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Gillian Branstetter

@gbbranstetter.bsky.social
95K followers 940 following 10K posts

Opinions are my own // linktr.ee/gbbranstetter

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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
ACLU @aclu.org · 09/10/2026
Tell Governor Newsom to spare hundreds of lives and grant universal clemency now.
actionnetwork.org
Support universal clemency for every person on California's death row!
We need your help to call on California Governor Gavin Newsom to commute every death row sentence in California. As governors across the country are greenlighting executions, Gov. Newsom can take a st...
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
ACLU @aclu.org · 09/10/2026
Roughly 1 in 4 people on death row nationwide are in California. On the heels of Tennessee's horrifying second botched execution in less than 6 months, Governor Newsom has an historic opportunity to help move the country away from capital punishment.
nytimes.com
Newsom Mulls Sparing Lives of All 563 Prisoners on Death Row in California
Gov. Gavin Newsom ramped up talks after a botched execution in Tennessee.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
How fast will this come to a public school near you
A U.S. charity in Gaza is worried that teachers at its schools might stray from a curriculum it says promotes peace and tolerance, so it plans to record classroom conversations and use artificial intelligence to flag speech deemed “hateful” or “inciting.”

The plans laid out by the founder of the Gaza Children Village in a webinar last month have elicited ethical, safety and privacy concerns from some Palestinian and advocacy groups and at least one of the charity’s partners.

There is no indication the charity intends to share its classrooms’ recordings with anybody else, but fears about the potential misuse of surveillance technology are heightened in Gaza after three years of war. The Israeli military has used AI to sift through intercepted communications and find suspicious speech, including to identify targets for strikes.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Remarkable how consistently the Trump administration has adopted the aesthetics of mass shooters, from their schizophrenic social media aesthetic to livestreamed executions to masked men with long guns roaming our streets with impunity. Nihilist violent extremism as statecraft
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The death penalty on its own is morally indefensible; Turning it into a public spectacle is an abomination
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
All the more depressing when you remember the largest bar on this graph is only one tenth of campus sexual assault (90% of campus sexual assault goes unreported altogether)
Sexual misconduct reports at nearly 300 colleges in New York state
Reported incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking in schools' disciplinary process from 2018 to 2024.

0
6,250
12,500
18,750
25,000
Reported incidents
25,818
Reported to law enforcement
4,243
School judicial process sought
4,561
People found responsible
1,729
Students expelled/employees dismissed
312
Suspended
623
Incidents involving students, including some where the accuser or accused are employees.
Source: New York State Department of Education
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Oh
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Trying to find this sleeveless shirt worn by one of the bullies in She's All That
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Trump-appointed head of DOJ's civil rights office wondering why the most powerful women in Washington are primarily on the left when the current vogue in right wing politics is debating the merits of the 19th Amendment
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Now we're cooking
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Met a woman in Park Slope today selling dozens of portraits of her friends she painted during a challenge with another artist where each painted one portrait a day for 300 days
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Derogatory update from LinkedIn
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Republican position is that trans people's sex cannot be changed by hormones and surgery but their own sex is threatened by everything from chemicals in the water to workplace sexual harassment policies
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I love living in a country where a politician can sign a law banning the health care I need to live and be greeted as a hero of comity and good sense
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Getting there 🍂
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Just left Lawrence, Kansas where I regrettably did not get to sample the local cuisine
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Whos up heightening their contradictions
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It's very difficult (and very thankless) to tell people not to panic when everything is in fact very awful, but panic is never a good organizing model, persuasion tactic, or personal outlook. It's good for content creation in an algorithmic feed but that's kind of it.
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This young woman, just 21, has already been driven out of the state. Another guy in this story has young kids who only know him as Dad and can no longer take his son to the men’s room. Sensitive reporting (as always) by @caseyparks.bsky.social
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 30/09/2026
In February, the Kansas state legislature passed a law that required all driver’s licenses to reflect sex at birth. Roughly 1,700 intersex and transgender Kansans received a letter saying to get new licenses, including Dakota West. Now, she’s suing. wapo.st/3VaB9yX
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
ACLU @aclu.org · 29/09/2026
This law has subjected trans people in Kansas to: - Losing their ability to drive and go about their daily lives - Being forced to disclose they're trans every time they show ID - Risking harassment or violating the law when deciding which bathroom to use We're fighting back.
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
ACLU @aclu.org · 29/09/2026
We're in court today challenging the anti-trans Kansas law that bans trans people from bathrooms that align with their gender on government property, invalidates driver's licenses with updated gender markers, and lets people sue anyone they suspect of violating the law for damages up to $1,000.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Lost in the discourse about where Dems are is the fact Republicans know the anti-trans ads aren't helping them but, as Terry here openly admits, hurting trans people is all they have left. They'd use their dying breath to ruin one more trans kid's life.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Satan turning a big knob on the flames of hell to see how the crowd reacts
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Does the beef tallow differ on the quality of the beef? I'm unfamiliar
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
ACLU @aclu.org · 28/09/2026
BREAKING: The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow essential health care to be withheld from transgender people in federal prisons. Denying medically-necessary care to any incarcerated person is cruel and unusual punishment — period.
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
think all straight people who discoursed at great and punishing length about a western mass lesbian bar should have to give equal airtime to this. it’s your own community this time!
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Reading a very strange and timely book from 1956 called The Obsolesence of The Human
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Did you guys hear about this lesbian bar
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Republicans won in 2024 arguing Democrats were too obsessed with trans people to focus on the economy. As billionaires like Elon Musk flood the airwaves with anti-trans ads amid Trump's own floundering economy, Democrats have a chance to flip the tables. My latest for @thenation.com
thenation.com
Transphobia Isn’t Winning Votes. But It Is Making Our Lives Much Worse.
Trans people must now live out another election cycle knowing our friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors are being flooded with agitprop designed to dehumanize us.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Why do we keep talking about this and the bunker (disguised as a "ballroom") like it's some funny excess and not actions being taken by the same president who has already used violence to hold onto power before
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It's Tapestry by Carole King degrees outside in NYC rn
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
ACLU @aclu.org · 18/09/2026
Because of our lawsuit, no patient records from NYU or Mt. Sinai have been disclosed to the DOJ as part of these settlements — and that block remains in full effect. It’s beyond shameful that the Trump administration has strong-armed these hospitals into a deal that betrays New York families.
gothamist.com
NYU Langone strikes deal with Trump DOJ to end gender-affirming care for minors
The hospital system will pay $8.5 million, similar to the “monetary penalty” paid by Mount Sinai earlier this month.
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 18/09/2026
Cannot believe we are still here—and this is an attitude that enables law enforcement, that they have permission to rape sex workers
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The Kansas Republican Party attempted to use a new state law requiring driver's license to only list sex at birth to invalidate the voter registration and candidacy of a transgender woman running against a Republican for a state House seat. They were rebuffed by the Secretary of State.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Asked an orthopedist how to fix my posture and he told me to keep my ears over my shoulders and I'll be damned
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Oh hey have you seen the new Apple TV series? It's a conceptual sci-fi with a rich mythology and lots of merchandising opportunities. It won 14 Emmy's for comedy because it has two jokes per one hour episode. It's second season comes out in 2033
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
Dante Atkins @danteatkins.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The reason that you don't "withhold your vote" or "wonder if it's better for Republicans to win" is because beating the electoral shit out of Republicans convinces their pollsters, activists and candidates that their current strategy is a losing one. Make them do an autopsy, not an inauguration.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Equivalent of the drug dealer cutting you off
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This is APPALLING. The Trump administration is detaining multiple random Somali immigrants with no criminal record at Guantanamo Bay, seemingly because the White House ordered ICE specifically to detain Somalis at Gitmo as part of its effort to punish an ethnic group Trump has attacked.
According to Mohamed, guards at Guantanamo have said they are being held there because that's what officials in Washington, DC, want. "There's no other nation, only Somali people in Guantanamo Bay, in the prison," he told me. "And when we ask them why we are here, they tell us... Washington...ordered to keep Somali people in the Guantanamo Bay."
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
ACLU @aclu.org · 16/09/2026
NEW: The bipartisan JAWBONE Act passed out of a Senate committee this morning. The bill would stop the Trump administration from bullying broadcasters or social media platforms into censorship. Tell your Senators to vote yes on this crucial bill when it comes up for a full floor vote.
action.aclu.org
Stop the Trump Administration's Attacks on Free Speech
The Trump administration is trying to bully broadcasters into censorship. Congress must pass the JAWBONE Act and protect our freedom of speech and freedom of press.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
In my experience people love "man behind the curtain" narratives - Project 2025, Epstein, data centers, Flock. Everyone's a conspiracy theorist now so all you need to do is present the truth like it's a secret you're letting them in on
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The fact that Musk himself is sponsoring so many of the anti-trans ads this cycle presents a pretty golden opportunity for Dems to point out that of course the guy who literally wants to build a gas-powered data center in your backyard wants this election to be about trans people.
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I have no idea how to have this conversation within Jewish circles but the very obvious path we're on is that the ADL is devaluing the concept of antisemitism by making it synonymous with Ms Rachel and Macklemore, spending down the capital of American Jews in service of a genocidal apartheid state
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I'm admittedly not an early child development expert but it does seem the ideal scenario for any baby is being collectively raised by a traveling women's professional soccer team
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Starting my Ed Sheeran boycott
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I don't think people really understand the psychic impact of knowing that multiple times a day every day your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and everyone who could ever have any power over you is being flooded with agitprop designed to make them hate you
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Jesus
Anabell, 35, said she didn’t know she was pregnant until she was arrested and told to take a pregnancy test during a medical examination at the Campbell county detention center in Kentucky. A month later, she started bleeding heavily – soaking through a new menstrual pad every 30 minutes. Chained to a hospital bed at a local ER, she was told she wasn’t pregnant anymore.

Laura, 21, was in the second trimester of a high-risk pregnancy when she was sent to the Dilley detention center in Texas. Now, still detainedand approaching her third trimester, she’s experiencing persistent abdominal pain and bleeding – and says she hasn’t been allowed to see an OB-GYN.

Angie, 26, learned she was pregnant a few weeks after she was booked into the Mesa Verde detention center in California. A few weeks after that, she woke up to large amounts of brown fluid excreting from her body. The medical staff at the detention center told her the miscarriage wasn’t her fault, she said.
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Reposted by Gillian Branstetter
Will Craft @wcraft.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
BREAKING: Records obtained through a FOIA lawsuit shows that despite record number of pregnant women are in detention, ICE has lost count of the number of miscarriages. A Deleted Data/Immigration/Guardian investigations collab
theguardian.com
Revealed: ICE lost count of miscarriages, while detaining a record number of pregnant women
ICE says it has no updated information on the number of miscarriages after 3 October 2025. Lawmakers, advocates and immigration attorneys have raised alarms that pregnant detainees are not receiving b...
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Something I tried to get at in my newsletter this week is that trans rights activists have the misfortune of our cause being thrust into the national spotlight just as the entire information ecosystem was being fractured by platforms that incentivize conflict and sensationalism
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