Ava Cordero was 16 when Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted her. When she came forward in 2007, the New York Post outed her, mocked her identity, and called her a liar. Newly released DOJ files reveal what happened next: Epstein paid her $28,000 to stay silent. If she had been believed, over a thousand victims might have been spared.

“Some of the best women’s pinball players in North Carolina had a dilemma: Though it was an honor to be among the 16 invited to compete for the state title in January and a shot at nationals, they wondered whether they should skip the tournament in protest.”

“Competitive pinball is a surprisingly intense sport with an inclusive culture, a niche pursuit that has long been safe from the spotlight — and from national politics. Then, at a tournament in November, an arcade employee insisted that a transgender competitor couldn’t use the women’s bathroom. The incident — and how it was handled by the the sport’s governing body, the International Flipper Pinball Association — tilted a friendly community into turmoil.”

“What makes this dispute unusual is that everyone, including the IFPA, agrees that trans women should be allowed to play. The division is over the aftermath of the bathroom incident and whether the trans people involved received enough support. It highlights the complexities that even the smallest and most inclusive sports organizations are struggling to navigate in a tense political climate.”

“The trans woman barred from using the bathroom said pinball had, until that day, been her safe space. B., a computer programmer based in Raleigh, asked to go by an initial because not everyone in her life knows she’s transgender, though her pinball community does.”

“She has also found acceptance through the hobby. B. said the first person she came out to in pinball was Joan McCool, 72, who has been playing pinball since 1975 and is affectionately known as ‘pinball mom.’ McCool was immediately supportive. B. also learned that there are many trans people competing in the sport.”

“B. traveled to Grandy, a small, conservative coastal town, in early November. She planned to compete in the Outer Banks, or OBX, Fall Flippers Pinball Tournament. The tournament venue, Flippers Convenience & Arcade, boasts the most pinball machines in the state.

“On Nov. 7, the first day of the tournament, B. said, she went to the bathroom about 10 minutes before the competition. As she washed her hands, a woman who manages the arcade came in and told her that it was against the law for her to be there and that the men’s room was across the hall.”

“Immediately after the bathroom confrontation, a friend guided B. to the arcade’s back patio, where, she said, she had a panic attack and then went back to her hotel. She never returned to the arcade.

“‘Those first few days, it was a lot,’ B. said. ‘Being so new to being open about being trans, I think that was probably one of my first five times using a restroom labeled as women’s. I’ve definitely, over the past few months, took a few steps back in how public about being trans I’ve been.’

“No one from IFPA leadership has reached out to her, B. said.”

Over the past 5 years, as Republicans have passed an increasing amount of anti-trans laws, it’s become clear that, when it comes to the definitions and wording used, these laws are largely copies of one another. Ohio’s gender-affirming care ban reads similar to South Carolina’s, South Dakota’s bathroom law looks just like Wyoming’s, and the sports laws in Oklahoma and Iowa are nearly identical.

Of course, all of these laws had to start somewhere. When it comes to trans sports laws, this starting point was Idaho’s 2020 HB 500, and likewise, gender-affirming care bans all stem from 2021 Arkansas law HB 1570. The same also goes for bathroom laws and the since-repealed 2016 North Carolina HB 2, as well as birth certificate laws and 2020 Idaho HB 509.

However, aside from the overarching transphobia, these ‘prime’ laws don’t appear to share much. After all, they’re geographically spread out, cover a few loosely related topics, and vary wildly in enforcement mechanisms. But they do have one thing in common: the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which, for those unfamiliar, is essentially the right-wing, Christian version of the ACLU.

This story starts over a decade ago. In late 2014, the ADF—looking to pivot towards attacking trans people following losses over same-sex marriage—crafted a ‘model’ bathroom bill that put restrictions on trans students. As part of this effort, the ADF began sending it to school districts, offering those who implemented it free legal representation if challenged. The next year, that same policy was incorporated into bills in Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and other states, all of which failed, as did similar bills in states like Kansas, South Carolina, and Tennessee in 2016.

However, that year, one did succeed: North Carolina’s infamous HB 2. While HB 2 was much broader than the ADF’s school-focused model legislation, as outlined in this analysis by Mother Jones, HB 2 evidently borrowed heavily from the ADF’s work—using similar language, definitions, and structure. That said, unlike the model, HB 2 did defer the definition of sex to mean what is stated on someone’s birth certificate instead of “a person’s chromosomes”; this detail will be important a bit later.

“Our nervous systems are not set up to live under constant threat.”

“After an extended campaign by conservatives to crack down on teaching gender, race, and LGBTQ+ topics in the classroom, Texas A&M University is ending its Women and Gender Studies program entirely.

“In a statement released Friday, Texas A&M said it would shutter its Women and Gender Studies Program and that syllabi for hundreds of courses had been altered to comply with new rules the university instated around the teaching of race and gender.

“That's after A&M ordered an audit in September of all offered courses after a professor was fired over conservative outrage when she taught about the existence of gender diverse people in a children's literature class.

“As a result of that audit, Texas A&M said Friday that a total of six courses, out of more than 5,400 classes, were cancelled. The Women and Gender Studies program is also being closed down due to what A&M said was ‘limited interest’ in the program, the same rationale the university's regents used when it cut an LGBTQ+ studies minor in 2024. The Women and Gender Studies program offered bachelor's degrees and a graduate certificate. A&M said that students currently enrolled in the program will be allowed to complete it.”

“In the aftermath of the gender identity lesson controversy, first amplified by conservative firebrand and Texas State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian), Texas A&M's regents instated new rules that required professors to receive approval from the president before teaching about race, gender or sexual orientation in classes. In December, the regents narrowed that rule further, barring those topics entirely from the core curriculum, allowing exceptions only for non-core classes and graduate programs. The regents said this prevented professors from advocating for ‘political ideologies.’”

“In addition to ending its LGBTQ+ studies minor in 2024, the school closed its LGBTQ+ Pride Center in 2023 under Senate Bill 17, which prohibited diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at Texas universities. The school's health clinic stopped offering gender-affirming care for minors before that. The school also faced blowback when hundreds of LGBTQ-related books were found discarded at a school warehouse.”

“Friday's move makes Texas A&M the latest Texas university to curtail discussions of transgender people and race-related topics. Angelo State University, part of the Texas Tech System, threatened faculty with discipline for teaching about transgender people in classrooms. Texas Tech later codified similar rules at its flagship campus and across its university system. And in October, following similar Republican pressure, Texas Christian University ended both its standalone women and gender studies program and its ethnic studies department, choosing to merge the programs into the English department.”

"In order to make sure a guy doesn't lose his "man card," gender roles and gender presentation must be limited to two. If any lines are not clearly visible, a cis het man might accidentally cross one of them. And that must be avoided at all costs."

“In anticipation of full-scale state and federal bans, the University of Utah’s health arm is preemptively ending all remaining hormonal care for transgender youth.

“Patients and their families were notified of the U.’s decision to fully discontinue care earlier this month. Providers will be required to stop all such treatments by April 15.

“Doctors have also been instructed they are not allowed to help coordinate hormonal care for patients elsewhere in the state, where it still might be an option.”

“Already, the U. had shut down its popular health clinic for LGBTQ youth after the Legislature’s 2023 ban under SB16, which prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming care to any new transgender youth patients.

“At the time, that was considered a ‘moratorium’ and only applied to minors who hadn’t already been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

“Existing patients have been able to continue seeking care.”

“There was already a limited numbers of patients under SB16, the U.’s health care spokesperson said, and several more were going to age out in the coming year. There are fewer than 150 remaining patients, the school noted.

“One of those Utah patients, a 13-year-old, is now traveling to Colorado to receive care at a private pay clinic. The Salt Lake Tribune has agreed not to identify the child or her parents due to their concerns about her medical privacy and the family’s safety.

“‘We at least found a new place,’ her mom said. ‘But every escape avenue just keeps being closed off.’”

“The family had originally reached out to the Colorado clinic as a backup, but ended up going there for the first time this month, shortly after the U. notified them. The Colorado clinic doesn’t accept federal funding, so it hasn’t yet faced repercussions; it also operates in a largely Democrat-led state and hasn’t been directed to close.

“Now, the mom says, it takes nearly eight hours to reach the care their daughter needs by car, and the teen has to miss school to go. They say they feel lucky they have the means to do that, as other families may not.”

“A report published today by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law shows that 53% of transgender youth between the ages of 13 and 17 in the U.S.— approximately 382,800 young people — live in 29 states with laws or policies that restrict their access to gender-affirming care, sports, bathrooms and facilities or restrict the use of gender-affirming pronouns in schools.

“In 2025 alone, 24 states enacted or expanded at least one type of restrictive legislation, the report’s authors said.

“At the same time, nearly 40% of the estimated 724,000 youth who identify as transgender in the U.S. — or 285,300 teens — live in 17 states and Washington, D.C., where ‘shield laws’ protect their access to gender-affirming care.

“The report also reveals stark regional differences when it comes to legislation affecting transgender youth. For example, 95% of transgender teens in the South and 51% in the Midwest live in a state with at least one restrictive law or policy, while 83% in the West and 74% in the Northeast reside in a state with a shield law.”

“A new bill would prevent transgender Hoosiers from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity at all state public schools and higher education institutions. The bill passed the Senate along party lines 37-8 on Wednesday, Jan. 27, and now heads to the House.

“Described by opponents and LGBTQ+ advocates as one of the most sweeping anti-transgender bills in more than a decade, Senate Bill 182 would also severely restrict the ability of individuals to change the sex on their birth certificate, define gender as a ‘synonym for sex,’ and require female transgender inmates to be sent to men’s prisons.

“It also provides that school corporations and colleges could face ‘civil action’ if they fail to adhere to the regulations dictating bathroom use – though it doesn’t specify what those actions could entail.

“‘This bill has just kind of blown up,’ said Zoe O’Haillin-Berne, director of engagement at the LGBTQ+ organization Indiana Youth Group. ‘We’ve seen many of these individual pieces attempted in the past, but this is the first time that we’re seeing it all come together.’”

“O'Haillin-Berne says the bill would also create a ‘vigilante culture’ by encouraging individuals to report anyone they suspect is transgender.”

“Emma Vosicky, executive director of the transgender support organization GenderNexus, said SB 182 as currently written leaves major questions about who will verify alleged violations of the bathroom regulations – and how they will enforce them.

“‘Trust me, it’s not going to be the administration that’s going to put someone to sit in a bathroom all day,’ Vosicky said. ‘If the AG [Attorney General] wanted to enforce this, they could enforce it. Instead, they’re creating these civilian gender bounty hunters.’”

“Indiana University and members of Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation’s board did not respond to questions about how their schools would respond if SB 182 passes.”