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Paisley Currah

@paisleycurrah.com
6.2K followers 1.1K following 480 posts

My specialty: government decisions on sex classification. Distinguished Professor, Brooklyn College, CUNY. Dad, dog companion, kayaker. Pieces in n+1, Boston Review, Nature, New Yorker, New York Review, Yale Review. www.paisleycurrah.com

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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 11h
Celeste Davis explains why fraternity reform won't stop rape and hazing. Secrecy and breaking rules (OF COURSE frat boys understand consent) is the whole point of them. They teach that masculinity requires domination, and so prepare them for a life exploiting others. substack.com/home/post/p-...
substack.com
I’m so sorry, but none of your solutions for fraternity reform are going to work
Fraternities are not failing at their purpose; they are succeeding perfectly.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 02/10/2026
Congratulations to Ido Katri & Maayan Sudai for winning the prestigious Dukeminier award from @williamsinstitute.bsky.social for exposing the injustice of states that both ban gender-affirming care AND endorse coercive medical interventions on intersex infants. yalelawjournal.org/article/inte...
yalelawjournal.org
Intersex, Trans, and the Irrationality of Gender-Affirming-Care Bans | Yale Law Journal
This Article provides a comprehensive legal analysis of gender-affirming-care bans, concluding that their internally inconsistent treatment of trans-affirming...
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 01/10/2026
Elite women athletes, "femtech companies," influencers have been pushing digital menstrual trackers. @profrichardson.bsky.social & @genderscilab.bsky.social debunk the health claims and lay out the risks--loss of data privacy, surveillance, criminalization. www.genderscilab.org/blog/the-ris...
genderscilab.org
The Rise and Risks of Digital Menstrual Tracking — GenderSci Lab
The GenderSci Lab has a new paper out in The BMJ , a collaboration between the GenderSci Lab and scholars in sports science and exercise medicine. The paper emerged from an international workshop hos...
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 28/09/2026
You'd think they'd take a small fraction of their billions and hire a smart PR firm to prevent them from saying the quiet part out loud, but I guess not. DARVO coming next, no doubt. statements.cornell.edu/2026/2026092...
statements.cornell.edu
District Attorney’s investigation of 2024 sexual assault allegations
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 28/09/2026
Today Cornell tells us that suspension, expulsion, writing an essay, and/or attending a workshop are adequate punishments for SA. Saying these "consequences" are adequate is itself evidence of the problem. They can't be bothered to disguise their misogyny.
District Attorney’s investigation of 2024 sexual assault allegations
Sept. 28, 2026

Cornell University supports the decision of the Tompkins County District Attorney (DA) to provide an opportunity for the victim’s story in the 2024 Chi Phi fraternity sexual assault case to be heard by a criminal grand jury.

Cornell also conducted a thorough Title IX investigation, which is separate from a criminal proceeding, over the course of several months. During that investigation, temporary suspensions and other restrictive measures were used. After investigation, and pursuant to federal law, the matter was sent to a hearing where a panel of trained faculty and staff heard evidence over multiple days. The complainant and respondents had the opportunity to testify and present evidence. At its conclusion, the hearing panel issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell. None of the individuals charged were offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence of their involvement.

In addition, the involved fraternity chapter was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus.

Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false. A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault.

Kyle Kimball
Vice President for University Relations
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 28/09/2026
statements.cornell.edu/2026/2026092...
statements.cornell.edu
District Attorney’s investigation of 2024 sexual assault allegations
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Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI)®️ @queeringedu.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Reframing bullying has been key in our scholarship & public policy work for over 15 yrs. These ideas anchor our new book "Queer Kids & Social Violence" @uminnpress.bsky.social. Book talk w @paisleycurrah.com and @ecpayne.bsky.social at @bgsqd.bsky.social Oct7th. Bullying is political.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 26/09/2026
7:04 pm
Picture of trees and buildings and a streaked red sky in the background
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 26/09/2026
Well, there’s always Bluesky! Seriously, I think I will go to an actual theater to this when it’s released October 9. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...
hollywoodreporter.com
The Major Social Media Platforms Are All Rejecting Paid Ads for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ (Exclusive)
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all turned down the trailer for the Oct. 9 doc, citing “political” content. X won't even take Bleecker Street's calls. The distributor is appealing.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 26/09/2026
The author, Toby Buckle, is not wrong—though I would say restrictions in ELITE competition. Once you cave to the right, as Labor did, you end up where Labor is now: viciously going after trans people, cutting health care for children & adults, denying trans people access to ANY bathroom.
Just about every trans person I know thinks concerns about sports are misleadingly presented and vastly overblown. They also would trade restrictions here for broader social acceptance and inclusion in a heartbeat if they thought that was a deal that was on the table. They just don’t think that it is. And I think they’re correct to think that.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 26/09/2026
Read this. newrepublic.com/article/2155...
newrepublic.com
Centrists Won’t Tell You Where “Moderating” on Trans Rights Ends Up
The recent example of the U.K. Labour Party shows that “compromising” rarely stops at some acceptable midpoint.
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Jeanne Theoharis @jeannetheoharis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Please amplify: As the report from the @aclu.org and @amnesty.org documented, universities like @cuny.edu are punishing students and faculty for pro-Palestine politics. We’re out today saying no to blacklisting at @cuny.edu and @brooklyncollege.bsky.social! Rehire the Fired Fourth!
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 22/09/2026
Musk is going all out this election cycle on anti-trans propaganda: popular.info/p/the-lie-do...
popular.info
The lie dominating Musk's 2026 political ads
Musk is blanketing the internet with digital ads falsely accusing Democratic Senate candidates of supporting “taxpayer-funded sex changes for kids.”
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Queering Education Research Institute (QuERI)®️ @queeringedu.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Join us for a Book Talk in conversation with Paisley Currah. The work of anti-bullying is not exclusive to educational contexts but is part of the broader address of social inequalities experienced by gender & sexual minority people. @paisleycurrah.com @uminnpress.bsky.social @ecpayne.bsky.social
eventbrite.com
Queer Kids and Social Violence with Elizabethe Payne and Paisley Currah
Join us for a reading and conversation with Elizabethe Payne, editor of the new book Queer Kids and Social Violence: The Limits of Bullying.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 01/09/2026
A pleasure to rediscover Mapquest…90s chic avatars and all. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
independent.co.uk
MapQuest surges in rankings after Google bows to Trump and re-labels Lake Ontario
Trump renamed the body of water as Lake America after trade talks between Canada and the US fell apart
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Adam Conover @adamconover.net · 19/08/2026
thinking about this past episode of the show today. one of my favorites. recording what i expect to be another favorite tomorrow, with @quillkukla.bsky.social. love that i get to do this job sometimes
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 03/08/2026
Especially at this juncture we don’t need any more ontological debates about gender, but a politics. “Trans Rights Without a Theory of Gender” from 2017. digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/cgi/viewcont...
digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 03/08/2026
Especially at this juncture we don’t need any more ontological debates about gender, but a politics. “Trans Rights Without a Theory of Gender” from 2017. digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/cgi/viewcont...
digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 31/07/2026
Should say CUNY Law, above!
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 31/07/2026
The Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace at CUNY Lae is hiring a program manager. rfcuny.wd108.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/RFCUNY...
rfcuny.wd108.myworkdayjobs.com
Program Manager
Thank you for considering a career with the Research Foundation of The City University of New York (RFCUNY). The team at RFCUNY is made up of dedicated, talented professionals committed to providing t...
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 30/07/2026
Being referred to as “it” in a public meeting of the politics and sexuality section soon after I transitioned didn’t help. But things are better now. Let’s network and try to keep them that way.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 30/07/2026
I’ve always found academic conferences alienating—and APSA the most by far, probably because the borders of the discipline are patrolled with great vigilance. And the work I was doing meant I was not a bona fide citizen of political science.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 30/07/2026
Good advice from @daniellaurison.bsky.social Certainly no one clued me into this when I was new to academia. Anyways, I’ll be in Boston during APSA, so happy to do coffee dates with people who’d like meet up and talk about research. pcurrah@gc.cuny.edu
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 26/07/2026
Just emailed it!
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Madison Pauly @msjpauly.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The thing about that Heritage Center paper against women's sports is not just the hypocrisy, or even the blatant sexism. A real argument is building in the courts to toss the longstanding rules that have caused schools to expand girls' sports. The story: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
The Heritage Foundation only wanted to protect women's sports when it was about trans athletes
Not anymore.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 16/07/2026
Yes, my mistake. Fixed.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 16/07/2026
Some of us try to parse the transphobia, see an underlying logic or rationality--attacking trans people is a way to undermine feminism, or to prop up a masculinity that the economy no longer does. But sometimes it's just batshit crazy.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 16/07/2026
Some of us try to parse the transphobia, see an underlying logic or rationality--attacking trans is a way to undermine feminism, or to prop up a masculinity that the economy no longer does. But sometimes it's just batshit crazy.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 15/07/2026
When the real news is so much more nuts than The Onion.
Hegseth Announces Annual Testosterone Screenings for Service Members, Picture of Hegseth. By ellen Mitchell, 7-15-26
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 10/07/2026
Glad to see that Texas Tech's Draconian censoring of what can be taught about race and gender has now been challenged.
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Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Every outlet in our news tracker covered the recent trans sports ban decision at SCOTUS, but when I looked at the coverage I found one clear outlier - the New York Times had the most stories (5 in all) but not one included a quote from a trans person or representative of a trans rights organization.
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Billie Jean Sweeney @billiejsweeney.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
“The Times stands out as the only news outlet to run more than three stories on the court decision without quoting a person identified in the copy as transgender or as the representative of a transgender rights organization.”🧵
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 30/06/2026
That's exactly right. (And coming from a hero such as yourself, one of the stars of @thelibrariansfilm.bsky.social, you know whereof you speak!)
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 30/06/2026
Justice Thomas: “Sex is an immutable ‘biological’ characteristic…To use language to obscure reality—to show ‘indifference regarding truth’—is to lie to the public.” By Thomas's logic—not mine—I should still play on women's teams, have an ID with an F on it, use the women's room. Who's lying?
Headshot of balding man with beard wearing a blue shirt.
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National Center for LGBTQ Rights @nclrights.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Breaking: Supreme Court issues decision in transgender student athlete case.  Thanks to our partner @gladlaw.bsky.social.
BREAKING:  Supreme Court issues decision in transgender student athlete case

National Center for LGBTQ Rights and GLAD Law logo at the bottom of the page
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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Clarence Thomas citing MIT philosopher Alex Byrne to support his ultra-transphobic opinion. I hope all the analytic philosophers who defended Byrne as a serious, apolitical scholar see this and learn something, but I'm not hopeful.
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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
See, people always want to make this just about "sports," but the real upshot here is that, 6-3, trans women can't make a claim under the Equal Protection Clause. And if they can't do that, it's hard to see how they have constitutional rights.
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Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 30/06/2026
Clarence Thomas's concurring opinion in the trans sports ban case in West Virginia contains some of the ugliest transphobic stuff I have ever seen in a legal opinion. Straight-up gleeful. Vile man. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
2 WEST VIRGINIA v. B. P. J.
THOMAS, J., concurring
judgment). Because “gender dysphoria” is a mutable men-
tal state that is the object of psychiatric treatment, it does
not resemble the immutable characteristics on the basis of
which our precedents have applied heightened scrutiny—
race, sex, or national origin. Instead, gender dysphoria re-
sembles other characteristics on the basis of which legisla-
tures may classify with a merely rational basis. See, e.g.,
Heller v. Doe, 509 U. S. 312, 321 (1993) (mental illness);
Plyler v. Doe, 457 U. S. 202, 220 (1982) (immigration sta-
tus). Legislatures have many obvious rational bases to
keep men who believe that they are women out of teams
and private spaces reserved for women.
Second, as the Court recognizes, this case concerns “bio-
logical men” and “boys who identify as girls.” Ante, at 10,
27. Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or
girls, even if they believe that they are. Sex is an immuta-
ble “biological” characteristic, see ante, at 10; it is binary;
and “man” and “woman,” “boy” and “girl,” are the terms that
correspond to adults and children of each sex. See A. Byrne,
Are Women Adult Human Females? 177 Philosophical
Studies 3783, 3786–3787 (2020). To use language to ob-
scure reality—to show “indifference regarding the truth”—
is to lie to the public and cease to treat our fellow citizens
“as equal[s].” J. Pieper, Abuse of Language—Abuse of
Power 17, 21 (1992).
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
BREAKING: The Supreme Court upholds West Virginia and Idaho's laws banning trans girls and women from women's sports. Justice Kavanaugh has the opinion for the court, holding that states "may" make sports eligibility based on "biological sex." www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
supremecourt.gov
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 15/06/2026
nightboat.org/book/we-both...
nightboat.org
We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan – Nightboat Books
Drawn from Lou Sullivan’s meticulously kept journals, this landmark book records the life of arguably the first publicly gay trans man to medically transition.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 15/06/2026
Tomorrow is Lou Sullivan's birthday and we all need some inspiration in this time of anti-trans insanity. This quote never fails to inspire me. Here he is at 13, writing in his diary. (Sullivan grew up to be a gay trans man & a pioneer of FTM community organizing, dying died of AIDS in 1991.
I wanna look like what I am but don’t know what someone like me looks like. I mean, when people look at me I want them to think—there’s one of those people that has their own interpretation of happiness. That’s what I am.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 01/06/2026
Everyone—put your thinking caps on for a minute: it is misogyny…the joke just wouldn’t land with a picture of two old men.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 01/06/2026
He didn’t need to go here to make his point. But he did. You can make a case for Platner without relying on this tired misogyny. (Picture from his Substack.)
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 24/05/2026
Read this. www.liberalcurrents.com/the-end-of-t...
liberalcurrents.com
The End of Trans Rights In the UK Is the Start Of Democratic Collapse
It's never just one minority.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 22/05/2026
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 22/05/2026
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 22/05/2026
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 22/05/2026
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 22/05/2026
Trying to get Claude to help me understand the geometry of edging a kayak in wind. Didn’t go well.
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Paisley Currah @paisleycurrah.com · 21/05/2026
Had a lively conversation about Trump, sex classification, and the administrative state on @laurieessig.bsky.social's podcast, Feminism, Fascism, and the Future. sites.middlebury.edu/feminismfasc...
sites.middlebury.edu
We Talk to Really Smart People: Paisley Currah – Feminism, Fascism, and the Future
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