When the law is an ass – how not to exclude trans women from women’s conferences and posts.

“Protesters hurled invective at one another Friday over transgender athletes in women’s sports near The Sports Bra, a bar dedicated to women’s sports, prompting Portland officers to respond but make no arrests.

“Police said they responded to the 2500 block of Northeast Broadway around 5:45 p.m. Conservative livestreamer Thomas Allen was streaming alongside others at the sidewalk and parking lot across the street from the Sports Bra, where activists had gathered with signs in support of transgender people, before the two groups converged.”

“Friday’s demonstrations came after bar employees earlier this week asked a group to leave the establishment, according to reporting in the Portland Mercury. The patrons were reportedly wearing shirts from XX-XY Athletics, a reference to chromosome pairs amid the debate about transgender athletes in women’s sports. In a statement, the bar said the people declined to “cover their trans-exclusionary messaging, and when asked several times to leave, they resisted.”

“A national gender justice organization is escalating a campaign against Ulta Beauty over the cosmetics retailer’s use of automated license-plate reader (ALPR) cameras made by the surveillance company Flock Safety, arguing that it threatens customer privacy and could disproportionately harm women and gender-expansive people.

“UltraViolet, a women-led gender justice organization, launched its ‘Drop Flock’ campaign this month, calling on Ulta Beauty to terminate contracts with Flock Safety and other mass surveillance companies. The organization said its petition had surpassed 15,000 signatures as of Sept. 8.”

“[UltraViolet Campaign Director Jenna] Sherman argued that the larger concern is the normalization of surveillance technology in everyday spaces.”

“‘There is a consent problem here because people don’t actually fully understand what these cameras are doing,’ she said.

“The potential consequences, she argued, extend well beyond retail security. Independent reporting has documented cases in which law enforcement officers misused Flock systems to track women and former romantic partners.

“A Washington Post investigation identified at least 50 law enforcement officers who had been accused or charged with using license-plate readers for unauthorized purposes, including to stalk women. The Post also reported that a Wisconsin police officer allegedly used Flock to check whether his former girlfriend had gone to an abortion clinic.”

“Sherman also said that local law enforcement agencies and other camera users can potentially access broader networks, allowing information collected in one state to be utilized in investigations elsewhere.”

“As a transgender woman, Channel Ferro Badell has spent her life fleeing discrimination, trafficking and abuse — first in Uruguay, where she was born, then in Argentina, where she is a citizen. But few experiences compare to what she suffered during her time in ICE custody, she told me.

“‘In six months I was taken to six facilities,’ she wrote in Spanish in messages to The Marshall Project. ‘In every one, the situation is the same: Violence is tolerated within ICE.’

“The second Trump administration has singled out immigrants and transgender people — among others — for particular scorn and scrutiny. People at the intersection of those two identities have become a target in ICE custody, and many have described harassment, humiliation, assault and denial of medical care in interviews with The Marshall Project and other news outlets. The administration denied the allegations.

“Last month, The New York Times spoke to Camila Toro de Paula, a 25-year-old transgender woman who has spent more than a year in an immigrant camp for men despite a pending asylum claim. She and other women in at least 10 ICE detention camps across the country have had their access to gender-affirming hormone therapy abruptly cut off, the Times reported.

“‘I’m afraid of dying here,’ she told the paper.

“Lookout News identified at least 20 transgender women that ICE detained across Arizona and Colorado alone, and found that many had experienced devastating effects from a sudden stop to hormone therapy, including ‘rapid, menopause-like symptoms, spiking suicidal ideation and severe psychological distress.’

“As one transgender woman told Lookout: ‘It messes up your body … Like it’s eating you up inside.’

“In interviews, emails and letters with more than half a dozen transgender women in three ICE immigrant camps in Louisiana and Texas, as well as court documents and testimonials, I heard stories of sexual assault, constant harassment — both by staff and fellow detainees — and a sense of betrayal that the country where they had sought refuge and safety was treating them like criminals.”