Dear Defenders of Justice,
Happy Friday, dear friends! You’ve made it through another week in the alternate reality in which we now find ourselves.
To our returning readers—thank you for continuing to stand tall in turbulent times. And to our new subscribers—welcome. Here, your voice is valued, your presence is power, and your concern for justice is never out of place.
We often focus our lens on the legislative decisions shaping our economy, our rights, and our future. But occasionally, a moment demands we pivot—to show how the very culture our lawmakers cultivate becomes the battleground where real people pay the price.
This is one of those moments.
Earlier this month, a teenage girl in Illinois was hospitalized after being violently assaulted—for using the women’s restroom. Her attackers reportedly decided she “didn’t look feminine enough.” She was a girl. A young woman. And yet, in the eyes of her peers—conditioned by a political climate obsessed with gender policing—she was treated as a threat for simply existing.
We bring this to you not as an outlier or isolated act of cruelty, but as a predictable outcome of the narrative certain politicians have chosen to amplify. And yes, if you were thinking it—we are not afraid to say her name: Representative Nancy Mace.
The Political Cultivation of Harm
This may not seem like our typical economic or legal focus, but it is the consequence of those legislative battles we so often cover.
Mace didn’t just peddle culture war poison—she voted for a budget bill that gutted breast cancer research funding. The very women she claims to defend—those recovering from double mastectomies, dealing with hormonal changes, or walking through the world with short hair and soft steps—are being left behind, both by her narrative and her votes.
(For those not familiar with Mace, feel free to read my earlier piece for context. You can read that piece here.)
The congresswoman from South Carolina has built her brand on so-called “common sense” bathroom legislation—insisting that her efforts are about safety, privacy, and protecting women.
But whose safety? Which women? And at what cost?
Because while Rep. Mace spends her platform decrying imagined threats in women’s restrooms, real threats go unanswered in her own district.
This is the same Nancy Mace who voted to:
Gut healthcare access for her constituents
Neglect maternal health investment in a state with one of the worst maternal mortality rates
Strip food assistance and job programs from reconciliation proposals that could have helped thousands of women survive—and thrive
What Bathroom Bills Really Do
Bathroom bills don’t:
Feed families
Lower insulin costs
Keep children safe from violence
What they do is provide easy talking points to distract from hard failures. They stoke division, create confusion, and—as we saw this week—can result in real-world harm.
Kady Grass, tragic as it is, is not an outlier. She is the canary in the coal mine—a side effect of a political movement that defines womanhood by appearance and erases anyone who doesn’t conform.
If you think this stops with trans women or gender-nonconforming youth, think again. In a society that polices gender, every woman becomes a target.
Think of the women in your lives—perhaps one who has suffered from cancer, or a tomboy at heart. Then imagine a world where she must pass an “ideal femininity” test just to use a public restroom. Imagine she didn’t “pass muster” for a couple “concerned citizens,” and was left—like Kady Grass—bleeding on a bathroom floor.
This is the inevitable byproduct of ignorance and hate masquerading as legislation.
“Ain’t I a Woman?”
As the great suffragist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth once asked:
“Ain’t I a Woman?”
Delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, Truth’s words challenged both racial and gender exclusion. Her speech cut through the false dichotomies of her time: Black or woman, strong or soft, human or other.
That question still echoes—because the answer, in too many places, is:
“Only if you look the part.”
It’s time to reclaim womanhood—not as a political performance, but as a lived experience worthy of safety, dignity, and care for all who embody it.
What’s Happening Now
The perpetrators of the attack on Kady Grass have reportedly been apprehended, but no hate crime charges have been filed—despite witnesses hearing them shout homophobic and transphobic slurs as they beat her.
So let’s be very clear: this wasn’t just bullying. It was a bias-motivated attack, made possible by a culture that equates femininity with worthiness, and difference with danger.
And in case you think this is isolated to Illinois—South Carolina has pending legislation that echoes the same dangerous logic:
SC H3095: Would block changes to gender markers on birth certificates
SC H3927: Would restrict discussions of gender identity in classrooms
SC H3121: Would protect discriminatory practices under the banner of religious freedom
These are not hypothetical harms. They are the real-world scaffolding of oppression. And they are being built in plain sight.
But So Is Our Resistance
You are not imagining it. The cruelty is coordinated. The narratives are strategic.
And the consequences are real.
But so is our resistance.
If this truly is the slow sinking of the once-unsinkable American democracy, then let history remember us as the musicians who kept playing—refusing silence, even as the water rose.
Unlike them, we are not beyond saving.
There is still time to right the ship. Still a chance to pull each other from the brink. And for that hope, we will give everything we have—every ounce of blood, toil, tears, and sweat.
Because giving up was never the American way—and it will not be ours.
Should the waves rise higher and the water reach our feet, know this:
we will step into the ocean still singing—unshaken, and in harmony with this chorus of resistance.
The only question that remains is: What will you do?
Until our next bold move,
Lady LiberTea
📣 Want to Get More Involved? Here’s How You Can Help:
✅ Share this article.
Post it. Text it. Forward it. Knowledge is power, and awareness is the seed of action.
✅ Support Kady Grass.
Help cover her medical and legal expenses through her GoFundMe campaign.
✅ Advocate for LGBTQ+ Rights.
Get involved with the Human Rights Campaign, which fights for legal protections and policy reform.
✅ Support LGBTQ+ Youth.
The Trevor Project offers life-saving crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ young people.
I am probably older than most of your readers. This bathroom issue was the same one I heard in my home growing up to defeat the ERA amendment many years ago. This violent act is unthinkable to me, but this is how people use scare and hate.