WE’RE NOT DOOMED: Tue Aug 4, 2026 It’s really easy to focus on what’s going wrong. But when we only do that we miss things like wins for voting rights, trans safety and queer visibility. And yeah, those are happening.
Starting in New Jersey…
New Jersey
Thu, July 2 - Governor Mikie Sherill signed the “John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey Act” into law.
This is the first voting rights law enacted since the Callais ruling. It will:
ensure that eligible voters who are members of protected classes, including racial, color, and language-minority groups shall have an equal opportunity to participate in the political processes of the State of New Jersey, and especially to exercise the elective franchise.
The law specifically focuses on voter suppression, intimidation and access.
When the bill passed the Assembly, sponsor, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Hunterdon, Mercer) said:
When those individuals marched into Selma, they did so with the understanding that they were facing immense danger, but they moved forward anyway, determined to show the underrepresented voices in our country the power of their vote and the way it can shape a democracy.
And I think that’s a really important reminder. It’s never safe to fight for what’s right, but it’s powerful to do it anyway. This might not feel like a big risk, given that New Jersey is a blue state, but puts a target on their back, and they’re doing it anyway.
This shows the importance of electing Democrats at every level of government. And that’s a reminder we always need.
New York City, New York
Mon, July 6 - Back in June, Obama Appointee, Judge Katherine Failla issued a Temporary Restraining Order against the DOJ accessing and NYU hospitals providing healthcare data of patients undergoing gender affirming care who were minors between 2020 and this year.
On July 6 that TRO was extended into a preliminary injunction. While a TRO can only last for around 14 days, a preliminary injunction can remain in place for the length of the trial.
Though there was a lot of coverage when the TRO was granted, the only info about the preliminary injunction comes from the case updates drop own on Lambda Legal’s case timeline.
When the TRO was issued, Chase Strangio, Co-Director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project said:
Patients and families trust their doctors with their most intimate, private information and should trust in turn that this information will be protected from impermissible and harassing demands for disclosure from the federal government or anyone else…We will continue to fight on behalf of these families and the fundamental liberty of all transgender New Yorkers and those who come here to seek needed medical care.
We should have some sort of update on the case after Aug 10 when NYU must respond to the complaint. I will keep you posted as we know more.
Regardless, anything that happens that makes it harder for this administration to have access to trans patient data is a win in my book.
Florida
Tue, July 7 - In a 2-1 decision in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, a Trump Appointee, Judge Britt Grant, and a Clinton Appointee, Judge Charles Wilson ruled that Ron DeSantis’ WOKE Act cannot take affect in higher education.
Judge Grant wrote for the majority:
Florida’s salary-for-speech rule is a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the State’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry—classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.
Banning “unpopular ideas” defeats the purpose of higher education in Grant and Wilson’s eyes.
And as Leah Watson, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program said in the press release about the decision, “This ruling sets a strong precedent that higher education cannot be limited to the whims of politicians,”
Even in Florida.
There is this assumption that because DeSantis is so evil and Republicans control all state branches that they can just do whatever they want. But that’s not the case. The state cannot restrict what conversations are allowed to take place in a higher education classroom.
And as a reminder, this bill became law in 2022, so just because a bill becomes law in one year, doesn’t mean that law will ever be able to go into effect. Our judiciary is still our most powerful force against the Republican destruction of Democracy.
And that is something that gives me hope every day.
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So those are three stories that hopefully give you the strength to keep fighting today. Our courts are still pushing back, even Trump judges, and so are our blue states.
I am confident that the louder we are and the more we vote the sooner we will win.
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