Transgender people across the US are under attack. Transgender children are vulnerable. Protecting their rights to affirming care is protecting their mental health and safety.

This is important because we want to prevent this from happening to another family. No mother should be forced to deal with this unjust system while grieving the loss of her child that was murdered by the same system.

After years of inaction, the passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act means the US finally has a fighting chance at meeting our climate goals. But the IRA is just the start -- now we have to do the hard work of implementation, everywhere. Cities, including San Francisco, have a critical role to play to ensure we get to net-zero carbon emissions as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, San Francisco is already behind. While we have an ambitious Climate Action Plan (CAP), Mayor London Breed, who proudly introduced the CAP in 2021, has been surprisingly reluctant to actually commit funding to carry it out. In the last two budget cycles, she included $0 for implementing the CAP in her budget proposals, and it was only through heroic efforts by advocates to the Board of Supervisors that any money was restored. This year, the San Francisco Environment Department (SFE) is requesting $7 million for staffing and programs essential for achieving the CAP on schedule. This is a minuscule amount in the city's overall $14 BILLION budget, and yet we will need to fight tooth and nail for the funding. Mayor Breed has still not committed to SFE's request, and now is the time to let her know that another snub to climate funding is simply not an option compatible with maintaining a livable planet. The climate crisis impacts the city in countless ways. It is a public health crisis, and funding climate initiatives will improve residents’ and the planet’s health. Such initiatives are also critical to address environmental justice and equity issues in San Francisco and improve the lives of underserved, lower-income, and BIPOC communities. Climate initiatives will attract more businesses and tourists, create jobs, and elevate the status of San Francisco as a world-class city. President Biden and Democrats nationwide have campaigned on climate, and won, proving that it is a winning issue. Mayors around the world are leading on aggressive climate policies in their cities. It's time for Mayor Breed to show that she is a serious leader who recognizes that climate action is the path to a livable, equitable, and rejuvenated San Francisco, by committing to funding $7 million for SFE in her 2023-2024 budget.

The fight for women's rights in Afghanistan is a long and ongoing battle that has taken a huge step backwards with recent Taliban control. Despite immense danger and sacrifice, the Afghan women's soccer team is working to prove progress is possible. By breaking down cultural barriers and taking the field, they are not only challenging societal norms, but they are also providing a source of hope and inspiration. The problem? FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, refuses to recognize the team. This failure means the women cannot represent their country, compete in professional matches, or receive the funding they need to pay players and staff. But that can change. After months of player protests and widespread criticism over its human rights abuses in Doha, FIFA is eager to rehabilitate its image. And with the Women's World Cup taking place in Australia and New Zealand this July, FIFA will once again be center stage — and sensitive to public pressure and protest.  Right now, FIFA’s PR machine is closely watching and listening. That means we have a crucial opportunity to call on them to use their power for good. Can you join us to support women’s rights and diplomacy by signing our petition to FIFA President Gianni Infantino?

Last week’s circus on the House floor was an absurd means to an inevitable end: Kevin McCarthy is the new Speaker of the House. This week, the McCarthy era began with a grossly predictable assault on federal spending. The first vote of the Republican controlled chamber is to defund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which successfully passed in the House.1 They specifically want to undo recent investments made to the IRS designed to strengthen the agency’s ability to crack down on millionaire, billionaire, and corporate tax cheats. In other words: they want to issue handouts to their wealthy donors. Sign the petition: the US Senate must reject House Republicans' attempt to undermine the IRS for the benefit of the rich and powerful. Who will benefit from a weakened IRS? Notably Donald Trump. His recently released tax returns expose a strategy of overseas bank accounts and manipulative real estate evaluations that effectively allowed him to dodge taxes.2,3 This is exactly why Democrats included an extra $80 billion in funding for the IRS in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.1 To go after ultra-wealthy tax cheats like Trump. Republican’s response has been to paint the I.R.S. investments as “militarizing the IRS” and creating “hordes of armed IRS agents” that would target small businesses and working Americans.4 They pretend to be serving the interests of working Americans when really, they’re just following the classic GOP playbook of catering to the ultra-wealthy. This hypocritical fear mongering is also on display in the name of their bill, “The Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.” A more appropriate name might be something like “The Millionaire, Billionaire, and Corporate Taxpayer Protection Act.” Claiming their legislation will help working Americans when in reality it will only benefit the top one percent is about to be the status quo for the McCarthy run House. We need to rely on the Democrat-run Senate to hold the line and prevent this harmful legislation from becoming law. Sign the petition: Tell the US Senate to reject House Republicans attempts to defund the IRS! Sources: 1. NY Times, “House Republicans Vote to Rescind I.R.S. Funding,” January 9, 2023. 2. The Independent, “Trump had foreign bank accounts in China, UK and Ireland as president and one year paid more foreign tax than US,” December 30, 2022. 3. CNN, “Key takeaways from six years of Donald Trump’s federal tax returns,” December 30, 2022. 4. Reuters, “Fact Check-The IRS is not hiring thousands of armed agents, job ads show opening for specialized unit,” August 17, 2022.

Join us as we fight for our youth!

In the last three years, nearly 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 100 million more have become ill. This huge, unnecessary price increase for the Moderna vaccine would have devastating impacts and will cause needless deaths and severe, long-term health challenges for so many due to millions of Americans not being able to afford the vaccine. It will make the vaccine unavailable and inaccessible for many millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans (especially low-income people, people with disabilities, and communities of color) who won’t be able to afford it. How many people will die from COVID-19 as a result of limited access to these life-saving vaccines? In the midst of a deadly pandemic, restricting access to this much-needed vaccine is unconscionable. The COVID-19 vaccines were jointly developed in partnership with scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a U.S. government agency that is funded by U.S. taxpayers, and the federal government, who directly provided $1.7 billion to Moderna for research and development. If Moderna more than quadrupled the price of the vaccine, it would make it unaffordable to the very residents of this country who made the production of the vaccine possible, not to mention the fact that this decision will make the vaccine inaccessible to countries across the world. That is not acceptable. It will also have a significantly negative impact on the budgets of Medicaid, Medicare, and other government programs that will continue covering the vaccine without cost-sharing for patients. It will cost taxpayers BILLIONS of dollars, and the outrageous price boost will increase private health insurance premiums. And in the midst of the worst public health crisis in the U.S. over the last two years, Moderna made over $19 billion in profits and used those profits to provide incredibly extravagant compensation packages to the CEO and other top officials at the company. The Moderna CEO even became a multi-billionaire as a direct result of Moderna’s COVID vaccine, and several Moderna chairmen, co-founders, and investors are now billionaires, too. Let’s be clear: The purpose of the recent taxpayer investment in Moderna was to protect our health and lives, not to turn a handful of corporate executives and investors into multi-billionaires. This is why we are urgently calling for Moderna to NOT increase the price of the people-funded COVID-19 vaccine!

The United States government has hit the debt ceiling, which is the amount of money it is allowed to borrow. Without raising the debt ceiling, the federal government cannot pay its bills. We risk a global financial crisis, 6 million Americans losing their jobs, and devastating families who rely on lifesaving benefits. Instead of governing for the people, MAGA Republicans are holding our economy hostage at the expense of the working people who uphold it. Under McCarthy’s cowering leadership, they are refusing to vote to increase the debt ceiling—something they’ve done hundreds of times—unless major cuts are made to Social Security and Medicare. Instead of making the wealthy few pay their fair share in taxes to help fund the government, Republicans want to fill the pockets of the rich even more. This is their latest attempt to execute their decades-long agenda of gutting these programs under the guise of reducing spending. Millions of Americans, many of whom are already living paycheck to paycheck, rely on these programs to protect their livelihoods and families. Congress should work together to focus on strengthening and expanding popular programs like Social Security and Medicare that make our lives better. Millions of people will suffer and some will even die as a result of this callous greed. McCarthy traded everyday Americans’ health and survival to be speaker of the House. By conceding to the far-right Freedom Caucus’s demands, he committed to prioritizing tax cuts for the rich while gutting the programs that keep our families and communities able to survive. Our lives depend on fighting to save Social Security and Medicare. Congress must pass a clean debt ceiling increase immediately. Photo Credit: Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty

George Santos deceived his constituents to win a seat in Congress – and we can't let him remain in public office. Santos lied his way into office, inventing stories about his family background, work experience, education, values, and identity – even going so far as to capitalize off of tragedies like the Holocaust, the PULSE nightclub shooting, and 9/11. But national Republicans are rewarding his deceit – seating him on two committees. Kevin McCarthy even justified his actions by saying that “a lot of people” have lied about their resumes while running for office. This defense is simply ridiculous. George Santos lied about nearly every aspect of who he was – and deceived every single one of his constituents to gain power. If we don’t set a clear precedent now that this kind of dishonesty and corruption do not deserve to hold elected office, we’ll be giving a free pass to candidates to lie their way into public office – regardless of who they hurt in the process.

I am Rebecca–a National Delegate from Northern California. I am also a queer person. I am concerned about the National Convention taking place in Florida, due to the recent rise in homophobic, transphobic, and racist legislation occurring Florida. Girl Scouts has been working to be a more inclusive organization, and this is very contrary to that ideal–bringing Girl Scouts of all identities to a place that doesn't embody that value and is an unsafe environment. When a state passes bigoted policies, it empowers people with those beliefs to act on their beliefs, which endangers Girl Scouts going to Florida. Bringing people–especially en masse– supports the Floridian economy and tells them that their policies and actions are acceptable and that there are not consequences. Girl Scouts' event going to Florida shows immediate disregard for queer and trans members' safety, needs, rights, and humanity. In order to amend this, I believe Girl Scouts must move the 2023 National Convention and Phenom out of Florida. Girl Scouts must take action (not just in words) to protect queer and trans attendees through, but not limited to: transportation from airports to the sites for safety, LGBTQ+ safe break rooms, and gender inclusive bathrooms at hotels and other centers. Girl Scouts can do better; Girl Scouts must do better. Girl Scouts prides itself on being a youth oriented and led inclusive organization, and listening to and acting for the needs of their membership on this issue is crucial to demonstrate this.

We need to show Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk that there will be a price to pay for reinstating Trump. We who believe in and support democracy need to show that we are in the majority, and that we will boycott these platforms and their advertisers should Donald Trump once again reign as an agent of destruction through his domination of their platforms.

Donald Trump is planning his big return to Facebook and Twitter – and I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this is for our democracy. The last time Trump was on these platforms, he abused his massive online megaphone to incite the violent January 6th insurrection. Bipartisan investigators in Congress even called his social media vitriol “rocket fuel for extremists”. And now, he plans to bring the hateful rhetoric that he’d been forced to reserve for fringe, far-right pages like Truth Social back to mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook. No one – especially Trump – should be allowed to use Twitter or Facebook to lie and incite violence. At a minimum Facebook and Twitter must fact-check Trump and hold him to the same standards as everyone else. More importantly, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms must enforce and strengthen their policies to combat disinformation, hate, and other harmful content. Our democracy cannot afford more lies and hate-fueled violence that go unchecked on social media.