Listen Up Girl

Today on Listen Up Girl: a Republican attack ad in North Carolina uses AI to put Democrat Jamie Ager at a "drag queen barn dance" that never happened, and the real Asheville drag performers in it are fighting back. Iowa Democratic Senate nominee Josh Turek releases an ad opposing federal funding for gender-affirming care. Two gay British veterans challenge a compensation scheme that recorded them...

A text message promising VIP access to the president, a donation that never arrived, and an investigation inside the White House. Today on Listen Up Girl: White House adviser Alina Habba accuses special envoy Ric Grenell of a pay-for-play scheme tied to the Kennedy Center. Grenell denies it. Also today: a Maryland judge refuses to dismiss teacher Alexa Sciuto's defamation suit against the founder...

Today on Listen Up Girl: two new federal reports on sexual abuse in prisons and jails sort trans victims into an "other" category while naming trans people only as perpetrators, even though the survey asked about trans identity directly. Texas Senate candidate James Talarico tells a town hall audience that "the only minority destroying America is the billionaires." Berlin police raid Casa Kuà, a t...

Today on Listen Up Girl, the Alliance Defending Freedom asks the Supreme Court to fast-track a national trans sports ban through its emergency docket. Military and veteran spouses of trans kids tell Congress that anti-trans policy is pushing experienced service members out. A trans woman sues Tennessee after the state refuses to match her license to her Illinois birth certificate. A married gay co...

Today on Listen Up Girl, the Supreme Court votes 7-2 to keep gender-affirming care in place for trans people in federal prisons. Federal Judge Ana Reyes says her family received death threats after the president called her a "crazed lunatic" over a D.C. golf course case. Russia puts gay journalist Vadim Vaganov on a wanted list. An Arizona man faces terrorism charges after allegedly threatening a...

Alabama's Republican Party chair called two transgender state House candidates "mental disorders." Ally Montgomery and Terri Osborne answered with a question about groceries, gas, and rent. Today on Listen Up Girl: how two trans Democrats are turning anti-trans attacks into an affordability argument ahead of November 3. Also today: St. Pete Pride, Florida's largest Pride celebration, launches a $2...

Elon Musk just put $158 million behind Ken Paxton's Senate campaign in Texas, and in the same week, someone texted Republican voters while posing as a trans rights group. On this Sunday episode of Listen Up Girl, Zach Randles-Friedman breaks down the money and the texts, plus NHS England's new rules for trans patients and staff, a protest at the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child gala in London, a...

Today on Listen Up Girl: two anti-trans measures on Colorado's November ballot that opponents say could reach every kid in the state, a former Texas House speaker admitting his party's anti-trans ads aren't working, Ukraine naming LGBTQ+ people in its new National Human Rights Strategy, the fight over painted-over rainbow crosswalks in Swampscott, Massachusetts, a Florida drag queen turning Miami...

Today on Listen Up Girl: A federal judge orders Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to answer questions under oath about his anti-trans statements in the lawsuit challenging the trans military ban, and warns a deposition is next if he dodges. Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the first openly bisexual senator, is reportedly backing Republican Jay Feely, who's campaigning on anti-trans sports politics in Ariz...

Vote for my podcast for the Listeners Choice Award: Everything and Anything and a bit gay: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2026/shows/genre/lgbtq   James Talarico took nine days off the campaign trail with the flu. A senior administration adviser responded by suggesting he'd had bottom surgery, and the vice president followed with a gay joke at a Texas airport. Today on Listen Up G...

Two trans members of the Ohio Democratic Party's Pride Caucus resign within 24 hours, saying party leaders blocked them from sharing a statement supporting the party's own candidate for governor. Today on Listen Up Girl: what happens when a party asks its Pride Caucus to stay quiet. Also today: Army Reserve Lt. Nic Talbott, lead plaintiff against the trans military ban, receives his separation pap...

Three weeks before the midterms, some Democrats are running ads that echo Republican attacks on trans people. Today on Listen Up Girl, Zach breaks down why HRC president Kelley Robinson says that strategy is "doing too much and getting too little," and what she says candidates should do instead. Also today: the president mocks a New York parentage bill with "hi, gestating." A Tennessee appeals cou...

Today on Listen Up Girl: Sunday was National Coming Out Day, and we look back at how it started and why it still matters. The new White House press secretary holds her first briefing as her old posts pushing Pizzagate and false claims about trans people resurface. A Republican running for California governor airs an AI-generated anti-trans ad that puts words in his opponent's mouth. The BBC blurs...

On Tuesday, a federal rule cuts off Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender-affirming care for minors. California, Maine, and Illinois are stepping in with state money. Virginia and Arizona, both led by Democratic governors, are not. Today on Listen Up Girl, Zach breaks down what that means for families and what Gov. Abigail Spanberger said Friday. Also today: Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown calls a supe...

A gay man who grew up in Arizona was deported to Equatorial Guinea, a country he had never been to, and held in a hotel where he says he was beaten. Today on Listen Up Girl: a federal judge orders the government to bring Ahmed Soliman home, and why dozens of others are still waiting. Also today: the Republican National Committee attacks Texas Senate candidate James Talarico and New Hampshire's Chr...

The president used an anti-trans slur three times against South Carolina Senate candidate Dr. Annie Andrews, who isn't trans. Today on Listen Up Girl, what that attack says about the campaign strategy behind it, and why distancing yourself from trans people doesn't buy protection. Also today: Justice Samuel Alito's new book, So Ordered, calls the Obergefell marriage equality ruling "perhaps the de...

Can a Democratic House actually protect trans people with the orange convicted felon still in office? Today on Listen Up Girl, Vermont Rep. Becca Balint, the only out LGBTQ+ member of the House Judiciary Committee, lays out the tools: subpoenas, oversight hearings, and the power of the purse. She also calls out Democrats running anti-trans ads. Also today: students and teachers at Fairview High Sc...

Are fewer young people queer, or are fewer willing to say so out loud? Today on Listen Up Girl, new federal youth survey data shows the share of ninth graders identifying as gay or bisexual dropped from 17% to 11% in two years, while older teens and young adults are holding steady. Also today: Minnesota Republican state House candidate William Beck repeats the conspiracy theory that chemicals in t...

Today on Listen Up Girl: Becca Good and Renee Good's family file two federal lawsuits over Renee's killing by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, naming Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and other senior officials. Elliot Page joins the Gender Liberation Movement to demand that NYU Langone, Mount Sinai, and NewYork-Presbyterian restart gender-affirming care for trans youth and apologize to the families they...

Today on Listen Up Girl: The "Press 3" option for LGBTQ+ youth is back on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, after Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi wrote it into federal law. But The Trevor Project was shut out of running it, and the administration won't say how counselors will treat trans kids. In Pennsylvania, Republican state Rep. Aaron Bernstine reportedly hurled a slur and...

Today on Listen Up Girl: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed six LGBTQ+ bills into law, including AB 1930, which blocks state agencies from helping federal investigators access trans people's medical records. A new Human Rights Campaign Foundation survey of 826 educators finds that teachers in states with anti-LGBTQ+ policies are afraid to step in when LGBTQ+ students are bullied. In the Netherlan...

Today on Listen Up Girl: The Education Department formally rescinded the 2024 Title IX rule protecting LGBTQ+ students and restored the 2020 rules with no public comment period. The administration asked the Supreme Court to let the Bureau of Prisons cut off hormone therapy and other gender-affirming care for trans people in federal custody. Ana Brnabić became Serbia's acting president, the first o...

Ken Paxton spent a week attacking Drag Race star Alyssa Edwards to score points against James Talarico. She answered with an open letter and one line: Texas is big enough for all of us. Today on Listen Up Girl, Zach Randles-Friedman breaks down the exchange and what it says about the Texas Senate race. Also today: FCC Chair Brendan Carr fires back at 68 House Democrats over TV warning labels for t...

Listen Up Girl | Saturday, September 26, 2026 Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola, a former Anchorage Pride grand marshal, faces allegations from former staffers that she used anti-gay and ableist slurs. Her campaign denies the anti-gay slur and says she regrets the other language. Queer voters are debating what it means for a race that could decide the Senate. The administration's FDA nominee, D...

Six stories today, two of them political. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville spends twenty minutes on the Senate floor warning about "furry pilots" and calling trans people mentally ill. HIV and STI samples from the Seattle LGBTQ+ Center are now processed at a lab in Texas, raising privacy concerns given the state's pursuit of LGBTQ+ medical records. Two men face hate crime charges after an attack o...