The housing crisis in the United States has reached a tipping point. And instead of helping unhoused people and fixing a broken system, cities and governments are turning to draconian measures to criminalize homelessness and make the lived environment more hostile to homeless people through hostile architecture. This isn’t the solution.
Why do the republicans hate young people on social media? Because it exposes them to ideas that are now banned in Florida schools. It is about information control, it is about indoctrination to a conservative mindset / ideology. Think of it, even though the republicans managed to remove all reading material from schools about LGBTQIA people so LGBTQIA kids won’t see themselves represented and other students won’t see that the LGBTQIA kids are as normal as they are, young people can still see it on social media where the stars they love tell them that it is OK to be different. Plus social media clearly shows how wrong and backwards the Republican Party is, and how out of touch a minority the fundamentalist Christians are. Then you have the times that social media influences older teens to vote progressive / democrat, not regressive conservative like the state wants them to do. Social media also makes republicans and maga look as stupid as they are, mocking them, and showing young people out of touch with the modern times the fundamentalist Christian republicans are. Hugs. Scottie
Language for a new social media bill with provisions for parental consent has been filed in the Senate. The move came after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed an all-out ban on those under 16 using most social media platforms.
Sen. Erin Grall, a Fort Pierce Republican, filed an amendment with new language negotiated with the House, Senate and Governor’s Office. The legislation includes exemptions for 14- and 15-year-olds to open accounts on any platform so long as they have a parent’s permission.
“A social media platform shall prohibit a minor who is 14 or 15 years of age from entering into a contract with a social media platform to become an account holder, unless the minor’s parent or guardian provides consent for the minor to become an account holder,” the amendment states.
Read the full article. The bill vetoed yesterday by DeSantis would have banned all minors under age 16 from having a social media account.
New social media ban proposal would allow parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds
The FL legislature somehow thinks kids 16 and under are mature enough to have children when raped or molested but somehow not mature enough to use social media.
FL ledge DESPERATLY needs to find a way to keep queer kids from seeing positive messaging about themselves. They have seen the stats that 25% of Gen Z identify as something other than straight/cis. They are freaking out that Gen Alpha (yeah I had to look that one up but don’t you dare OK Boomer me) is going to follow the same curve. I for one welcome the rest of our rainbow plenty of bisexuals out there and now they are not afraid to be counted.
This is 100% the reason they want to stop young people from using the internet. I don’t remember seeing my first rainbow flag until I was 18. Up until that point, I thought there was something wrong with me. And as a result, I was politically neutral, and not fiercely anti-conservative at the time.
Keeping kids from life -saving support groups online when they are living in Hell. They want gay and trans kids to kill themselves. That’s what I take from this tripe.
They seem to think 11 year olds know nothing about the internet. Facebook has long had an age requirement, and I’ve known children as young as 11 who have had accounts. The kids figure it out quickly.
Perhaps it’s just another way to quickly create a whole new juvenile criminal class. I wonder what the consequences are, and if the parents will be held responsible for their little criminals.
I was just thinking about that. Is the 16-year-old cutoff meant to protect them from teenagers’ wrath? There won’t be any current 16-year-olds voting in 2024.
Children have long memories when it comes to blocking them from interaction with their peers whose parents have given permission to have social media accounts. Denied an account, they would be relegated to a lower social order in their school and school community.
Isn’t this a decision best left between parent and child? Does it really need legislation? Perhaps a law mandating making one’s bed before school should happen?
What is it with Republicans trying to pass the same shit over and over again recently? 15 times to elect a Speaker. Two tries to impeach Secretary Mayorkis. Do it right the first time… or don’t do it at all.
Many thanks to Ten Bears for this. I had copied the video address and put it in my cue for watching in its turn this morning. Wow, and I am glad I did, I only wish I had pushed it to the front. I just got done watching it and I know as I was doing something I missed stuff. It is not really long but packed with information. Especially the Stephen Fry parts for me. The video is 11 minutes. I think you will get a lot out of it. Hugs. Scottie
Michael has written a great post on the new postal system under the destroyer himself, Louis DeJoy. We must never forget that tRump put the man in the job to destroy the postal system even though the constitution requires it, so it could be taken over by private business for profit. In the US profit is king, and all must serve the king. Hugs. Scottie
This is from corporate mainstream media. Let’s hope it ends the myth the anti-trans haters have been pushing, which has long been debunked. Maybe now they will stop spreading lies and learn that they have been wrong, stop hating trans people, and accept them. Oh well, I know, some people just can not accept change and new information / understanding. For those wanting to watch the video and better see the graph please go to the link. Best wishes. Hugs. Scottie
Most people are satisfied with life after transition. More than 9 in 10 respondents were at least a little more satisfied with their life after transitioning.
The National Center for Transgender Equality released early insights from its 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest survey of trans people in U.S. history.
A survey of more than 90,000 transgender people in the U.S. — the largest nationwide survey of the community ever — found that trans people continue to experience workplace and medical discrimination. However, the overwhelming majority of them still report more life satisfaction after having transitioned.
The National Center for Transgender Equality, or NCTE, one of the country’s largest trans rights organizations, released its 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey Early Insights report Wednesday after a yearslong delay due, in part, to the pandemic. The survey, the most comprehensive look to date at life for transgender people in the U.S., comes as hundreds of bills in the last three years have attempted to roll back trans rights, most often by restricting trans people’s access to transition-related health care and trans students’ abilities to play school sports.
“There’s still a drought of information available to lawmakers, the media and advocates regarding our experiences and our needs,” NCTE Executive Director Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen said at a news conference Tuesday. “At best, we’re working in a vacuum of information. At worst, we’re combating dangerous misinformation being spread by anti-trans extremists. Without question, the misinformation and lack of understanding is underpinning these escalating legislative attacks against our community.”
A woman attends a rally in support of trans youth in schools on June 26, 2023, outside the Fayette County Public Schools central office in Lexington, Ky.Ryan C. Hermens / Lexington Herald-Leader via Getty Images file
The organization’s 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey had been the largest survey of trans people in the country, with nearly 28,000 respondents 18 and older, and it has been widely cited, including by Congress and the Supreme Court. Josie Caballero, the director of the survey, said the 2022 iteration more than tripled the number of respondents — with a total of 92,329 from every state and many U.S. territories — and was improved in a number of other ways. For example, it included 605 possible questions (though no respondent received all possible questions), up from 324 in the 2015 survey, and it included more than 8,000 respondents who were 16 and 17. However, study authors note that respondents who participated in the online survey were not drawn from a random sample and that though the sample is large, the findings might not be representative of all trans people.
Of the 84,170 adult respondents, 38% identified as nonbinary, 35% identified as transgender women, 25% identified as transgender men and 2% identified as cross-dressers.
Continued discrimination and mistreatment
Among the key findings released Wednesday, the survey found that trans people continue to report experiencing discrimination and mistreatment because of their gender identities and/or expressions.
More than one-third of adult respondents, or 34%, were experiencing poverty at the time of the survey, and 18% were unemployed. More than 1 in 10, or 11%, of respondents who had ever held jobs said they had been fired or forced to resign or had lost jobs or been laid off because of their gender identities or expressions. And, in line with previous survey findings, 30% of respondents had experienced homelessness in their lifetimes.
Of adult respondents who saw health care providers in the previous 12 months, 48% reported having had at least one negative experience because they were transgender, including being refused health care, having staff members use the incorrect pronouns for them or having providers use abusive language or be physically rough or abusive while treating them. Fear of mistreatment prevented 24% of respondents from seeing doctors when they needed it in the 12 months before the survey.
Many respondents also reported past mistreatment in school. Of adult respondents, 80% who were out or perceived as trans in K-12 experienced one or more forms of mistreatment, including verbal harassment, physical attacks, online bullying or being denied use of the restrooms or locker rooms that matched their gender identities. Of the 8,159 respondents who were 16 and 17, 60% reported such mistreatment.
Higher life satisfaction after transition
Despite those negative experiences, the vast majority of adult respondents, 79%, who lived at least some of the time in different genders from the ones they were assigned at birth reported that they were “a lot more satisfied” with their lives. An additional 15% reported they were “a little more satisfied.”
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Please see the chart at the link above. The written version I have included below.
Most people are satisfied with life after transition
More than 9 in 10 respondents were at least a little more satisfied with their life after transitioning.
This bar chart shows how respondents who had transitioned genders described their satisfaction with life after transitioning. 79% were a lot more satisfied, 15% a little more, 3% neither more or less, 1% a little less and 2% a lot less satisfied.
A lot more satisfied. 79%
A little more satisfied. 15%
Neither more or less satisfied. 3%
A little less satisfied. 1%
A lot less satisfied. 2%
Respondents who received transition-related medical care reported similarly high rates of satisfaction. Of respondents who were currently receiving hormone treatment, 84% said receiving such treatment for their gender identities/transitions made them “a lot more satisfied” with their lives, and 14% said it made them “a little more satisfied.” Just 1% said hormone treatment made them neither more nor less satisfied, and less than 1% said hormone treatment made them a lot less satisfied.
Of respondents who underwent at least one form of gender-affirming surgery, 88% said it made them “a lot more satisfied,” and 9% said it made them a little more satisfied. Less than 2% total said surgery made them a little less or a lot less satisfied.
“That might seem obvious to some of us that of course if you’re transgender and you need transition-related health care, of course your life is better off when you get that health care,” Heng-Lehtinen said Tuesday. “But it’s really important to have actually asked people and found out objectively what is their experience, because transition-related health care is otherwise so under attack in state legislatures around the country.”
Effects of anti-trans legislation
In the last three years, 23 states have restricted gender-affirming health care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries — for minors and, in a few cases, adults, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Half of states have banned trans student-athletes from playing school sports on the teams that align with their gender identities rather than their assigned sexes at birth, while 10 states have passed laws restricting what bathrooms trans people can use in schools, colleges and/or government-owned buildings.
Nearly half of respondents to the latest U.S. Transgender Survey said they had thought about moving to other states because their state governments considered or passed such laws that target transgender people, and 5% — about 4,600 people — said they had actually moved to other states because of such legislation.
The top 10 states where trans respondents most often reported moving from were, in alphabetical order, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The state of trans rights across the country does not necessarily reflect what trans people are experiencing at home with their families. Of adult respondents, 67% reported that their immediate families were either supportive or very supportive, while 22% reported they were neither supportive nor unsupportive and 12% reported they were either unsupportive or very unsupportive.
Of 16- and 17-year-old respondents, 44% reported that their families were either supportive or very supportive, while 28% reported that they were neither supportive nor unsupportive and 29% reported they were unsupportive or very unsupportive.
“It’s important to see that many trans people do have supportive families, since we often hear and see otherwise,” Sandy James, one of the report’s authors, said at Tuesday’s news conference.
Heng-Lehtinen said the new data will revolutionize the field of transgender advocacy.
“I am confident that the results of the 2022 survey will not only serve as a crucial tool for education, research and policy, but it will catalyze a paradigm shift for the movement for transgender advocacy by empowering advocates with robust and current data regarding our needs and experiences,” he said.
Trump and the GOP have been manipulating voters for decades. They use this through a number of fear tactics that ignite supporters’ reptilian brains and cause them to vote in irrational ways because they’ve been told Trump is their savior and the answer to the danger they’re facing.
Ex-librarian sues Texas county, alleges she was fired for refusing to remove books
The librarian says the books often were about race and LGBTQ topics.
Scottie's Playtime 