Three Wins Today: June 19, 2025
Today is Juneteenth. I hope you had a meaningful holiday and amplified some Black voices, though I hope you do that every day, too. I wish I had a meaningful Juneteenth but I spent most of the day defending the DNC against today’s disinformation. It almost feels like it was intentional that New York Times and Politico put out these articles on Juneteenth.
Anyway, enough sadness, let’s get to some wins!
Tennessee will become the first state in the South to protect IVF and birth control on July 1. I’m posting this today because the Tennessee Lookout post breaking down the law and how we got here was published yesterday. The bill was introduced and championed by two Republican women and is literally 5 sentences long. The following section has been added to the Tennessee code:
Notwithstanding another law, an individual has a right to engage in activities associated with fertility treatment and contraception. The laws of this state do not prohibit an activity associated with fertility treatment or contraception. The law of this state clearly and unambiguously acknowledges the right of an individual to perform, and the right of an individual to receive or use, fertility treatment and contraceptives in this state.
For a red state to protect fertility treatment and contraception is a really big deal.
Today - Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz got news that Yvette Hoffman, John Hoffman’s wife, will be released from the hospital today after being shot by the assassin on Saturday. It’s incredible that this tragedy didn’t take more lives and that Yvette and Senator Hoffman are recovering.
Sun June 15 - Volunteers working with the USC Dornslife program “Agents of Change” started a hotline to help immigrants move their immigration hearing appointments online, so they can’t be kidnapped by ICE at the appointment. They are very clear that this is not “affiliated with the USC Gould School of Law, or its Immigration Law Clinic,” but it is mostly made up of volunteers in the USC community. Sophie Sullivan wrote in USC Annenberg Media about the process:
Calls to the Agents of Change hotline go directly to the phone numbers of about 15 volunteers. Whoever’s available takes down the caller’s name and case number, then helps them fill out paperwork to request that their immigration-related court hearing be moved online.
Each of the unpaid volunteers are a USC student, faculty or alumni, or the trusted friend of a current volunteer. It is Orange who ultimately files the motion by mail and e-mail. He said there was no guarantee that motions would pass, nor does the hotline have the capacity to offer legal advice.
They’ve already received thousands of calls.
Agents of Change program founder Olu Orange said:
A lot of the people who have immigration hearings coming up are not represented by counsel, so they’ve got to do all this stuff themselves, unless they have somebody helping. We endeavor to do that with Agents of Change.
You’ve probably already heard this entire story, but I wanted to include it anyway, because the way it’s been gaining traction is sketchy at best. I saw all the screenshots of the notes app post, but I wasn’t going to touch it until I had verifiable confirmation that it was legit.
Please do not share this story without sharing the link above. It so easily could have been disinformation. You never know when there is no source.
So those are some of today’s wins. Always look for the wins, cause they’re always there!
Our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!
The Third Item can be done nationwide.
Do you mean the Annenberg link?