Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 10/31

[SVPete]

Not All Girls Who Said They Were Lesbians Are Actually Lesbians? You Don't Say!

https://pjmedia.com/aj-christopher/2026/10/30/not-all-girls-who-said-they-were-lesbians-are-actually-lesbians-you-dont-say-n4958876

Stop the presses! According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of ninth-grade girls who identify as lesbian or bisexual dropped from 30% in 2021 to just 17% in 2025. Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psychology professor, described the trend as a “free fall.”

The Washington Post claims that researchers are searching for answers. Their brows are furrowed, and their lower lips are bitten. The researchers are baffled. Puzzled. Flummoxed. Perplexed. Or, as the “conservative” Fox News headline describes it, the new data has been “stunning.”
...
I don’t have a degree from Columbia in Queer Studies, so I can’t speak with the authority of the experts at San Diego State University. But if I didn’t know any better, I’d almost dare to venture that the 2021 statistic alleging that 30% of girls identified as lesbian or bisexual reflected not actual sexual orientation, but rather a social trend.

A fad.

A cool thing to say.

An attention getter.

A way to prove you’re woke.
...
But you get my point, folks. As conservatives, we already knew that the whole “30% of girls are lesbians” schtick never had any validity. And neither did the transgender numbers, which have similarly fallen from 7% (2023) to back under 4% of teens identifying as transgender.

Ideologues inflated these numbers in order to use confused kids to wreak havoc on the institution of the traditional nuclear family. The sexuality had little to do with it. Had they felt that teenagers "identifying" as obsolete typewriter ribbons would have better helped them achieve their political goals, we all would have been subjected to years of cultural push for teenagers to identify as obsolete typewriter ribbons.

The article calls out general social and media influence. I think there has also been authority -figure (e.g. teachers and school counselors) and peer pressure influence. Personally, I think the 17% - 1 in 6 - number is still significantly inflated.

[SVPete]

Hinojosa: Give Me All Communication Between Musk And Abbott. Appeals Court: LOL, No

https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=73874

Given all the attention paid to the Texas senate race, you could be forgiven for forgetting that Texas also has a gubernatorial race this year, with Republican incumbent Greg Abbott expected to handily throttle his little-known Democrat challenger, state rep Gina Hinojosa, en route to Abbott’s record-breaking fourth term election as governor. But while she’s still theoretically in election contention, and a state rep, Hinojosa decided that would be a great time to demand all the communication between Elon Musk and Abbott, because that’s a totally normal request and not an outburst of far left Musk Derangement Syndrome.

Appeals court: LOL. No.

The Fifteenth Court of Appeals has blocked a district court ruling that would have granted Democrat gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa access to communications between Gov. Greg Abbott and Elon Musk.

Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy, a Democrat, had ordered the governor’s office to allow Hinojosa to read more than 1,300 pages of unredacted communications between Abbott and Musk.

Bloomberg Law reported that Mauzy donated $500 to Hinojosa on June 24 for her race against Abbott, and more than $700 to Hinojosa’s campaign for the Texas House in 2016.

Hinojosa claimed her request was for transparency: “The people have the right to transparency, and that’s why I’m continuing to fight for the documents between Elon Musk and Greg Abbott.”
...
According to KVUE, court documents argue that Hinojosa, whose term ends January 12, 2027, “is suffering present, continuing, imminent injury” because she has not been granted access to the requested communications between Abbott and Musk.

Abbott’s office stated that the district court’s order would have allowed Hinojosa to use her office to violate state public records laws.

“This was a sham lawsuit in a rigged district court,” said the governor’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris. “The trial court judge refused to follow the law and rubber-stamped an illegal fishing expedition into the Governor’s Office. The appeals court rightly froze this abuse of process.”

Mauzy had $1200 of conflict of interest, and should not handle cases involving Abbott or Hinojosa, at all. Hinojosa was trying to gin up a faux-scandal via a fishing expedition enabled by a prejudiced judge.

[ADsOutburst]

Hinojosa: Give Me All Communication Between Musk And Abbott. Appeals Court: LOL, No

https://www.battleswarmblog.com/?p=73874


Mauzy had $1200 of conflict of interest, and should not handle cases involving Abbott or Hinojosa, at all. Hinojosa was trying to gin up a faux-scandal via a fishing expedition enabled by a prejudiced judge.

I'm trying to think of possible reasons for this Hinojosa to be doing a "something, something, Elon Musk!" of this sort. Perhaps it's like an audition for a more powerful position in the Democratic Party somewhere down the line. But I imagine that even the higher-ups in the party would look at it and think "Pfff, what an amateur!".