“North Carolina, they’re checking for vaginas, if you want to use the can.”
–Country singer Brad Paisley, singing on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Paisley used his appearance to sing a parody of Tammy Wynette’s country classic “Stand by Your Man,” dropping his own lyrics in to poke fun at North Carolina’s anti-transgender law, HB 2. The law forces trans people to use a public restroom that corresponds with their birth gender.
While Paisley should be commended for seeming to oppose HB 2 — “Why is this such a big deal?” he sings — his lyrics are more than a little strange. As Huffington Post pointed out, Paisley misgenders the subject of his song, which seems to be about trans women using a female restroom.
Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman, especially when you were born a man. North Carolina, they’re checking for vaginas, if you want to use the can.
I say: stand by your man, we’re all just human beings. He’s just a human peeing, in the stall right next to you.
Sit by your man. Why is this such a big deal? Hike up your dress and take a stand. And sit by your man.
HuffPo asked Paisley’s publicist for clarification. “Brad is all about finding that Mark Twain humorous angle where people are laughing before they realize he’s making a really good point,” they said, which didn’t exactly clarify his choice of lyrics.
Still, that Paisley sang the song in the first place — and preaches a “live and let live” message — is something to champion, given country music isn’t typically associated with liberal thinking.
The Thomas More Society is threatening to sue the Wake County Public School System unless it allows a group of parents to remove their children from a required music class taught by a transgender teacher at Middle Creek Elementary School in Apex, North Carolina.
The right-wing law firm, which advocates for religious exemptions for opponents of LGBTQ rights, sent a letter to the district outlining several additional demands, including written assurances that students will not be disciplined for misgendering the teacher.
A transgender couple faces criminal charges after being beaten by a mob over their use of a women's restroom at Cypress Black Bayou Park in Benton, Louisiana.
Aurora Rush and Shae Sanders went to Cypress Black Bayou Park on May 31 for a lakeside cookout. Rush, a trans woman, used the women's restroom and returned to the lake without incident. Later, as the couple headed back to their car, Sanders, who is nonbinary and was assigned female at birth, stopped to use the same restroom, according to journalist S. Baum, reporting for Erin Reed's Erin in the Morning Substack.
As Rush waited outside, she says a man began harassing her. He followed her to her car, threatening to harm her if she entered the women's restroom, calling her slurs, and trying to provoke a fight. After leaving some belongings in the car, Rush returned to a pavilion outside the restroom to wait for Sanders.
Point of Pride, a trans-led nonprofit that provides financial aid and direct health services to transgender youth and adults, has opened applications for its Thrive Fund, which helps trans people with expenses not covered by the organization's other programs.
Established in 2024, the Thrive Fund helps cover expenses beyond the nonprofit's existing services, which range from free chest binders and femme shapewear to financial assistance for transition-related surgery, hormone therapy, and electrolysis.
Thrive Fund grants can cover non-medical transition-related expenses, including legal fees for name and gender marker changes, fertility preservation, vocal therapy, and medical tattooing used to restore skin pigmentation or conceal scars from gender-affirming surgery. Applicants may request up to $2,500 at a time.
