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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

Lauren Theisen

Sophie Cunningham #8 of the Indiana Fever speaks during a press conference before a game against the Portland Fire at Moda Center

WNBA

The Right Has Created Its Perfect Trans Athlete

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<div>Hallie Lieberman is a historian and journalist. Her book Gigolos: An Exploration of the Men Who Sell Sex and The Women Who Buy It will be published by Beacon Press in January 2027. She is also the author of Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy. Her writing has appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other outlets. </div>
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Hallie Lieberman

An ICE patch and badge are seen on a Department of Homeland Security agent while US Vice President JD Vance speaks at Royalston Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 22, 2026. The Pentagon has ordered 1,500 US soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, a state roiled by unrest over an immigration crackdown, US media reported on January 18, 2026. The reported preparations come days after President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which enables use of the military to suppress "armed rebellion" or "domestic violence" -- although a day later he said there was no immediate need for it, following the January 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration agent. (Photo by Jim WATSON / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Politics

Life As An Undocumented Trans Sex Worker In The Age Of ICE

Former Defector intern, now freelancer.
For professional inquiries or tips please write lucybl00m@protonmail.com or yuck.20 on Signal.
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Lucy Bloom

A Helpful Explainer Of Kansas’s Lunatic Anti-Trans Law

Julie Kliegman is a writer and editor in Queens, New York. They wrote <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/mind-game-9798216378051/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/mind-game-9798216378051/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1763134080975000&amp;usg=AOvVaw15Dx3xf4fCxIqYQnD4bF_R">Mind Game: An Inside Look at the Mental Health Playbook of Elite Athletes</a>. Their next book, the biography Finding Renée Richards, is due out in August 2026. Kliegman’s work has also appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, Bookforum, Slate, The Ringer, Texas Monthly, Vulture, BuzzFeed News, and The Verge.

Julie Kliegman

art of a swimmer with their head half above water

Swimming

What Does A Great Trans Athlete Deserve?

Taylor Swift performs onstage during "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour"

Mods Asleep

Taylor Swift Turned Me Straight

Annie Howard is a journalist and historian based in Chicago. She is currently at work on her debut manuscript, The City Made Me Trans.

Annie Howard

Arts And Culture

Chloe Dzubilo And The Perilous Path Forward For Trans Life

Diana Moskovitz is Defector&#8217;s investigations editor. You can contact her at diana@defector.com or dfmoskovitz@protonmail.com. She&#8217;s also on Signal @dmoskovitz.99

Diana Moskovitz

U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) (L) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) (R) speak about an alleged screenshot from the Instagram of USA Fencing board director Damien Lehfeldt during the hearing on “Unfair Play: Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports" held by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee at the U.S. Capitol on May 07, 2025 in Washington, DC. Green is holding a photo that makes it look like Lehfeldt is pointing at himself with his middle finger. Stansbury is holding up a larger capture of the same photo that shows him making a peace sign with the same hand.

The DOGE Fencing Hearing Was Stupid And Pointless Even By Congressional Standards

Kathryn Xu

Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress

The DOGE Fencing Hearing Reveals The Latest In Anti-Trans Grift

The front of a U.S. Department of Education building.

Title IX Is Now A Weapon In The Trump Administration’s Culture War

Gays Against Guns contingent at the pride march.

Don’t Buy A Gun, Even If It Comes In Rainbow

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

Sabrina Imbler

A screenshot of a graphic including a photo of Sam Nordquist, a Black transgender man with a moustache, wearing a backwards cap and staring at the camera. The top of the graphic says "Gone But Not Forgotten" with two doves on either side. And the rest of the image states: Sam Nordquist. Canandaigua, NY. Last seen: January 1, 2025. Age: 24

Who Gets To Determine A Hate Crime?

a female golfer floats in space, looking down on a giant moon-like golf ball

Golf

Hailey Davidson Loves Golf, And Golf Wants To Get Rid Of Her

Imane Khelif of Team Algeria and Angela Carini of Team Italy exchange punches

Olympics

J.K. Rowling Invents A Trans Olympian To Get Mad At

‘I Saw The TV Glow’ Unfurls The Great Trans Unknown

Patrick Redford

NAIA Becomes First Organization To Ban Trans Athletes From College Sports

Passengers wait in the TSA screening line

The Machines

The TSA Has Thwarted My Anti-Groping Strategy

a grid of ultrasound images of my (now former) breasts may they RIP!

Life Lessons

Even Good Health Insurance Is Bad; Or, How I Got Top Surgery With A Family History Of Breast Cancer

a woman climbing a gigantic mountain of paperwork with an Id at the top

What’s In A Name? A Lot Of Paperwork, Actually

A. Andrews is a thirty-something disabled queer/trans writer and illustrator. They spent the majority of their young life sketching in hospitals and experienced their first heartbreak at age 8 during Game 6 of the &#8217;96 NBA championships. When they aren’t writing and drawing their guts out, they’re hanging with their dog, George, and drinking too many coffees. They will probably never tell you “what’s wrong with [them]” and you shouldn’t ask! They were named one of The Advocate&#8216;s 2021 People of the Year, are a 2020 Tin House Summer Workshop scholar, and their debut graphic novel, A Quick and Easy Guide to Sex &amp; Disability topped 2020 lists for the NYPL best books for teens, and YALSA&#8217;s best books for teens, and is available anywhere books are sold. You can find more of their work at Washington Post, Esquire, the Nib, and other fun corners of the internet.

A. Andrews

Drawing of a group of people helping each other over a labyrinth

Histories Of Transition

How I Transitioned With Complex Disability

The table with the chess board appears ready for the game between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi on the first day of competition at the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament on June 17, 2022 in Madrid, Spain. (Miguel Pereira/Getty Images)

Chess

The International Chess Federation’s Argument For Banning Trans Women Gives The Game Away

Krys Malcolm Belc is the author of The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood (Counterpoint) and the flash nonfiction chapbook In Transit (The Cupboard Pamphlet). He is the memoir editor of Split Lip Magazine. Krys is the current Edelstein-Keller Writer-in-Residence at the University of Minnesota and lives in St. Paul with his partner and their four young children.

Krys Malcolm Belc

How Transmasc Parents Navigate Testosterone After Pregnancy

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<div>Davey Davis is the author of the novels the earthquake room and X. They write a weekly newsletter about art, culture, and sexuality at <a href="http://itsdavid.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://itsdavid.substack.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1687637345270000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2asJHAQI7qwTPU6pk62gjF">itsdavid.substack.com</a>. They live in Brooklyn.</div>
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Davey Davis

Doctors Vs. David

A rainbow Red Sox logo on the video board at Fenway Park

No Straights At Pride Night

Casey Plett is the author of A Dream of a Woman, Little Fish, A Safe Girl to Love, the co-editor of Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers, and the Publisher at LittlePuss Press. She has written for The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, the Winnipeg Free Press, and other publications. A winner of the Amazon First Novel Award, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award, her work has also been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.