Latest Stories By Grace Abels

Since U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., won the Oct. 25 election for House speaker, the public has gotten a crash course on the previously low-profile member of Congress. As details of his political life emerged, a social media influencer claimed in a viral video that he has been affiliated with a hate group. Johnson previously […]

He spent eight years in the White House, nearly every move recorded by press and watched by staff. But six years after former President Barack Obama left office, some conservative media figures aggressively circulated a salacious rumor: that Obama is secretly gay. The claim percolated across social media and conservative news sites for weeks throughout […]

Puberty blockers.  Sadly, they are not a medication that helps block out all those cringeworthy middle school memories. They are medications, sometimes used by transgender adolescents, to temporarily pause puberty. But in the political debate around gender-affirming care for youth, discussion of puberty blockers is often saturated with rhetoric, creating confusion and generating misinformation. So, […]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has frequently faced political criticism. But a new wave hit in early July over breastfeeding — or “chestfeeding,” as the agency described it on a website. “In case you missed it, transgender extremists running @CDC push abuse of newborns through ‘chestfeeding,’” conservative activist Tom Fitton tweeted July 9.  […]

Los legisladores estatales presentaron cientos de proyectos de ley en 2023 dirigidos a los estadounidenses transgénero y que afectan al acceso a la atención médica, la política educativa y el deporte. Al escuchar el discurso político, a veces parece como si la población transgénero de Estados Unidos fuera numerosa, influyente y estuviera en auge. “La […]

State legislators introduced hundreds of 2023 bills targeting transgender Americans and affecting access to health care, education policy and sports. To hear the political discourse, it sounds at times as if the United States’ transgender population is large, booming and influential. “Trans ideology is coming after our children,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., […]

Twice in the past few weeks, former Vice President Mike Pence has offered a model for determining whether minors should be able to receive gender-affirming care: the laws that govern whether minors can get a tattoo. Pence, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, raised the idea in a May 24 Scripps News […]

Robots have a long history of replacing humans in the workplace. Automobile workers, elevator operators, bank tellers, gas station attendants, even grocery store checkout clerks have felt the squeeze. With ground-breaking artificial intelligence advances, reporters at PolitiFact had to wonder … are the fact-checkers next? Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has exploded into relevance in the […]

A growing chorus of online voices claim that gender dysphoria — a condition of distress sometimes experienced by transgender people — is a mental illness or disorder.   “Trans-anything where does it end? Let’s call it for what is…a serious mental illness,” read one tweet shared hundreds of times.  “Gender dysphoria is a mental illness and […]

Many parents supportive of their transgender children were already concerned about a wave of legislation targeting LGBTQ+ people. Now online rumors about a Florida bill are stoking even more worry. “If your kid is trans and y’all go to Disney, Florida could kidnap them,” tweeted one user March 9.   “Florida will debate a bill to […]

As legislatures nationwide debate bills targeting transgender communities, Missouri has taken a novel approach to limit access to gender-affirming care.  On April 13, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued an emergency rule that significantly restricts which transgender adults and minors can access gender-affirming care. The rule requires patients to have a year and a half […]

Conservative politicians and pundits warning of a rise in “trans terrorism” after the Nashville, Tennessee, school shooting aren’t backed up by data, experts told PolitiFact. Police said the person who shot and killed six people at Covenant School March 27 was transgender, but there is still a lot we don’t know about the suspect or […]