of Rita Hester and, for 26 years, this day...

In the final weeks of the election, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party focused their campaign efforts on abortion rights, particularly in key swing states. While those efforts did not secure Harris a win, in the 10 states where abortion rights were on the ballot, seven voted to safeguard abortion rights in their state constitutions. Among those seven states, in Arizona, Missouri, Nevada and Montana — where President-elect Donald Trump won — abortion ballot measures definitively passed. In many cases, the ballot measures were more popular than Trump. While these red state wins indicate just how popular abortion rights are among even conservative-leaning voters, wins in blue and purple states, including Maryland, Colorado and New York, show that reproductive freedom continues to be an issue that defies party lines. Abortion Rights Win in Trump Country Kohar/ACLU Thirteen states currently have total abortion bans in effect, but Missouri was the first state t...

Today, as the nation prepares for the devastating onslaught of civil liberties abuses identified in our most recent analysis of Donald Trump’s policy proposals and rhetoric, the ACLU, too, is prepared. Starting on day one, we’re ready to fight for our civil liberties and civil rights in the courts, in Congress, and in our communities. We did it during his first term – filing 434 legal actions against Trump while he was in office – and we’ll do it again. We’ve done the work and, today, our track record shows that we know how to fight his attempts to restrict our civil liberties and civil rights. Here’s just a few highlights from our 400 plus legal actions to make that point:

The results of the election are in: Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. Trump’s win comes after a campaign in which he consistently targeted immigrants, transgender youth, and other vulnerable communities with hateful rhetoric. He also threatened retribution against dissidents and political opponents. I know that many of us fear what these results mean for our communities, our nation and ourselves. We know that a second Trump administration will be even more aggressive and effective than it was before — because Trump has repeatedly said so. As outlined in Project 2025 , under a second Trump administration, our federal government will deport immigrants in dragnet raids, target his political adversaries, spy on private citizens, promote discrimination against marginalized communities, and control what we can and can’t do with our bodies. This dystopian view of American life threatens our fundamental freedoms. We know from prior experience that our fear is r...

Since the fall of Roe , Americans have consistently supported reproductive freedom at the polls. Knowing this, ACLU advocates across the country have worked to ensure the people have a say on reproductive freedom. On Election Day, voters will decide on ten ballot initiatives that will protect and increase abortion access at the state level. While 13 states currently have total abortion bans in effect, Missouri was the first state to enforce its ban, taking action mere minutes after the fall of Roe. Alongside local partners, the ACLU of Missouri has spent years fighting to secure access to reproductive health care. Today, Missourians will decide on Amendment 3 , which would enshrine the right to reproductive freedom in their state constitution. In Arizona, lawmakers have likewise aggressively restricted abortion access for decades, imposing a 15-week ban on abortion after Roe was overturned and trying to reinstate an 1864 total abortion ban. The ACLU of Arizona was one of the lead...

Anti-immigrant extremists have repeatedly used “invasion” rhetoric to divide our communities and advance their anti-immigrant agenda. Donald Trump has promised to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” and, at recent campaign rallies, gone so far as to pledge that, if re-elected, he will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to facilitate a draconian mass deportation program. Though Trump made similar promises when in office, we know that his administration would be far more aggressive in its efforts to use this colonial-era law to deport millions. Below, we breakdown what this means for our communities. What is the Alien Enemies Act? The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was passed as part of the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts, which were a series of laws passed by a Federalist-led Congress to address fears about an impending war with France. While the other three laws have since expired or been repealed, the Alien Enemies Act remains active. The la...

As we near Election Day, the ACLU is in conversation with state and local activists about how to prepare for, and respond to, the election outcome. Many people we spoke with are grappling with how they can best protect their communities and fight back against unprecedented attempts to restrict our rights. Right now, there’s real concern about how to combat the dystopian, authoritarian vision for America that Project 2025 and other extremist figures have promised to move forward should Donald Trump win the White House. Many ACLU supporters also tell us that it already feels like Project 2025 is in operation in their community. They are living with state-level bans on abortion, ideological purges in their schools, and intimidation and harassment from anti-civil rights law enforcement officials and threats by vigilante groups. No matter who wins the White House, they will continue to live with attempts to impose an extreme, anti-civil liberties agenda on their communities. The gravi...

Election Day is less than two weeks away. Right now, the race remains tight and, while we may have a clear winner on November 6th, that day could also mark the start of a prolonged period of uncertainty while votes are counted, recounted, contested and certified. At the ACLU, we know that our country was built on the freedom to vote and elect leaders who govern in our name. Right now, however, certain politicians are spreading lies and putting in place deliberate barriers to voting. We’re dedicated to ensuring that every voter is able to cast a ballot that is both counted and respected. Our elections have built-in checks for accuracy. Teams of people from both parties work together at every step of the voting, counting, and reporting process to ensure that results are verified before they are officially certified. We take pride in having held reliable elections through times of war, economic depression, and social unrest. Today, the ACLU is in the courts and on the ground to ensure...

Prosecutors have used their power to pack jails and prisons. And it has taken decades, billions of dollars, and thousands of laws to turn the United States into the largest incarcerator in the world. But did you know that prosecutors also have the power to dismantle this machine — even without changing a single law? This video series, presented by the ACLU Campaign for Smart Justice and In Defense Of, a project of Brooklyn Defender Services, shows how prosecutors can single-handedly transform the broken American criminal justice system. Featuring DeRay McKesson (civil rights activist), Nina Morrison (The Innocence Project), Baratunde Thurston (Author and Comedian), Adam Foss (a former prosecutor), Scott Hechinger (Brooklyn Defender Services), John Pfaff (professor and author of Locked In), Josie Duffy-Rice (Fair Punishment Project), and Brandon Buskey (ACLU). Prosecutors have the power to flood jails and prisons, ruin lives, and deepen racial disparities with the stroke of a pen....

In the Spring of 1999, young people across the country began to prepare for that singular teenage right of passage: Prom. For Diamond Stylz, this time included not just finding the right dress and corsage, but fighting for her right to attend prom at all. School administrators had told the then 17-year-old Stylz just two days before prom that she could not attend the event wearing a dress, despite living as a woman for years. “At that time,” Stylz reflects, her teachers were “really adamant about teaching me to be a boy” in deference to the cultural sensationalism that trans individuals were somehow wrong. Stylz knew she wasn’t wrong — the school was. She made the decision to fight this attempt to discriminate against her right to be who she is. With the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, Stylz successfully sued her school, arguing that their actions violated her First Amendment rights. “There was so much empowerment [in the decision to fight back],” Stylz explains. But al...

For more than two years, the immigration debate has revolved around one issue: “the border.” Despite the fact that issues related to the border are vast and complex, the entire U.S. immigration system – flaws and all – has been boiled down to grainy images of barbed wire atop a border wall and videos of families and others seeking safety waiting for a chance to make their asylum claims. Our current election cycle has only magnified and intensified the problem. At the ACLU, we examined three ways the media is shaping unfair narratives about the immigration system: ONE: Millions of dollars have been funneled into political ads based on fearmongering about the border Candidates across the political spectrum have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the last year doing everything in their power to distill the immigration debate down to the lowest common denominator—making people afraid of what’s happening at the southern border—facts and truth be damned. We evaluated the en...

Greeted by the newly constructed “Detroit” sign, my colleagues and I arrived in the Motor City for the final stop on the ACLU’s Know Your Rights bus tour. We didn’t actually ride our Know Your Rights bus to Detroit. Instead, we arrived to find the bus in all its glory parked outside the Garden Theater, just off the bustling Woodward Avenue. While Detroit is the last stop on our tour, the KYR bus has crisscrossed the country helping voters know their rights and feel empowered and excited to show up to the polls this November. In Detroit, the ACLU KYR tour was hosting a live taping of our podcast, At Liberty , as well as a rap concert with the famed Danny Brown. As we entered the theater, well over an hour before the event started, the energy was already palpable. The venue was buzzing. Lights were flashing and enthusiastic volunteers prepped tables with free ACLU Know Your Rights swag, which included cans of La Colombe cold brew and Tony’s chocolates. As it approached time for the do...

For many of Texas’ 3 million border residents, going through federal interior checkpoints – where Border Patrol agents are permitted to screen vehicles for suspected noncitizens and can ask passengers about their citizenship and travel plans – can be an intimidating but predictable part of daily life. But for undocumented or mixed-status families, these checkpoints are literal barriers to their ability to access basic services and to leave the state for essential medical care like abortion. A new report from the ACLU details how these federal checkpoints – and the additional layer of anti-immigrant state policing – create a web of unnecessary, stressful, and dangerous barriers for people living in border communities isolated from abortion care. The U.S. Border Patrol, an agency within Customs and Border Protection (CBP), operates more than 110 checkpoints and roving patrols within 100 miles of the international border. In Texas alone, there are around 19 interior checkpoints, stati...