The Ugly History Behind the Olympics’ New Gender Test By Schuyler Mitchell
March 31, 2026
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) On March 26, the International Olympic Committee announced that all athletes competing in women’s sports will be required to undergo genetic eligibility testing. Claiming to be concerned with “fairness” and “the protection of the female category,” the IOC aims to ban transgender women from future Olympic games by screening for the SRY gene, which is usually found on the Y chromosome. The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will be the first games with this policy in effect.
For queer historian and writer Michael Waters, the IOC’s announcement elicited a feeling of déjà vu: The institution has employed similar gender verification rules before—only to abandon them amid public backlash. In his 2024 book, The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, Waters traces the history of trans athletes in the early 20th century, showing how a World War II–era moral panic around gender expression directly informs today’s anti-trans attacks.
I spoke with Waters about his book, the history of sex testing in international sports, and how the IOC’s latest policy marks a return to a discriminatory model of gender surveillance that draws from a dark eugenic past.
Trump Attack on Trans Athletes Continues as U.S. Department Of Justice Sues Minnesota Education Department By Jessica Corbett
March 30, 2026
Introduction:
(Common Dreams) The US Department of Justice on Monday continued President Donald Trump’s crusade against transgender youth competing in sports in line with their identity by suing the Minnesota Department of Education and the state’s high school league.
“The United States files this action to stop Minnesota’s unapologetic sex discrimination against female student athletes,” says the complaint, filed in a federal court in the state by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
“The state of Minnesota, through its Department of Education, and the Minnesota State High School League require girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions that are designated exclusively for girls and share intimate spaces, such as multiperson locker rooms and bathrooms, with boys,” the complaint continues. “This unfair, intentionally discriminatory practice violates the very core of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.”
The Associated Press noted that “the administration has filed similar lawsuits against Maine and California, and has threatened the federal funding of some universities over transgender athletes, including San José State in California and the University of Pennsylvania.”
Tim Leighton, a spokesperson for the league, told the AP that it does not comment on threatened or pending lawsuits. According to The New York Times, Emily Buss, a spokesperson for the state department, said Minnesota’s leadership was reviewing the complaint while remaining “committed to ensuring every child—regardless of background, ZIP code, or ability—has access to a world-class education.”
Here are some notable positive developments for transgender people in the US so far in 2026 (through early May), drawn from court rulings, legislative outcomes, and related actions. These represent areas of legal pushback, restored access, and resilience amid a broader wave of restrictive bills and policies nationwide.
lgbtqnation.com
Federal court blocks penalties on providers of gender-affirming care for youth: In April 2026, Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and a coalition of 22 states won a federal district court ruling granting summary judgment against a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) policy. The December 2025 HHS declaration had labeled certain gender-affirming treatments as unsafe and threatened to exclude providers from Medicare and Medicaid. The court blocked enforcement, preventing federal penalties for offering such care to youth with gender dysphoria. This preserves access and funding for providers in participating states.
mocoshow.com
Oregon federal court ruling leads to resumed care at major hospital: In March 2026, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai in Oregon ruled that the Trump administration overreached with the same HHS declaration (lacking proper procedures like notice and hearings). The decision provided preliminary relief to hospitals and doctors. As a direct result, Children’s Minnesota (a major nonprofit system serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul area) reinstated its paused program for puberty blockers and hormone treatments for patients under 18. The hospital had suspended these in February due to federal funding threats but resumed evidence-based care (while noting surgeries were never offered to minors there). This came alongside Minnesota state law protections.
lgbtqnation.com
Georgia and Tennessee pass no new anti-LGBTQ+ bills: For the first time in years, both states’ 2026 legislative sessions ended without any new anti-LGBTQ+ legislation passing. This marks a notable break from recent trends in those states.
lgbtqnation.com
State supreme court precedents affirm broader rights: Minnesota’s Supreme Court issued a ruling (upheld and referenced in 2026 advocacy) in a case involving trans athletes, establishing that transgender people have the right to participate authentically in public life, including sports. Separately, Montana’s Supreme Court struck down a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth on state constitutional grounds, providing a model cited in ongoing litigation elsewhere (such as North Dakota).
genderjustice.us
Accountability in prison housing via settlement: A trans woman secured a $295,000 settlement with a state after alleging she was improperly housed with male inmates, including exposure to abuse. This highlights successful use of lawsuits to enforce safer conditions even as federal policies shift.
lgbtqnation.com
Context note: Gender-affirming care for adults remains legally available in all 50 states (with some state-level restrictions, like in Florida), and there is no nationwide federal ban on bathrooms, sports participation, or youth care in every state—though 39 anti-trans bills have passed and hundreds more are active as of May 2026. Advocacy groups like Lambda Legal have also secured preliminary injunctions against certain executive actions and highlighted public support in polls (e.g., majorities favoring nondiscrimination protections).
lambdalegal.org +1
These examples reflect ongoing court challenges and localized successes that advocates describe as sources of hope and practical relief for access and dignity.
“Counterterrorism” Now Officially Means Targeting Trans People By Sophie Hurwitz
May 8, 2026
Introduction:
(Mother Jones) On Wednesday, the White House released a new “United States Counterterrorism Strategy,” the first such directive since a 2021 Biden-era memo emphasizing the need to combat white supremacist violence, which has now been scrubbed from the White House website.
Wednesday’s document, masterminded by White House “counterterrorism czar” Sebastian Gorka, does not mention far-right violence at all. It identifies “Violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists” as a security threat of equal severity to “Legacy Islamist Terrorists” and “Narcoterrorists and Transnational Gangs.” The administration will now apparently “prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.”
Further extract:
Counterterrorism itself is a politicized term that came into common use following the September 11 attacks and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. It formed part of the language of the policing apparatus that targeted Muslim and Arab Americans and legitimized surveillance of those communities as “terrorist threats.” That same language is now being applied to transgender people. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called Kirk’s death a “domestic 9/11.” The Heritage Foundation, too, has done its best to connect being transgender with the idea of terrorism, campaigning last year for the FBI to designate trans advocacy as violent extremism.
Of related interest is this article entitled “A Timeline of Right-Wing Attempts to Blame Trans People for Charlie Kirk’s Murder” that was published September 12, 2025: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... ogy-false/
NJ Senate approves bill to protect reproductive, transgender healthcare
The New Jersey Senate approved a bill Thursday aimed at protecting abortion seekers and transgender healthcare patients, along with their medical providers, from legal and in-person threats, a move that comes nearly years after the bill’s supporters first introduced the measure.
The bill would create a new crime of interfering with reproductive health services and expand the definition of those services to include healthcare for trans patients, building on existing laws designed to shield abortion clinics, staff, volunteers, and patients from violence and harassment. Advocates said additional protections are needed given the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail these services.
The Democratic-sponsored legislation passed the Senate 23-12 along party lines. Three Republican senators — Jon Bramnick, Owen Henry, and Declan O’Scanlon — were present but did not vote.
Bramnick, an attorney, raised concerns that some of the language in the legislation could infringe on someone’s First Amendment right to speak freely outside a healthcare facility. He also flagged a section that he said would restrict the power of state licensing boards.
