Author | Lightnews

Shana Knizhnik

@shanakn.bsky.social

970 followers 91 following 8 posts

Lawyer at ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. Former public defender & public school kid. Queer & intersex. Seeking justice. Standard disclaimers apply. she/her 🌈

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Shana Knizhnik @shanakn.bsky.social · Jan 23

I am intersex and I exist. I love my trans siblings, who also exist. Our existence, and our resistance, will outlast this administration.

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Shana Knizhnik @shanakn.bsky.social · Jan 23

I am intersex and I exist. I love my trans siblings, who also exist. Our existence, and our resistance, will outlast this administration.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Aug 20

Video of Columbia Heights residents driving ICE agents out of their area. source: www.instagram.com/reel/DNjkvLQ...

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Shayna Medley @shaynam.bsky.social · Aug 12

There is so much context missing from the discussion of the Davis cert petition. People are understandably scared. It’s also incredibly dangerous to act like same sex marriage has already been overturned and much of the mainstream reporting is frankly irresponsible.

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A. Goad (she/her or ze/zir) @agoadesq.bsky.social · Aug 6

Mahmoud v. Taylor was an awful SCOTUS decision, an attack on the humanity of 🌈 families and on some of the basic premises of public education in a pluralistic society. But it’s not the end of the world or of inclusive education...

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samantha riedel @samanthawrites.net · Jun 4

wrote this up for @them.us today! www.them.us/story/federa...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · May 23

i think it is bad that high level public officials do not respect the offices they hold or the public they are supposed to serve

Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · May 23

The Secretary of Homeland Security responds to the voluntary dismissal of an immigration lawsuit: "Suck it."

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Shana Knizhnik @shanakn.bsky.social · May 12

If you’d told me as a teenager that as an adult I would be publicly advocating for intersex people in my hometown paper, @inquirer.com, I wouldn’t have believed you!

www.inquirer.com/life/interse...

For Philly’s intersex community, Trump administration’s focus on gender and sex is a threat

Intersex people are speaking out in the face of the administration’s efforts to define sex as a biological binary.

www.inquirer.com

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interACT Advocates @interact.bsky.social · May 6

What happened to "do no harm"? Several hospitals across the US stopped providing necessary care to consenting transgender patients. Still, they’ve spent decades refusing to stop “normalizing” intersex infants’ bodies without their consent. @transequality.bsky.social www.advocate.com/voices/donal...

First, do no harm—unless you're intersex or trans

Opinion: Hospitals are abandoning transgender and intersex patients, denying them essential care and autonomy. It's time for hospitals to uphold their ethical duty and provide life-saving gender-affir...

www.advocate.com

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ACLU @aclu.org · May 5

NEW: We filed a complaint with the National Guard challenging President Trump's executive order prohibiting transgender people from using restrooms aligned with their gender identity in federal buildings.

Everyone deserves equal access to public facilities.

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ACLU @aclu.org · Apr 29

Kick off World Pride with us in DC on May 17 as we unveil our Freedom to Be quilt made by trans artists from across the nation.

RSVP today at aclu.org/free-to-be 🏳️‍⚧️

Bright green graphic with text "Featuring 250 artworks created by hundreds of trans folks and allies across the country, along with live music, DJ sets, and more fun surprises! RSVP at aclu.org/freetobe-dc " at the bottom reads "in partnership with World Pride, NYCLU, Gender Liberation Movement, ACLU District of Columbia"

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Shana Knizhnik @shanakn.bsky.social · Apr 3

It’s been two months.

Shana Knizhnik @shanakn.bsky.social · Mar 26

My first case as lead attorney at @aclu.org is now on file. As the government tries at all levels to erase LGBTQ people—and transgender people in particular—from public life, the principles we seek to uphold in this case couldn’t be more vital.

ACLU @aclu.org · Mar 26

BREAKING: We're suing the Greenville Public Library in South Carolina for systematically censoring books about the LGBTQ community.

Alongside @aclusc.bsky.social, we're fighting to protect our freedom to read.

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Josh Block @joshablock.bsky.social · Mar 21

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Mar 11

You're going to be tempted to engage in discourse focused on what Mahmoud Khalil said--was it actually antisemitic? Did he endorse Hamas?--and I cannot encourage you enough not to do that. It just doesn't matter what he said because you should not be detained and deported over what you say, period.

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · Jan 28

We coulda had the free lunches for kids guy

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · Jan 29

Your regular reminder that the first known clinic to offer gender-affirming surgeries was … destroyed by Nazis.

In 1933.

(Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft.)

They always come for trans people first.

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Shana Knizhnik @shanakn.bsky.social · Jan 28

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Jan 25

very excited to see what happens when you make a deeply compromised addict the leader of the department of defense and subordinate to a madman

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Jan 23

Trump's executive order attempts to codify a grade-school understanding of sex and biology defied by the very existence of intersex people--which is probably why it doesn't mention them at all

Despite intersex invisibility in broader society, our incontrovertible existence demonstrates that Trump’s order is neither based in reality nor biology. Countering current medical doctrine and millennia-old literary references, the new executive order makes numerous false assertions that contribute to our erasure, one of which directly pertains to my own lived experience. “‘Female’ means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,” reads Trump's executive order. I was born with internal testicles and an external vagina. I have XY chromosomes and my birth certificate has always said Female. I never produced the "large reproductive cell" and only produced the "small reproductive cell" until I was sterilized without my consent as an infant, in order to fit my body into this scientifically unsound sex binary the executive order seeks to falsify into law.

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Shana Knizhnik @shanakn.bsky.social · Jan 23

I am intersex and I exist. I love my trans siblings, who also exist. Our existence, and our resistance, will outlast this administration.

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Jan 21

Big tell in this Trump order targeting trans people: "at conception"

(d) "Female" means a person belonging, at
conception, to the sex that produces the large
reproductive cell.

(e) Male" means a person belonging, at conception,
to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · Jan 21

TLDR: There is nothing enforceable for the immediate future. It will take months or years to implement this via rulemaking or bureaucratic changes which are then subject to legal challenge. While it's worrying, there's no immediate change yet for most trans people. Do not comply in advance.

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · Jan 21

Trump White House's first trans executive order is out. I'll be reading over it here and going through line by line to help you make sense of it.

You can find it here:

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United

www.whitehouse.gov

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · Jan 21

BREAKING: Here is Trump's unconstitutional order seeking to restrict birthright citizenship.

It takes effect in 30 days, but expect a challenge as early as tonight or tomorrow. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Sec. 2. Policy. (a) It is the policy of the United States that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.

(b) Subsection (a) of this section shall apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order.

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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · Jan 21

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Jan 18

A colleague shared this advice for processing the executive orders Trump is going to sign next week

Undoubtedly, there will be Day 1 and Week 1 executive orders and declarations of policy via social media, not to mention additional attacks in the years ahead. It is critical that, on Day 1 and beyond, we carefully and rigorously work to understand what a given action actually does (and doesn't) do.
Very few executive orders change policy immediately. They cannot immediately change regulations, and they cannot change the law as established through statutes and the courts. Rather, there will be steps that take time and follow a clear process (such as the regulatory process requiring agencies to make notice, to solicit comments, to review such comments, and then to issue final rules). In some instances, litigation is not only expected but is also already being prepared.
We do not want to encourage anticipatory obedience, rather than asserting what is and is not happening at a given moment.

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