The floodgates have been opened, and because the right won’t restrain their fundamentalist wing, they are pushing their hardest to enact their most extreme religious dictates. They not only believe this is a winning issue when it has been shown it is not at voting time, but they feel now is the time to push their god on to the public by law. Think of what the fundamentalist Christians believe in and worship. Now ask yourself if they will stop at just getting rid of trans and gay people? They have already shown they will get rid of the rights of pregnant people and those that can become pregnant, to control their bodies, they have shown they will make women themselves a lower class of person in the US, returning women’s rights to where they were in the 1950s. Women will be totally subservient to their fathers or their husbands. Those who are ambivalent on the rights of the LGBTQIA need to understand those are only the first targets because they are the smallest and easiest to pick off. Then they come for the rest of societies progressive equality advancements. By the way I just read that in one state they filed a bill to outlaw transitioning and instead mandate care for trans or gay kids including adults be conversion therapy to return kids to the normal natural state of straight and cis. I will post that tomorrow. Hugs. Scottie
State Rep. Beth Lear also compared gender dysphoria to delusions of being an animal, proposing a child might want to “explore being a bird” by jumping off a five-story building.
AJ McDougall
Breaking News Reporter
Maddie McGarvey/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Ohio Republican behind a bill that would bantransgenderstudents from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity quoted scripture in justifying the legislation on Wednesday, deploying a verse suggesting that her opponents should be drowned in the sea.
State Rep. Beth Lear whipped out the reference to Luke 17:2 while answering questions on House Bill 183 at a morning committee hearing. Facing Lear, State Rep. Joseph Miller, the ranking member of the House Higher Education Committee, asked her how she could “jive” her bill with “the teachings that you proclaim.”
“In Luke 17, Jesus says that if you cause one of these little ones of mine to stumble, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and be thrown into the deepest sea,” Lear replied. “So—there are also concerns that Jesus has for children. And in Genesis, he tells us that he created the male and female.”
OH State Rep. Beth Lear (R) uses scripture to justify a discriminatory bathroom bill:
“In Luke 17, Jesus says that if you cause one of these little ones of mine to stumble, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and be thrown into the deepest sea.” pic.twitter.com/jkm6ozaBbq
Lear has previously invoked the Bible in explaining her reasons for sponsoring the proposal, which she introduced alongside State Rep. Adam Bird (R) and more than a dozen other Ohio Republicans last May. At an October hearing on the matter, according to The Buckeye Flame, Lear recited Genesis 1:27, saying, “In our country, since the Puritans and Pilgrims first arrived and until recently, we believed ‘God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’”
Nor did Wednesday mark the first time the Ohio lawmaker has used violent imagery to justify the measure. At that same October hearing, Lear shared a disturbing anecdote about a young girl who had been gang-raped by an athletic team. An adult in the child’s life, Lear claimed without further elaboration, had then “encouraged” her to transition to male. The Republican refused to answer questions about the alleged incident from Cleveland.com at the time, citing the need to protect the victim’s privacy.
The Wednesday committee hearing served as a means for Lear and Bird to unveil a new version of the bill more closely aligned with the language of another measure targeting transgender minors. That proposal, House Bill 68, prohibits transgender children from receiving gender-affirming medical care and prevents transgender girls from competing on sports teams that align with their identity. On Wednesday, it was pushed through by the Ohio House, which voted 65-28 to override a gubernatorial veto on it.
Rep Weinstein: "Recently at CPAC, a speaker said that trans people should be eradicated from the earth. What do you think?"
Sponsor: "I do not believe anyone should be wiped out. But the science is clear, there are only 2 genders. Children cannot change what they are." pic.twitter.com/ft4Ky6BbjR
Later in the hearing, Lear compared gender dysphoria to delusions of being an animal, a debunked scarecrow argument that hardline conservatives began to utilize in school policy debates several years ago. “If I had a child who thought he was a bird, am I going to take him to a doctor who tells him the best thing to do is to let him explore being a bird?” the Ohioan asked. “And oh, by the way, there’s a five-story building next door—why don’t you jump off and see if you can fly?”
Miller, a Democrat, pointed out the bill’s inherently discriminatory nature in the hearing. “This is eerily reminiscent of discussions in the ’50s about how white women feared Black people in the same restaurant, the same bathroom,” he said, according to journalist Erin Reed. “It’s eerily similar to the racist policies that were had in the south.”
House Bill 183 has not yet left committee, and it is unclear when it might be brought to the floor for a vote. House Bill 68, no longer vetoed, now goes to the Ohio Senate, which will vote on it on Jan. 24.
They do in fact believe that Jesus was always there, with his father God, and that it was Jesus who did the creating. As evidence, they will point to the language “let us make man in our image” — not realizing that it’s probably the “royal we” employed by the translators. Believe me, I’ve heard this crap my entire life, being raised in a fundamentalist family.
It’s not a royal we. Judiasm was quite polytheistic before it was forced to become monotheistic. And Judiasm didn’t have anything resembling a trinity. That was invented by Christians.
While there is considerable evidence of polytheism in early Caanan, there are multiple examples of ‘majestic plurals’ in Hebrew that have a plural noun form yet govern singular verbs. ‘Behemoth’ is one such.
Maybe Jesus was talking about hateful POS Bigots causing his children to stumble. We have plenty of actual proof of that. Maybe we should drown her sorry ass instead.
That dead skunk on her head is a sin too. Against anyone with eyes. Clearly she has no gay friend’s.
I find it incredibly ironic (not to mention hypocritical) that Phyllis Schlafly — who made herself famous by traveling to different places across the country during the 70s and 80s telling women they should stay home(!!) — actually ran for Congress unsuccessfully not just once but twice in 1952 and 1970. Also, guess which one of her parents was the primary breadwinner when she was growing up during the Great Depression? Not her dad — her mom.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th 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 Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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