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by Marissa Greene, Fort Worth Report and Report for America ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. This article is co-published with Fort Worth Report and The Texas Tribune as part of an initiative to report on how power is wielded in Texas. Texas Rep. Nate Schatzline recently stood before a gathering of conservative activists just outside Fort Worth, recapping legislative wins and previewing whats next at the Capitol. On this day, however, he was speaking not only as a lawmaker but also as a pastor. A week earlier, the Internal Revenue Service decided to allow religious leaders to endorse political candidates from the pulpit, effectively upending a provision in decades-old tax law barring such activity. Schatzline, a longtime pastor at Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth, was excited. The IRS affirmed what we already knew, he said at the July 14 meeting: The government cant stop the church from getting civically engaged. There is absolutely no reason that a politician should be more vocal about social issues than your pastor, and so I need pastors to stand up, Schatzline told the crowd made up of members of True Texas Project, a Tarrant County-based organization that is a key part of a powerful political network pushing lawmakers to adopt its hard-line opposition to immigration and LGBTQ+ rights and to advance conservative education policies.We need pastors to be bold.For decades, pastors like him have fought for the right to speak on political issues and actively endorse candidates in their capacity as religious leaders. Now, before a judge has weighed in on whether to allow the IRS policy change, some religious leaders are already calling on congregations to demand greater political involvement from their churches. While the tax agencys stance applies to churches nationwide, Texas is expected to be where it will matter most, said Ryan Burge, a political and religious expert at Washington University in St. Louis. More than 200 megachurches call Texas home. In the Lone Star State, pastors seem to have a larger profile in social, political and religious discussions. Texas will be the epicenter for testing all these ideas out, he said. Schatzline said as much in a follow-up interview with Fort Worth Report. A nonprofit that Mercy Culture Church previously created to help elect candidates to political office is working with President Donald Trumps National Faith Advisory Board to expand that work and to mobilize churches and pastors to get them more civically engaged, the state representative said. Officials from the White House and the advisory board did not respond to a request for comment. While Schatzline said pastors can choose not to be vocal about candidates, congregations like his may feel differently. Especially our conservatives across America, they have an expectation that their pastor is going to speak to the issues of truth, he said.For more than 70 years, churches and other religious institutions in the United States were told to steer clear of any political activity or risk losing their tax-exempt status. That federal measure, the Johnson Amendment, was added into IRS tax law in 1954 and named after its author, Lyndon B. Johnson, then a Texas congressman. In August 2024, during the last months of the Biden administration, an association of religious broadcasters and two East Texas churches sued the IRS, arguing that the Johnson Amendment infringed upon their freedom of speech and religion. Nearly a year later, the IRS, now under Trump, and the plaintiffs filed a proposed joint settlement outlining in the agreement that when a house of worship speaks to its congregation about electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither participates nor intervenes in a political campaign and so doesnt violate the amendment. The court must now consider their proposal. IRS officials did not respond to a request for comment on what prompted its decision. The biggest implication of the proposed legal agreement is a push on pastors to be more political than they want to be, said Burge, a former Baptist pastor who is now a professor of practice at Washington Universitys John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. It all comes down to the 5% of people on each side of the political spectrum who are the loudest and are trying to drag you into their fervor, said Burge, adding that congregants could threaten to leave a church if their pastor doesnt talk about their political stances. A previous investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune highlighted 20 examples of churches that were seemingly violating the Johnson Amendment. That was more than what the IRS itself had investigated in the previous decade. Thirteen of those congregations were in the North Texas area, including Mercy Culture, where Schatzline was ordained a pastor in 2024. The tax agency largely abdicated enforcing the amendment, the newsrooms previously reported. For example, in the mid-2000s, the IRS investigated a little more than 100 churches, including 80 for endorsing candidates from the pulpit, after citing an increase in allegations of church political activity leading up to the 2004 presidential election. Agency officials didnt revoke the tax-exempt status of any churches, instead sending warning letters. Following the filing of the proposed settlement in July, the Fort Worth Report identified at least three churches in Texas whose leaders openly praised the IRS decision, including Mercy Culture and Sand Springs Church, one of those involved in the lawsuit that sparked the IRS change. The day after the court filing, Mercy Culture Church posted a screenshot on Instagram and Facebook of The New York Times article detailing the news and noting it was time for the church to get loud! We will not be silent on issues of righteousness, life, liberty, or leadership. We dont endorse parties we stand for the Kingdom! the post read.In Athens, less than 100 miles south of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Sand Springs Church senior pastor Erick Graham told congregants during a July 9 Bible study that the IRS ruling is encouraging. He told congregants during the teaching, which was livestreamed on Facebook and reviewed by the newsroom, that the church was not going to comment on the IRS court filing until the judges final ruling approving or denying the proposed settlement. First image: A member of True Texas Project wears an organization T-shirt during a monthly meeting at the Texas Star Golf Course in Euless. Second image: A Mercy Culture Church sign at its flagship Fort Worth campus, one of five locations in Texas. (First image: Mary Abby Goss/Fort Worth Report. Second image: Marissa Greene/Fort Worth Report.) A Powerful ToolMegachurches with the means to livestream services online or by broadcasting could be a powerful tool for promoting political candidates, said David Brockman, a nonresident scholar at Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy and an adjunct professor at Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University. In North Texas, First Baptist Dallas draws about 16,000 members to attend worship in person or through several streaming methods, according to the churchs website. Nondenominational Mercy Culture Church draws thousands of worshipers to its flagship location in Fort Worth, The Washington Post has reported. Since its inception, the church has formed other campuses in east Fort Worth, Dallas, Waco and Austin. First Baptist Dallas lead pastor, Robert Jeffress, an avid Trump supporter, thanked the president on Facebook for the IRS recent interpretation of the Johnson Amendment.This would have never happened without the strong leadership of our great President Donald Trump! Honored to get to thank him personally today in the Oval Office, Jeffress wrote in his July 9 post. Government has NO BUSINESS regulating what is said in pulpits! Religion News Service reported this spring that Jeffress was one of multiple pastors who told Trump during a White House Easter service in April that the IRS had investigated their churches for their political endorsements. Jeffress told The New York Times he believed the conversation was a tipping point, in the new IRS interpretation of the Johnson Amendment, something Trump himself promised to do during his 2016 presidential campaign.He did not respond to requests from the Fort Worth Report for comment. A spokesperson for the church said he was out of town. Different religious traditions may respond to the policy change in distinct ways, said Matthew Wilson, a religious and politics professor at Southern Methodist University. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United Methodist Church, for example, both announced they would maintain their stances on not endorsing or opposing political candidates. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national nonprofit advocating for separation between church and state, announced July 30 it is joining others in condemning efforts to ignore or weaken the Johnson Amendment.While some religious leaders may be reluctant to engage in politics, white conservative churches, which generally support Republican candidates, and African American churches, which historically have favored Democrats, have come right up to the line of the provisions in the Johnson Amendment if not sometimes crossing it, Wilson said. Those religious organizations have spoken in more explicitly political terms for a long time, and this [IRS decision] frees them even more to do that, he said. Mansfield Mayor Michael Evans, who has been pastor for 30 years at Bethlehem Baptist Church, southeast of Fort Worth, said he doesnt plan to endorse candidates for the congregation because it could only lead to more division. At his predominantly African American church, congregants come from both ends of the political spectrum, he said. While the candidates put forth by political parties and their philosophies may change, Evans said, the word of God remains the same.Mercy Culture Church is already well down the path of exerting its political influence. Schatzline launched its nonprofit For Liberty & Justice in 2021 after a church elder unsuccessfully ran to become the mayor of Fort Worth. The organization partners with local churches in grassroots campaigning efforts to promote Godly candidates for local government, according to its website.The nonprofit created an online program called Campaign University, designed to train people of faith on how to run for office. The organizations liberty rallies have influenced the decisions of local school boards and city councils to lead with Christian values in Tarrant County, according to its website.For Liberty & Justice has supported 48 candidates since its inception. One was Schatzline. Cecilia Lenzen of the Fort Worth Report contributed reporting. Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.

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She was so taken aback that she called her husband, Bob Skarphol, a state lawmaker on the verge of retirement, as he drove from the capitol in Bismarck to their home in Tioga, a small community in the oil-rich Bakken in the western part of the state. Why are there minuses? Diana Skarphol recalls asking. Rather than being added in, things were being subtracted. I was puzzled and confused. The couple remembers that call because it was the start of a frustrating, decade-long search for answers from the company and of a string of unanswered pleas for help from the state, which has not taken action to help royalty recipients even as other states have. Over the past decade, Hess has withheld about 31%, or $137,635, of the Skarphols royalty income to cover the companys costs to move oil and gas from the well site to market, records show. Oil and gas companies owed the states private mineral owners, like the Skarphols, an estimated $4.6 billion in 2023 before deductions, according to North Dakota State University research. But those deductions which can vary greatly are deeply contentious in the state: The companies claim certain costs should be shared with royalty owners, while owners say that in most circumstances, the deductions shouldnt be permitted at all. The state itself doesnt regulate what can be deducted and there is no official accounting of how much of that money is withheld.The North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica spoke with 18 mineral owners, interviewed experts and lawmakers, and reviewed court records and royalty statements to understand the extent of deductions. A dozen owners provided records of companies withholding 20% or more of their oil and gas royalties. Some monthly statements showed deductions as high as 50%. Similarly, at least one energy company and one independent researcher have found the deductions to be around 20% in recent years. The industrys chief lobbyist said percentages that high are atypical. Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, said it would be impossible to calculate an average deduction but suggested it couldnt be more than 7% to 10% based on the cost of transporting oil out of state. If deductions were in that range, North Dakota royalty owners collectively would have lost between $322 million and $460 million in 2023.The Skarphols leases with Hess were signed during a time when oil and gas was often sold at or near well sites. The leases didnt say anything about deductions. Its a matter of fairness, Diana Skarphol said. We didnt get any say in it. They just up and changed it. You feel like youre being cheated. Its not right. Bob and Diana Skarphol have kept records of payments for their mineral rights going back decades. While the language in the leases has not changed, the industry has. Most companies now choose to move the commodities away from the well site before selling them, incurring additional transportation and processing costs. They pass on a share of those costs to the royalty owners, which the North Dakota Supreme Court has ruled is legal.By contrast, North Dakota officials have taken steps to safeguard state-owned royalties. Since 1979, all state leases with oil and gas companies prohibit deductions. When state trustees noticed deductions were being taken anyway, they fought back and have spent years negotiating settlements to recoup those missing royalties. But the majority of the oil and gas in North Dakota is privately owned by about 300,000 individuals, according to the industry. And North Dakota policymakers have not taken action that would protect private minerals, an investigation by the North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica has found. Theres a double standard, said Rep. Keith Kempenich, a Republican from Bowman, a community in the oil field. He has co-sponsored several pieces of unsuccessful legislation aimed at helping private owners.Lawmakers have rejected efforts to rein in deductions and to make it easier for royalty owners to understand what costs are being deducted and why. And oil and gas regulators have claimed they have no jurisdiction to help. Its ridiculous, said Bob Skarphol, who has led the advocacy efforts by private mineral owners. The industry has an incredible amount of influence in North Dakota. The state, which owns about 6% of the minerals in North Dakota, has advantages that private mineral owners dont have. It has the resources to audit companies that pay royalties and to litigate disputes. State law also requires that companies provide electronic copies of royalty and production data to regulators, but private royalty owners are guaranteed access only if they travel to the companys office, which could be out of state. And unlike the state, private mineral owners rarely have the leverage to negotiate a lease that prohibits deductions, and leases dont expire unless oil production lapses. In responses to questions from the North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica, officials from three companies that operate in North Dakota Hess Corp., Slawson Exploration Co. and Zavanna Energy said they follow the language in the leases. In fact, most leases, like the Skarphols, dont explicitly mention deductions. The companies also said that while there are additional expenses to selling the oil and gas farther away from the well site, doing so also leads to a better price for both the companies and the owners. The companies, as well as the organization that advocates for the industry, blamed some of the fees charged to private owners on costly state regulations enacted a decade ago. Basically it got really, really expensive and really, really challenging. And I think it put the economics of gas in a whole different position, said Ness of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, which represents more than 550 oil and gas companies in the state. Pure and simple, the world changed. Saddled With ExpensesDiana Skarphol was less than a year old when her mothers family, the Iversons, first leased the rights to any oil found under their land to Amerada Petroleum, which later merged with Hess, in 1949. The Iverson family had immigrated from Norway at the turn of the century. Theyd farmed the land for decades, survived the dust bowl of the hard 30s and were still feeling the effects of the Great Depression. The discovery of oil in 1951, setting off the states first oil boom, changed everything. Oil executives and workers flooded the small community. Diana Skarphol said her relatives welcomed them and invited them over for coffee. The Clarence Iverson Well #1 on April 4, 1951, its first night of operation. The well was the first in North Dakota to produce oil. Clarence Iverson was a relative of Diana Skarphol. (William Shemorry, courtesy of State Historical Society of North Dakota. SHSND 10958-0059-00001) It was a change in fortune for the Iversons and many other families. They werent very rich farmers. They were just getting by. And this supplemented their income, she said. The leases promised a 12.5% royalty on the oils market value the day it left the well site, free of cost. That means that the mineral owner is not responsible for costs to drill or operate a well or other production expenses. Thats why families like the Skarphols say they were perplexed when the deductions began.The Skarphols keep decades of monthly royalty checks, so they can track when Hess began deducting money. A column titled other deductions first appeared in 1998 but remained blank until April 2007, when the company began to deduct less than 2% of their royalty, an amount they said was too small to notice at the time. North Dakotas oil and gas industry was on the verge of momentous change. The shale oil boom, triggered by new technologies, had arrived. Crude oil was fetching $100 a barrel by 2008, and the drill, baby, drill spirit took hold before the phrase was ever uttered in the White House. But the oil was leaving the surface intermingled with vast quantities of wet natural gas, which the companies often disposed of by burning it. The sight of small flames, called flares, became ubiquitous in the Bakken. Flaring looked unsightly, polluted the air and wasted a natural resource that could be sold. State officials enacted regulations in 2014 that required companies to curtail the flaring. The industry, in turn, said it has spent an estimated $25 billion so far to build the necessary infrastructure to collect the gas, process it and export it through pipelines. Flares burn off natural gas at a production site in Williams County, North Dakota, in June 2025. Watch video Companies pass on to owners a share of those infrastructure costs, as well as the expenses associated with processing and transporting oil and gas, sometimes to far-flung markets. Whether owners ought to share in these costs is the heart of the debate.The industry justifies the shared costs by citing a North Dakota Supreme Court ruling that empowered companies to deduct expenses. That 2009 ruling, which addressed a narrow issue related to natural gas, concluded that the value of the gas for royalty purposes should be calculated at the well, where it leaves the ground. That laid the groundwork for postproduction deductions. The ruling meant that when calculating royalties, companies could start with the sale price and then deduct the costs incurred after the minerals were extracted what has been called the postproduction phase to determine how the resources would have been valued at the well. But to royalty owners whose leases promise a royalty free of cost, the fact that companies incur expenses before selling the oil and gas is not their problem. Mineral owners are being saddled with expenses, said Neil Christensen, the agent for his three sisters who inherited mineral rights in McKenzie County that they lease to Hess. Those expenses, he suggested, should reduce stockholder dividends, not reduce mineral owner income. Private Royalties in North Dakota, Estimated in the Billions Royalties fluctuate based on the price of oil and the amount produced. The figures are prior to deductions. (Source: North Dakota State University research) Theres a lot of money at stake. North Dakota Sen. Brad Bekkedahl, a Republican who routinely sponsors bills advocating for the interests of both the industry and royalty owners, estimates that companies deduct at least hundreds of millions of dollars every year. He says companies should use their revenues to cover the postproduction costs as they did before the most recent oil boom. An executive with XTO Energy told lawmakers in 2021 that the oil and gas company deducts on average $30 million annually, or about 21% of the royalties owed to private leaseholders in North Dakota. Mary Ellen Denomy, a forensic accountant who has audited royalty statements across the country and for at least 30 North Dakotans in the last decade, said that about 22% of royalties are deducted on average which would have amounted to $1 billion in 2023. These figures are in line with royalty statements that mineral owners shared with the North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica.Its difficult to verify what specific costs each company deducts because companies dont detail those, either for royalty owners or for the state, instead providing only broad categories on the statements that accompany their checks.Hess said it is a common industry practice to pass on some infrastructure costs, such as the $1.5 billion the company spent on pipelines, the expansion of a gas processing plant and construction of other facilities in the early 2010s. Hillary Durgin Harmon, a Hess spokesperson, said those investments support economic growth by increasing oil and gas production and transporting it to more markets, benefiting royalty owners and the state overall. Zavanna Energy also attributed the increased deductions to infrastructure expenses, including the cost of getting landowners permission to install pipelines in the state, according to the companys general counsel. Ive seen the costs associated with obtaining pipeline easements in some parts of North Dakota increase as much as 3000% over the last 10 years, Zavannas Gillian Wilkin said. Those increased costs can substantially influence the price that must be paid to get oil and gas to downstream markets.Todd Slawson, chairman of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, defended owners sharing the costs to move and enhance oil and gas after leaving the well site. Such post-marketability costs, he said, benefit the owners, too. The objective of the operator is also to obtain the best prices for all parties, said Slawson, who owns Slawson Exploration Co., another energy company. We are all in this together, so everyone wants the best price.He called royalty owners like the Skarphols, who inherited leases, very lucky and fortunate. What a great country we live in where minerals can be privately owned I do not know of another country where that occurs, but there probably are some, he said. In most countries, oil and gas are largely owned by the government.Bob and Diana Skarphol didnt feel fortunate when Hess began taking unexpected deductions in 2015. Nor did Brian Anderson, who also inherited a lease with Hess that his father signed in 1949. Donald Anderson was then a 21-year-old farmer who worked in a coal mine on his property to support his younger siblings. The family started getting royalties soon after. But since the company began taking deductions a decade ago, Brian Anderson said his family has lost more than $600,000.The fact that they just arbitrarily started taking it just sticks in my craw so bad, said Anderson, who at one time worked for Hess. You dont take anything for 60 years, and then all of a sudden you, abracadabra, can do it? Brian Anderson inherited an oil and gas lease from his father. He began noticing deductions on his royalty statements a decade ago. Andersons property in Tioga in the 1950s in an old photograph hanging in his dining room, first image; his family home still stands on that land. Second image: An oil well on his property in June. By the fall of 2018, Skarphol had talked to enough other mineral owners to realize that deductions had begun appearing on many of their royalty statements and they werent stopping.Skarphol called a meeting at City Hall in Williston on a brisk October evening to discuss what they could do about it. Dozens of mineral owners filled every seat and stood shoulder to shoulder in the back of the room. Janice Arnson, who along with her seven siblings inherited mineral rights from their mother, stood up and declared that deductions were out of control. One particular lease, signed by her mother in 2009, began paying royalties a few years later when Hess drilled a well. The deductions were minuscule at first and then skyrocketed to 23% of Arnsons royalty check in February 2015. We just want to be paid our fair share, she said at the meeting.I want the Legislature to take this seriously, said Linda Meyer, a mineral owner in Williams County.Skarphol, who called the meeting, responded. Do we want to get angry enough to do something about it? Skarphol asked the crowd. I do.That night, the mineral owners formed the Williston Basin Royalty Owners Association. Bob Skarphol shows a group of mineral royalty owners the breakdown of a royalty statement. At that October 2018 meeting, Skarphol and other mineral owners founded the Williston Basin Royalty Owners Association. (Jamie Kelly/Williston Herald) Such a Hopeless FeelingThe group started with a request at the beginning of the 2019 legislative session for the state to study the issue and consider potential solutions. Lawmakers approved the request, but the committee that selects which studies should be completed discarded the proposal.In 2021, royalty owners worked with legislators to draft a bill to directly address their concerns. Among other changes, the legislation would have prohibited deductions unless they were explicitly allowed for in a lease and would have permitted royalty owners to audit a companys records, at the royalty owners expense, to ensure they are being paid correctly. Curtis Trulson, a retired farmer, shared concerns about the deductions with lawmakers during that session. He receives royalty payments through leases with multiple companies, and he first started noticing his royalty payments were diminishing during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nobody ever called and said, Well, were going to start taking these costs and heres why. It just started disappearing, Trulson said. Almost every operator is doing the same thing now. They didnt all do it to start with. Curtis Trulson on his farmland near Stanley, North Dakota. He has asked lawmakers to help mineral owners. Trulson emailed details of his situation, and a royalty statement, to seven senators on the committee considering the bill drafted by the royalty owners. Some deductions go totally unexplained! he told them. The only legislator who responded was the one Democrat, Merrill Piepkorn. I hate to say this because I lean a little more on the Republican side and Im more conservative, Trulson said. Other ones didnt even bother to respond or say thanks for the information or anything. He added: The state of North Dakota doesnt want to help us out.The legislation was turned into a study, which ultimately recommended no changes to state law. I had a hard time keeping from screaming, Anderson said of his frustration during the hearings, which he attended in person. The mineral owners tried for more modest changes in 2023. That year, they pushed for a bill that would have required companies to provide royalty statements in spreadsheets. While state law requires that companies provide them that way for publicly owned minerals, there is no such requirement for private owners. That legislation failed, too.Every time we make any kind of an attempt it seems like the industry has a whole lot more influence over the Legislature in North Dakota than the people do, Christensen said.Arnson, who worked with Skarphol to bring concerns about this issue to legislators attention, said she feels betrayed by her representatives. It was such a hopeless feeling, Arnson said. Have I lost a lot of faith? Yes I have. Janice Arnson on land once owned by her family. Arnson and her siblings inherited mineral rights from their mother in Williams County, North Dakota. Legislators from both parties who were involved in the efforts to amend state law told the North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica that repeated legislative measures have failed because of the industrys impact on the state economy and subsequent influence in state politics. State and local governments took in about $32 billion in oil and gas taxes between 2008 and 2024, according to a study by the Western Dakota Energy Association. That same study found that more than 50% of all local tax collections are tied to oil and gas.The industrys influence has curtailed any investigation or legislation regarding looking into the validity of the deductions, Piepkorn said. Ron Ness is a pretty smooth talker, he said of the industrys chief lobbyist. We just take what he says for gospel. Ness said his reputation with policymakers as a trusted and respected voice for the industry has been hard earned over 27 years.Bekkedahl, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee that crafts the state budget, said more than half the states revenues are tied to oil and gas activity. He called the energy industrys lobbying efforts on this issue very aggressive but said lawmakers need to address concerns about royalty deductions.Ive always maintained that we should, as the Legislature, provide some clarity to this issue so that the courts can make the interpretations with clear statutes in place, which they dont have now, Bekkedahl said. North Dakota Petroleum Council staff have testified to lawmakers that the state should not get involved in what it describes as private contract disputes. But the Legislature has gotten involved in other contract issues championed by the energy industry, including this year when it approved legislation related to coal leases. The new state law allows the companies to extract critical minerals from coal without having to negotiate amendments to existing leases. Joseph Schremmer, a University of Oklahoma law professor who specializes in the energy industry, said the Legislature can take action on other issues affecting private contracts as long as there is a legitimate state interest. The Legislature has the power to do many things that would potentially modify the operation of existing contracts, he said. Gov. Kelly Armstrong, a Republican who is both a royalty owner and a former executive in his familys oil company, declined to comment for this story. He said in an interview last year that royalty owners should rely on the courts, though litigation is expensive and not feasible for most.If you think you have a litigation issue, litigate it, Armstrong said. Youre trying to use the state of North Dakota as your private lawyer. If you are in a contract dispute, there is a better place to settle that. North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness, left, talks to North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, center, and North Dakota State University researcher Dean Bangsund during an event to highlight the economic impact of the oil and gas industry. (Kyle Martin for North Dakota Monitor) Diana Skarphol is doing just that. She is one of 34 plaintiffs from the extended Iverson family who sued Hess in 2021 for $10 billion in damages, arguing that the company breached their contracts by taking deductions. Northwest Judicial District Judge Robin Schmidt ruled in favor of Hess and dismissed the case last week. North Dakota law, which the Skarphols and other families have been asking the Legislature to change for years, is not on your side, she told the plaintiffs in a June hearing.But where this will end is unclear: The North Dakota Supreme Court has overturned this judges rulings on a different case related to deductions. And the Skarphols attorney said they will likely appeal. Schmidt also told the plaintiffs they could bring a new lawsuit over a different set of oil wells.Meanwhile, Bob and Diana Skarphol continue to open the checks each month and calculate their losses. So far this year, Hess has deducted 36%.

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Compulsory heterosexuality, or comphet, impacts lesbian, queer, trans, and non-binary individuals by enforcing the societal expectation that everyone should be heterosexual.Have you dated the opposite gender and realized you werent that into them? Do you wish your boyfriend was more like your female friends? Why do you have a list of impossible standards for guys to meet before youll even consider dating them but the idea of being with them makes you uncomfortable, anyway?Are you just picky? Or were you conditioned to interpret any kind of feeling towards men as attraction? If its the latter, its time to learn about compulsory heterosexuality. What is compulsory heterosexuality? Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Compulsory heterosexuality, or comphet, is the societal expectation that everyone should be heterosexual. This idea is pushed by patriarchal norms, making people feel they need to be straight, even if theyre not. Adrienne Rich, a feminist lesbian author, brought this concept into the spotlight in her 1980 essay Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence. Rich argued that heterosexuality is not natural but socially constructed to benefit men by ensuring womens dependence on them.Rich also introduced the lesbian continuum, a concept suggesting that womens relationships with other womenwhether friendships or romantic connectionsare often more fulfilling than those with men. This continuum challenges the idea that womens primary emotional and sexual bonds should be with men. She wrote: Women have married because it was necessary, in order to survive [] We may faithfully or ambivalently have obeyed the institution, but our feelings and our sensuality have not been tamed or contained within it. Related Lesbian sues the military after she was told to wear makeup & grow long hair Tech. Sgt. Kristin Kingreys bosses told her to grow long hair so often she carried military regulations with her to prove at all times that she could have short hair. Why is it important to understand comphet?Understanding comphet helps us recognize the pressures queer, trans, and non-binary individuals face in conforming to heteronormative expectations. It sheds light on how societal norms can suppress true sexual and romantic desires, forcing individuals to adopt the safety of straight privilege to avoid discrimination.Comphet affects how women or other FLINTA* individuals connect to their femininity and to others like them, both platonically and romantically. By framing womens existence through a patriarchal lens, comphet prevents queer individuals from embracing their true identities, leading to internalized homophobia and a sense of being othered. | Shutterstock The evolution of compulsory heterosexualityRichs introduction of compulsory heterosexuality in 1980 marked a significant shift in feminist and queer theory. She argued that the patriarchal system enforces heterosexuality as the norm, erasing lesbian identities and experiences. Richs concept of the lesbian continuum suggests that womens relationships with other women are more fulfilling and empowering than those with men.In recent years, the understanding of comphet has evolved. Angeli Luizs viral Am I A Lesbian? Masterdoc (published on Tumblr in 2018) brought contemporary relevance to Richs ideas. Luizs work serves as a guide for divorcing learned, performative straightness from ones true identity, making comphet more inclusive of various gender identities and sexual orientations. Signs of compulsory heterosexualityExperiencing comphet can look different for everyone, depending on their gender identity and sexual orientation. Some common signs include:Feeling pressured to find an opposite-gender partner to prove your heterosexuality.Seeking opposite-gender relationships to meet societal norms rather than genuine desire.Avoiding experiences or interests due to fear of judgment.Suppressing sexual questioning due to feelings of shame.Struggling to envision same-gender relationships due to internalized homophobia.Comphet can significantly impact LGBTQ+ individuals, leading to poor self-esteem and a sense of abnormality. Media and societal standards that uphold heterosexual models often leave LGBTQ+ individuals feeling isolated and fearful for their safety. This fear can prevent them from coming out and force them to conform to heterosexual norms. | Shutterstock How to overcome compulsory heterosexualityOvercoming comphet is a challenging but essential process for self-acceptance and identity discovery. Here are some ways to work through it:Self-reflection: Engage in practices like meditation, yoga, journaling, and daily reflection to evaluate whether your actions align with comphet standards or your true desires.Education: Read books, articles, and journals about comphet to gain a deeper understanding of the concept and how it affects you.Support systems: Seek support from family, friends, and romantic partners. Connecting with loved ones can provide a powerful support system.Therapy: Speaking with a therapist or counselor can offer an objective perspective and help identify underlying concerns contributing to distress.Support groups: Joining a support group or online community can help you connect with others who have similar experiences.New environments: Exploring LGBTQ+ spaces can normalize queer interactions and help you feel more comfortable with your identity.If compulsory heterosexuality significantly impacts your mental health and daily life, it may be time to seek professional support. Symptoms like anxiety, depression, poor eating or sleeping habits, moodiness, and social difficulties can indicate the need for professional help. Related How lesbianism was turned into a problem, a century ago Men worried that lesbian relationships in school would lead women to reject men all their lives. Dont Deny Your TruthUnderstanding heterosexuality as a political institution meant to disempower queer individuals can feel overwhelming. However, continually questioning and checking in with yourself can help you navigate these societal pressures and make authentic choices.Lesbian author and advice columnistAnna Pulleysaid it best: If you keep (gently) questioning, keep checking in with yourself and your feelings, and keep assessing whether the company you keep or throw out of bed deserves your time and energy and respect, then youre not being compulsory about your choices, regardless of how heteronormative our society is and remains.By recognizing and addressing comphet, you can pave the way for a more genuine and fulfilling understanding of your sexuality and relationships. Embrace your truth and seek the support you need to live authentically.Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter to get the latest news and updates on LGBTQ+ communities all around the world.

A group of 15 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit last Friday, suing the current presidential administration for using unlawful executive orders to pressure state medical providers to end gender-affirming care for transgender youth, even though the states statutes and anti-discrimination laws protect the care.The plaintiffs say the presidents actions violate the Constitutions 10th Amendment, separating state and federal powers, and seek to eliminate medically necessary care for transgender adolescents, and thus should be declared unlawful and vacated in their entirety. Related Hospitals are ending their trans youth programs at an accelerating rate In the past two weeks alone, at least six major medical institutions have ended gender-affirming care for young people. The lawsuit accuses the administration of intimidating gender-affirming healthcare providers into ending care under threats of civil and criminal prosecution under laws unconnected to the legal provision of such care. The threats to providers licenses, livelihoods, and liberty have cowed hospitals, clinics, universities, and individual providers into ending the care.After taking office, the president issued executive orders banning gender-affirming care (or as he dishonestly calls it, chemical or surgical mutilation) for all people ages 19 and younger and ending all federal recognition and support of transgender identities altogether. The orders direct federal agencies to withhold funds from states and institutions that provide the care, and instruct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute organizations and individuals that offer the care. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Both Executive Orders use inaccurate, cruel, demeaning, and inflammatory language designed to deter and interfere with the provision and regulation of medical care, the lawsuit states. These threats [against medical providers] have no basis in law. No federal law prohibits, much less criminalizes, the provision or receipt of gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents. In fact, federal healthcare programs have reimbursed the provision of such care for years.On April 22, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum that refers to gender-affirming care as a type of fraud and exploitation without providing proof that either is happening, the lawsuit states. Her memo directs U.S. attorneys to prosecute providing such care under federal laws prohibiting female genital mutilation, the distribution of harmful drugs, and the filing of false medical claims (even though gender-affirming care is explicitly covered by law via Medicare). These laws have never been interpreted or enforced to prevent gender-affirming care, and this novel legal interpretation departs from longstanding practice, the lawsuit states. On July 9, the DOJ issued over 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics providing gender-affirming care, but didnt point out any evidence of actual crimes, the lawsuit states. The subpoenas demand[ed] that providers produce to the federal government a significant amount of private, confidential, and [federally]-protected patient information, the lawsuit states.In her memo, Bondi wrote, Every day, we hear more harrowing stories about children who will suffer for the rest of their lives because of the unconscionable ideology behind gender-affirming care. Under my leadership, the Department of Justice will bring these practices to an end.Said another way, the lawsuit notes, [the] DOJ under Bondis leadership will bring an end to lifesaving medical treatment for transgender and intersex adolescents. Many of the suing states have shield laws to protect patients and providers seeking such care from out-of-state prosecution, as well as anti-discrimination laws guaranteeing access to such care to everyone, including those in state custody. Furthermore, the states suing have additional laws overseeing the lisensure and discipline of medical providers, a power generally delegated to state oversight rather than federal oversight.The lawsuit also notes that in the states affected by the executive orders, people over the age of 18 are legal adults who have legal authority to make medical decisions for themselves. Furthermore, most major medical associations support gender-affirming care for trans youth, the lawsuit adds, and making trans people wait until age 19 to receive gender-affirming care can cause significant psychological harm by forcing them to undergo a puberty whose physiological changes dont correspond to their gender.These actions [of the presidential administration] are causing chaos, confusion, and fear among medical care providers and stoking anxiety and dread among transgender and intersex adolescents and their families, guardians, and caregivers, the lawsuit states. These actions have been decried by the mainstream medical community, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has lamented the insertion of politics into the examination room, interfering with the provider-patient relationship. Patients who have experienced gender dysphoria for over six months undergo comprehensive assessments by experts that include mental health screenings and discussions of transitionings long-term impact, the lawsuit notes. Patients are then given an individual care plan that often starts with social transitioning (encouraging the patient to express their gender in public environments). Patients may eventually be prescribed puberty blockers to avoid irreversible pubertal changes, though any surgeries are exceptionally rare for patients under the age of 18.The states include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) also joined the lawsuit.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

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Collective Shout, an organization for anyone concerned about the increasing pornification of culture, based its claim that Steam and Itch.io host hundreds of rape and incest games on user-generated tags, and the organizations that co-signed Collective Shout's open letter to payment processors did not respond to 404 Medias questions about whether they tried to verify its accusations against the game platforms before signing on their support.Collective Shout's July 11 letter urged Paypal, Visa, Mastercard, Japan Credit Bureau, Paysafe, and Discover to "cease processing payments on gaming platforms which host rape, incest and child sexual abuse-themed games."Only July 15, Steam, a digital storefront for PC games operated by Valve, updated its guidelines to ban certain kinds of adult content, blaming restrictions from payment processors and financial institutions. And on July 23, Itch.io, a massively popular indie game store, delisted every game marked NSFW so that those games will no longer be indexed in search results or appear on main pages, but re-indexed free adult NSFW content on Friday. We are still in ongoing discussions with payment processors and will be re-introducing paid content slowly to ensure we can confidently support the widest range of creators in the long term, the sites founder Leaf Corcoran said in an announcement.Itch.io also blamed pressure from payment processorswhich in turn have been pressured by a campaign spearheaded by Collective Shout, a grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls, according to its site.Most of the content found within the games, including the graphics and the developers descriptions, are too distressing for us to make public, the letter says. A Collective Shout team member has conducted extensive research using a Steam account set up for this purpose. She has documented content including violent sexual torture of women, and children including incest related abuse involving family members.New Rape and Incest Game Tests the Limits of Steams Sex PolicyNo Mercy is shocking people who are not familiar with Steams adult game ecosystem, but its mostly just shovelware.404 MediaEmanuel MaibergI asked Collective Shout if it would show me the research, name any of the 500 games they found other than No Mercy, or disclose what that research entailed. We found almost 500 other games tagged with rape or incest on Steam. Some of these included extreme sexual torture and abuse of women, Caitlin Roper, campaigns manager at Collective Shout, told me in an email. "Given Steam had not responded at any point, we wrote an open letter to payment processors asking them to stop processing payments on gaming platforms which host rape, incest and child sexual abuse themed games. This letter was signed by leaders in the field, including academics, advocates and experts on violence against women and children." Roper did not disclose any specifics about the group's research.I asked Roper if the Collective Shout team played any of those tagged games to check the context of the content, and did not receive a response. Steam tags, however, are assigned by players, not developers. Theyre frequently trolled, with users assigning inappropriate tags to games with unrelated content. Keywords and tags have never been a useful metric for distilling nuance. Collective Shout is repeating history: In the early days of the internet, a researcher successfully fomented one of the first mainstream internet porn panics by claiming that bulletin boards were full of extreme sexual material that children could access.In 1995, a Carnegie Mellon engineering student, Marty Rimm, claimed that he surveyed 917,410 sexually explicit pictures, descriptions, short stories, and film clips from across the internet. More rigorous researchers and online freedom of speech advocates at the time tore his research and the subsequent salacious Time magazine article about it apart.They found that Rimm didnt examine most of Usenet or the internet at large, but was looking primarily at adult-oriented bulletin boards, which were often behind a paywall (an adult would have to call a board administrator and give them their credit card number, in many cases) or otherwise difficult for children to access. Further, of the 917,410 files, all text and audio files were deleted from analysis, and only a very small number of images were actually examined, technologist and academic J. Metz wrote in a paper examining the Rimm report in 1996. The actual number of descriptions of images retained for the content analysis on which the studys conclusions are based was 292,114. Rimm found only nine websites (out of the more than 11,000 sites on the Word Wide Web at the time) that could be classified as R or X-rated, Metz noted. Attorney and longtime internet rights activist Mike Godwin, who was one of the many researchers who analyzed the Rimm report, told me that Rimm was likely only looking at text descriptions of images from adult BBS files without looking at their content, and assumed that those descriptions were accurate. But people often trolled the descriptions of files in bulletin boards or cracked jokes in themin much the same way Steam tags are trolled by users.Time ran the most salacious possible angle of the poorly conducted report (the author of that story has since said he regrets it), and religiously affiliated groups that already wanted to stop porn from becoming mainstream on the internet took hold of it. Senator Chuck Grassley brought the July 3, 1995 Time issue to the senate floor for a hearing about the Communications Decency Act, which would amend the Telecommunications Act and hold internet service providers, including BBS owners, liable for any content transmitted that could be interpreted as "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent."The Time July 3, 1995 'Cyberporn' story spread. Accessible in full at the Internet ArchiveThe Christian Coalition, a conservative grassroots political organization founded by Pat Robertson, also jumped on the report and used it to lobby for internet restrictions based on it. The Religious Right is only a few weeks away from final victory in its effort to shut American citizens out of the Internet as a medium for uncensored communication, technologist Howard Rheingold wrote at the time. Discourse on the Net will be restricted to that which is judged suitable for young children in strict households.As journalist Ana Valens first reported in her investigations into the Collective Shout campaign (and the groups claim that its open letter sent to payment processors successfully convinced them to pressure the platforms into changing their policies for adult games), several co-signatories of the letter are anti-porn groups that have pushed for broader legislation against the adult industry. (Valens articles on this topic were removed by Vice after publication.)Haley McNamara, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Programs at the National Center for Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) signed the letter. NCOSE, formerly known as Morality in Media, has long pressured payment processors to remove support from adult content creators. The organization has also lobbied in favor of age verification laws that have spread to more than 30 states in the U.S., which experts say are not only invasive of everyones privacy but are ineffective at best, and only exacerbate problems of piracy, nonconsensual abuse material, and exploitation.I asked NCOSE whether they directly viewed the content Collective Shout mentioned in its letteror if theyd looked at the organizations research themselvesbefore signing it. Collective Shout collected and analyzed the materials and can best speak to everything they found, a spokesperson said.Helen Taylor, Vice President of Impact at Exodus Cry, also signed the letter. Exodus Cry is an organization that aims to end the commercial sex industry. In September 2020, Exodus Cry helped a campaign called TraffickingHub gather two million signatures on a petition to shut down Pornhub. Were calling for Pornhub to be shut down and its executives held accountable for these crimes, the petition saidrhetoric echoed by extremist online groups that then called for the sentencing and execution of adult industry executives. Exodus Crys goal is to support laws that end the sex industry, as they write on their website. We are asking political powers to enact and enforce laws that will eradicate exploitation in the sex industry and eliminate sex trafficking. This is absolutely necessary to restore and preserve freedom and justice in society.Exodus Cry did not respond to requests for comment.Even if and when the tags are accurate, rape and incest themes in media, whether its literature, visual arts, personal memoirs, or games (which are often a combination of these things, especially from indie developers) can represent a range of themes thats impossible to define. Talking about ones own sexual abuse is not the same as glorifying sexual abuse, but relying on keywords and tags creates that false equivalency, and seems to be what Collective Shout relied on for its pressure campaign.Meanwhile, game makers and consumers are caught in this warpath.Many trans and queer folks either lived off of or supplemented their income with their earnings on Itch, Boarlord, an indie game developer who makes choose-your-own-adventure games that she describes as deeply furry, deeply trans, deeply filthy, told me days before Itch re-indexed those games. If these restrictions remain, it means the blanket end of so many livelihoods. This sinks us deeper into economic precarity and our cultures, into obscurity or oblivion, dealers choice.I asked Boarlord if she thinks tags are a reliable way to understand whats in a game. Absolutely not, she said. I think theres something truly profane about flattening an experienceart, entertainment, porn, whateverto a handful of keywords. All of us live in a world dictated by an apparatus of punishment and surveillance. Because of this apparatus, whatever convenience tagging offers is immediately undermined by its ability to surveil and round us up. We have to dismantle the apparatus first, otherwise well always end up here.Ted Litchfield, a journalist at PC Gamer, noted that the nearly 500 other rape and incest games figure Collective Shout cites in its own timeline of the campaign doesnt make sense, and the only way to arrive at it would be to count duplicates, DLCs, and unrelated games removed in that time. Counting up all Removed and Retired games on SteamDB since the 15th, I got 456 hits, but that includes double counts for most of the offending games (many of which were both Removed and Retired), DLC and demos for those games (also given the double-r treatment), and a number of unrelated games that were taken off Steam during this time, Litchfield wrote.No one platform nor marketplace should be responsible for so much media. Weve concentrated too much of our culture to a handful of platforms like Patreon, Steam, and even Itch, though the latter, in my opinion, is less concerned with monopolization, Boardlord said. That makes them strategic targets for bad faith pressure campaigns. And in the case of Itch, theyre so small and lacking in resources theres no leverage against the likes of Stripe, Visa, MasterCard. Sex workers have run our throats hoarse screaming about this: With the power to demonetize platforms that so many queer and trans people rely on to survive, payment processors effectively dictate our culture now. Visa, MasterCard, Stripe, Paypal, they decide who lives and dies.Visa, Mastercard and PayPal did not respond to my request for comment on the open letter or about whether they reviewed the contents of the games. Mastercard published a statement on August 1: "Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations. Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content."

Democrats continue to obsess about why they lost the 2024 election, despite the obvious (a superannuated president who stepped down at the last minute and a country unhappy about the effects of inflation). In classic fashion, party leaders are looking for a scapegoat for their poor performance, and many of them think theyve found it: transgender rights. I think [the trans athlete question is] an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. Its deeply unfair, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a would-be presidential candidate, told anti-LGBTQ+ activist Charlie Kirk last March. Rahm Emmanuel, a former Obama aide and Chicago mayor, recently told right-wing broadcaster Megyn Kelly that a man cant become a woman. The Democratic critics say trans rights issues are, in the words of Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), pandering to the far left. Related Democrats think Epstein is their ticket to taking down Trump. They need more than that to win. It shows how out-of-touch they are that they believe that a MAGA-led conspiracy theory is going to be their ticket out of the political wilderness. Not all party leaders agree. Pete Buttigieg says that politicians shouldnt be involved in decisions about trans athletes, least of all politicians in Washington trying to use this as a political pawn. But Buttigieg seems to be in the minority. The party seems haunted by a huge Trump ad buy in the last week of the campaign that criticized candidate Kamala Harris with an implicitly transphobic tagline: Kamalas for they/them. President Trump is for you. Democrats scrambling to find a way back from the political wilderness have convinced themselves that the issue is a distillation of all of their problems with identity politics. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today The message is: Stop with the identity politics, Rep.Greg Landsman (D-OH) told Politico. To the far left and the far right, stop with identity politics.Good luck stopping the right wing, which has made feasting on racial, sexual, and religious grievances its reason for being. (Indeed, its interesting to note that no one in the media talks about evangelical Christians as identity politics but instead as a party base.)So just how much impact did trans rights have on the 2024 campaign? The answer seems to be, not much. Even The New York Times, which has come under fierce criticism for its coverage of trans issues, acknowledged as much in reporting last month on the Democrats handwringing: Although there is no evidence that transgender rights was a top issue for most voters in 2024, Democratic strategists believe that these attacks did have an impact. In other words, the party has no evidence, but thats what some folks want to believe. When attacked, Democrats immediately go on the defensive. Theyre inclination is to grant that the other side has some merit, and to give some ground in response. Or simply fold altogether and try to absorb the blows. What Democrats arent good at is fighting back, as the partys anemic response to Trumps assaults on democracy has proven.All the Democrats who are complaining about trans rights are doing is lending credibility to the administrations arguments. Rahm Emmanuels remarks can be used as justification for expelling trans service members. Talking about LGBTQ+ rights as far left is exactly the rhetoric that the right employs. For example, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military was part of a Marxist agenda.Also missing from the criticism of the over focus on trans rights is any sense of what Buttigieg says is a critical component for dealing with the issue: compassion. Instead, the critics seem intent on throwing trans people, especially trans kids, overboard as rapidly as possible without the least concern about what the impact might be on them. The real problem for Democrats is that by getting so wrapped up in trans rights, they are avoiding the real issue. A lot of voters see the party as elitist. They do not think that Democrats understand them or the pressures that they are under. You can cringe at the idea that anyone would think that Donald Trump would be the one who does, but he sold himself that way, and people chose to believe him.Thats in large part because Trump portrays himself as a populist (with an authoritarian bent). He has set himself up as the champion against a corrupt system that empowers the elite at the expense of the common people. Given his own behavior, this is laughable, but its what people are hungry for.And its what Democrats havent given voters. Instead, they are caught in a mindless debate about an issue that they shouldnt shrink from. Its not that hard to blast Republicans for wanting to get between a child and a doctor. Its not hard to attack the administration for its attack on patriotic service members or its cruel passport policy. If anything, its a sign of just how spineless the Democrats are that only 82 House members signed a letter complaining about the passport policy. At the same time, Democrats need to be hammering Trump on all the things that make him a populist icon. And heres the thing: we need to tell people your cost of eggs, your health care being denied, your homeowners insurance, your lack of getting warning on tornadoes coming has nothing to do with someones gender, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) has said. Walz said that backing away from support on trans issues was a mistake.The Democrats need to rely on principles more than polls. For a lot of people including a lot of Democrats the party only seems to stand for collecting money and perpetuating a system where only the top tier thrives. The political landscape is undergoing a dramatic change. Democrats need to stop using trans people as scapegoats for the partys problems and figure out how to adjust to a new political reality.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

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