Total(ly awesome, trans rights) frat move

The Emerson College chapter of Phi Alpha Tau definitely wins my (highly prestigious) award for Best Frat Ever. The brothers have raised over $8,100 for a gender-confirming surgery for member Donnie Collins. It’s inexcusable that Donnie’s insurance refused to cover his procedure, and many people don’t have supportive institutions to turn to when money is low.  Still, it’s incredibly heartening to his friends’ efforts, particularly given fraternities’ historical dependence on strict gender policing.

For all the symbolic value, though, Donnie’s “thank you” video reminds us that, at the end of the day, this is about a real person now able to live his life the way he wants:

Donnie is donating excess funds raised to the Jim Collins Foundation, a non-profit that provides trans people with grants for gender-confirming surgeries. Consider contributing here.

Washington, DC

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com. During her four years at the site, she wrote about gender violence, reproductive justice, and education equity and ran the site's book review column. She is now a Skadden Fellow at the National Women's Law Center and also serves as the Board Chair of Know Your IX, a national student-led movement to end gender violence, which she co-founded and previously co-directed. Alexandra has written for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Nation, and she is the co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project: 57 Visions of a Wildly Better Future. She has spoken about violence against women and reproductive justice at campuses across the country and on MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, ESPN, and NPR.

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com.

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Trump Threatens Trans Health Care

The Trump Administration plans to quietly undo a regulation banning healthcare providers and insurers from discriminating against trans patients, according a report in The Hill.

To this day, no federal law explicitly prohibits health care discrimination against LGBTQ people (and while we’re at it, no federal law explicitly prohibits employment or housing discrimination either). And we need one, badly. A 2010 survey found that more than half of LGBTQ people reported experiencing discrimination from their healthcare providers, such as being demeaned or harassed, blamed for their health status, or being straight up denied medically necessary care. Transgender people are ...

The Trump Administration plans to quietly undo a regulation banning healthcare providers and insurers from discriminating against trans patients, according a report in The Hill.

Read More