The Illegal Trans Woman

To start this week’s show, I break down the devastating new U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Title IX that bars transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams. I examine the majority opinion authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, alarming concurring statements regarding mental health, and the troubling legal precedents this sets for our…

This week, I am thrilled to bring you a very special episode recorded live from Loring Park in Minneapolis during the massive Twin Cities Pride festival! To kick things off, I sit down with my dear friends Frank and Ryan to dive into their personal coming out stories and discuss what Pride truly means to…

To start this week’s show I fly solo for a special “Ellie’s Talking Head” episode to break down a terrifying new proposed federal rule from the Office of Management and Budget. I dive deep into this massive 400-page document spearheaded by Project 2025 architect Russell Vought, exposing how it aims to leverage federal grant money…

We’re broadcasting live from the Golden Valley Pride festival in Minnesota to celebrate our beautiful and diverse community! I first sit down with my dear friend Christopher to discuss the emotional weight of his first Pride parade in the 1990s, the tragic history of the AIDS epidemic, and the vital importance of solidarity between gay…

To start this week’s show, I dive into the reality of Pride Month by examining some incredibly concerning new polling data from Gallup. The survey reveals a significant drop in support for same-sex marriage and a steep decline in the acceptance of transgender people, largely driven by relentless MAGA propaganda. I am then joined by…

To start this week’s show, I celebrate a fun milestone with the podcast making Feedspot’s list of the top 100 transgender podcasts. But the news quickly turns serious as I break down the alarming collapse of trans rights in the UK. From the NHS effectively banning puberty blockers for minors and wait times for adults…

To start this week’s show I break down the White House’s alarming new counter-terrorism strategy that equates “radically pro-transgender” groups with international threats like ISIS and drug cartels. It’s a dangerous move that mirrors the “TIVE” designation proposed by Project 2025, aimed at chilling advocacy and threatening the very right to exist. I am then…

In this week’s Big Story, I dive into the Department of Justice’s chilling “fishing expedition” against 36 Illinois school districts for the “crime” of protecting trans students’ rights and fostering inclusive classrooms. It’s a blatant federal overreach aimed at intimidating school officials and erasing our community from public life. I am then joined by the…

In this week’s Big Story, I celebrate Chet Hassen, a Michigan college athletic director who proved that empathy is a superpower after he was reinstated following a suspension for defending a trans student-athlete. It’s a powerful reminder of what happens when a community stands up for what’s right. I am then joined by Kat Rohn,…

In this week’s Big Story, I break down a major legal victory against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Kennedy Declaration,” which sought to strip federal funding from hospitals providing gender-affirming care. We celebrate the recent ruling by Federal Judge Mustafa Kasubhai, who deemed these HHS regulations unconstitutional, restoring life-saving care to families across blue states. I…

This week’s Big Story is a groundbreaking look at a legal win for our community in Big Sky Country. I break down a massive Montana Supreme Court decision that upholds the state constitution’s promise of individual dignity, proving that trans discrimination is—at its core—sex discrimination. The Big Interview features Sarah Waller from Big Hill Books…

For the Big Interview this week I welcome Jules Langlois to the show as he talks about the upcoming nationwide strikes on May 1. Also, I talk about two horrific bills that have been passed in Idaho attacking our trans community. plus News Bits and Random Acts.

This week, The Illegal Trans Woman celebrates a major milestone as we officially expand our reach to the humans of Chicago on WCPT 820 AM. For our Big Interview, I sit down with Asheville journalist David Forbes to discuss a truly eye-opening report on the Catholic Church’s quiet grip on the American healthcare system. We…

This week, I’m preparing to head West to Fargo and Moorhead, continuing my mission to bring visibility to places where our community is often kept in the shadows. In this “Talking Head” show, the first Big Story focuses on a disturbing new trend of anti-trans ballot measures in Washington and Maine that seek to ban…

This week’s Big Story is a series of draconian hits to the trans community, starting in Idaho where the legislature passed HB 752, a bathroom bill that attaches a felony charge and up to five years in prison for a second “offense” of a trans person simply using a restroom that aligns with their identity.…

I’m diving deep into a West Virginia federal appeals court ruling that has me absolutely floored. The court decided to deny Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgeries, and what’s truly chilling is the judge’s reasoning. He essentially argued that it’s rational for a legislature to encourage citizens to “appreciate” their sex rather than becoming “disdainful” of…

This week’s Big Story is a heavy one as we look at the literal onslaught of anti-trans legislation sweeping through statehouses and even reaching the Supreme Court. We’re tracking over 700 bills—from Utah’s move to allow housing discrimination to Wisconsin’s attack on trans students’ names. It is a firehose of oppression, but we aren’t backing…

This week’s Big Story is a sobering look at how history is repeating itself in America. Ellie breaks down the chilling similarities between current anti-trans legislation in states like Kansas and the Nazi-era Nuremberg Laws that systematically stripped Jewish people of their dignity and legal identities. The Big Interview features Lee Wade, a transgender radio…

In this week’s Big Story, I dive into the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” and the alarming comments made by its president, Kevin Roberts, regarding the future of gender-affirming care for adults. We listen to a chilling clip where Roberts suggests outlawing transition-related healthcare entirely, regardless of age. I also cover the disturbing shift in ICE…

This week’s Big Story starts with a bit of a sidebar on ICE purportedly drawing down its agents in Minnesota. While the Trump administration claims it’s because the state has finally started “cooperating,” the reality on the ground in Chaska tells a different story. The much heavier news is that Children’s Minnesota—the largest children’s hospital…

Ellie discusses the new guidance from the American Association of Plastic Surgeons now recommending no gender-affirming care for peopel under 18; Isaac Johnson of TransLawrence Coalition in Lawrence, Kansas is the Big Interview; Trump administration diminishing the history of the murder of Medgar Evers.

The Big Story is about the US Air Force retracting pension-award letters to a dozen transgender service members with 15-18 years of service who were being drummed out of the military due to Trump’s ban. The Air Force said it had “made a mistake” in granting the service members pensions; my take is that it…

This week’s Big Story is split into two disturbing reports: the escalating and ominous actions of ICE agents in Minnesota—including the abduction of observers—and the Trump administration’s targeting of transgender gun owners through potential changes to federal forms. For the Big Interview, I’m thrilled to be joined by acclaimed author and writer Lyz Lenz to…

This week’s Big Story covers the terrifying ICE raids sweeping the Twin Cities and my concerns regarding the Supreme Court’s recent arguments on transgender student athletes. For the Big Interview, I speak with Becky and Monique, two courageous activists from Carver County who detail how they successfully rallied their community to stop the local Sheriff…

This week’s Big Story focuses on the tragic murder of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent, a horrific act that highlights the dangers facing our community and the need for accountability. For the Big Interview, I speak with Gwen Howerton, a reporter for Chron.com, about the city of Arlington, Texas, inexplicably repealing its LGBTQ+…

I kick off 2026 by diving into a disturbing story at the University of Oklahoma where a trans teaching assistant was fired after giving a zero to a student who used AI to write a hateful, religiously charged paper—absolute insanity! The Big Interview features investigative reporter Lauren McGaughy, who joins me to expose how the…

This episode originally aired December 21, 2024: The Big Story this week is a continuation of last week’s BS (literally, that’s what it is BS) with 37 Democratic Senators voting to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, including MN’s two Senators, Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar. As with the House version, the bill passed by…

I admit right away that I am not in the holiday spirit because our community is facing a “ten-alarm fire” with the passage of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s horrific “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” and a new HHS rule threatening hospital funding. My Big Interview is with Ryan Cooper from The American Prospect, who joins me to…

In this episode, I dedicate the Big Story to the political firestorm surrounding Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” which aims to federally criminalize gender-affirming care for minors and is set for a floor vote next week—a shocking display of hypocrisy and an architecture for a police state. I then introduce my Big Interview…

It’s the show’s first anniversary! We do a review of the year, highlighting various interviews with the likes of U of Chicago behavioral scientist Nick Eppley and friend-of-the-show, Vanessa Tenneyson. The Big Interview is with Bella and Trish Tousignant, who talk about how their 39-year marriage not only survived, but blossomed when Bella came out…

This episode originally aired May 3, 2025: It’s an Ellie’s Talking Head Show! The Big Story is about how Robert Kennedy Jr.’s HHS has issued a report on gender affirming care for transgender youth and—surprise—it claims that that crucial medical care is harming children! Other stories have transgender people participating in the funeral for Pope…

We begin this Ellie’s Talking Head show by remembering President John F. Kennedy on the 62nd anniversary of his assignation and contrasting his leadership with that of Donald Trump. The first Big Story is about how the Trump administration is preventing transgender and nonbinary persons from obtaining passports that match their gender identities. Big Story…

We’ve hit the half-century mark with Episode No. 50! I begin by highlighting Transgender Day of Remembrance, November 20th every year, and share about how TGDOR came into existence (in 1999, to honor transgender and nonbinary persons lost to violence or suicide in the preceding year). This November 20th, please tell a trans or nonbinary…

It’s an Ellie’s Talking Head show, and we start with a just-delivered 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that an Ohio school district could not discipline students who claimed that their religious beliefs prevented them from according pronouns to transgender students that align with their gender identity. In other words, under the guise of…

This week’s Big Story is how the Trump Dept. of HHS plans to issue three rules that will bar federal Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements to any hospital/medical facility that provides gender affirming care to any trans person younger than 18 (and in one case, 19). This is essentially an attack on all blue state hospital…

We split the Big Story between two stories; one is about a landmark civil rights case where the MN Supreme Court held in favor of an adult female trans weightlifter who was barred from competing with other women due to her gender identity. The other case is about an Oregon federal judge ruling to block…

It’s No Kings Day No. 2 and I urge listeners to get out and exercise their First Amendment rights! The Big Story is about the current status of a federal lawsuit seeking to block MN transgender student athletes from competing on teams that align with their gender identity. (So far, we’re winning!). The Big Interview…

Today is National Coming Out Day, to honor members of the LGBTQ+ community who have come out to the world as their true, authentic selves. For this week’s Big Story, I talk about the historic origins of NCOD dating to October 11, 1988. The Big Interview is with Orion Rummler from The 19th who talks…

Our Big Story this week is how the Veterans Administration has prohibited its therapists and doctors from providing referral letters for transgender Vets who seek to obtain gender confirmation surgery using their own funds or via private insurance. Without a referral letter, a surgeon who performs confirmation surgery won’t go forward (such letters confirm the…

This week’s Big Story is about transgender people fighting back—two female trans athletes suing universities and the NCAA for denying them the right to compete, and five trans youth/their families and adults suing the University of PA Medical Center for denying them gender affirming care. Good for them and for the brave lawyers taking their…

This is my first chance to talk about Charlie Kirk’s murder—how horrific, and my condolences to his family and friends! Violence is never the answer! I talk about how MAGA desperately wants to tie transgender people to Kirk’s murder, and they’re doing so by asserting that the alleged shooter was poisoned by the ideology of…

With this Ellie’s Talking Head show we cover how Boston Children’s Hospital convinced a federal judge in my old stomping grounds (Boston is where I learned to be a civil trial lawyer) to quash a Trump DOJ subpoena that sought to intimidate BCH into dropping its gender affirming care program for trans kids/youth. Way to…

We begin with the Big Story of how some public school systems are fighting back against Trump’s DOJ/Department of Education edicts that seek to bar trans students from restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Some  districts in Virginia are suing and in Denver, the school superintendent, Dr. Alex Morrero, has issued…

It’s a very somber show in the wake of the Annunciation Catholic church/school shooting—my heart goes out to the victims of that senseless attack! What horror for them and for our community! However, the attack, by a transgender person, may turn out to be the watershed moment MAGA extremists have been looking for; they could…

On this Ellie’s Talking Head show we begin with how Trump’s MAGA DOJ has subpoenaed multiple Blue state hospitals seeking confidential patient information of transgender children and youth who have received gender affirming care. It’s all an effort to chill those hospitals from providing such care. I also share an influencer’s take about Maslow’s Hierarchy…

The Big Story is about the US Air Force retracting pension-award letters to a dozen transgender service members with 15-18 years of service who were being drummed out of the military due to Trump’s ban. The Air Force said it had “made a mistake” in granting the service members pensions; my take is that it…

This episode originally aired March 8, 2025: The Big Story is about politicians who do the right thing (Senate Democrats who blocked a national trans youth sports ban) and those who don’t (CA Gov. Gavin Newsom, who in a podcast interview with right wing pundit Charlie Kirk threw trans athletes under the bus). The Big…

It’s an Ellie’s Talking Head show, beginning with how the Trump administration is targeting 50-60 colleges and universities with investigations for alleged antisemitism—which is a ploy to simply control how the schools admit students and create curricula. First Columbia caved; this week it was Brown University; undoubtedly there will be many others, which will send…

Unfortunately, the Big Story is about how multiple Blue state health care providers are closing their gender affirming care clinics for transgender children and youth despite there being no federal law mandating closures; they’re just caving to fear of federal subpoenas and investigations. Horrible! The Big Interview is with award-winning journalist Varsha Bansal who reports…

This week’s Big Story is about how US Secy of Defense Pete Hegseth’s efforts against “wokeism” resulted in passing over a rear admiral for promotion because nearly a decade ago there were drag shows on the aircraft carrier the admiral commanded. Hegseth also ordered that a Navy oil tender named after gay rights icon Harvey…