Kansas Republicans are trying to take away currently valid driver’s licenses from transgender people in the state if they have corrected the gender marker on them in a new bill that has also been expanded – under a sneaky maneuver that allows changes to a bill without a public hearing – to be one of the “most extreme” bathroom bills in the nation.

H.B. 2426 was already very anti-trans. It defines “gender” under the law in terms of “chromosomes,… hormones, gonads and nonambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth” and says that driver’s licenses can only have someone’s sex assigned at birth on it. The bill instructs the state government to invalidate all driver’s licenses that do not have a gender marker on them that reflects a person’s sex assigned at birth and to reissue new driver’s licenses.

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But state Republican lawmakers expanded the bill last week, adding a strict anti-trans bathroom ban to a bill already seeking to ban trans Kansanians from changing the gender markers on their driver’s licenses.

The legislators used a state procedure called gut-and-go, which allows lawmakers to completely replace an existing bill’s language with pretty much anything they want while bypassing a public hearing.

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Even before the addition of the bathroom amendment, Kansas lawmakers were already trying to push the bill through with as little public input as possible.

Republicans introduced the gender marker aspect of the bill with less than 24 hours’ notice before a public hearing. But residents nonetheless rose to the occasion, submitting hundreds of testimonies opposing the bill.

“You had a bill introduced one day at 3:58 p.m., it was scheduled for a hearing the next day, less than 24 hours notice,” state House minority leader Brandon Woodard (D) told the Topeka Capital-Journal. “Testimony had to be submitted by 10 a.m., and yet Kansans cobbled together hundreds of pieces of testimony that we were still able to print and submit.”

Republicans, Woodard said, “do those sorts of things in an attempt to shield. They know that the public’s not on the side with them. That’s not civil. When we delivered those pieces of testimony, the committee assistant said, ‘Oh my goodness, this is going to take me days and days to upload.’ I said, ‘Next time, the chair should consider giving people and Kansans a couple of days notice.'”

After all that, the Republicans weren’t done. Democrats are enraged over the addition of the bathroom amendment, proposed by State Rep. Bob Lewis (R). “We all thought that this bill was probably a bathroom bill, and now it’s showing its true colors,” state Rep. John Carmichael (D) told the Kansas Reflector.

“What this bill is about, with this amendment, is making it so that people who are transgender or people who are intersex have no safe place to go to the bathroom.”

“This is an attempt to obfuscate what we’re doing here,” Carmichael added. “If you’re in favor of a lack of transparency, if you’re in favor of taking bill numbers and playing them like a shell game, this is the amendment for you.” 

Lewis claimed the amendment was “for privacy concerns and for public safety concerns.”

“I think this is a necessary bill,” he told the Capital-Journal.

Trans journalist Erin Reed called the bill “the most extreme anti-transgender measure in the United States,” explaining that it could punish trans people who use the bathroom that does not align with their sex assigned at birth with a misdemeanor with possible jail time.

But what “turbocharges it,” she said, is a provision allowing individual people to sue trans people for using the bathroom they deem “incorrect.”

“Critically, nothing in the provision limits its application to publicly owned buildings,” Reed explained. “As written, it would not only be the first bathroom bounty law to target transgender people directly, but also the first to extend a bathroom ban into private spaces—effectively creating the nation’s first private bathroom ban if enacted by empowering bounty hunters to search for trans people in bathrooms.”

Reed said she confirmed with multiple legal experts and lawmakers that, despite the bill appearing to only target public spaces, it would also apply to private bathrooms.

The bill is supported by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R). Republicans have made it a major priority and are trying to pass it as quickly as possible. Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly will likely veto it if it makes it to her desk.

“If passed,” Reed said, “what follows would be the bill’s most consequential test: an effort to override that veto in a Legislature where Republicans currently hold a veto-proof majority, but where some may view the bill as too extreme. For transgender people in the state, that effort may be the most consequential in years.”

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) slammed Republicans for trying to politicize the investigation into late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s associates.

The House investigation into Epstein resulted in a subpoena of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with some Republicans saying on social media that Democrats will be scared to pursue an investigation into Epstein because the Clintons might be implicated. Moreover, Republicans are hoping to draw attention away from the current president’s long friendship with Epstein and all the times he’s mentioned in the Epstein files that have been released so far by focusing on the Clintons.

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Ocasio-Cortez did not seem scared yesterday when asked about the Clintons agreeing yesterday to testify in the House about Epstein, stressing that the investigation should be bipartisan.

“Why haven’t so many people been prosecuted? Why have they continued to not be prosecuted?” she said, bringing up how the House passed a bill to get the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files, which still have not been fully released.

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“Why is Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice continuing to hide the majority of the Epstein files still, which they admit to the public contain much more, even more direct evidence of shocking, genuinely shocking crimes and sexual abuse of women, minors, and also increasingly men that are saying they were trafficked in connection to the Epstein orbit? And so we need to get to the bottom of it.”

Ocasio-Cortez said that she doesn’t care about what party a perpetrator belongs to; she wants people to be brought to justice. “I think at the end of the day, it does not matter if you are a- in terms of who is implicated in this, you’re a Republican, you’re a Democrat, you’re a donor, you’re a- I don’t, it doesn’t matter. We are talking about sexual crimes and trafficking of children, women, and victims of all kinds.”

AOC: Why haven’t so many people been prosecuted? Why are Pam Bondi and the DOJ continuing to hide the majority of the Epstein files, which they admit contain even more direct evidence of genuinely shocking crimes and abuse of women, minors, and increasingly men who say they were… pic.twitter.com/HhglKyXRM9

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 3, 2026

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A lawyer for the Trump administration argued that the president has the authority to fire all women and people over 40 from federal positions if he so chooses.

“Could the president decide that he wasn’t going to appoint or allow to remain in office any female heads of agencies or any heads over 40 years old?” Judge Karen Henderson of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals asked Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric McArthur, according to a transcript from the Daily Beast.

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“I think that that would be within the president’s constitutional authority under the removal power,” McArthur said. “There would be separate questions about whether that would violate other provisions of the Constitution.”

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The conversation took place during oral arguments regarding the president’s firing of Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) member Cathy Harris and National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, both of whom were nominated to their positions by former President Joe Biden. Wilcox was the first member of the National Labor Relations Board ever removed by a president and is also the first Black woman on the board.

Two district judges have already ruled separately that Trump illegally fired both Wilcox and Harris, but the administration has appealed.

In response to McArthur’s question on whether firing women and people over 40 at will would violate other parts of the Constitution, Judge Justin Walker brought up the 14th Amendment.

Judge Patricia Millett responded, “What about the over 40 part? All you need is a rational basis under the Constitution. Is ‘I desire to exercise my removal power’ a rational basis?”

“I think it might well be a rational basis,” McCarthur said.

He continued, “I don’t wanna get out over my skis here. Obviously, all of these are sensitive questions. When the department makes decisions about this, this is made to the very top — the acting solicitor general. And I do not wanna get out in front of the president or the acting solicitor general on any of these issues.”

The Trump administration has been firing federal workers in droves with no regard for the law. Harris, for example, can only be removed from her position for cause rather than at the president’s will. When she received an email that she had been terminated, no cause was given.

In his 35-page opinion earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras declared Trump’s termination of Harris “unlawful” and that the administration did “not dispute that Harris has been efficient and effective in her role at the MSPB.” Contreras ordered she be reinstated.

Judge Beryl A. Howell’s ruling regarding Wilcox was even more pointed.

“The President does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will, and his attempt to fire plaintiff from her position on the Board was a blatant violation of the law.”

Howell also declared, “An American president is not a king.”

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A 22-year-old Russian man has been fined under the country’s “LGBT Propaganda” law for posting a photo on social media showing members of the rock band Queen dressed in drag.

David Gevondyan lost his appeal to the Moscow City Court, which declared the photograph – a still from the music video for the song I Want to Break Free – showed a “positive assessment of the rationale for non-traditional sexual relations, characterized as natural.”

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The court ruled his actions “distort” the concept of a heterosexual relationship and are akin to “destroying family values.”

The photo in question (shown on Instagram below) was part of a promo shoot for the music video. It shows the four band members posing by a stairwell inside a feminine home.

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A post shared by Queen (@officialqueenmusic)

Under Russian law, so-called LGBTQ+ “propaganda” has been banned in the presence of minors since 2013. In late 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation expanding the 2013 law to effectively outlaw any public expression of LGBTQ+ life in the country. And in 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the “international LGBT social movement” an “extremist organization.”

“Public approval and the promotion of the attractiveness of non-traditional sexual relations is dangerous not only for children and young people who are not yet capable of critical thinking, but also for society as a whole,” the ruling stated, as reported by Russia’s Verstka Media, “as it poses a threat to the country’s demographic growth and economic development.”

The court also slammed Gevondyan for having previously posted photos of men in skirts and two men kissing.

Gevondyan has been fined for three administrative offenses. He has also been charged with a fourth, “displaying extremist symbols,” after displaying a Ukrainian Insurgent Army flag.

Last year, independent news outlet Meduza reported that Russian officials and state-aligned media regularly describe Russia’s LGBTQ+ community as a network of “paramilitary groups” calling for an “open gender war,” who engage in “dehumanization” and “devil worship.”

The country has been cracking down on so-called “LGBT propaganda” as of late. In January, authorities charged executives at some of the country’s top streaming services with violating the law, which some have posited is connected to the success of gay hockey romance Heated Rivalry in the country.

Also in January, a young adult-focused imprint of Russia’s largest book publisher, Eksmo, shut down after being targeted by the government.

And in December, Russian officials  blocked access to U.S. children’s online gaming platform Roblox, claiming that it is “rife with inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children.”

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Elon Musk’s estranged daughter Vivian Wilson says her father was in the Caribbean around the time emails included in the latest Epstein files release appear to show he was trying to set up a visit to the convicted sex offender’s private island.

As has been widely reported, at least two email exchanges apparently between Musk and Epstein were among the over three million pages of documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday related to its criminal investigation of Epstein and his 2019 death. Both exchanges appear to show Musk arranging visits to Little Saint James, Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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In one November 2012 email, apparently arranging transportation to Little Saint James, Musk asks Epstein — who was convicted on state charges including solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18 in 2008 — “What day/night will be the wildest on your island?”

Another exchange, dated December 2013, shows Musk writing to Epstein that he “Will be in the BVI/St Bart’s area over the holidays. Is there a good time to visit?” In a later email, Musk writes: “Actually, I could fly back early on the 3rd. We will be in St Bart’s. When should we head to your island on the 2nd?”

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As Out reports, Wilson appeared to weigh in on the 2013 emails in a series of Threads posts over the weekend.

“I’m just going to speak directly instead of being vague and cryptic,” Wilson wrote in a January 31 post. “I can confirm we were in St Barth’s at the time specified in the emails, and therefore I believe they are authentic.”

“This has basically already been confirmed through his attempts to paint them as out of context (denial is a river in Egypt),” Wilson wrote in a separate post. “I knew nothing about the e-mails previously, so I’m learning about everything at the same time as y’all. If there’s any other information I learn that I can corroborate, I will do so.”

In a third post, Wilson speculated that Musk may have been referring to Necker Island, an island in the British Virgin Islands, when he wrote “BVI,” but added that she could not confirm that. “It’s a little bit difficult to ask someone ‘hey what year did we go to Necker Island, it might be in regards to the Epstein Files lol xoxo’. We didn’t go there as often as St Barth’s,” she wrote. “Idk if this is relevant, I believe the e-mails are confirmed regardless through the mention of St. Barth’s over the holidays but I figured since it’s context I specifically have that I should share it.”

Wilson, who came out as trans in 2020, has reportedly been estranged from Musk since at least 2022, when she legally changed her name to distance herself from him. The 21-year-old model would have been around 9 years old in 2013.

As Forbes notes, Musk has never been accused of wrongdoing in relation to Epstein’s crimes, and emails released Friday indicate that the 2013 visit to Little Saint James never happened — with Musk writing in one email that he was “disappointed.” According to the outlet, Musk has claimed he had “very little correspondence” with Epstein, “declined repeated invitations” to the island, and declined to fly on Epstein’s private jet — nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” named for a famous novel where a professor obsesses over and sexually abuses an underage girl.

“Nobody has fought harder for full release of the Epstein files and prosecutions of those who abused children more than I did,” Musk wrote in a February 1 X post. “I knew that I would be smeared relentlessly, despite never having attended his parties or been on his ‘Lolita Express’ plane or set foot on his creepy island or done anything wrong at all.”

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The first case to be brought against a gay man in Uganda under the East African country’s draconian “Kill the Gays” law has been dismissed, according to his lawyer.

On Monday, a judge dismissed the landmark prosecution under the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, saying the accused was “mentally unstable and does not understand the trial process,” Douglas Mawadri told AFP.

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“The magistrate discontinued the case upon finding that the accused is of unsound mind after a long detention on remand,” he said.

The defendant spent 350 days in prison as his case moved through the courts.

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Just months after the Anti-Homosexuality Act was signed into law by Uganda President Yoweri Museveni in 2023, the now 25-year-old unnamed defendant was accused of “aggravated homosexuality” for engaging in “unlawful sexual intercourse with… (a) male adult aged 41.”

Under the law, the death penalty is applicable in cases considered “aggravated,” which include repeat offenses of homosexuality, sex that transmits a terminal illness, or same-sex intercourse with a minor, an elderly person, or a person with disabilities. 

Prosecutors didn’t specify why the act was considered aggravated, but in January 2024, the charges were amended to “unnatural offenses of having carnal knowledge against the order of nature,” which carries a sentence of life imprisonment.

Ahead of the dismissal, the defendant’s counsel argued that the man developed psychosis and schizophrenia as a result of his detention. The decision was delivered orally in court; a written opinion is scheduled to follow.

Ugandan LGBTQ+ activist Richard Lusimbo said the dismissal was “a major breakthrough which should have come out earlier.”

“Detaining someone for over a year without trial is injustice at its worst,” he said.

The court proceedings lasted more than two years.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act was passed by the Ugandan parliament in March 2023. All but two of the Christian-majority nation’s 389 members of parliament voted for the bill.

The bill’s passage and signing into law drew international condemnation, including a halt to all lending in Uganda by the World Bank, travel warnings from the U.S. State Department, and a denunciation by Pope Francis.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act is the second Kill the Gays law to be enacted in the country in as many decades. The first version passed in 2014 but was later overturned by Uganda’s High Court.

The second was written and shepherded through Parliament by lawmakers with close ties to the Arizona-based Family Watch International. The American organization is committed to spreading its anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion stances around the world, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The group has been at work proselytizing among Ugandan lawmakers since 2009.

In November, Anita Among, the current Speaker of the Uganda Parliament and one of the Anti-Homosexuality Act’s strongest proponents, introduced a new law in Parliament that would criminalize the act of identifying as LGBTQ+.

The measure mandates punishment of up to 10 years in prison for any person who “holds out as a lesbian, gay, transgender, a queer or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.”

The bill also criminalizes the “promotion” of homosexuality and “abetting” and “conspiring” to engage in same-sex relations.

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MAGA rapper Nicki Minaj has accused cisgender female supermodel Chrissy Teigen of being transgender in retaliation for Teigen laughing at and giving a thumbs-up to comedian Trevor Noah’s jokes about Minaj’s love of President Donald Trump during Noah’s gig hosting the recent Grammy Awards. In response to Minaj’s attack on Teigen, numerous social media commenters reminded Minaj that her own husband is a registered sex offender.

Minaj, a conspiracy theorist who believes that pop artists are ritually sacrificing children as blood offerings to Satan, accused Noah of being a closet homosexual in retaliation for his joking about her absence at the annual music awards. During the awards ceremony, Noah said, “[Minaj] is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues,” and then proceeded to do an imitation of Trump proclaiming that his butt is much larger than Minaj’s — Minaj famously sang about her own large buttocks in her 2014 song, “Anaconda.”

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Video of the moment showed Teigen in the background giving Noah a thumbs-up after he noted Minaj’s absence. Teigen then laughed at Noah’s imitation of Trump. Numerous other celebrities can be seen also laughing and smiling during Noah’s comments, including Teigen’s husband, musician John Legend, and comedic actor Jeff Goldblum. However, Minaj has not publicly attacked them for it.

In a post on X published last Sunday night, Minaj wrote, “Everyone knows Chrissy Tiegan has/had a dik. Allegedly,” and posted her comment alongside the image of the fictional serial murdering children’s doll Chucky drinking a dirty martini.

In response, commenters on X reminded Minaj that her husband, Kenneth Petty, is a registered sex offender, having served four years in prison for attempted rape. He was arrested in 2020 because he failed to register as a sex offender when he moved to California with Minaj and was sentenced to a year of house arrest.

Everyone knows Chrissy Tiegan has/had a dik. Allegedly pic.twitter.com/d13zrB7ZLN

— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) February 2, 2026

Minaj had previously lashed out at Noah on X, writing, “Trevor refuses to come out the closet when everyone in the industry knows his boyfriend. Allegedly.” Noah does not identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

“MAGA Minaj” has become an increasingly outspoken supporter of Trump, partly due to her opposition to transgender people’s rights. At a Turning Point USA event in December, she said that Trump was “handsome” and then told trans girls to “be boys”: “It’s nothing wrong with being a boy. How about that? How powerful is that? How profound is that? Boys will be boys, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Earlier this month, she called gay journalist Don Lemon “Don ‘c**k suckin’ Lemon” and “disgusting” after he broadcast a protest at a church in Minnesota. Conservatives have claimed that the protest, which was about opposition to ICE, was an attack on “Christian worshippers.”

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