The facts don’t matter to republicans if it interferes with their hate and bigotry. If saving lives and protecting kids was really what the republicans wanted to do they wouldn’t be passing bills that can increase suicide and make depression worse. See they claim to be protecting kids but then when told this will harm trans kids and make them targets they claim they are protecting adult teachers to follow their own beliefs. Yet we don’t let teachers follow their personal beliefs in other areas of schooling so why are pronouns different matter? What is so hard or harmful about being respectful to someone even if they are young. We call kids by their nick names if they wish it, why is calling them a name they prefer an issue? Because the republicans want to force everyone to march in lock step to their restricted view of what people should be and do. Tradition they claim, it has always been this way and it shouldn’t ever change. Because it was that way when they were in charge and felt comfortable with the world, so it must always be done that way. This is what it comes down to: ““Your vote ‘yes’ on this bill means one of two things: Either you believe that trans children do not exist, or you believe that trans children do not deserve to exist,” Berg said.” These people don’t beleive trans kids deserve to exist, they also don’t believe gay kids should be allowed to exist nor anyone one who doesn’t fit the heterosexual traditional mode. Next will be those other religions that they will try to get rid of as they don’t believe they should exist either, jsut good old traditional Christianity. Scare times when in 25 states the republicans are just using the idea they don’t like change from the past to outlaw groups of people, even though science says they are born the way they feel both in sexual orientation and gender identity. If science stands in the way just get rid of the science, right? Hugs
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Democratic Sen. Karen Berg urged her GOP colleagues not to pass a measure that would allow teachers to misgender students.
This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by phone at 988, or online at https://988lifeline.org/
You can also contact the Trevor Project, which provides free, confidential counselors who specialize in helping LGBTQ youth.
Despite impassioned pleas from a grieving fellow lawmaker, the Kentucky Senate passed a bill that would codify the right of school staff to misgender trans and nonbinary students.
Dubbed a “parents’ rights” measure by its sponsor Republican Sen. Max Wise, the bill also requires schools to give families two weeks notice before any lesson on human sexuality. In addition, it would also allow parents to inspect the curriculum and withdraw their child from the lesson — rights that already exist under state and federal law. Finally, the measure requires schools to give parents specific notifications about any mental health or physical health services that touch on human sexuality, contraception and family planning.
Wise said the pronouns provision protects teachers’ First Amendment rights.
“The terms ‘he’ and ‘she’ communicate fixed facts about a person, and teachers should not be forced to violate their consciences regarding what they know to be true or not true,” Wise said on the Senate floor.
Sen. Karen Berg, a Democrat, rose quickly to oppose the measure.
“Your vote ‘yes’ on this bill means one of two things: Either you believe that trans children do not exist, or you believe that trans children do not deserve to exist,” Berg said.
Berg pointedto researchthat LGBTQ advocates and medical experts have provided to lawmakers, showing that misgendering trans and nonbinary children is linked to mental health issues like depression, anxiety and suicide.
“I am no longer speaking for my child. You know my child is dead,” Berg said haltingly. “So I am speaking for every mother and father who has held my hand with tears running down their face saying, ‘What do we do?’”
Despite Berg’s pleas, the GOP-led body passed the measure 29-6 in a party-line vote.
Sen. Stephen Meredith, the sole Republican to vote “no” on the measure in committee earlier in the day, was not present for the floor vote.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 33rd year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is scottiesplaytime@gmail.com
View all posts by Scotties Playtime
This is all so sad and maddening. It’s hard to fathom how so many people could have been persuaded that such legislation is wise, needed, or “protective” of these poor kids.
Of course, being The Onion, it’s parody (at least as to The Onion itself,) but they always outdo themselves on their work, and this bit is no exception. https://www.theonion.com/it-is-journalism-s-sacred-duty-to-endanger-the-lives-of-1850126997
“The task of reporting is not a simple one. Each and every day, reporters and editors at publications like The Onion make difficult decisions about which issues should receive attention, knowing that our coverage will influence not only how people think, but also how they act. This responsibility is at the core of an ongoing debate over whether news coverage of transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people is unduly biased. As the world’s leading news publication with a daily readership of 4.3 trillion, The Onion is compelled to weigh in.
“We firmly believe that it is journalism’s sacred duty to endanger the lives of as many trans people as possible.
““Quentin” is a 14-year-old assigned female at birth who now identifies as male against the wishes of his parents. His transition was supported by one of his unmarried teachers, who is not a virgin. He stole his parents’ car and drove to the hospital, where a doctor immediately began performing top surgery on him. Afterward, driving home drunk from the hospital, Quentin became suicidally depressed, and he wonders now, homeless and ridden with gonorrhea, if transitioning was a mistake.
“We just made Quentin up, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean stories like his aren’t potentially happening everywhere, constantly. Good journalism is about finding those stories, even when they don’t exist. It’s about asking the tough questions and ignoring the answers you don’t like, then offering misleading evidence in service of preordained editorial conclusions. In our case, endangering trans people is the lodestar that shapes our coverage. Frankly, if our work isn’t putting trans people further at risk of trauma and violence, we consider it a failure.
“We stand behind our recent obsessed-seeming torrent of articles and essays on trans people, which we believe faithfully depicts their lived experiences as weird and gross. We remain dedicated to finding the angles that best frame the basic rights of the gender-nonconforming as up for debate, and we will use these same angles over and over again in hopes that this repetition makes them suffer. As journalists, it is our obligation to entertain any and all pseudoscience that gives bigotry an intellectual veneer. We must be diligent in laundering our vitriol through the posture of journalistic inquiry, and we must be allowed to fixate on the genitals.
“It is against free speech to stop us from fixating on the genitals.
“Much of the recent debate concerns medical procedures, particularly in children, and whether things like hormone replacement therapy or gender-affirming surgeries are safe and appropriate. Indeed, there are critical questions to be asked about the social complexities of gender, as well as medical ethics in a profit-driven healthcare system. We are simply not interested in any of that. Instead, we will use flawed data and spurious logic to repeatedly write the same hand-wringing arguments asking whether there are suddenly too many trans people around. Journalistic integrity demands nothing less.
“Naturally, courageous reporting like ours has its detractors. Our critics accuse us of transphobia and are trying to murder us online, with their online mobs. They want to destroy our right to free speech and have us arrested by all the police. What gives? Why would you arrest us, when it’s those deviant trans people you ought to be arresting instead? Do you know what the science says about trans people getting arrested, huh? What if we could find data saying trans people should be more likely to get arrested? What will our detractors say then? They’ll be silent, as well they should be, and free speech will survive one more day.
“For more evidence of our time-honored journalistic commitment to endangering lives, please see our previous coverage of gay people, immigrants, Black people, and women.
“Institutions with massive platforms like ours must be open to different ways of endangering the trans community. That might mean using the framework of medical care as a bogeyman to imply that trans people are engaged in something sinister. That might mean turning isolated instances of detransitioning into sweeping generalizations about children being groomed. That might mean identifying the worst prejudices that transgender people face—and encouraging our readers to adopt them.
“Did you forget yet about how we wrote that there might be data showing that trans people should be more likely to get arrested? What if that were true? Or what if non-binary people are ten times more likely to traffic infants? What if puberty blockers are a kind of sex crime? What if doctors are climbing through windows to suture penises to sleeping cheerleaders? The next time you see a trans person, you ought to ask yourself these questions.
“All great journalists, and even those lesser journalists who don’t work for The Onion, eventually ponder why we do what we do. Is the point of reporting to illuminate the world around us, so that we may make meaning of it? Or is it to cause people in minority groups to question their humanity and persuade others to demonize them? We know where we stand, proudly dreaming of genitals.
“Research shows that trans people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be the victim of a violent crime. We salute our colleagues across the media who are working tirelessly to make that number even higher.
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Scottie's Playtime 
This is all so sad and maddening. It’s hard to fathom how so many people could have been persuaded that such legislation is wise, needed, or “protective” of these poor kids.
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Of course, being The Onion, it’s parody (at least as to The Onion itself,) but they always outdo themselves on their work, and this bit is no exception. https://www.theonion.com/it-is-journalism-s-sacred-duty-to-endanger-the-lives-of-1850126997
“The task of reporting is not a simple one. Each and every day, reporters and editors at publications like The Onion make difficult decisions about which issues should receive attention, knowing that our coverage will influence not only how people think, but also how they act. This responsibility is at the core of an ongoing debate over whether news coverage of transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people is unduly biased. As the world’s leading news publication with a daily readership of 4.3 trillion, The Onion is compelled to weigh in.
“We firmly believe that it is journalism’s sacred duty to endanger the lives of as many trans people as possible.
““Quentin” is a 14-year-old assigned female at birth who now identifies as male against the wishes of his parents. His transition was supported by one of his unmarried teachers, who is not a virgin. He stole his parents’ car and drove to the hospital, where a doctor immediately began performing top surgery on him. Afterward, driving home drunk from the hospital, Quentin became suicidally depressed, and he wonders now, homeless and ridden with gonorrhea, if transitioning was a mistake.
“We just made Quentin up, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean stories like his aren’t potentially happening everywhere, constantly. Good journalism is about finding those stories, even when they don’t exist. It’s about asking the tough questions and ignoring the answers you don’t like, then offering misleading evidence in service of preordained editorial conclusions. In our case, endangering trans people is the lodestar that shapes our coverage. Frankly, if our work isn’t putting trans people further at risk of trauma and violence, we consider it a failure.
“We stand behind our recent obsessed-seeming torrent of articles and essays on trans people, which we believe faithfully depicts their lived experiences as weird and gross. We remain dedicated to finding the angles that best frame the basic rights of the gender-nonconforming as up for debate, and we will use these same angles over and over again in hopes that this repetition makes them suffer. As journalists, it is our obligation to entertain any and all pseudoscience that gives bigotry an intellectual veneer. We must be diligent in laundering our vitriol through the posture of journalistic inquiry, and we must be allowed to fixate on the genitals.
“It is against free speech to stop us from fixating on the genitals.
“Much of the recent debate concerns medical procedures, particularly in children, and whether things like hormone replacement therapy or gender-affirming surgeries are safe and appropriate. Indeed, there are critical questions to be asked about the social complexities of gender, as well as medical ethics in a profit-driven healthcare system. We are simply not interested in any of that. Instead, we will use flawed data and spurious logic to repeatedly write the same hand-wringing arguments asking whether there are suddenly too many trans people around. Journalistic integrity demands nothing less.
“Naturally, courageous reporting like ours has its detractors. Our critics accuse us of transphobia and are trying to murder us online, with their online mobs. They want to destroy our right to free speech and have us arrested by all the police. What gives? Why would you arrest us, when it’s those deviant trans people you ought to be arresting instead? Do you know what the science says about trans people getting arrested, huh? What if we could find data saying trans people should be more likely to get arrested? What will our detractors say then? They’ll be silent, as well they should be, and free speech will survive one more day.
“For more evidence of our time-honored journalistic commitment to endangering lives, please see our previous coverage of gay people, immigrants, Black people, and women.
“Institutions with massive platforms like ours must be open to different ways of endangering the trans community. That might mean using the framework of medical care as a bogeyman to imply that trans people are engaged in something sinister. That might mean turning isolated instances of detransitioning into sweeping generalizations about children being groomed. That might mean identifying the worst prejudices that transgender people face—and encouraging our readers to adopt them.
“Did you forget yet about how we wrote that there might be data showing that trans people should be more likely to get arrested? What if that were true? Or what if non-binary people are ten times more likely to traffic infants? What if puberty blockers are a kind of sex crime? What if doctors are climbing through windows to suture penises to sleeping cheerleaders? The next time you see a trans person, you ought to ask yourself these questions.
“All great journalists, and even those lesser journalists who don’t work for The Onion, eventually ponder why we do what we do. Is the point of reporting to illuminate the world around us, so that we may make meaning of it? Or is it to cause people in minority groups to question their humanity and persuade others to demonize them? We know where we stand, proudly dreaming of genitals.
“Research shows that trans people are over four times more likely than cisgender people to be the victim of a violent crime. We salute our colleagues across the media who are working tirelessly to make that number even higher.
“—The Onion Editorial Board”
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Christianity; the same religion that killed people for declaring that the Earth revolves around the sun.
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