Paisley Currah
@paisleycurrah.com
My speciality: government decisions on sex classification. CUNY. Institute for Advanced Study, 2024-25. Wrote Sex is as Sex Does. Dad, dog companion, kayaker. n+1, Boston Review, Nature, New Yorker, New York Review, Yale Review.
www.paisleycurrah.com
www.paisleycurrah.com
And is a short piece condensing the argument: static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
November 9, 2025 at 2:02 PM
And is a short piece condensing the argument: static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
Headline change from this morning, I see. Probably meant what they said the first time. Liberal feminism doesn't really work as a euphemism for women.
November 6, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Headline change from this morning, I see. Probably meant what they said the first time. Liberal feminism doesn't really work as a euphemism for women.
Or, as @lornab.bsky.social put it, don't let UT Austin succeed in its bid to become the University of Austin
October 16, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Or, as @lornab.bsky.social put it, don't let UT Austin succeed in its bid to become the University of Austin
This decision by UT’s administration is not driven by any educational reasons--UT administrators are bowing to a national political attack on the freedom to learn by censoring subjects and silencing departments. The state should not be telling administrators what their students can study.
October 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
This decision by UT’s administration is not driven by any educational reasons--UT administrators are bowing to a national political attack on the freedom to learn by censoring subjects and silencing departments. The state should not be telling administrators what their students can study.
Good morning Brooklyn.
July 5, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Good morning Brooklyn.
Didn’t realize someone on Bluesky could get ratioed so badly so quickly.
June 18, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Didn’t realize someone on Bluesky could get ratioed so badly so quickly.
Today, I'm on a Zoom panel about the Trump 2.0. English and Spanish translation available. Short presentations and group discussions. bit.ly/dialogos-pendientes-emergentes-1706
June 17, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Today, I'm on a Zoom panel about the Trump 2.0. English and Spanish translation available. Short presentations and group discussions. bit.ly/dialogos-pendientes-emergentes-1706
This book will make you see the debate over women's sports in a very different light--it unlocks the history of sex testing in Olympic sports, and it's not what you thought. For NYC people, I'm doing an event with Michael Waters to mark the paperback release of this fabulous book--Wed. June 11th
June 9, 2025 at 4:16 PM
This book will make you see the debate over women's sports in a very different light--it unlocks the history of sex testing in Olympic sports, and it's not what you thought. For NYC people, I'm doing an event with Michael Waters to mark the paperback release of this fabulous book--Wed. June 11th
New York friends--I am doing at event with Jamie Lauren Keiles, Whit Washington, and Joanna Wuest on Wednesday at 6:30 at the McNally Jackson store at South Street Seaport. The event is sold out but I have a few free tickets, if anyone is interested--DM me.
June 2, 2025 at 3:13 PM
New York friends--I am doing at event with Jamie Lauren Keiles, Whit Washington, and Joanna Wuest on Wednesday at 6:30 at the McNally Jackson store at South Street Seaport. The event is sold out but I have a few free tickets, if anyone is interested--DM me.
The times, they are a changing. Found this blast from the past going through old files.
May 14, 2025 at 6:02 PM
The times, they are a changing. Found this blast from the past going through old files.
What's happening is even worse than you realize. @naomiaklein.bsky.social explains the rage of the tech-bro oligarchs: science supports regulation on business, therefore science (and universities) must be dismantled; culling humans is good. Also AI will solve everything. archive.ph/oRn3z
May 12, 2025 at 1:01 PM
What's happening is even worse than you realize. @naomiaklein.bsky.social explains the rage of the tech-bro oligarchs: science supports regulation on business, therefore science (and universities) must be dismantled; culling humans is good. Also AI will solve everything. archive.ph/oRn3z
Just arrived. So excited to read @talia-mae.bsky.social’s book. We really need new good ideas, and I can’t wait to dig in. @uminnpress.bsky.social
May 6, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Just arrived. So excited to read @talia-mae.bsky.social’s book. We really need new good ideas, and I can’t wait to dig in. @uminnpress.bsky.social
Todays news--No NIH grants to universities that have DEI programs or boycott Israel.
April 21, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Todays news--No NIH grants to universities that have DEI programs or boycott Israel.
This is very bad news for me because I love em dashes, have one or a set in every paragraph. But I’m not AI (as far as I know).
April 19, 2025 at 8:52 PM
This is very bad news for me because I love em dashes, have one or a set in every paragraph. But I’m not AI (as far as I know).
Could this bad news be good? Is it possible for trans people to NOT be outed in our medical records? I fear the big systems I'm part of (NYU Langone, Mt. Sinai) would just hand over lists of trans patients if Trump asked. A year ago, if I'd had this thought I'd accuse myself of paranoia, but not now
April 18, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Could this bad news be good? Is it possible for trans people to NOT be outed in our medical records? I fear the big systems I'm part of (NYU Langone, Mt. Sinai) would just hand over lists of trans patients if Trump asked. A year ago, if I'd had this thought I'd accuse myself of paranoia, but not now
Turns out April 3 WAS liberation day--not from tariffs, but from Pamela Paul. Her reactionary liberalism paved the way for the authoritarianism we're hurtling toward. Andrea Long Chu's essay on Paul's contributions is not to be missed. nymag.com/intelligence...
April 3, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Turns out April 3 WAS liberation day--not from tariffs, but from Pamela Paul. Her reactionary liberalism paved the way for the authoritarianism we're hurtling toward. Andrea Long Chu's essay on Paul's contributions is not to be missed. nymag.com/intelligence...
This is a book I've been waiting for. From Carolyn Wolf-Gould, Dallas Denny, Jamison Green, and Kyan Linch. (Facebook wouldn't a bookstore advertise this book. If you're on FB, only use it with your computer and only with an ad blocker). sunypress.edu/Books/A/A-Hi...
March 3, 2025 at 2:10 PM
This is a book I've been waiting for. From Carolyn Wolf-Gould, Dallas Denny, Jamison Green, and Kyan Linch. (Facebook wouldn't a bookstore advertise this book. If you're on FB, only use it with your computer and only with an ad blocker). sunypress.edu/Books/A/A-Hi...
In December, during oral arguments in Skrmetti, Justice Coney Barrett opined, "we don't have a history of de jure discrimination against transgender people." I was flabbergasted. So I chronicled some of the most egregious examples for
@law360.bsky.social static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
.
@law360.bsky.social static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
.
![High Court Must Acknowledge US History Of Anti-Trans Laws
By Paisley Currah · Listen to article
Law360 (February 24, 2025, 6:57 PM EST) --
Paisley Currah
President Donald Trump's sweeping executive order directing federal agencies to change policy and rules that make transgender people's lives harder marks the latest chapter in a long history of government-sanctioned discrimination against this group.[1]
The U.S. Department of State must now prevent transgender people from obtaining passports that align with their gender identity. Federal agencies are required to remove existing protections in shelters, schools, prisons and workplaces and to deny funding to contractors who serve transgender clients. This dramatic assertion of state power to target transgender people might seem unprecedented — but it's not.
During December's oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested that "we don't have a history of de jure discrimination against transgender people."[2]
As a political scientist who has studied how governments treat transgender people, I must respectfully disagree.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xdr5afgwondir6s5xjp45nkc/bafkreifz6lkhyrpin5icw26msctuzwlidatxxgkgjwyia4uslydu64k2je@jpeg)
February 25, 2025 at 3:01 PM
In December, during oral arguments in Skrmetti, Justice Coney Barrett opined, "we don't have a history of de jure discrimination against transgender people." I was flabbergasted. So I chronicled some of the most egregious examples for
@law360.bsky.social static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
.
@law360.bsky.social static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
.
Hot off the press. (This is published in
@law360.bsky.social , which is paywalled, hence the PDF). static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
@law360.bsky.social , which is paywalled, hence the PDF). static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
February 25, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Hot off the press. (This is published in
@law360.bsky.social , which is paywalled, hence the PDF). static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
@law360.bsky.social , which is paywalled, hence the PDF). static1.squarespace.com/static/6160c...
Um, no. (Seriously, though, a reminder to exercise care in responding to random emails.)
February 3, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Um, no. (Seriously, though, a reminder to exercise care in responding to random emails.)
Some more information, from 2015. (Corrected 9/, picture added) transequality.org/sites/defaul...
February 3, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Some more information, from 2015. (Corrected 9/, picture added) transequality.org/sites/defaul...
The Wall Street Journal described the EO on sex definition as creating “headaches” for trans people: “individuals could end up with conflicting government identification documents that use different gender markers, a headache when completing tasks such as opening a new bank account.” 1/
February 3, 2025 at 2:24 PM
The Wall Street Journal described the EO on sex definition as creating “headaches” for trans people: “individuals could end up with conflicting government identification documents that use different gender markers, a headache when completing tasks such as opening a new bank account.” 1/