988 & Sheriff Redman & Indiana Dems (Oh My!)
Today's Top Three
1. Trump Administration announces end of LGBTQ+ option on suicide & crisis lifeline.
2. Indiana AG Rokita continues dumbest lawsuit in the history of lawsuits.
3. Indiana Democratic Party finally breaks silence on Hogsett scandal without mentioning Hogsett.
1. Trump Administration announces end of LGBTQ+ option on suicide & crisis lifeline.
On the same day the Supreme Court sided with Tennessee and upheld the ban on healthcare for trans kids, the Trump administration announced they will be ending the “LGB option” on the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. (They purposely omitted the “T” from LGBTQ+.) A statement released by the administration said they will not be spending taxpayer dollars encouraging children to embrace “radical gender ideology.”
Option 3 on the 988 lifeline, the LGBTQ+ option was launched in 2022 in collaboration with the Trevor Project. According to data on their website, LGBTQ+ youth are four times more likely to experience suicidal ideations than their peers. There is an abundance of evidence that denying transgender people access to gender-affirming care threatens their health and safety.
Unfortunately, this is another devastating reminder that this administration, driven by dangerous Christian-nationalist ideology, does not care if denying healthcare to pregnant people or trans people risks their lives as long as it scores them political points.
2. Indiana AG Rokita continues dumbest lawsuit in the history of lawsuits.
In the fall of 2024, Indiana Attorney General Rokita sent several letters to law enforcement agencies accusing them of not cooperating with federal immigration authorities. These letters were clearly politically motivated as cities and counties with elected Democratic leadership were targeted. One of those letters went to St. Joe County Sheriff Bill Redman.
Apparently Rokita was not satisfied with Redman’s response. In January 2025, Rokita took a road trip up to South Bend, Indiana from Indianapolis so he could file suit against St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman and hold a press conference about the lawsuit in the lobby of South Bend’s city-county building.
The intent of the lawsuit is quite confusing. Rokita is asking the court to force Redman to comply with federal immigration officials, but Redman, like all the other law enforcement agencies who received letters, say they do cooperate with federal immigration officials regularly.
On June 18, a hearing was held so Judge Broden could hear arguments regarding Redman’s Motion to Dismiss. Redman and his legal team argue that the case should be dismissed because not only do Redman and his staff cooperate fully with federal officials, but also because Rokita does not have standing in this case. Rokita, as Indiana’s Attorney General has to show that Indiana has been harmed by Redman’s actions, but no harm has been demonstrated.
Judge Broden said he will issue a ruling on the Motion to Dismiss in the next 60 days.
3. Indiana Democratic Party finally breaks silence on Hogsett scandal without mentioning Hogsett.
Nearly 10 days after a sexual abuse survivor was physically dragged from the chambers of the Indianapolis City-County Council, the Indiana Democratic Party broke their silence.
And after reading their statement, I wish they hadn’t.
To catch you up, check out these posts I wrote on this mess last week:
The statement is truly baffling. It mentions Kristi Noem, George Wallace, Alex Padilla and the Vietnam War, but does not mention the man at the center of the scandal, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett.
There is also no mention of the Administration and Finance Committee of the Indianapolis City-County Council that convened on Tuesday, June 17. This meeting lasted over 90 minutes and testimony from several survivors was shared. It was an incredibly powerful and brave display of resistance. These survivors shared the ways they were abused and the ways they were retaliated against when they tried to report.
Was the state party watching that meeting? I find it hard to imagine they watched it and did not feel compelled to reference it in their statement.
The absence of Hogsett’s name in their statement makes it very clear that the state party has no intention to hold him accountable. That refusal, that blind spot calls into question the intention of the entire ethics process they have launched. Watching all of this madness unfold over the last week or so, no one should ever again wonder, “why didn’t they say something earlier?”