It’s very difficult to quantify exactly how many transgender people are currently serving in the US Military. Especially in the current environment, it’s not safe to come out. I’ve seen estimates ranging from 2,000 – 8,000 people.
“The judge said the Defense Department has spent roughly $5.2 million annually over the past decade to provide medical care to treat gender dysphoria — a miniscule percentage of the military’s multi-billion dollar budget. As a point of comparison, Reyes noted that the military spends around $42 million per year on medication treating erectile dysfunction.”
There is nothing true about transgender service members being less than their colleagues in terms of ability, morals, honor, or military readiness. Replacing 2,000-8,000 already trained and long serving people in our military will cost a great deal and take a great deal of time. Recruiting for the military is not in such a comfortable state that we can easily replace these trained and experienced service members. I consider it wasteful to remove these people from military service. It’s also immoral and disgusting to suggest that they are less than their colleagues in any way.
If a trained and experienced transgender person is defending me, I don’t give a crap what their experience is with gender as long as they do their job. They have, they will, and there is no good reason to remove them from service.
Imagine what it would feel like if we had a president – of any gender – who decided to keep the transgender service members and stop paying for erectile dysfunction meds in the military to save money. Just imagine what that would feel like.
Thousands of people responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, monitoring the safety of food and medicine, and administering health insurance programs for nearly half of the country were laid off Tuesday at the nation’s top health agencies.
The moves will shrink the Department of Health and Human Services to 62,000 positions, lopping off nearly a quarter of its staff.
The cuts include researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders, leaving the federal government without many of the key experts who have long guided U.S. decisions on medical research, drug approvals and other issues.
FDA is losing workers “who review new drug and medical implants, set policy for electronic cigarettes and tobacco products as well as the entire press office staff. The agency’s top tobacco regulator was removed from his post, along with several of his deputies.”
The National Institute of Health (NIH) is the world’s leading medical research agency — funding research into cancer, Alzheimer’s, HIV and other devastating diseases… has lost 1,200 jobs on Tuesday plus 1,000 NIH employees recently fired, both scientists and staff who administer billions in research funding. The administration also has canceled hundreds of NIH grants to scientists around the country.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) which oversees Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplace, is cutting 300 jobs. Reported cuts so far have focused on the agency’s Office of Minority Health, Office of Equal Rights and Opportunity as well as the Office of Program Operations & Local Engagement.
Article “FACT FOCUS: Warren Buffett did not praise Trump’s recent economic policies”
…opposition from Democrats, who are unified against what they decry as tax breaks for the wealthy at the expense of federal programs Americans rely on.
And Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the lone GOP opponent to the plan so far, questioned the math being used by his colleagues that he said would pile on the debt load. “Something’s fishy,” he said.
Article “Trump administration issues demands on Harvard as conditions for billions in federal money”
The government’s letter is a “dominance test,” not an effort to fight antisemitism, said Kirsten Weld, a Harvard history professor and president of the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
When you go out to protest, read up ahead of time and have a clear understanding of the challenges ahead of you, especially when you may face a challenge to your first amendment rights.
These are great simple tips for going out to protest. The key one for me I hadn’t thought about was ensuring someone else NOT at the protest knows where I am going.
Announcing a private fundraiser I’m running with some help from my friend Countess Meggie of the East Kingdom. See the announcement text below:
Announcement
With support from the Order of Defense in the East Kingdom, Dame Sophia The Orange of Atlantia is running a private fundraiser to help make it easier for women and gender minorities who wish to compete in the East Kingdom’s Spring Crown Tournament.
Support from this fundraiser will take the form of hand delivered gas gift cards.
If you have submitted your letter of intent for EK Spring Crown Tournament, been accepted into the tournament, and you would like to receive support, please send an email to Countess Meggie (East Kingdom) at marguerite.lachlainn AT gmail.com giving the SCA name under which you have submitted your letter of intent. Combatants are encouraged to accept support.
How we’re doing it:
All monies raised will be distributed. The total amount of funds collected will be divided by the number of requests for support received by Countess Meggie. That number, minus any required processing fees, will determine the value of the gas cards.
This is a private fundraiser and is not an official SCA activity. If you would like to support this effort, please donate at the GoFundMe link above. Participation is more important than the amount of donation, so please donate a small amount to demonstrate your support of women and gender minorities fighting in Crown Tournament. The total number of people donating, number of combatants receiving support, and total funds raised will be publicly reported after the tournament.
If you have a cadet or a provost who meets the criteria and has submitted their letter of intent, please encourage them to drop Countess Meggie an email.
—
Countess Marguerite inghean Lachlainn, OR, OP, OL, OD
She/Her
Please share!
(I’d like to ask for some help from my friends promoting this private fundraiser. We can’t post this in official SCA venues. It must be shared via personal contacts. – Sophia)
With both sadness and joy, I share the news that my father-in-law, Dr. John Mark Dean, passed away yesterday. He was in hospice care at home surrounded by loved ones. Sadness for having to say goodbye to a deeply loving father. Joy comes from knowing that he was ready to move on and was surrounded by love.
Scott and I were able to visit two weekends ago. John was in a positive state of mind and said repeatedly, “I am so fortunate.”
We are planning a memorial event for some weeks in the future. It will take place in the Dean’s retirement home of Laurel Crest in Columbia, SC.
John, a professor and marine biologist with the Baruch Institute, was a popular teacher at University of South Carolina where he influenced and inspired many students to combine the science of our coast with whatever major one had – English lit, Political Science, Law, or other majors, as well as inspiring generations of graduate students in the sciences. He has an extraordinary list of former students who combined coastal and ocean sciences with their careers in national and state policy, academic and business positions. Their home hosted numerous graduate students, international students, visiting musicians, and other visitors from every corner of the globe and as well as from this country. He left a wonderful legacy in his wake.
Federal Government work is hindered by the unhealthy obsession some officials have with other people’s gender. WHY DO THEY CARE SO MUCH??? Why can’t they prioritize the work they need to do instead of spending time in the fight over other people’s gender and how they present themselves? Why is it so important to them that they chose to shut down meetings?
I wish getting business done for the American people was more important than arguing about a colleague’s gender. See this Associated Press video.
“A House subcommittee hearing abruptly ended on Tuesday when Texas Republican Rep. Keith Self introduced the first openly transgender lawmaker in Congress as “Mr. McBride.” Rep. Sarah McBride responded by referring to Self as “Madam Chair.” The hearing was adjourned after Democrat William Keating asked Self if he had “no decency.”
How does one person’s gender affect another person? It does not!! It sure as heck does not negatively affect another person enough to get in the way of holding a meeting. To let it get in the way is childish.
Why are our elected officials spending ANY TIME on this bizarre obsession with other people’s genders?? They might as well be ending meetings based on comparing each other’s shoe sizes.
My Senator, Mr. Tillis, a Republican and T supporter, has not responded to my many voicemails and Facebook messages. His office has my name and street address. They know I’m a constituent that’s vocal and against what Mr. Tillis is doing on many topics. I have no way of knowing if my actual Senator understands what I’m saying. I have doubts about whether my messages are getting to him at all.
My Congresswoman, Deborah Ross, a Democrat, has very polite staff who answer my calls and clearly listen, take notes about what my opinions are, and let me know I have been heard.
An in-person town hall is one of the few ways elected officials can really let their constituents know they’ve been heard, they are understood, and their needs, opinions, etc, have been taken into account. The Republican members of the US House of Representatives have been directed to NOT hold town halls. Below is a quote from the NY Times article on this topic from March 4, 2025: Read the whole article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/us/politics/gop-town-hall.html
“Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm, issued a stark message to the G.O.P. rank and file on Tuesday: Stop having in-person town halls with your constituents.”
Here’s why according to him: “Democrat activists who don’t live in the district, very often, will show up for these town hall events and they’ll go in an hour early and they’ll fill all the seats,” Mr. Johnson said. “Now I’m not saying everyone in these town halls that you’ve seen on television were not from the local area, but look, there are people who do this as a profession. They’re professional protesters. So why would we give them a forum to do that right now?”
I’ll tell you why. Because elected officials are required by law to listen to their constituents and represent them. The number of protesters who are not constituents in any given town hall compared to those who are constituents is an UNKNOWN number. Using that argument to hide from constituents is using fear to avoid doing the job of an elected official. In short terms, it means the elected official is caving in to fear like a coward.
This paragraph is from the AP News article linked below on a NC town hall recently: “After a rowdy town hall in Asheville, NC, the Republican Congressman, Chuck Edwards, who listened to his constituents boo and yell at him during the meeting said “I take away from what I heard today that we’re doing exactly what the American people sent us to Washington D.C. to do,” Edwards said, as several protesters pounded on the doors nearby.”
That says to me that Congressman Edwards doesn’t care that so many of his constituents are angry. That says to me that he’s given up on working to serve all his constituents. He’s only going to care about the ones who voted for him and the rest get blown off. That’s DIVIDING our communities, not working together.
This is my interpretation of information published by the Associated Press and NY Times. I use this to inform my calls and voicemails left for my elected officials.
Each individual adult, especially those who use their power of voting, MUST evaluate the news sources they use. I pray that anyone reading this will decide to take seriously the news from sources that are low in bias, low in opinions, and high in facts. The truth of what’s happening in our government today is difficult to find. Many news sources present themselves as sources of truth, but the reader/listener/voter must decide for themselves who to listen to.
Do you listen to your Mom? Dad? Cousin? Former college roommate who went on to earn advanced degrees and you only see on Facebook? Why do you make the decisions you do about who you listen to?
Your Mom and Dad love you, but they may not have the skills to learn the truth of what’s happening in the world or make the same decisions on who to vote for that you would. They may get angry about different things than you do.
I used to read CNN for my news. No longer. Now I will look at it with a grain of salt knowing that the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart shows CNN as lower in the scale of “News Value and Reliability” than other news sources like Associated Press and BBC.
What Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart??? It’s this thing I hope you’ve seen already or will choose to click on today.
The Ad Fontes research also shows hard data to show that sources like FOX and MSNBC are both low on the scale of “News Value and Reliability.” Brietbart is shown as very far down the scale of “News Value and Reliability” as well as extremely far right in ideology. I used the interactive link https://app.adfontesmedia.com/chart/interactive to find this view below of that publication.
Brietbart is shown as very far down the scale of “News Value and Reliability”
“That’s lib-tard crap!” or “That’s BS!” or “My news source is just fine!” I hear someone cry… Please read up on the methodology Ad Fontes uses to create their chart. They are publicly accountable, better than many of us, for their unbiased methods of judgement: https://adfontesmedia.com/methodology/
I will read news from multiple sources, but check what the Associated Press, BBC, and USA Facts has to say about the facts. THEN I make my decision about what to say when I call my senators.
Reading news from highly biased and low reliability publications means the reader is lacking facts. It can be emotionally enjoyable to see the authors complaining about the same stuff you complain about, but it can be misleading. If you are reading news from biased or low reliability sources, you are making decisions based on a lack of facts.
Please take time to evaluate your news sources with the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart.
Are you making decisions based on fact or emotion? Are you reading biased articles? Are you making healthy decisions or not? Are your decisions affecting other people?
Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor said recently “We will lose our democracy” if we do not ALL engage in media literacy. See the video from Associated Press here: https://youtu.be/-Z74NSvekuE
“We will lose our democracy” if people, particularly young people, don’t make it “their responsibility to be literate about the basis for your decision-making,” Sotomayor said. She encouraged listeners to develop the skills to identify lies, misdirection, misinformation, and confusion that are common online. I agree strongly with her that our democracy will turn into a government ruled only by very rich people if we, the rest of the people, do not learn this skill.
Again, I strongly recommend using the Media Bias Chart from Ad Fontes Media to help you see the difference between facts and opinions. https://adfontesmedia.com/
In the SCA*, we do not do a great job of this. Our community points to the Order of the Laurel to lead the way into historic research and sharing reliable information sources. I was recently shamed and attacked over email for suggesting that a Laurel candidate should make an effort to demonstrate their skills in research. I was told that was too hard and too demanding to expect from a Laurel candidate. The three options I offered for this effort were turned into a new requirement in one Laurel’s fearful response. “Who’s making that a new requirement for Laurel??” they replied, angrily.
The angry, fearful, and defensive responses to my suggestion demonstrated to me that the skill of discerning sources, writing down what you learned, and publishing for the world to see is a terrifying concept to many people. Even those who lead the SCA in the realm of research are often terrified of doing this.
So, yes, it’s hard to publish. But it’s pretty easy to look at the Media Bias Chart and simply choose to read from low bias, high fact based sources. The cost of not doing this is losing our democracy to rich, selfish people.
*The SCA = The Society for Creative Anachronism, www.sca.org, a non profit group I’ve volunteered in since 1992.
I started using the 5 Calls app this week to call my Senators and Congresswoman to register my outrage at the steps taken recently by our government. For a very busy person like me, this app was a direct solution for helping me make time to participate in democracy by voicing my opinion to my elected officials.
I believe the non profit organization running this program started as a website and grew into a phone app. See the website here: https://5calls.org/
Scroll to the bottom of their home page to see the links to Google Play and Apple store to download the app to your phone, or go to your phone’s own app for Google Play or Apple Store.
a summary with links to news articles about each topic
upon entering your zip code, the app gives you the direct phone numbers for your 2 Senators and 1 Congressperson! It offers both their DC office and multiple local offices.
a script you can use to voice your opinion about the topic
Naturally, you can choose to say whatever you want to, but this script is a GREAT way to get started when you speak.
This script was SO HELPFUL to me! It helped me focus on what to say when my call was answered.
Due to the sad state of social media, I’m now using my blog to share the many announcements I can share on a WIDE variety of topics. Please subscribe via email to my blog if you’re interested in any of these topics:
Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) updates in the Arts and Sciences world including Universities, A&S events, competitions, and much more!
Commedia dell’ Arte and community theater opportunities
Social and Political activism focused on equity and support for under-supported communities, LGBTQA+ communities, women, and anti-Cheeto efforts.
For my professional offerings around Knowledge Management, online information sharing, and User Experience, find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laraccoutinho/
Lara Coutinho-Dean can be found on LinkedIn for insight into to world of Knowledge Management. KM is the intersection of technology, people, and processes. THIS BLOG, however, is for: Social Activism, Emotional Growth Support, Community Theater, Commedia dell' Arte, Shakespeare, and SCA hobby stuff. I play a character in the SCA named Dame Sophia the Orange in the Kingdom of Atlantia. I'm currently serving as the Kingdom Minister of Arts and Sciences. Please subscribe for announcements!
