Date

Year: 2025

Our Voices blog

Preliminary Injunction Granted – Transgender Military Ban Halted

We’ve just received tremendously good news!    U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes issued a nationwide preliminary injunction in Talbott v. Trump, NCLR’s challenge to President Trump’s cruel ban on military service by transgender people. Judge Reyes heard arguments on the motion for preliminary injunction in Washington, DC last Wednesday, March 12th and issued her decision today, blocking enforcement of the ban while our case goes forward.   Judge Reyes held that the ban...

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Decision in Transgender Military Ban Challenge Coming Soon

Yesterday, I was in our nation’s capital with our partners seeking an emergency ruling blocking President Trump’s cruel and senseless ban on military service by transgender people. In response to repeated questioning from U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, lawyers representing the government admitted they had no evidence to support the policy’s targeting of transgender service members, thousands of whom have served openly and honorably for many years. Transgender service members and their...

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60 Years of Medicare and Medicaid

2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare and Medicaid aimed to improve health coverage for some of the most vulnerable in our society, including elders, and these programs were an important step towards the goal of securing coverage for all Americans. 60 years ago, 48% of Americans 65 and older lacked health insurance. Those who did have insurance often had inadequate and expensive policies with limited coverage. By 1968, three years after the Medicare...

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60th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

Image courtesy of the National Parks Service Sixty years ago today, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) embarked upon a series of marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. These marches were meant to draw attention to the reality that Black people were not able to access their right to vote in the Jim Crow south.  The first of...

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No state can invalidate your marriage!

In nine states, lawmakers have proposed resolutions or bills to roll back marriage equality protections in a direct challenge to Obergefell v. Hodges. While states like Michigan, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota urge the Supreme Court to revisit its historic 2015 decision, others such as Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have introduced bills recognizing a new category of marriages solely between heterosexual couples.  We know this is frightening for many people in...

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We are the One We Have Been Waiting For 

January 20, 2025  Back in 2016, when Trump first won, I spiraled. I remember tense meetings with other policy advocates, trying to figure out how to navigate the next four years. I was glued to the news, checking constantly like I used to do growing up in the Midwest during tornado watches, hoping that more information would make me feel safer. After two years, I was exhausted.  That’s when I realized my energy was better spent building something, rather than just fighting against a...

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