Fashion designer Connor Ives says his now-iconic “Protect the Dolls” T-shirt — first worn during the finale of his Fall/Winter 2025 ready-to-wear show in London — has since raised more than $600,000 for the nonprofit Trans Lifeline. The design employs a decades-old phrase calling for solidarity with and protection of transgender women.
The shirt wasn’t originally intended as part of the collection. As Ives told The New York Times in April, he simply wanted “a T-shirt that says something” for the show, using the message as a call for solidarity with transgender people at a time when governments in the U.K. and U.S. were seeking to roll back rights.
The day after the February show, Ives was inundated with calls and emails from people asking where to buy the shirt. He soon began selling it for $99, with proceeds benefiting Trans Lifeline, which offers services including a crisis hotline for the transgender community.
The shirt quickly sold out, with celebrities like Troye Sivan, Pedro Pascal, and Madonna photographed wearing it. By mid-April, Ives had sold 1,088 shirts and raised more than $70,000 for Trans Lifeline, according to Vogue.
Demand for the shirt has remained strong. In a September 19 Instagram post, Ives announced that sales had generated more than $600,000 since it first became available.
The post said the money raised will fund Trans Lifeline services and allow the organization to resume distributing microgrants to transgender people nationwide, something it has not done since 2023.
“I have never been more proud of my team, the supporters of this wider movement, and the countless people that bought this tee,” Ives wrote in the caption. “This T-shirt has changed my life, and I’m hoping it will in due course change so many others. In times like these where every day feels more perilous than the last, I am moved by the humanity of this movement and what it has made possible. This is only the beginning.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a bill requiring transgender Texans to use bathrooms and other facilities in public buildings that match their assigned sex at birth.
The Republican-backed law, passed largely along party lines, applies to government-owned buildings, including public schools and universities. In addition to bathrooms, it mandates sex-segregated locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms, which the law defines as "multi-occupancy private spaces."
Exceptions apply to parents, guardians, and caretakers of the opposite sex, as well as law enforcement, emergency responders, and custodial staff entering for official purposes, reports The Hill.
Elon Musk has waded into the Virginia governor's race to attack Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, accusing her of "trying to weasel out" of a question about transgender students accessing bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Musk shared a post on X highlighting Spanberger's response to WJLA reporter Nick Minock, who asked whether she supports "biological males who say they're women using women's locker rooms and bathrooms and competing in women's sports."
Spanberger stumbled in her response, noting that any attempt by a future Virginia governor or the Trump administration to impose a bathroom ban could run afoul of a 2020 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowing transgender students in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
The Trump administration is reportedly planning to classify specific transgender suspects as "violent extremists," according to journalist Ken Klippenstein. Writing on his Substack, Klippenstein said two national security officials told him that the FBI intends to treat transgender suspects as a subset of the Bureau’s newly created "Nihilistic Violent Extremists" (NVE) category.
The NVE designation was created earlier this year to replace the Biden-era label "Anti-Authority and Anti-Government Violent Extremists" (AGAAVE), which had been used to categorize participants in the January 6 Capitol riot and other right-wing or anti-government groups.
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