News
Lone Dissenter Calls Texas Supreme Court Transgender Ruling ‘Cruel, Unconstitutional’
The lone justice to dissent called the Texas Supreme Court ruling to uphold the ban on gender-affirming care for minors “cruel” and “unconstitutional” Friday.
The Texas Supreme Court, currently made up of all Republican justices, decided 8-1 to uphold a ban on providing gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, to transgender people under the age of 18. The Court said that it did “not attempt to identify the most appropriate treatment for a child suffering from gender dysphoria,” claiming it to be a “complicated question” for doctors and legislators.
The Court ruled that even though “fit parents have a fundamental interest in directing the care, custody, and control of their children free from government interference,” that interest is bound by “the Legislature’s authority to regulate the practice of medicine.”
READ MORE: Republican Gov. Mike DeWine Vetoes Anti-Trans Bill After Talking to Families With Trans Kids
“[W]e conclude the Legislature made a permissible, rational policy choice to limit the types of available medical procedures for children, particularly in light of the relative nascency of both gender dysphoria and its various modes of treatment and the Legislature’s express constitutional authority to regulate the practice of medicine,” Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle wrote.
Justice Debra Lehrmann, the only justice to dissent, was clear in her disagreement. She wrote that the decision means “the State can usurp parental authority to follow a physician’s advice regarding their own children’s medical needs.” Lehrmann identified that gender-affirming care can be “lifesaving.”
She also mocked the idea that the Court’s ruling didn’t “deprive children diagnosed with gender dysphoria of appropriate treatment.” Lehrmann pointed out that by upholding the law, it “effectively forecloses all medical treatment options that are currently available to these children … under the guise that depriving parents of access to these treatments is no different than prohibiting parents from allowing their children to get tattoos.”
“The law is not only cruel—it is unconstitutional,” she wrote, calling the ban a “hatchet, not a scalpel.”
Lehrmann also put the lie to the claims by anti-LGBTQ activists that surgery is common for transgender minors.
“Indeed, the leading medical associations in this field do not recommend surgical intervention before adulthood. Without a doubt, the removal of a young child’s genitalia is something that neither the conventional medical community nor conscientious parents would condone,” she wrote. “Moreover, medical experts do not recommend that any medical intervention … be undertaken before the onset of puberty.”
Lehrmann is correct. Prior to puberty, transgender care is basically limited to social changes. For example, wearing gender-affirming clothing and using appropriate pronouns, according to Advocates for Trans Equality.
Puberty blockers can be prescribed for those who are starting puberty. Puberty blockers are safe, according to Cedars-Sinai, and are not only used for transgender youth. A common purpose is to stop precocious puberty, which affects 1 in 5,000 children, including children as young as 6. For both transgender youth and kids going through precocious puberty, puberty blockers are known to improve patients’ mental health, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Puberty blockers are also fully reversible. However, in terms of trans youth, a study published in The Lancet found that 98% of those on puberty blockers went on hormone replacement therapy upon turning 18. But even for those few teens who realize after being on puberty blockers that they aren’t trans, all they have to do is stop taking them, and their puberty will progress as normal.
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Sir Edward Davey, a UK Member of Parliament who serves as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, blasted President Donald Trump on Monday, and warned that Britain’s King Charles should not visit the American president later this month.
Quoting President Trump’s recent threat to Iran, “A whole civilization will die tonight,” Sir Davey called the statement, “words I never thought I would hear from an American president,” and “a stark reminder of how reckless, immoral, and completely outside the bounds of international law this president is.”
Davey declared Trump “no friend of the United Kingdom” and “no leader of the free world,” but rather, “a dangerous and corrupt gangster” — and warned that is how Trump must be treated.
“So will the Prime Minister advise the King to call off his state visit to Washington before it’s too late?” Davey asked of Keir Starmer. “Because I really fear, for what Trump might say or do, while our King is forced to stand by his side. We cannot put His Majesty in that position.”
READ MORE: From Iowa to Georgia the Red Wall Is Cracking — and Trump Is the Wrecking Ball
The Independent reports that Starmer did defend the King’s upcoming U.S. state visit, and “held firm, arguing the visit marks the 250th anniversary of the relationship between the two countries.”
BBC News reports that Starmer did call Trump’s threat against Iran “wrong,” and said he would not have used the same words as the U.S. president.
King Charles’ U.S. visit will be the first UK state visit since Queen Elizabeth II came to America in 2007.
Donald Trump is no leader of the free world. He’s a dangerous and corrupt gangster.
The Prime Minister needs to call off the King’s state visit to Washington before it’s too late. pic.twitter.com/xt7nxrDPSu
— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) April 13, 2026
READ MORE: DoorDash Grandma Mum on Trump Tip — and Who She Voted For
The White House, apparently eager to shift focus from President Donald Trump’s failed Iran peace talks to his economic agenda, brought in an Arkansas grandmother who delivers DoorDash to help pay for her husband’s cancer treatments. She knocked on the Oval Office door carrying two brown bags of McDonald’s.
“Nice to see you,” the president said as he opened the door.
“Nice to meet you,” the grandmother of ten grandchildren, Sharon Simmons replied. “I have your DoorDash order for you, Mr. President.”
Even Trump the showman couldn’t help but notice the event looked “staged.”
“The reason for this,” Trump told Simmons, “is that I heard you picked up $11,000 because the tax bill was so big, the refund is the biggest one you’ve ever had.”
“It definitely was,” Simmons said. “I saved over $11,000 by not having to claim” tips, she said.
“It’s such an honor to meet you,” Trump went on to say. “And I think you voted for me?”
“Um, maybe,” Simmons replied, chuckling.
READ MORE: From Iowa to Georgia the Red Wall Is Cracking — and Trump Is the Wrecking Ball
Moments later, a reporter asked Simmons, “Are the White House good tippers? Do you know?”
“Um,” she responded, before Trump said, “Wait,” and pulled cash from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Yes, very,” she then told reporters.
CNN’s Kit Maher later reported that Simmons “wouldn’t reveal how much President Trump tipped her.”
Online critics pushed back on the event.
“Trump’s winning message: A grandma doing Door Dash because her husband’s cancer treatments are too expensive,” wrote the popular political commentary account on X, PatriotTakes.
“Why is she in a position like this to begin with?” asked Lisa Glass on X. “Does he really think that that’s a brag -that a woman has to deliver DoorDash and depend on a few cents more she might get from tips to help pay her husband‘s cancer treatments?!!!!!!”
“Well, I hope someone can talk to her and make her realize that if she had better representation, she might not have to be delivering DoorDash into her senior years to pay for her husband‘s cancer treatments,” she added.
President Trump receives DoorDash McDonald’s order and speaks with delivery driver: “I think you voted for me?”
Delivery driver: “Maybe.” pic.twitter.com/WRRqlLhxOd
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 13, 2026
READ MORE: ‘He Reported to Me in Detail’: Netanyahu’s Boast on Vance Fuels Blowback
Image via Reuters
As the U.S.-Iran peace talks failed over the weekend — at least for now — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly shared remarks with his Cabinet that are fueling blowback.
Vice President JD Vance led the peace talks, along with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
Axios’ Barak Ravid on Monday morning reported that “Pakistani, Egyptian and Turkish mediators will continue talks with the U.S. and Iran in the coming days in an effort to bridge the remaining gaps and reach a deal to end the war, according to a regional source and a U.S. official.”
Ravid also reported that Netanyahu told his Cabinet, “I spoke yesterday with Vice President J.D. Vance. He called me from his plane on his way back from Islamabad. He reported to me in detail, as this administration does every day, about the development of the negotiations.”
Netanyahu went on to say, “In this case, the explosion in the negotiations. The explosion came from the American side, which could not tolerate Iran’s blatant violation of the agreement to enter the negotiations. The agreement was that they would cease fire, and the Iranians would immediately open the gates. They did not do that. The Americans could not accept that.”
But Netanyahu’s claim that the American Vice President “reported” to him, and the administration has done so “every day,” drew anger.
“Netanyahu is claiming openly that the US Vice President and administration report to him in detail on a daily basis,” wrote journalist Saagar Enjeti.
“‘He reported to me.’ That’s the problem,” observed journalist and documentary filmmaker Sara Afshar.
“For Netanyahu to tell his cabinet that the Trump administration reports to him every day in detail is quite something. I don’t understand how any nativist or sovereignist would accept that,” noted Firas Modad, who writes about the Middle East on Substack.
“America is an Israeli puppet state,” responded economist and author Saifedean Ammous.
READ MORE: White House Fires Back After President’s Doctor Is Asked to Test Trump’s Mental Fitness
Image via Reuters
‘He Reported to Me in Detail’: Netanyahu’s Boast on Vance Fuels Blowback
From Iowa to Georgia the Red Wall Is Cracking — and Trump Is the Wrecking Ball
DoorDash Grandma Mum on Trump Tip — and Who She Voted For
British MP Blasts ‘Corrupt Gangster’ Trump
British MP Blasts ‘Corrupt Gangster’ Trump
DoorDash Grandma Mum on Trump Tip — and Who She Voted For
From Iowa to Georgia the Red Wall Is Cracking — and Trump Is the Wrecking Ball
‘He Reported to Me in Detail’: Netanyahu’s Boast on Vance Fuels Blowback
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