The disgraced, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump made a nonsensical and hateful remark about the transgender community during his rally to the thunderous applause of this followers. Dash Dobrofsky reacts.
Florida textbooks may no longer teach “social justice,” according to new state guidance, part of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ongoing attack on pluralistic democracy.
The guidance, which was recently updated but is undated, states that “social justice” is now one of the topics that are prohibited in state-approved textbooks for K-12 social studies classes. According to Politico, which reported on the new criteria, textbook publishers have until June 10 to submit social studies proposals. The DeSantis administration recently rejected math textbooks for including “impermissible” topics—a warning shot to publishers that the state will make political hay by rejecting textbooks with even a hint at the fact that America is not a perfectly fair, racism-free country.
Social justice generally refers to the movement for equality in American society and against unfair treatment and unequal opportunities, and is often associated with movements against racism, sexism, and anti-LBGTQ rights. Clearly, Florida Republicans want to keep such movements out of Florida classrooms. The new rules do not actually define social justice but merely include three prohibited ideas:
Potential Social Justice components include:
Seeking to eliminate undeserved disadvantages for selected groups.
Undeserved disadvantages are from mere chance of birth and are factors beyond anyone’s control, thereby landing different groups in different conditions.
Equality of treatment under the law is not a sufficient condition to achieve justice.
Under this definition of social justice, Florida textbooks cannot actually explain or acknowledge that some people in society receive better treatment and advantages than others. Because the guidance leaves the scope of social justice open-ended, publishers will likely go beyond this definition in order to meet the state’s new criteria.
The guidance also bans inclusion of critical race theory, social and emotional learning, and “any other unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination”—using a broad approach to suppress any attempt to acknowledge the ongoing presence of discrimination.
The list of topics included under the CRT prohibition makes clear that Florida classrooms must not acknowledge that there is any lasting effect from slavery, Jim Crow, or other forms of oppression in American life. Complying textbooks would have to convey that any pesky problems like racism and segregation have been solved. In this way, the textbooks will reflect the restrictions placed on teachers by the “Stop WOKE Act,” which DeSantis signed last month. That law restricts how teachers, college professors, and employee trainings discuss race, oppression, and the country’s founding, with language that’s identical to that of the textbook restrictions.
If the “Stop WOKE Act,” which is being challenged in court, stands, alongside the textbook restrictions, then Florida classrooms will present a distorted image of American history and society today, one where everyone has an equal shot at success and the vestiges of oppression have fallen away. When the students step out into the Florida sunshine, however, they will still live in today’s America, one made even more oppressive and authoritarian by their own schools.
The post-COVID conditions span heart, lung, kidney, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neurological, and mental health conditions. Overall, COVID survivors had nearly twice the risk of developing respiratory and lung conditions, including pulmonary embolisms, compared with uninfected controls. The most common post-COVID conditions were respiratory conditions and musculoskeletal pain.
Among COVID survivors, people ages 18 to 64 were more likely than older survivors to develop cardiac dysrhythmia and musculoskeletal pain. The risks for survivors 65 and up were greater for kidney failure, blood clots, cerebrovascular disease, muscle disorders, neurological conditions, and mental health conditions.
In the older age group, “post-COVID conditions affecting the nervous system are of particular concern because these conditions can lead to early entry into supportive services or investment of additional resources into care,” the authors wrote. And for the 18-to-64 age group, post-COVID conditions could particularly “affect a patient’s ability to contribute to the workforce and might have economic consequences for survivors and their dependents.”
With more than 83 million cases of COVID-19 reported in the US—and the actual number of infections likely significantly higher—the findings mean that millions could develop long-term symptoms, requiring additional care and resources. ” Therefore, implementation of COVID-19 prevention strategies, as well as routine assessment for post-COVID conditions among persons who survive COVID-19, is critical to reducing the incidence and impact of post-COVID conditions, particularly among adults aged ≥65 years,” the authors conclude.
Study design
For the study, the authors mined electronic health records from a national, de-identified database containing information on 63.4 million adult patients from all 50 states. CDC researchers identified 353,164 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 2020 and November 2021. They then matched each COVID-19 patient in a ratio of one to five with 1,640,776 control patients who had visited a health care facility during the same month as the COVID-19 patients’ diagnosis but weren’t diagnosed in the study’s time frame. All of the survivors and controls were monitored for at least a month and up to a year.
Patients who had a history of any of the 26 conditions previously linked to COVID-19 were excluded from the study.
Overall, 38.2 percent of COVID-19 survivors developed a post-COVID condition, compared with 16 percent of uninfected controls. In the 18 to 64 age group, 35.4 percent of survivors developed a post-COVID condition, compared with 14.6 percent of controls. In the 65 and up group, 45.4 percent of survivors developed a post-COVID condition, compared with 18.5 percent of controls.
The absolute risk difference between the percentage of COVID survivors and controls who developed a post-COVID condition was 20.8 percentage points for those between 18 and 64, and 26.9 percentage points for those 65 and up. Based on those calculations, the CDC estimates that one in five adults from 18 to 64 and one in four adults aged 65 and up developed at least one post-COVID condition.
The study has several limitations, including only tapping into electronic health records from one software source, creating the possibility that the results are not generalizable to the entire US. It also did not account for different SARS-CoV-2 variants and some demographic details, such as geographic location. And because it is based on electronic health records, it may be biased toward those who more readily seek care.
Still, the authors note their findings are “consistent with those from several large studies that indicated that post-COVID incident conditions occur in 20-30 percent of patients,” they write. And overall, they conclude, “these findings can increase awareness for post-COVID conditions and improve post-acute care and management of patients after illness.”
This is the world the right wing wants to turn the country back to. A time when LGBTQ+ could not only be blackmailed but lose everything just because they are gay. Yes this was a school connected to a church but they knew he was gay, yet when he was the victim of a crime they turned on him. This is what Alito wants, a world where Christain white cis males are undisputedly in charge, women are subservient to them doing whatever pleases men, blacks know their place and stay there, and the LGBTQ+ are not seen or heard because they are terrified someone will find out who they are. I hate it. Hugs
His school already knew that he was gay. They just didn’t want students to find out.
A gay music teacher in Iowa was forced to resign from his high school after a blackmailer threatened him.
Matthew Gerhold began working at Valley Lutheran High School in Cedar Valley, Iowa last year. Although he told school officials that he was gay before he was hired, they later compelled him to resign or face termination after he was blackmailed.
Gerhold’s phone was hacked in January 2022 and the hacker blackmailed him by threatening to share private information about his sexuality publicly. Gerhold alerted the school about the hack and the blackmail, then resigned from his position at the high school after being told he would be fired following a school board meeting anyway, according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
Just after he reported the attempted blackmail, photos from his phone were posted to the school’s Facebook page. He was called to an administrator’s office and put on leave.
Gerhold had initially been told he could not disclose his sexuality or even date while employed by the school.
He said that he believes the school and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod view homosexuality as a problem and a choice, not an “involuntary attraction to one sex or another.”
“My sexual identity has absolutely nothing to do with my career in music and my love for music,” he said. “If the church as a whole doesn’t want to use me for whatever they are striving to achieve, then I shall go somewhere else that would love to have me to live out my vocation for others.”
After his resignation, he applied for and was granted unemployment benefits.
The school appealed that decision and a hearing was held on May 2 in front of Administrative Law Judge Blair Bennett, who ruled that Gerhold had a right to unemployment benefits as he had not violated in any way the conditions of his employment, nor had he been accused of workplace misconduct.
The “argument breaks down to [Gerhold] being told he would no longer have a job because of the actions of a third party, not controlled by [Gerhold], completely outside of work,” Bennett ruled.
An alt-right conspiracy theory is baselessly positing that the Uvalde Elementary school mass murderer was a trans woman. One of the main targets of the conspiracy has now spoken out about the effect this has had on her life.
The conspiracy seems to have originated on 4Chan, where users shared photos of various trans women, claiming that these were images of the shooter. One screenshot of a 4Chan discord server suggested this was intentional, with some users apparently plotting to “psyop” people into believing the shooter was trans.
The conspiracy gained further traction when it was spread by high-profile right-wing figures. Arizona Representative Paul Gosar claimed the shooter was “a transsexual leftist illegal alien” in a now-deleted tweet, resulting in calls for his resignation. Candace Owens, in a tweet that has not been deleted at the time of this writing, also repeated the claim to her 3.1 million followers.
Alex Jones’s show Infowars also reportedly alleged the shooter was trans. Although they appear to have ceased spreading the claim, they still found a way to blame the shooting on the general dissolution of the traditional family.
In the wake of the conspiracy surrounding the Uvalde shooting, user Apprehensive_Ad_995 took to reddit to combat the misinformation. She shared a current photo of herself (very much alive whereas the real shooter is dead), saying, “It’s not me, I don’t even live in Texas.”
Apprehensive_Ad_995 has since identified herself as Sam, an artist, in a new interview with inews. Speaking on the sudden stress the conspiracy has caused her, Sam said, “I am being harassed and accused of murder with no evidence. And all I’ve done was live my life.”
At the same time, she acknowledged that her struggle pales in comparison to what the victims of the tragedy are going through. “I’m more worried about the victims and hope they get the support they deserve,” she said.
While the conspiracy is currently being downplayed, with some right-wing figures like Andy Ngo denouncing the misinformation, it is a symptom of something that has become all too common in the conservative movement. Sam acknowledged this, saying of figures like Gosar, “I’m ashamed that people like that are voted into office. People so concerned about their personal beliefs that they ignore the truth just to hurt innocent people.”
An arsonist who said it’s “wrong” that there are “a bunch of queers in our society” has admitted to setting fire to an LGBTQ+ venue in Washington, United States.
Kalvinn Garcia, 25, pleaded guilty on Thursday (26 May) to setting fire to Queer/Bar in Seattle on 24 February 2020, telling police that “I think it’s wrong that we have a bunch of queers in our society”.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) added that Garcia told a stranger he wanted to trap people inside the venue and injure them after he set it alight.
According to the DOJ: “The blaze scorched the brick exterior and forced the cancelation of events planned at the nightclub over subsequent days.
“The nightclub is across the alley from the Seattle Police East Precinct and the fire attracted immediate attention… Garcia tried to run from officers but was apprehended.”
Garcia now faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 (around £198,000) fine for starting the fire.
“The defendant targeted the patrons inside Queer/Bar, a known safe space for the LGBTQI+ community,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a DOJ press release.
“Hate crimes have no place in our society today and we stand ready to use our federal civil rights laws to hold perpetrators accountable.
“All people deserve to feel safe and secure living in their communities, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
US attorney for the Western District of Washington, Nick Brown, added: “Garcia endangered countless people who he did not know and who were simply trying to live their lives, solely because of his own hatred.
“We must stand up to this hate at every opportunity, to demonstrate to our community that acting on hate will not be tolerated.”
John Lhota, 24, has been arrested and charged with arson after allegedly setting fire to Rash nightclub in Brooklyn on 3 April.
Jake Sillen, who co-owns Rash with Claire Bendiner, told Pink News: “There were a few people inside, but luckily it was early enough in the night that the party hadn’t started and there wasn’t a huge crowd.”
Montana has legally erased trans people by banning birth certificate changes in the latest attack against the community.
The western US state ignored a court order that blocked the GOP-controlled legislature from restricting even further the rights of trans people.
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services said in an emergency order Monday (23 May) that birth certificates will now solely list “sex” and no longer record a person’s “gender”.
Even if a trans Montanan has undergone gender-affirming surgery, they will legally be unable to change the sex marker on their birth certificate. This is, the order says, because sex is “immutable” while gender is a “social concept”.
“Sex is different from gender and is an immutable genetic fact, which is not changeable, even by surgery,” the order by department director Adam Meier says.
“Accordingly, this emergency rule does not authorize the amendment of the sex-identified/cited on a birth certificate based on gender transition, gender identity or change of gender.”
The only instance in which a sex marker can be changed on a birth certificate is if it was incorrectly listed when issued or if a person’s sex was “misidentified” at birth, Meier adds. The order went into effect immediately.
Montana ‘makes it even harder for trans people to live’ with birth certificate ban
The directive means that trans Montanans may struggle to access certain services, such as social security, or apply for other identification documents, such as passports or driver’s licenses, because of their inaccurate birth certificates.
The agency’s move goes in the face of a Billings district court judge who in April blocked Senate Bill 280, a 2021 law requiring a “surgical procedure” and a court order to change the sex listed on a birth certificate.
It was swiftly signed into law by Republican governor Greg Gianforte. He has previously signed laws banning trans athletes and allowing religion to be used to “attack” LGBTQ+ people.
Two trans Montanans sued the state in response last year, arguing the bill violated their state constitutional rights to privacy and equal protection. Not all trans folk undergo surgery either, they added.
Judge Michael Moses ruled that the bill does interfere with a person’s right to privacy by making trans people disclose private details.
Montana Republican governor Greg Gianforte signed the anti-trans bill in 2021. (William Campbell-Corbis via Getty Images)
“Only transgender individuals are subjected to these procedures and burdens in order to have a birth certificate that accurately reflects their gender,” he wrote in his decision.
But Moses’ order left the department without a “regulatory mechanism” to process birth certificate changes, the order claimed. A 2017 policy that allowed trans applicants to update their birth certificates without surgery or through the courts had been binned because of the bill.
Emergency orders can only be issued when a situation poses “an existing imminent peril to the public health, safety, or welfare that cannot be averted or remedied by any other administrative act”, the Montana Administrative Procedure Act says.
Democratic lawmakers, health experts and LGBTQ+ campaigners, unconvinced that the order was at all needed, condemned the department.
“While this rule is intended to make the lives of our transgender neighbors harder, it impacts all of us by eroding the rights that let us live our lives free from government overreach,” House minority leader Kim Abbott and Senate minority leader Jill Cohenour said in a Tuesday statement.
“As someone who cares for transgender patients, I don’t understand why our state government is spending so much time, energy and money trying to prevent them from having accurate documentation,” Lauren Wilson, vice president of the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Montana Press.
“This rule is unfairly singling them out and making it even harder for them to live a public life in Montana.”
ACLU of Montana decried the health department for so openly rebelling against the court.
“The State is willfully refusing to comply, and in doing so is showing their true colours – these laws and regulations are about harming transgender Montanans,” a Tuesday statement said.
Photo: Shutterstock
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