Happy holidays, Meteor readers,

We hope you’re getting ready to wind down and spend time with your family or—if you’re super-lucky—with yourself. I didn’t realize until I had a child that the greatest gift is personal space, so I wish that for all of you this season.

And if you’re looking for something engrossing for your me time, and need a break from the news-cycle nightmare that has been 2024, we have suggestions. Here, Meteor staffers and contributors share the pieces of media that have been their comfort touchstone throughout this year. The rules? Nothing too serious, and definitely no politics.

We hope our binges and obsessions get you through the week!

Wrapped in a blanket,

Shannon Melero

A wacky network dramedy: Dr. Odyssey

(VIA ABC)

As the year progressed I required an increasingly smoother brain, and so it was a relief when Dr. Odyssey debuted in September on ABC. Essentially Grey's Anatomy meets The Love Boat, it was as risqué and madcap as an hourlong dramedy could achieve on a network, following a hot new cruise ship doctor (Joshua Jackson) trying to integrate with the existing medical team (Phillipa Soo, Sean Teale) and a stately captain (Don Johnson) who is always trying to fend off a rotating cast of suitors, from Shania Twain to Gina Gershon. Each voyage (and episode) is defined by a particular cruise theme—which opens the door for a slew of great Love Boat-esque guest stars, like Kate Berlant and Margaret Cho as dueling wellness influencers, and Bob the Drag Queen as entertainment for the Gay Week cruise (with John Stamos and Cheyenne Jackson as lovers who have opened up to a third).

Dr. Odyssey sneaks in social commentary on topics like climate change, queer rights, and feminist agency amid tense operating room drama and steamy romance plotlines—there is more than one throuple brewing here—but it neither preaches nor condescends, and is the rare show on network television that doesn't glorify cops, ops, or killing. Soothing like a warm bath.

—Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, contributing editor

An offbeat, absorbing romance novel: Seven Days in June

2024 was the year I got into romance novels, and my absolute favorite was Tia Williams’ Seven Days in June. The book follows Eva Mercy, whose erotica series has throngs of fans but no highbrow cache, and Shane Hall, an elusive author whose literary novels have gotten worldwide acclaim. After an explosive fling in high school, they reunite 15 years later, and—no surprise—the chemistry still sizzles. This is not one of the sunnier novels I read (it deals with some very, very dark teen angst and a Black woman’s generational trauma). But the sexual tension it offers, the level of investment I felt, its triumphant, multi-layered happy ending — all unparalleled. And beyond the steamy love story, I just adored Eva’s artist journey; I couldn’t wait for her to embark on the book she was destined to write. You’ll start Seven Days in June and not look up until you’re done. A great one to read in one-to-three sittings during the dead week of December.

—Nona Willis Aronowitz, contributing editor

The wonderful world of “cozy content”

This year I learned about a special section of the internet devoted only to coziness. Think small farms and baby cows, rainy walks through Edinburgh, and knitwear. Lots of knitwear. As a knitter myself, I first fell into this rabbit hole looking for inspiration and now after months in the cozyverse I’ve sent about 3457934 DMs to my bestie Jenan (yes the Jenan) about the farm we’re starting with our children that will include donkeys, runner ducks, and alpacas for me only. Oh! And a shed for Bailey who sent in a formal request to live on the farm and teach the animals drag.

—Shannon Melero, newsletter editor

A messy (and historic) season of reality TV: Are You the One?

God, I love bisexuals. If you haven’t seen season eight of MTV’s Are You the One?, let me break it down for you: 16 absurdly attractive singles get put in a house together, and they’re told that “relationship experts” (see: producers) have found their perfect match. If they can correctly identify the eight romantic pairings, they win a million dollars.

And what makes season eight so special, you ask? For the first time in American reality television, everyone on cast is bi, pan, or otherwise sexually fluid.

This season has all of my favorite things: Fighting. Fivesomes. Glitter. A Gemini who never shuts up. Not one, but two trans cast members! Genuinely, this season is one of my favorite pieces of trans representation across any media. Too often, I feel like when something contains trans characters, the people who wrote it ally a bit too close to the sun and depict us as these infallible deities. Season eight of Are You the One? shows that trans people can be insecure, cocky, manipulative, hammered, sexually desirable, emotionally unavailable—you know, human. Everyone on this show is so incredibly human and so incredibly queer. I cannot recommend it enough.

—Bailey Wayne Hundl, copy editor

A quiet tearjerker from the heartland: Somebody Somewhere

I’ve spent the last few weeks bingeing Somebody Somewhere, an HBO series that tells the story of Sam—the magnetic, multitalented Bridget Everett—returning to her hometown in Kansas to care for her dying sister. The series starts a year after her sister has died, as Sam is struggling to rebuild her life.

Somebody Somewhere is heartwarming and darkly funny, but also diverse in its view of the hopes and dreams of people outside of major cities. The location gives humanity to everyone from the church-going gay couple to the girlboss sister to the trans agriculture professor helping Sam’s dad figure out what to do with his land—a subtle reminder that exit polls and voting behavior don’t fully express the diversity of our experiences or connections. The show is feelgood, but you will likely cry during every episode.

—Samhita Mukhopadhyay, collective member

A blockbuster with heart (and Denzel): Flight

There is no reason whatsoever for this movie to bring me comfort, especially as someone who hates flying, but every time I rewatch the 2012 movie Flight, I feel better. Or maybe it’s just that it makes me feel at all. At first glance, Flight is a fairly formulaic Hollywood movie with a heroic redemption arc. What I see in it, though, is a trust-fall into near-Shakespearean depths of emotion that is less about redemption than humanity.

Flight is about a cocky commercial airline pilot—Denzel Washington in an arresting performance that is somehow both sexy and pathetic—who pulls off a truly miraculous crash-landing in a plane that is hurtling toward the ground after a mechanical malfunction. Denzel is a great actor, full stop. As Captain Whip Whittaker, he is transcendent. The way he moves in and out of such a vast range of emotions, so that we can see the obvious ones (a satisfied swagger) and sense the not-so-obvious ones (the glassy-eyed grief over losing someone he didn’t love, but he knows was loved by others), is truly sublime. I watched it again last week, and was reminded of one quietly prophetic detail in Denzel’s performance: Early on in the film, Whip and his co-pilot are in the cockpit meeting for the first time, ahead of their fateful flight. “Ten turns in the three days. Off tomorrow,” Whip says, lingering on the end of “tomorrow,” with an understated smile.

—Rebecca Carroll, editor-at-large 

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Greetings, Meteor readers,

This Saturday marks the hibernal/winter solstice, making it the shortest day of the year. Not to get all woo-woo on y’all, but it is a great time to do a little gratitude practice and set your intentions for the upcoming season. So have a feast, take a nice hike, brew some mulled cider in your cauldron, and look inward.

In today’s newsletter, we consider the outcome of France’s horrifying rape case. Plus weekend reading, and if you haven’t checked it out already, another chance to fill out our reader survey!

Bracing for the cold,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Gisèle Pelicot and the “unrecognized” victims: Today, the final verdicts came down in France’s Pelicot rape case. A brief and brutal synopsis: Over the course of ten years, Gisèle Pelicot was drugged and raped by a man she’d been married to for five decades, Dominique Pelicot, along with dozens of men whom he invited into their shared home to rape her while she was unconscious. He also filmed and took pictures of the assaults. In total, 51 men, Dominique included, were convicted of rape, attempted rape, or aggravated sexual assault, with prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years.

Throughout all of this, Gisèle Pelicot has been vocal about having her story told and shifting the sense of shame from victims to perpetrators. She waived her right to anonymity and welcomed the press into the courtroom—both of which surprised many, given the horrific nature of the case. “By making this trial public from Sept. 2, I wanted for society to be able to take up the debates that followed,” Pelicot told the French press. “I have never regretted that decision.”

SUPPORTERS OUTSIDE OF THE COURTHOUSE WHERE THE TRIAL WAS HELD. ONE MAN HOLDS A SIGN THAT READS "THANK YOU FOR YOUR COURAGE GISÈLE PELICOT. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

Those debates are numerous. What could justice look like in this situation? Will anything be done to address faulty policy and rape culture in (and outside) France? Could no one have intervened earlier, while the men were planning their attacks online or when Gisèle Pelicot went to various doctors for mysterious symptoms? These are crucial questions, and don’t stop mattering with this verdict; lawmakers and reporters should keep following them even once the hero at the center of this trial recedes into her well-deserved privacy.

And there’s another question we cannot avoid revisiting: What kinds of victims deserve support?

Ideally, the answer should be all victims. In her remarks after the verdict, Pelicot herself acknowledged this: “I think of the victims, unrecognized, whose stories often remain hidden,” she said.

But many women who come forward are ignored, belittled, publicly mocked, blamed, and shamed back into silence. Pelicot has been rightly lauded as a hero for pursuing a criminal case against these men—but she, of course, ticks all the boxes of what we expect a “good woman” to be. She is a loving mother and grandmother, she’s older (a nice word the media uses to imply “not sexy or enticing to attackers”), and her trial had the golden egg of evidence: video recordings. We still live in a society that in its deepest heart believes that “good women” should not be raped and that those who are were probably asking for it.

As Pelicot repeatedly reminded us: The only person to shame and blame for a rape, is the rapist—point blank period.

AND:

• Yesterday, the Senate approved a $895 billion defense bill that, if  signed, “would be the first time in nearly three decades that the United States has codified an explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ policy into federal law,” The Intercept notes. What does defense spending have to do with anti-LGBTQ+ policy? The bill would ban military insurance from covering gender-affirming care treatments for children of the insured. Advocates are asking that President Biden veto the bill when it hits his desk—likely tomorrow—and “make good on his promise to protect LGBTQ+ Americans.”

• Fani Willis, the Georgia district attorney who was planning to try Donald Trump (and others) for trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, has been disqualified from the case by the Georgia Court of Appeals for an alleged conflict of interest. Willis had a past romantic relationship with the special prosecutor on the case, Nathan Wade. Although “an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification," the court wrote, this is a "rare case" in which disqualification is necessary “to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.” (The people of Fulton County might disagree; Willis recently won re-election in a landslide.) The court has not dismissed the charges against Trump, but the case likely faces steep odds.

• On this week’s episode of UNDISTRACTED, Brittany Packnett Cunningham sits down with Eliza Cooney and Natasha Stoynoff, two women who have accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump, respectively, of sexual misconduct. Cooney, who charges that now-cabinet nominee Kennedy groped her when she worked as a nanny for his family, says that despite going public with her accusations, she has not been contacted by the FBI, which is responsible for vetting nominees ahead of their Senate confirmation hearings. When asked if she would be willing to speak to the FBI, Cooney said, “I’m open. I consider it a civic duty.” You can listen to the full conversation here.

• The University of Iowa announced that it will be retiring Caitlin Clark’s jersey in February. Clark will be present for the ceremony and said in a statement, “I'm forever proud to be a Hawkeye…It will be a great feeling to look up in the rafters and see my jersey alongside those that I've admired for so long.”

WEEKEND READING 📚

On a lifetime of silence: Earlier this year, Andrea Skinner, the daughter of late writer Alice Munro, revealed that she had been assaulted by Munro’s second husband—and that Munro knew. Skinner was forced to be silent for years. Why did her mother betray her? (New York Times Magazine)

On more AI dangers: Tech companies pushing AI are also planning to build new gas power plants and pipelines to support the growing energy demands of AI. This is literally what they were asked not to do. (Heated)

On criminalizing pregnancy: A prosecutor in Mississippi had been threatening pregnant drug users with 20-year sentences in the hope that it would force the mothers to get sober. He had no idea that the majority of these women had ended up in prison—until one woman, Brandy Moore, fought the charges against her. (The Marshall Project/Mississippi Today)

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Hey there, Meteor readers,

We are entering that special time of the year I like to call The Vortex, where time is meaningless and we are all just hauling ourselves across various finish lines. But before we fully get sucked in, I’ve got a special request.

Please consider taking a few minutes to fill out this survey so we at The Meteor can better serve you. We want to continue building this community, and we can’t do that without you. Our suggestion box is fully open!

In today’s newsletter, we turn to Trump’s latest hire. Plus, your weekend reading list.

With appreciation,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Another one: Yes, we are talking about yet another questionable Trump appointee, but this one hits uncomfortably close to home for those of us who work in media. Yesterday, Donald Trump announced that he’d nominated former news anchor, election denier, and known hater of the free press Kari Lake to be the new head of Voice of America.

A little refresher on VOA: It’s a federally funded international news provider that reaches more than 300 million people. Congress gives VOA $300 million a year, a sum Kari Lake would be responsible for managing despite her calls in 2022 to defund the media. The entire mission of VOA is to provide unbiased, fact-forward news and the organization even has a “firewall” rule which “prohibits interference by any U.S. government official in the objective, independent reporting of news.”

This won’t be the first time a Trump loyalist has been given power over VOA. In 2020, Trump put one of his cronies, Michael Pack, in charge of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, and a judge found that he’d violated the First Amendment rights of VOA journalists and employees by attempting to censor and retaliate against those he deemed “insufficiently supportive of President Trump.”

This time, we’ve got a woman who knowingly spreads disinformation and refers to journalists as “monsters,” a Republican-controlled Congress, and a news organization that relies on both journalists and Congress to function. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, in the absolute worst-case scenario: You could end up with government-funded media that is loyal not to facts, but to one man’s agenda of revenge. That leaves the door open for worsening levels of misinformation that could border on propaganda. I hate to throw around that P word, but it’s gravely concerning that someone with such disdain for the truth could be given this much power over the telling of it.

AND:

• Speaking of the man with the fake tan, Donald Trump has been named Time’s 2024 Person of the Year again. It’s frustrating but unsurprising; president-elects are typically chosen for this honor. But the accompanying profile is too much: “The world’s most powerful man entered with an air of unhurried bonhomie.” Describing this septuagenarian—who cannot string two cohesive sentences together and tried to overthrow the government—the way you might a movie star (“she entered with unhurried bonhomie, sipping her Erewhon smoothie”)? Absolutely not.

• Yesterday FIFA announced that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup in Riyadh. This marks the biggest acquisition in the kingdom’s yearslong mission to become a global sporting destination—or, as others see it, sportswashing their human rights abuses. Saudi has also put in a bid to be the host of the 2035 Women’s World Cup, which begs the question: What (if any) policy changes are the kingdom willing to roll out in the next ten years, and will athletes who speak out against Saudi’s discriminatory practices be safe?

• The United Kingdom will be making its ban on puberty blockers for minors permanent after a temporary ban was introduced in May. “It is a scandal that medicine was given to vulnerable children without the proof that it was safe or effective,” Health Minister Wes Streeting charges. But trans rights advocates and others who oppose the bans have called them discriminatory. However, this ban does not apply to the upcoming National Health Service clinical trial, which will study the effects of the drugs on minors to find out whether Streeting and others are right. Should the results show the drugs to be safe, the ban could be overturned when it is next reviewed in 2027.

• Meanwhile, in Montana, some good news on the subject: The state’s supreme court has upheld a lower court ruling that will allow gender-affirming care for minors to continue while a current proposed ban works its way through the legal system. An attorney involved in the case said, “The Montana Supreme Court understands the danger of the state interfering with critical healthcare.” Wow, it’s almost like healthcare decisions should be up to doctors and not lawmakers. What a thought!

WEEKEND READING 📚

On a growing movement: No one thought Puerto Rico’s Alliance coalition could win the election. But more than a hundred years of history points to exactly why their candidate, Juan Dalmau, came so close. (Truthout)

On the other property brothers: Three brothers, two of whom were luxury real estate brokers, were arrested for their roles in a 14-year-long sex trafficking scheme. Their story is so heinous, it reads like an implausible horror film. (New York Times)

On money and menopause: Millennial women are entering perimenopause in droves, and a new wave of health-adjacent companies are taking notice. In Retrospect co-host Jessica Bennett dives into what’s real and what’s a scam. (The Cut)

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Greetings, Meteor readers,

My child recently learned the words to “Jingle Bells,” and while she cannot fully pronounce all of them, I’ve now heard that song more times than “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Send earmuffs.

In today’s newsletter, we take a look at the latest news on what’s ahead for migrants. Plus, actress and playwright Danai Gurira on the backlash to women’s rights on the African continent.

Changing the station,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

A semblance of a plan: When the news broke that Donald Trump had won re-election, I reached out to my mentor, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, and asked, “Did they tell you what time your group is getting deported? I’m in group C.” We laughed. After all, if the end is nigh, you cannot spend all your time suffering about suffering.

But beneath the jokes, the memes, and the exhaustion, there is still a big question: Can Trump do all the things he wants to do?

When it comes to immigration, it certainly seems like he’s going to try—and fast. Over the weekend in a “Meet the Press” interview, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to mass deportation, stating he would “absolutely” end birthright citizenship. “I don’t want to be breaking up families,” he said. (Really?) “So the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back, even kids who are here legally.”

Because of the 14th Amendment—which does a few things including granting citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil—Trump cannot make good on his threat by himself, but that doesn’t mean it’s an impossibility. As reporter Isabela Dias explains in Mother Jones, Trump and his allies could “resort to the far-fetched claim that large migrant flows to the US-Mexico border constitute an ‘invasion’ of the United States and, therefore, the children of unauthorized immigrants should be excluded from the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship.”

That idea might seem implausible, especially when even Republicans are divided on mass deportation (as demonstrated by today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings). But we are living in implausible times. If the president thinks the 14th Amendment is up for debate—and let me remind you that the amendment’s equal protection clause is literally being debated before SCOTUS—there’s no telling how far he’ll go to get his way. And when the “them” he’s targeting starts to look like everyone, what will be the line in the sand?

AND:

• Poet Nikki Giovanni has died at the age of 81 after a yearslong battle with cancer. She was an unmatched wordsmith and a light on this earth. We honor her incredible work and remember the experience of filming the self-described “little old lady” with a tattoo that said “Thug Life” reading her poem “VOTE.”

• Rapper and husband of Beyoncé, Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, has been accused of rape in a civil lawsuit connected to the numerous allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs. The suit alleges that Carter and Combs both drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at a party in 2000. Carter has denied any wrongdoing, writing in a statement, “Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree” before calling the lawyer representing the victim an “ambulance chaser.” Carter has filed a motion to either dismiss the anonymous charge or have the accuser’s name be made public. Meanwhile, in the court of public opinion, a number of people are pointing out that Carter was 30 when he started dating a certain teenage singer.

• Tokyo is rolling out a four-day work week for government employees starting next year, and get a load of the reason: Starting in April, workers will have Fridays off so they have more time for procreative sex. Seriously. Birth rates across Japan have been so bad that “local governments have introduced various measures to improve working conditions so people have more time for sex,” Vice reports. What a time!

• The Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark has been named Time’s Athlete of the Year. In an interview, she reflected on her rookie year in the WNBA and her responsibility to the women’s game going forward. “People are invested in the game, they love the game, and that's what makes it so fun for me,” she told Time. “These people aren't supporting women's sports to check a box. It’s going to be the new normal.”

• Today is the final day of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. As a reminder of what’s at stake for women and girls the world over, we revisit our Free Future conversation with Danai Gurira, activist and UN Goodwill Ambassador, and Niemat Ahmadi, president of the Darfur Women Action Group. Both spoke about the specific targeting of women in the African continent by warring militant groups and how, since international aid was slow to arrive, “[women] became frontline human rights defenders.” Their work shows the world that even in conflict zones, all darkness is temporary—or can be. (Read more from the Ford Foundation’s Free Future program here.)

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Greetings, Meteor readers,

It’s the least wonderful time of the year—and by that, of course, I mean Spotify Wrapped season. We get it, you’ve got great* taste in music. (*Editor’s note: This does not apply to all of you.)

In today’s newsletter, we stand in awe of Narges Mohammadi and catch up with the Court’s big day yesterday. Plus, your weekend reading list.

Wrap literally anything else,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Nobel laureate and Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has been given a three-week medical release from prison in Tehran. Mohammadi has been in and out of prison for decades and, since 2021, has been serving a 13-year sentence on charges of “spreading anti-state propaganda” for her work in Iran’s women’s rights movement. As she was being wheeled out of an ambulance on a stretcher after her release, without the required head covering, Mohammadi shouted the movement’s slogan: “Woman, Life, Freedom!”

Mohammadi has suffered several health issues during her imprisonment, including multiple heart attacks and, most recently, an emergency surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. After her leave, the state expects her to continue her imprisonment in Evin Prison. Mohammadi’s lawyers and the international community all believe that her continued imprisonment is inhumane and a violation of Mohammadi’s rights.

MOHAMMADI AFTER HER RELEASE HOLDING A PHOTO OF MAHSA AMINI. WRITTEN ON HER HAND IS "END GENDER APARTHEID" IN FARSI. (IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM) 

Despite the severe crackdowns on public gatherings since the Mahsa Amini protests shook the nation two years ago, Iranian women have continued the fight against their theocratic government, which has in turn intensified punishments against them. Iran's Hijab and Chastity bill—which will punish both women and men for “improper dress” by issuing fines, blocking country exit permits, and, in some extreme cases, imprisonment—will go into effect next week.

As Mohammadi recovers at home and continues to speak out for Iranian women, we are reminded of the words she wrote while still imprisoned: “Victory is not easy, but it is certain.”

AND:

• United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder in New York City has spurred much conversation online about the healthcare system in the U.S.—especially the role that UHC’s parent company UnitedHealth Group (the largest employer of doctors in the country) plays in the day-to-day lives of Americans. What has been strangely absent from the discourse around Thompson’s murder is an in-depth look at how the shooter was able to obtain a pistol with a silencer, as it is illegal to sell, purchase, or possess a silencer in the state of New York.

• Yesterday, during oral arguments for United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court case on the constitutionality of Tennessee’s gender-affirming care ban, attorneys went toe-to-toe with the justices, the conservative majority of whom appear poised to uphold the lower court’s decision to let the ban stand. But in an exchange with one lawyer for Tennessee who argued that elected state representatives would be “the best check on potentially misguided laws” (you know, because elected representatives have never passed misguided laws), Justice Sonia Sotomayor responded, “When you’re one percent of the population or less, [it’s] very hard to see how the democratic process is going to protect you.” Our feelings exactly!

• A new documentary called Survivor Made follows six survivors of domestic violence as they rebuild their lives and overcome one of the biggest challenges facing most DV survivors in America: financial instability. The doc features friend of The Meteor Sonya Passi, who has been an anti-violence activist since she was a teenager and is the founder and CEO of FreeFrom, an organization focusing on the long-term futures of survivors. The film also features entrepreneurs who make and sell products on Gifted, a survivor-owned marketplace launched by FreeFrom. So if you’re looking for a way to give back while giving presents, you now know where to shop.

WEEKEND READING 📚

On challenging the norm: For the last 50 years, one feminist magazine you may have never heard of has been pushing back on Mormon tradition. And it’s written by Mormon feminists. (High Country News)

On asking and telling: Trump’s return to office has stirred up concerns about the resurgence of  anti-LGBTQ+ “witch hunts” in the military. (The War Horse)

On paying up for postpartum care: Retreats for new moms, which have long been the norm in parts of Europe and Asia, are popping up in the U.S. But at an astonishing $1,000 per night, are moms and babies getting what they’re paying for? (The Cut)

On your speakers: The latest episode of America, Who Hurt You? dives into the lesser-known history of Muslims in America. (Apple podcasts)

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Greetings, Meteor readers,

So as your inbox has probably told you quite a few times today, it’s Giving Tuesday. We promise not to bombard you, but should you be in a particularly giving mood today, we hope you will consider supporting our nonprofit project The Meteor Fund. It hosts regular community events on everything from abortion access to climate change, and supports The Meteor’s journalism, including projects like United States of Abortion and The A Files.

We know you have many places to give. We also know that in a time of disinformation, it’s never been more important to support independent media that unapologetically centers the interests of all women.

In today’s newsletter, we take a look at the transgender rights case making its way to the Supreme Court. Plus, we’re reclaiming locker room talk.

Grateful for you all,

The Meteor Team

WHAT'S GOING ON

A high-stakes SCOTUS case: ACLU attorney Chase Strangio will make history this week as the first openly transgender person to argue before the Supreme Court. The case at hand? United States v. Skrmetti, which will broach the question of whether or not Tennessee’s anti-trans law is a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Let’s put that in plain speak for my non-Suits watchers out there.

Tennessee SB1 prohibits any medical personnel in the state from providing care that enables “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.” Translation: It bans any and all gender-affirming care specifically for transgender minors. It does not however stop, say, a cis-gendered teenage girl from receiving estrogen for any reason because, that form of gender-affirming care is not “inconsistent” with the patient’s sex assigned at birth.

This bill is so loudly and staunchly anti-trans, it could run for president and probably win.

Lawyers representing Tennessee are citing the court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which eliminated the right to legal abortion, as grounds for upholding SB1, saying that it is not discriminatory but merely “an even-handed regulation of medical procedure.” The use of Dobbs as precedent is part of what makes bringing this case to a wildly conservative court such a gamble: The way they rationalize it, Dobbs didn’t discriminate based on sex; it merely regulated how abortions can be administered in this country. 🙄

The ACLU’s argument, on the other hand, is more attuned to the reality of what these laws are trying to achieve: the eradication of transgender people. “Laws like Tennessee’s are not benign regulations of medical care,” Strangio said in a statement. “They are discriminatory efforts to exclude transgender people from the protections of the Constitution.” Or, as Ria Tabacco Mar, director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, put it: “There is no ‘transgender’ exception to the U.S. Constitution.”

There’s a lot riding on whether the justices agree. If SB1 is allowed to stand uncontested, the decision would embolden more states to pass more anti-trans legislation. (Twenty-six have banned gender-affirming care already.) If, on the other hand, SCOTUS rules favorably, the outcome could grind anti-trans legislation to a halt nationwide, and establish important limits on how state law can dictate an individual’s health care.

There are, of course, many hitches in this giddyup, the largest one being the “U.S.” in “U.S. vs. Skrmetti.” Right now the Biden administration is the “U.S.”—Biden’s DOJ brought the lawsuit along with three trans minors and their families. But when he leaves office in January, the Trump administration might switch to supporting Tennessee. Should that happen, experts say there is a possibility that SCOTUS could request a new hearing to decide whether it should accept the ACLU’s petition at all.

Regardless, Strangio and the ACLU are focused on the real people at the heart of the suit. “This is Tennessee displacing the loving, reasoned, painstaking decisions of parents who are trying to do right by their children,” Strangio explained to Dahlia Lithwick on the Amicus podcast. “Children who were in anguish, and are now doing better, because of the health care Tennessee now bans.”

AND:

• Life is short and Trump’s list of awful cabinet nominees is long, but if you haven’t seen the latest report in the New Yorker on Pete Hegseth, we promise it’s worth your time. TL;DR, Hegseth was fired from working at two different veterans’ groups because of “serious accusations of impropriety,” allegations of sexual misconduct against his staffers that went unaddressed, financial mismanagement, and—my (Shannon’s) personal favorite—chanting “Kill all Muslims” repeatedly. This overgrown drunken fratboy is being considered for Secretary of Defense and I cannot help but wonder: when he has the power to kill all the Muslims he wants, will that include my daughter or just me? Or will American Muslims be spared and left to deal merely with unchecked harassment and sexual misconduct? Asking for three million friends.

• Yesterday, the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) met to finalize a Global Plastics Treaty that would have curbed plastic production around the world. Alas, the group could not reach a consensus on which measures to take or how to enforce them. Plastics and fossil fuel production waste are two of the biggest planet killers we face, and microplastics have become so pervasive they’ve been found in air and human breast milk. The air! If the nations of the world are too concerned about oil profits to worry about the air—which is borderless—is all hope lost? No, of course not. But the clock is ticking!

PROTESTORS OUTSIDE OF THE INC-5 CONFERENCE IN BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA. (VIA UNEP)

• Stacia Alexander needed a hysterectomy to treat persistent fibroids. She knew it was the best course of action. But what she didn’t know was the difference between “partial or full” hysterectomies. When the time came to make the choice, Alexander chose the latter, and doctors removed her healthy ovaries. This led to early menopause symptoms like anxiety, weight gain, and “murderous” hot flashes—problems that could have been avoided if she’d kept her ovaries. In a sweeping story for the New York Times, Alexander shares her experience, which mirrors thousands of women who are being kept in the dark about what is or isn’t being taken out of their bodies.

• Belgium has become the first country to grant sex workers formal employment contracts and workplace benefits, including sick pay and maternity leave. Progress? Is that you!?

LOCKER ROOM TALK 🏀 🏉 🏃‍♀️

A fun safe space for our fellow women's sports fanatics 

• Olympic track and field champion Sifan Hassan has been named the Women’s Athlete of the Year by World Athletics. Hassan, an Ethiopian refugee who represented the Netherlands this summer, memorably wore a hijab to accept her Olympic gold medal in Paris, where the headcovering is banned.

• UConn star and likely first-round draft pick Paige “Buckets” Bueckers is now the first ever NIL athlete to have her own player-edition Nike sneaker. Just a reminder for anyone reading this who happens to be married to me: I am a size eight.

• Bronze-medal rugby player Ilona Maher has announced her next move after coming in second on Dancing with the Stars. She’s UK-bound and will be joining the Bristol Bears for the remainder of the Premiership Women’s Rugby season. We are all Bears fans now.

SCREENSHOT OF MY BESTIE VIA INSTAGRAM

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Greetings, Meteor readers,

Remember last week when I said we would be doing a special photos-only send of my Christmas sweater once I finished making it? Well, guess what?

We are totally not doing that because we are serious news people and these are serious times, but if you want a little holly in your jolly, you may or may not find it here.

In today’s newsletter, we’re talking about bathroom bullies in Congress, Matt Gaetz, and a win in Wyoming.

Seriously serious,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

It’s a privilege to pee (apparently): When I first heard that Delaware lawmaker Sarah McBride had won her election, making her the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress, I turned to my roommate and said, “How long do you think we have until Republicans completely lose their shit?”

As it turns out, not long at all.

On Monday, South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace (R) introduced a resolution banning any members of Congress or House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” When asked by reporters if the bill was targeting McBride specifically, she responded, “Yes and absolutely, and then some… I’m absolutely 100% gonna stand in the way of any man [sic] who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms.”

MCBRIDE AT THE CAPITOL (VIA GETTY)

There’s been much ado lately about whether or not all women should be allowed in women’s restrooms, women’s locker rooms, women’s sports. But this conversation has never really been about restrooms. We are witnessing a debate on whether or not trans people should be allowed to exist in public life.

If we were all in agreement on that point—if this public panic was truly about women’s safety or the sanctity of your 8th grade daughter’s Little League team—then this conversation would be a logistical one. Those in opposition would propose alternate solutions. They’d have an answer (any answer at all!) for where a grown-ass man with a full beard and a vagina should pee. But they’re not even considering the question.

Nancy, if you really want women in Congress to be safer, I’d start focusing your energy on…well, just read the next item.

—Bailey Wayne Hundl

About that (alleged) abuser: Ever since last week’s bombshell that Matt Gaetz is Trump’s pick for Attorney General, the media has been asking why, exactly, anyone (even Trump) would nominate him. As a refresher: Not only is Gaetz patently unqualified for the job, deeply disliked by his Republican colleagues, and primed to carry out the retribution Trump has been threatening, he’s also been the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation amid various accusations including sex trafficking and bribery. (Some details from that investigation have already leaked; WaPo reports that two women testified they were paid to have sex with Gaetz.)

According to the New York Times, even Trump himself privately acknowledges Gaetz’s uphill struggle in winning the nomination. So the question remains: Why did he nominate this creep in the first place? We have to presume he knew what was in the House investigation and doesn’t care. But analysts suggest there may be something more nefarious at play: The kerfuffle around Gaetz draws attention away from Trump’s other dangerous choices, like anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., accused sex offender Pete Hegseth, or Putin darling Tulsi Gabbard. Gaetz makes them all seem less clownish in comparison. The plan may be to lower the bar for nominees, presenting so many extreme choices that the Senate can’t block all of them. So although it’s good news that Gaetz is far from a shoe-in, it’s unsettling that he might help pave the way for some equally abysmal government officials. (And if you too are unsettled, keep calling.)

—Nona Willis Aronowitz

AND:

• Good news! Yesterday, a Wyoming judge ruled that the state’s two abortion bans violated the state’s constitution and were not enforceable. The judge presiding in the case wrote in her decision that the bans “suspend a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions…and are not reasonable or necessary to protect the health and general welfare of the people.” This is a massive win for the people of Wyoming, although one of the plaintiffs, an OB/GYN named Giovannina Anthony, expects the state to appeal the decision. “But for now,” she told the New York Times, “we can continue to provide evidence-based care without fear of a prison sentence.”

• Today, the Norwegian Refugee Council named Burkina Faso the world’s most neglected displacement crisis of 2023, the second year in a row the country has been given the designation. According to the NRC, because of extremist violence and the destruction of over 400 medical facilities, approximately 3.6 million Burkinabè have lost complete access to healthcare, more than eight thousand were killed last year alone, and two million remain internally displaced.

• Remember when Donald Trump unconvincingly claimed he wasn’t associated with Project 2025? Well, he’s selected Brendan Carr as the next head of the FCC. Carr is a co-author of Project 2025 and wrote an entire chapter about changes the next administration should make to the FCC. One change Carr would like to see? The “advancement of America’s space leadership,” which could be made possible by offering more federal funding to companies like StarLink. And for those of you playing six degrees of separation at home, StarLink is owned by Elon Musk, Trump’s second biggest financial backer.

• Despite the litany of both technical and moral issues with its last live sports broadcast, Netflix will be airing some NFL matchups live on Christmas Day. Why should this matter to you? Because Beyoncé will be doing a halftime performance for one of them and the last time she did the NFL a favor, there was a blackout. Netflix is not ready for the wrath of the Beyhive if her performance is stuck on buffering.

• For the first time in more than 20 years, New York City and parts of the Hudson Valley region have been placed under a drought warning—one step away from a drought emergency. As of now there are no water restrictions in place, but officials are asking New Yorkers to conserve water as best they can. The warning is an unfortunate reminder that nowhere is safe from climate change.

• A hearty congratulations to Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett, hosts of the In Retrospect podcast from The Meteor and iHeart, who won a Signal Award!! Their episode about the Rutgers women’s basketball team was also recognized as one of the Best Conversation Starters in the pop culture category. We know you like starting conversations, so give it a listen.

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