There’s a lot to be stressed about right now. We’re seeing the dissolution of our democratic norms and ideals before our very eyes.

But extremists don’t want us thinking about democracy. They want us thinking about the 5 trans kids who wanted to play soccer this year.

Just so far this year, over 900 anti-trans bills are under consideration across the country. The majority apply to kids, particularly in school. Some of the laws are frankly terrifying, like one in Florida that requires genital inspections for any kid suspected of being trans. Genital. Inspections. Of Kids.

But even anti-trans organizations can’t find more than five trans kids playing on girls’ sports teams. And at the college level, NCAA president Charlie Baker said that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes who currently compete in college sports. That’s less than 0.002 percent!

There’s a lot of well-meaning concern for trans kids out there, but doctors are not giving children gender-affirming surgery. A Harvard study in 2019 found zero cases of gender surgery in kids under the age of 12. And for the small number of teenagers who were given surgery (2.1 per 100,000 teens), the vast majority are breast reductions for boys who aren’t trans. 97% of gender-affirming surgeries on minors are for boys who were born as boys and identify as boys and just want a smaller chest so they can continue to feel like boys.

Somehow that statistic rarely comes up when politicians are out there making speeches and passing bills against trans kids. By scaring people with fake information, politicians can drum up support while passing laws that actually harm Americans – not just trans kids, but all of us.

If you’re feeling burned out on bad news, or even burned out on empathy, we understand. But this Pride Month, we have to let trans kids know we’re paying attention and we care.

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

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Thanks for listening to the Red Wine & Blue podcast. This week, instead of an episode of Okay But Why, we’re sharing a virtual event we recently held with a former Republican named Courtney. She used to be a Trump voter, but now she leads a TroubleNation group in Pennsylvania.

Courtney shared with us what changed her mind and how we can reach other MAGA voters. We always say that it’s never too late for someone to change their mind, and Courtney is proof that it really is possible.

We hope you enjoy this conversation.

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

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The federal minimum wage right now is $7.25. For someone working full-time, that translates to $15,060 per year, just $20 over the national poverty line.

The US minimum wage has been hotly debated since its beginning, so this week, we’re taking a closer look at its history, exactly who is making it, and dispelling some misinformation.

In 2023, almost a million hourly workers in the United States made minimum wage or less. And contrary to popular belief, they’re not all teenagers — many are moms earning half of their family’s total income. They’re working jobs you might expect, like retail and food service, but also jobs you might not have expected, like home healthcare workers. And here’s something important to know: the minimum wage doesn’t automatically increase with inflation. It has to be intentionally raised by Congress, something that hasn’t happened since 2009. Think about how much prices have gone up since then!

It doesn’t have to be this way. If we look at other countries around the world, or even America a few decades ago, we can see that wealth inequality has never been this bad. It’s not a fact of life; it’s not a necessary evil to have a good economy. It can change if we all talk to our friends and neighbors… and vote accordingly.

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

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Kids today have a lot to worry about. Getting through adolescence was hard enough in generations past, but these days, kids have more anxieties than ever. And who can blame them? There were 83 school shootings in 2024 and gun violence is now the number one cause of death for kids.

In 2023, 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and that increases to 53% when you just ask girls. And if you ask LGBTQ kids, that number goes all the way up to 65%. Even sadder, suicide has become the second-leading cause of death for kids between 10 and 14.

There’s a lot of concern about kids’ phone use, especially social media, and that certainly plays a role. But some experts believe that just two things are primarily to blame for most mental health crises: poverty and violence. And of course the Trump administration has been making both of those issues worse, catering to the NRA and cutting programs that support working families. He closed the White House Office for Gun Violence Prevention and, just last month, approved the sale of “forced reset triggers” that allow normal guns to fire like machine guns.

Trump also cut $1 billion in funding for student mental health services. Yes, one billion dollars taken away from helping kids with their mental health.

There’s no lack of internet opinions about parenting, and when it comes to things like social media, you know your own kids best. But we know how to improve outcomes for kids across the country: funding for mental health services, better gun safety laws, assistance for families who need help with food or housing, and protection for kids who live with domestic abuse. The Trump administration has been moving us backwards on every one of these issues and it’s on us to speak up for kids.

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

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Few issues polarize this country like abortion. Most Americans believe these intensely personal decisions should be made by families and doctors, not politicians. But even those who call themselves “pro-life” usually believe some exceptions should be made — in the case of rape, when it’s a matter of saving the mother’s life, or when doctors determine the fetus has no chance of survival.

But we’ve seen time and time again that “exceptions” don’t work.

Right now, in Georgia, a tragedy is playing out before our eyes. A young woman named Adriana Smith suffered multiple blood clots in February and was declared brain dead, but because she was 9 weeks pregnant at the time, the hospital is keeping her hooked up to machines until doctors believe her fetus can survive on its own.

It’s important to know that Adriana isn’t in a coma or even a vegetative state — legally and medically, she’s dead. Her body is being kept alive by more machines and medicines than you can imagine, all because of Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban. Imagine being Adriana’s mother. Watching your daughter’s body hooked up to all those machines, kept in this horrible middle space between life and death, not for days or weeks but for months. In interviews, she’s called it “torture.” And her family was never given a choice.

If Adriana, or Amanda Zurawski, or a ten-year-old rape victim aren’t exceptions to abortion laws, who is? And why should politicians get to decide? We can’t change the Dobbs decision, but we can push for an end to state abortion bans. We’ve already seen it work, like a 2023 constitutional amendment in Ohio. It isn’t easy, but we owe it to Adriana, Amanda, and all of the women whose stories have yet to be written.

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

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You may have seen headlines recently about extremists going after no-fault divorce. “Yeah, okay, I’ve seen those stories,” your friends might say, “but… why would they do that?” The answer, of course, is simple: it’s about controlling women.

Critics of no-fault divorce, like JD Vance, claim that it’s bad for couples and especially bad for kids. But the data just doesn’t bear that out. The really important thing to know is that no-fault divorce protects women. There was a 15% decrease in female suicides in states that passed no-fault divorce laws and a 30% decrease in domestic violence. Each one of those statistics is a real story — and you can hear some of them in this week’s episode.

A few years ago, an end to no-fault divorce seemed unlikely. But after the end of Roe v Wade, of course this is the next legal right to land on the chopping block. So far, bills to overturn no-fault divorce have been unsuccessful, even in states where they’ve been proposed like Texas and Oklahoma. But extremists aren’t going to stop their attack on women and it’s up to us to keep talking about it.

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

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Donald Trump promised to be “tough” on immigration on the campaign trail, vowing to “launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history.”

“Criminals,” he said. So why is ICE detaining children? And why do half of the adults held in ICE detention facilities have no criminal record?

In New York, a mom and her three kids—including a third grader—were arrested by ICE and shipped off to a facility in Texas. In Louisiana, ICE deported a four-year-old with cancer to Honduras, despite the child being a US citizen. Across America, families live in fear of separation, even those who are following the legal pathways and completing all of their required paperwork and check-ins.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the conditions in ICE detention facilities is atrocious: crowded cells, freezing concrete floors, water from the toilet, and constant dehumanizing treatment from guards. All of this for people with no criminal record and, again, actual children. Is this really the America we want?

This Okay, But Why is upsetting, but we can’t turn away. Trump’s ICE quotas and for-profit prison companies are creating a hell on earth for some of our most vulnerable people and we have to speak out.

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For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

Instagram: @RedWineBlueUSA

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When James Baldwin went on the Dick Cavett Show in 1969, he was asked a very loaded question: why aren’t Black people more optimistic? Jim Crow laws had been outlawed, Black people were becoming mayors and successful businesspeople… so why was he still talking about race?

Obviously racism didn’t “end” with the Civil War, or the Civil Rights Act, or Obama’s election. In fact, Donald Trump has spurred a resurgence — there’s been a nearly 50% increase in white supremacy groups just in the past few years. And yet he’s waging a war on Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs, Critical Race Theory, and the very notion that racism still exists.

But racism – and anti-Blackness in particular – is still a powerful force. It’s built into the very structure of the country. It shows up in politics, medicine, sports, education, and even eBay.

In this week’s episode of Okay But Why, we explore the history of anti-Blackness in America, how it manifests to this day, and what we can do about it. If you want to learn more, there are so many books, films, and podcasts out there! Check out Code Switch, The 1619 Project, Stamped From The Beginning, The Black Friend, White Tears/Brown Scars, Hood Feminism, or the upcoming The Race Track: How The Myth of Equal Opportunity Defeats Racial Justice.

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

Instagram: @RedWineBlueUSA

Facebook: @RedWineBlueUSA

YouTube: @RedWineBlueUSA