Advocate NL 9/8/26

Hello and Happy Tuesday, folks! Audience Editor Edgar Ramirez here, back in your inbox after a three-day weekend, though Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon took no days off with what advocates are calling a "witch hunt."As Jacob Ogles reports, the Defense Department has accessed private medical records belonging to U.S. troops as it tries to drive closeted transgender service members out of the military.Multiple sources told the Federal News Network that the Pentagon is using medical and personnel data to identify transgender service members. According to SPARTA Pride and Priya Rashid, an attorney with the National Institute of Military Justice, that effort has outed several hundred active duty and reserve service members over the past two months.Pete's purge is getting pushback, though, as Christopher Wiggins reports: On Tuesday, one of the soldiers Hegseth is trying to force out invited him to try it face to face.“Words are only words if you give them power,” Army Master Sgt. Amiah Sale told MS NOW’s Peter Alexander. “I don’t think that it’s something that he would say to our faces.”Christopher has the full details here.Thanks folks, we'll be back in your inbox tomorrow!California approves 988 crisis line funds for LGBTQ+ youth as HHS omits it from $252M announcementTwo women get life in prison for brutally torturing transgender man to deathGay adult star Hunter Hardin dies at age 30Trump boasts new Space Force uniforms are 'inspired' by famous satire of NazismHow penis filler led to the death of a wealthy social media influencerMike Johnson swore Everton Blair in as the South’s first Black gay congressmanRenowned NYC medical center caves to Trump on trans youth care just as DOJ loses in courtTransgender Army master sergeant dares Pete Hegseth: Say your anti-trans slurs to my facePentagon digs through troops’ confidential medical records to hunt for transgender service members