Spring 2026 Newsletter

READ THE SPRING 2026 NEWSLETTER HERE

Dear Supporters,

We are living through something extraordinary.

Facing wave after wave of state violence, it would be easy to assume the direction of change is toward more authoritarianism. I don’t believe that’s inevitable. What I see — in Minnesota and across the country — is people coming together not only to resist, but to rebuild and reimagine, even as we fight for our lives.

We saw it here. When Operation Metro Surge launched, Minnesotans mobilized massive networks of neighbors and mutual aid. It wasn’t just a rejection of the violent, white supremacist worldview ICE embodies — it was a deepening of our commitment to one another. Fighting for our neighbors’ rights as our own. Together, we forced a drawdown. The threat isn’t over, but we proved something important: organized people are powerful.

Now, we’re doing the long work of recovery and accountability. We honor our neighbors Renée Good, Alex Pretti and Victor Manuel Díaz by demanding more than a return to the status quo — by building toward something better.

The Minnesota Equal Rights Amendment is a key piece of that work: a way to defend our rights today and assert a clear vision that Minnesota’s own resources, laws and institutions will never be weaponized against our own people — and embed that vision directly in our state’s constitution, where it cannot be easily rolled back by shifting political winds.

What gives me hope is that this pairing — fierce resistance while building the foundations for something better — isn’t new. It’s a signature of movements for racial justice, immigrant rights, trans liberation, indigenous sovereignty, and reproductive freedom. At Gender Justice, we channel that same determination through the law — building legal frameworks that don’t just push back against today’s attacks, but make equality harder to dismantle tomorrow.

We see that in the story of Cooper v. USA Powerlifting. In 2019, our client took a stand against discrimination that blocked her from participating in the sport she loved. Her persistence brought us all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court — where, this fall, we won a ruling that didn’t just affirm trans athletes’ right to compete. It established a clear legal precedent: in Minnesota, trans people have the right to participate authentically in every part of public life.

That’s the work. And we’re not done. We’ve appealed T.D. v. Wrigley to the North Dakota Supreme Court, challenging the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth — a ban that criminalizes doctors and overrides North Dakotans’ constitutional right to liberty and self-determination. We’ve seen this argument win: Montana’s Supreme Court recently struck down a similar ban on state constitutional grounds.

None of this comes easy. The forces working against us are coordinated and well-resourced. But I’ve seen what’s possible when people refuse to accept the world as it is. In courtrooms, in the streets, in the Capitol — in Minnesota and North Dakota — we are proving that freedom and dignity are worth defending, and worth building toward. As long as we keep showing up for one another, I believe we will do just that.

A better world is possible. Together, we’re already building it. Thank you for all the ways — big and small — you’re showing up today, tomorrow, and for our future.

In solidarity,

Megan Peterson
Executive Director

READ THE SPRING 2026 NEWSLETTER HERE