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Voter Purges, Pride Parade Threats, and the Fight Over Trans Health Care · The Roundup

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the Roundup by Lookout.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm your host, Joseph Darius Trafari.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's the third week of October, and here are the headlines for this week.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: We're starting in Arizona, where a fight over the state's voter rolls has reached the U.S.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Supreme Court.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Legal Defense Fund filed a brief this week urging the justices to uphold a ruling that Arizona's efforts to purge thousands of registered voters break federal law, including a ban on removing voters in the 90 days before a federal election.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: The group also argues Arizona's proof of citizenship requirement violates a federal court order and settlement.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Saying in Arizona, a Gilbert man is facing felony charges after police say he threatened to attack a pride parade.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: The advocate reports Austin J.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Curtis, who is 32 years old, is accused of leaving a former schoolmate more than 100 voicemails, including one saying he would, quote, drive a U-Haul through a parade of homosexuals and start firing at everybody.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: He was arrested October 12th and later called the threats jokes.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Also in Arizona, election officials and voting rights groups are preparing for the possibility of federal agents at the polls in November, even though many doubt it will happen.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: VoteBeat reports Lucha has trained hundreds of poll observers to document any ICE activity, and Pima County prosecutors already have paperwork ready to seek a restraining order.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Homeland Security says ICE doesn't plan to patrol polling places, but didn't rule out agents responding to threats or serving warrants nearby.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now over to our neighbors in Colorado, where it's still unclear what Proposition 135 would actually ban.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Colorado Sun reports hospitals either don't know or won't say which surgeries they'd have to stop if the measure passes.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: The measure banned surgeries, quote, for the purposes of altering biological sex characteristics, and critics say that could reach procedures for non-trans teens, like breast reduction for boys.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Also in Colorado, parents whose children were harmed by social media and AI chatbots want lawmakers to strengthen the chatbot law passed this year.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Colorado Newsline reports they appeared alongside Democratic governor candidate Phil Weiser and want to change the language requiring only, quote, technically feasible measures to protect kids, which they say lets tech companies police themselves.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Healthier Colorado, which led the bill, calls the law the strongest in the country.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And across the West, the future of wolf protections is in front of federal appeals courts.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: High country news reports the Ninth Circuit heard arguments Tuesday in a case that could force the U.S.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider Endangered Species Act protections for wolves across the West.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: A lower court ruled last year that the agency acted arbitrarily when it found Western wolves didn't need federal protection.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The judges gave no timeline for a decision.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now onto national news.
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  SPEAKER_00: In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has signed three new workplace laws.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: The magazine Inc.
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  SPEAKER_00: reports one extends bereavement leave to people with, quote, the equivalent of a family relationship to a worker like Chosen Family.
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  SPEAKER_00: Another spells out that sex discrimination protections cover menopause, abortion, gender-affirming care, and not conforming to gender stereotypes, and a third requires employees to train workers on hate speech.
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  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, LGBTQ community centers across the country are facing threats.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Washington Blade reports three and four centers surveyed by the Movement Advancement Project and Centerlink experience anti-LGBTQ threats or harassment over the past year, many targeting programs for trans people and youth.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: The 175 centers that responded serve more than 29,000 people a week.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Federal Health Department is also pressuring major medical groups.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Truth Out reports, HHS sent letters to groups including the American Medical Association and the Endocrine Society, demanding they explain their support for gender-affirming care for trans youth within 10 business days.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Those groups have long backed the care, with the 2025 study linked to a 67% drop in suicidality among trans youth.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: At the Supreme Court, the justices will hear arguments December 9th over the Trump administration's policy of deporting migrants to countries where they have no ties.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Lower courts found the policy illegal because it doesn't give people real notice or a chance to argue they'd be persecuted there.
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  SPEAKER_00: A SCOTAS blog column says the case will likely turn on a technical question of whether courts can hear the migrants' claims at all.
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  SPEAKER_00: And finally, a look at the trans people who stay.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Prism reports surveys show trans people are leaving Republican-led states over anti-trans laws, but one survey found only 9% of its trans respondents had moved at all.
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  SPEAKER_00: Another found many who wanted to move face financial and practical barriers.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: That first survey also found 42% of trans and non-binary respondents had started doing advocacy or activism since the 2024 election.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the roundup for this week.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget you can get this exact news roundup and more by going to lookoutnews.org and subscribing to our newsletter.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: You'll also get our other newsletters, including our weekly events calendar, to help plan your week in legislative newsletters covering what's happening in the Capitol in your neck of the woods.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay safe, stay informed, and look out for each other.