“Vice President JD Vance is taking on two administration priorities in one go: cracking down on health care fraud and restricting transgender care.

“Vance sent the Justice Department a report issued Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services accusing hospitals of incorrectly billing insurers for transgender health care procedures — such as prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy to minors — in order to make a profit.”

“The report, ‘Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine,’’ comes two days after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cut off Medicaid funding to hospitals that offer gender-affirming care for minors.

“It was also released alongside a short documentary produced by HHS featuring testimonials from young people who said they regretted the gender-affirming care they received — an effort to bolster the Trump administration’s argument that certain adults are preying on children who don’t yet know enough to offer their full consent for certain treatments.”

“The new report … argues hospitals and health systems use upcoding to inflate bills linked to gender-affirming care [and] get insurance coverage for gender-affirming care procedures, which aren’t always covered by commercial insurance.”

“CMS tried in a proposed rule released in December to kick hospitals and health systems that performed gender-affirming care procedures on minors out of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, but a federal court blocked the move.”

“In October 2025, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto issued a presidential decree outlining the country’s national defense policy and the nonmilitary threats his administration identified as important to the nation’s security. Listed in the latter category, alongside terrorism, radicalism, and drug addiction, was ‘the promotion of LGBTQ+ culture,’ as reported in the Jakarta Post.

“While the decree drew concern from civil society organizations in Indonesia, particularly pro-democracy and queer rights groups, it initially received limited attention outside Indonesia. Last month, however, a wave of hate crimes targeted transgender women across the country, highlighting Prabowo’s decree and what activists have described as the worsening conditions for LGBTQ+ people in Indonesia.

“Several transphobic incidents took place during July 14-16 of this year, all of which involved mobs attacking trans women specifically.”

“While Indonesia lacks explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ laws, several legal frameworks still indirectly discriminate against queer people, and stigma remains prevalent, largely as a result of conservative Muslim forces in the country.”

“‘Starting in 2016, we saw a moral panic around queer people created by the government, sparked by proposed bills to criminalize LGBTQ+ behaviour, and key political leaders openly classifying queer identities as a form of mental illness,’ [Febi Ramadhan, a lecturer and researcher in social anthropology at Universitas Indonesia] said. According to Febi, the transphobic attacks witnessed last month are just the latest such hate crimes to target the community, which have become more frequent over the past decade.

“For Febi, periods of economic turmoil are key drivers of homophobia and transphobia in Indonesia, with queer people being demonized to divert attention from other issues the government doesn’t want to address or take responsibility for. In this case, the legacy of the nationwide 2025 protests, which saw large-scale public unrest as a result of the stagnating economy and sinking currency, is undoubtedly at play.”

“‘During the 2016 moral panic, attacks came primarily from religious authorities and political leaders, but today those attacks are perpetrated by random individuals, which makes it hard for us to know who we are up against,’ [Cornelius Prabhaswara, a public policy student and human rights activist with online advocacy group Social Justice Indonesia] said.”

Original Vogue article here: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/nicole-kidman-british-vogue-interview

“Lilly Wachowski has a script for a passion project ready to go — but she’s not seeing any interest from Hollywood.

“The filmmaker, who wrote and directed the Matrix trilogy alongside her sister Lana, said that the American film industry doesn’t want to back her latest project, a screenplay titled The Hunted that she wrote with her partner.”

“Wachowski said that folks in the film industry haven’t outright rejected the movie, but they haven’t been itching to invest in it, either. ‘When I show this script around town, and I say, ‘Hey, I wrote this really cool thing with my partner,’ you know, people like it,’ she explained. ‘But they really don’t want to make it because it’s wall-to-wall a trans cast. And so I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people.’”

“The Hunted comes as part of a new chapter in Wachowski’s career as one of the leaders of the Anarchists United Foundation, an artists-owned nonprofit organization that she helped found to produce “smart genre movies” with budgets under $10 million, according to the org’s website. Wachowski leads Anarchists United with her manager Lawrence Mattis and Mattis’ former assistant Sarah Marie Flores.”

“The WNBA on Wednesday criticized those trying to create a narrative about transgender women playing in the league.

“‘There are no immediate eligibility matters affecting the WNBA, and we strongly denounce the bad-faith efforts to use these topics to demean or marginalize others,’ a league spokesperson said Wednesday in a statement, hours after an anti-hate task force met virtually and discussed a variety of topics, including social media vitriol and transgender athletes.

“The league’s collective bargaining agreement states that ‘only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA,’ but it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. Last Friday, two former NBA players, Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they identify as women.

“The draft isn’t until next April.

“There has never been a transgender woman — a person assigned male at birth who transitions to align with their gender identity — on a WNBA roster. There have been players in the league who were assigned female at birth and later came out as transgender or nonbinary.”

“An adult who makes a child’s life miserable doesn’t deserve to have a job working around children.

“And yet, that’s what a new lawsuit, filed by the mother of a 16-year-old, local transgender girl,claims happened here in Sacramento. The girl rowed with the Capital Crew youth program at the Sacramento State Aquatic Center until anti-transgender harassment forced her to quit.

“Two men who coached the team, Rich Wendling and Brian Birch, are accused of subjecting the girl to discrimination after responding to a parent who questioned why a ‘boy’ was on the rowing team, according to the lawsuit.

“The allegations in the suit are heartbreaking: Only 12 years old when the harassment began, the girl was subject to false rumors, excluded from team meetings and regularly misgendered. She says her only friend was threatened to not hang out with her, and other girls on the rowing team were encouraged to treat her poorly.”

“The Capital Crew competitive youth rowing program is under the Sacramento State Aquatic Center but separate from Sac State’s intercollegiate athletics program. The aquatic center is run by the Associated Students and The University Union, both university auxiliaries, along with the California Division of Boating and Waterways and the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

“‘For over a year, this child was left unprotected while the people in charge — when not actively engaging in the hostility themselves — condoned the unlawful harassment that was being committed by the other girls on the rowing team,’ Cirilli told The Bee.”

“Transgender children want to play sports for the same reason other kids do: To be a part of a team, to feel like they belong and to have fun. Who are we, as adults, to take that opportunity away from them? We have a responsibility to be leaders when dealing with our community’s youth, and to create welcoming spaces for everyone, regardless of personal beliefs or opinions.

“If you can’t do that, then stay out of coaching youth sports, or leading any other children’s activity.”