Sweden’s parliament passes a law to make it easier for young people to legally change their gender

https://apnews.com/article/sweden-vote-legal-gender-law-minimum-age-9cfb3c6879ae03c3187f520eed308377

One of the anti-trans haters go to things is that the European countries are reversing themselves on pro-trans beliefs. It is all selective misinformation and ideologically driven attempts to deny the progress in medical science / understanding over nearly 50 years. Their goal is to roll society back to when the LGBTQ+ had no representation nor equality. It is entirely to create the idea that trans kids / people and their best medical practice is wrong and shouldn’t be. But this article again shows they are incorrect. Just so those who are denying the progressive trend for trans rights in the European countries, a quote is below. Hugs. Scottie

Elias Fjellander, chairman of the organization’s youth branch, said it would make life better for its members. “Going forward, we are pushing to strengthen gender-affirming care, to introduce a third legal gender and to ban conversion attempts,” Fjellander said in a statement.

Last Friday, German lawmakers approved similar legislation, making it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official records directly at registry offices.

A view of the Swedish Parliament as lawmakers vote on the new gender identity law, in Stockholm, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The Swedish parliament passed a law Wednesday lowering the age required for people to legally change their gender from 18 to 16. Young people under 18 will still need approval from a guardian, a doctor, and the National Board of Health and Welfare. The government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has been split on the issue.(Jessica Gow/TT News Agency via AP)

BY JAN M. OLSEN

Updated 12:17 PM EDT, April 17, 2024

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Swedish parliament passed a law Wednesday lowering the age required for people to legally change their gender from 18 to 16. Those under 18 still need approval from a guardian, a doctor and the National Board of Health and Welfare.

No longer required is a gender dysphoria diagnosis, defined by medical professionals as psychological distress experienced by those whose gender expression does not match their gender identity.

Sweden joins a number of countries with similar laws including Denmark, Norway, Finland and Spain.

The vote in Sweden passed 234-94 with 21 lawmakers absent, following a debate that lasted for nearly six hours.

Sweden Democrats, the populist party with far-right roots that supports the government in parliament but is not part of the government, opposed the law.

Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, told reporters it was “deplorable that a proposal that clearly lacks the support of the population is so lightly voted through.”

But Johan Hultberg with the Moderates of Sweden’s conservative prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, called the outcome “gratifying.” Hultberg called it “a cautious but important reform for a vulnerable group. I’m glad we’re done with it.”

Kristersson’s center-right coalition had been split on the issue, with the Moderates and the Liberals largely supporting the law while the small Christian Democrats were against it.

Peter Sidlund Ponkala, chairman of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights, known by its Swedish acronym RFSL, called the law’s passage “a step in the right direction” and “a recognition for everyone who has been waiting for decades for a new law.”

Elias Fjellander, chairman of the organization’s youth branch, said it would make life better for its members. “Going forward, we are pushing to strengthen gender-affirming care, to introduce a third legal gender and to ban conversion attempts,” Fjellander said in a statement.

Last Friday, German lawmakers approved similar legislation, making it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official records directly at registry offices.

In the U.K., the Scottish parliament in 2022 passed a bill allowing people aged 16 or older to change their gender designation on identity documents by self-declaration. It was vetoed by the British government, a decision that Scotland’s highest civil court upheld in December. The legislation set Scotland apart from the rest of the U.K., where the minimum age is 18 and a medical diagnosis is required.

Alabama just got a step closer to jailing librarians who provide LGBTQ+ books

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/04/alabama-just-got-a-step-closer-to-jailing-librarians-who-provide-lgbtq-books/

The state is pursuing bills banning drag, LGBTQ+ discussions in schools, and criminalizing queer library books.

By Daniel Villarreal Friday, April 26, 2024

Marchers carry a rainbow flag to the Alabama Capital during the 2019 Pride March and RallyPhoto: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser/ via IMAGN

Alabama’s legislature is advancing two censorious anti-LGBTQ bills: H.B. 130 would ban LGBTQ+ flags in classrooms and expand the state’s “Don’t say gay” law to include grades 6-8; H.B. 385 would jail librarians for giving “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent. Both bills were approved in the Alabama House of Representatives this week and now head to the state’s Republican-led upper legislative chamber.

Alabama’s current “Don’t Say Gay” law says that K-5 classrooms “shall not engage in classroom discussion or provide classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” H.B. 130 would also remove the section “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” banning LGBTQ+ discussions completely.

The H.B. 130 expansion, which passed the state House on Tuesday, would expand the law to include grades 6-8 and also prohibit “flags symbolizing sexual orientations or gender identities” in all grade school levels.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Mack Butler (R), said the bill is necessary to “purify the schools” of “some indoctrination going on,” ABC News reported.

“[LGBTQ+ discussions and flags are] a component of Marxism where we’re – you know – destroying the family and teaching some of these things. Let it happen somewhere else other than our schools.” Butler said.

The ACLU of Alabama has spoken against the law, saying that it would silence “inclusive” and “essential” discussions among students and teachers in classrooms while violating their First Amendment rights to free speech.

On Thursday, the Alabama House also passed H.B. 385, a bill would expand the state’s definition of “sexual conduct” to include conduct that “knowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd and lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent.”

The law would place libraries in the same category as “adult-only” stores, movies, and entertainment” in order to criminalize librarians who provide “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent.

The bill would force school and public librarians to remove any books that other people find “obscene” or “harmful” to minors — though the law doesn’t specify who would determine what’s “obscene” or “harmful.” After filing a written objection to the library director or principal, librarians would then have seven days to remove the book from shelves.

Librarians who fail to do so could initially face a misdemeanor criminal charge and a fine of up to $10,000 and a county jail or hard labor sentence of up to one year. If a librarian is convicted of a second or subsequent violation, they could face a class C felony charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison, The Alabama Reflector reported.

State Rep. Neil Rafferty (D) said the law is so broadly written that it could allow a single complaint to result in a warrant being issued for someone who wears an objectionable Halloween costume or sundress.

“I do still have some serious problems with this because I feel like this is a violation of First Amendment, I feel like is easily going to be abused, and we will be dealing with unintended consequences of it,” Rafferty said.

“This bill is government overreach, robs parents of their rights, and would have a chilling effect on free speech by potentially incarcerating librarians because particular books are available, including even the Bible,” wrote Craig Scott, president of the Alabama Library Association.

Both bills are among several copycat laws across the country that seek to block minors from accessing LGBTQ+ content under the belief that such content “sexualizes” and “indoctrinates” children. Sponsors of these bills never note that numerous types of classroom and library materials have depicted heterosexual romance and issues without much parental or political objection.

Russia begins banning books in its war on “gay propaganda”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/05/russia-begins-banning-books-in-its-war-on-gay-propaganda/

Think about the US republicans in congress and the fundamentalist Christians preaching the great values of Russia under Putin’s dictatorship and this is why. These people want what Russia did, a complete ban and outlawing anything / all things LGBTQ+ from society. It is the same thing Islamic theocracies do. The culture warriors in the US, the fundamentalist and the Russian loving republicans want the ability to do this so very much. That is why they want tRump to be a dictator, so they can also do what Russia does, enforce a strict white male society free of any dissent and pushing a straight cis society on the public while the state fully endorses the fundamentalist Christian church. We really need to understand and fear what these people truly want. Hugs. Scottie

————————————————————————————————————

Three novels – including James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room” – have already been banned by a special council.

By Greg OwenSunday, May 5, 2024

Photo: Shutterstock

Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Chekov beware: Putin is coming for the books.

The latest front in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on LGBTQ+ people is purging books with LGBTQ+ content from Russia’s bookshelves and the internet.

RELATED:

“My Little Pony” convention raided by Russian authorities for “LGBT propaganda”

A pony in the show has a rainbow mane, and Russian television speculates that that was enough to inspire the raid.

A new council set up by the Russian Book Union, a nominally independent body representing publishing professionals, has been tasked with conforming the publishing industry to Russia’s trifecta of anti-gay laws and rulings, according to France 24.

The council’s first act was to ban the sale of novels A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham, Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, and Heritage by Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin.

The council decided those works contravened article 6.21 of Russia’s code of administrative offenses, which prohibits “propaganda” advocating “non-traditional sexual relationships.”

Human Rights Watch says the law has been widely used to ban “sharing positive and even neutral information” about LGBTQ+ individuals and organizations.

While the Kremlin did not directly establish the new council, it is stocked with its representatives, including members of the Russian military and Orthodox Church who are reliably subservient to Putin and his authoritarian government.

Putin’s anti-LGBTQ+ campaign began in earnest in 2013 with the passage of the original law banning “gay propaganda” allegedly aimed at children. It was expanded in 2022 to ban any depiction of same-sex relationships in popular media, including advertisements, films, and video games. Last year, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled the so-called “International LGBT movement” is a terrorist organization.

While books were also covered under the propaganda law’s expansion in 2022, the esteem Russians hold for literature and the fraught history of censorship under Soviet rule meant officials were wary of targeting books in the same way as more popular forms of information and entertainment like the internet and television.

The new council’s focus on books is “part of a broader information-warfare crackdown related to the anti-gay-propaganda law”, said Jeff Hawn, a Russia specialist at the London School of Economics.

In Russia, “Literature has always enjoyed a special status because censorship of books was a very important part of the Soviet regime,” Hawn said. “And freedom for writers after the fall of the Soviet Union was enshrined.”

Mass media, however, has been a priority up until this point, according to Stephen Hutchings, a specialist in Russian and Soviet cultural history at the University of Manchester.

“What people see in the news [and the] press is much more significant, in that regard, than what is portrayed in fictional writing,” said Hutchings. “So it’s more pressing to control these platforms.”

But the publishing world has been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In early 2022, an independent Russian journalist published a list on Telegram of 250 books at risk of being withdrawn from sale with adoption of the expanded propaganda law. Authorities at the time described it as alarmist.

All three recently banned novels were on the list.

Almost all of 2023’s most challenged books were LGBTQ+

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/04/almost-all-of-2023s-most-challenged-books-were-lgbtq/

Several were also about people of color.

By Vivian Yin Monday, April 8, 2024

The American Library Association (ALA) has released its top 10 most challenged books of 2023, and seven of them were challenged for containing LGBTQ+ content.

“In looking at the title of the most challenged books from last year, it’s obvious that the pressure groups are targeting books about LGBTQ+ people and people of color,” said ALA President Emily Drabinski in a press release.

The vocal protests of the ALA emphasize the ways in which libraries and their workers have striven to address the needs of their readers with progressive and crucial services.

“At ALA, we are fighting for the freedom to choose what you want to read. Shining a light on the harmful workings of these pressure groups is one of the actions we must take to protect our right to read,” Drabinski said.

The number of titles at risk for censorship increased by 65% in 2023 compared to the year before, the highest ever recorded by ALA.

The 10 most challenged books of 2023 are as follows:

Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe

Reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

Reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson

Reasons: LGBTQ+ content, sex education, claimed to be sexually explicit

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, LGBTQ+ content, rape, drugs, profanity

Flamer by Mike Curato

Reasons: LGBTQ+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Reasons: Rape, incest, claimed to be sexually explicit, EDI content

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQ+ content

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, profanity

Let’s Talk About It by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan

Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, sex education, LGBTQ+ content

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicitly, rape

“These are books that contain the ideas, the opinions, and the voices that censors want to silence — stories by and about LGBTQ+ persons and people of color,” said Deborah Caldwell, director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

“Each challenge, each demand to censor these books is an attack on our freedom to read, our right to live the life we choose, and an attack on libraries as community institutions that reflect the rich diversity of our nation. When we tolerate censorship, we risk losing all of this. During National Library Week, we should all take action to protect and preserve libraries and our rights.”

According to the ALA, most of the challenges prior to 2021 sought to remove access to a single title, whereas more recent challenges – fueled by the so-called parents’ rights movement and anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups like Moms for Liberty – target multiple titles 90% of the time.

“Overwhelmingly, we’re seeing these challenges come from organized censorship groups that target local library board meetings to demand removal of a long list of books they share on social media,” said Caldwell-Stone.

“Their aim is to suppress the voices of those traditionally excluded from our nation’s conversations, such as people in the LGBTQIA+ community or people of color. Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person’s constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore. The choice of what to read must be left to the reader or, in the case of children, to parents. That choice does not belong to self-appointed book police.”

Survey finds that 60 firms are responsible for half of world’s plastic pollution

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/24/survey-finds-that-60-firms-are-responsible-for-half-of-worlds-plastic-pollution

Study confirms Altria, Philip Morris International, Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are worst offenders

Plastic pollution on a Welsh beach. Volunteers collected and surveyed plastic waste across 84 countries over five years. Photograph: Paul Quayle/Alamy

Fewer than 60 multinationals are responsible for more than half of the world’s plastic pollution, with six responsible for a quarter of that, based on the findings of a piece of research published on Wednesday.

The researchers concluded that for every percentage increase in plastic produced, there was an equivalent increase in plastic pollution in the environment.

“Production really is pollution,” says one of the study’s authors, Lisa Erdle, director of science at the non-profit The 5 Gyres Institute.

An international team of volunteers collected and surveyed more than 1,870,000 items of plastic waste across 84 countries over five years: the bulk of the rubbish collected was single-use packaging for food, beverage, and tobacco products.

Less than half of that plastic litter had discernible branding that could be traced back to the company that produced the packaging; the rest could not be accounted for or taken responsibility for.

“This shows very, very, very well the need for transparency and traceability,” says a study author, Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, a plastic pollution researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. “[We need] to know who is producing what, so they can take responsibility, right?”

The branded half of the plastic was the responsibility of just 56 fast-moving consumer goods multinational companies, and a quarter of that was from just six companies.

The two tobacco companies Altria and Philip Morris International combined made up 2% of the branded plastic litter found, both Danone and Nestlé each produced 3% of it, PepsiCo was responsible for 5% of the discarded packaging, and 11% of branded plastic waste could be traced to the Coca-Cola company.

“The industry likes to put the responsibility on the individual,” says the study’s author, Marcus Eriksen, a plastic pollution expert from The 5 Gyres Institute.

“But we’d like to point out that it’s the brands, it’s their choice for the kinds of packaging [they use] and for embracing this throwaway model of delivering their goods. That’s what’s causing the greatest abundance of trash.”

The Guardian approached Altria, Philip Morris International, Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company.

The Coca-Cola Company said: “We care about the impact of every drink we sell and are committed to growing our business in the right way.” It has pledged to make 100% of its packaging recyclable globally by 2025, and to use at least 50% recycled material in packaging by 2030.

Nestlé said it has reduced its virgin plastic usage by 14.9% in the last five years, and supports schemes around the world to develop waste collection and recycling schemes.

“Since launching our voluntary commitments to address plastic waste five years ago, we have significantly outperformed the market at large in reducing virgin plastic and increasing recyclability, according to the most recent report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation,” it said.

The company also supports the creation of a global legally binding regulation on plastic pollution which is being negotiated this week.

Danone said: “We continue to strive to reduce our own plastic footprint – between 2018-2023 we reduced our plastic use by 8% equivalent to 62 000 tons and increased the recyclability of our packaging (84% of our packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable). We continue to support and push for improved collection and recycling infrastructures to help consumers recycle.” They also support “an ambitious and binding … UN Global Plastic Treaty which would represent a major opportunity to unlock and accelerate progress on plastics circularity.”

Both PMI and Altria contest the accuracy of the data collected.

Plastic in the Depths: how pollution took over our oceans

Read more

However, while many of these companies have taken voluntary measures to improve their impact on plastic pollution, the experts behind the study argue they are not working. Plastic production has doubled since the beginning of 2000 and studies show only 9% of plastic is being recycled.

When the team collected data on self-reported yearly plastic packaging production for each of these multinational companies and compared it with the data from their 1,500-plus litter surveys, their statistical analysis showed that every 1% increase in plastic production was directly correlated with approximately a 1% increase in plastic pollution.

“Actually seeing this one-to-one increase, I was like, wow,” says a study author, Kathy Willis, a marine socio-ecologist from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia.

“Time and time again from our science we see that we really need to be capping how much plastic we are producing.”

However, Kartik Chandran, an environmental engineer at Columbia University, who was not involved in the research, said that while this new data was striking, the observation that 1% plastic production was equal to 1% plastic pollution was “a bit unrealistic” and “simplistic”.

He said the data did not consider plastic pollution in China, Korea and Japan, nor take into consideration recycling or clean-up initiatives under way.

A better analysis could be based on the net plastic flows into plastic production – also accounting for credits from the reuse of plastic materials – and the net plastic load ascribed as plastic pollution.

The team behind the study, some of whom are participating in the talks being held in Ottawa this week to discuss a UN Treaty for Plastic Pollution, said their findings emphasised the urgent need for a globally binding treaty focusing on production measures.

The talks will run to Monday, and Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the Ecuadorian ambassador to the UK, told the Guardian earlier this week he was hopeful that countries would come together to secure an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.

“It is very important we are negotiating this treaty now. The world is in a triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. But while there are agreements in place for the first two, we have no legislation, no global agreement on plastic pollution.”

This article was amended on 25 April 2024 to include the tobacco company Altria. In 2003 the Philip Morris Company renamed itself Altria. In 2008 Philip Morris International became a separate entity. However, Philip Morris US is still owned by Altria. It was further amended on 26 April 2024 to add that both PMI and Altria contest the accuracy of the data collected.

Trump Aide Promises Ban on Pornography in 2nd Trump Term

https://www.meidastouch.com/news/trump-aide-promises-ban-on-pornography-in-2nd-trump-term

Why oh why are these people so scared of sex? Did they fail to get any as teenagers? Still failing to get some? Sad. Then somewhere I read it was all about increasing the white baby count while stopping any brown people from coming into the country. See I guess the plan is banning abortion, ban contraception, ban porn to keep males super horny with pent up need … causes early marriage and kids. Doubt it, see Utah. But it gets worse. These guys want to deny women the right to vote and ban divorce making them dependent on men again. Hugs. Scottie

Project 2025 operative John McEntee also supports abolishing the 19th Amendment

Troy Matthews

21 hours ago

Former Trump aide John McEntee promised a ban on pornography was coming in the United States in a recent interview with Daily Wire host Michael Knowles. McEntee had a senior position in the Trump White House and is a key contributor to the infamous Project 2025, a collection of policy proposals

to transition the United States to Christian nationalist authoritarianism in the first 180 days of Trump’s second term.

“You bring up the elephant in the room,” McEntee told Knowles, “which is a stain on not only society but the entire dating culture as well, which is pornography. Whenever America bans that, which will be happening at some point, everyone will be much better off.”

The Project 2025 plan specifically lists a ban on pornography stating, “[Pornography] is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.”

“The minute that goes away, this country will flourish,” McEntee told Knowles.

McEntee was Donald Trump’s former personal aide but was fired from the White House over a gambling debt issue that prevented him access to a security clearance. Trump hired McEntee back in 2020 and made him director of the White House Personnel Office.

In that role, McEntee was instrumental in drawing up the policy proposal for Trump’s immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan right after Biden won the 2020 election in order to throw the early days of Biden’s term into chaos. McEntee’s plan was not implemented, and Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan in August of 2021.

After leaving the White House, McEntee received seed money from billionaire tech investor, and Trump supporter, Peter Thiel to create a dating app for conservatives called “The Right Stuff.” McEntee subsequently gained a large following on social media promoting the dating app with short videos reciting pithy MAGA talking points while out at restaurants.

In the interview with Knowles, McEntee, now the CEO of a dating app, also said he was “rethinking the 19th Amendment,” which gave women the right to vote, after being shown a TikTok video about feminism.

THE GUARDIAN: Israel says it took control of Gazan side of Rafah crossing, a key aid gateway

Israel says it took control of Gazan side of Rafah crossing, a key aid gateway
Gaza border authority confirms presence of Israel’s tanks at crossing, sole gateway between Egypt and Gaza for humanitarian aid

Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/AtiBAbJ6mQfS6sS3EIU8kIA

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

CBS NEWS: Israeli tanks roll in, take control of Gaza side of Rafah border crossing

Israeli tanks roll in, take control of Gaza side of Rafah border crossing
An Israeli tank unit has rolled in to take “operational control” of the Gaza side of the crucial Rafah border crossing amid talks for a truce.

Read in CBS News: https://apple.news/Ag318uuuASPugHywoWNBqjA

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie