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
I went to whitehouse.gov, after not seeing it for a while. Biden’s site reflected a government for ALL the American people. Trump’s is like a fracking political campaign site, full of lies! After he WON the election!
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday night that repeals a provision allowing transgender troops to serve in the military, part of a wide-ranging effort to end Biden-era policies his first day in office.
Trump issued a ban during his first administration that prevented transgender troops from serving, which former President Joe Biden eliminated. While Trump did not institute a new ban, the repeal of the Biden-era executive order clears the way for one.
The Department of Defense, in 2019, estimated that up to 8,000 transgender people served in the military, just before Trump’s first ban took effect.
Read the full article. You may recall that the Log Cabin Quislings appeared here in August 2024 when they claimed that Trump never banned trans troops during his first term. After Trump’s 2017 decree, the decision to allow already serving trans military personnel to remain only came after Trump lost four successive court cases.
“Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values. Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is.
“This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans.
“We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration’s overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail.” – ACLU executive director Anthony D. Romero.
Activists with the Abolitionist Action Committee attend a rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on July 2, 2024 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
‘Ghoulish’: Trump Expands Federal Death Penalty
The Republican president “articulated his plan to drastically increase executions, and we all know this is one promise he can’t wait to keep,” said one death penalty abolitionist.
Delivering on a promise to “vigorously pursue the death penalty,” U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday night signed an executive order that reverses his predecessor’s moratorium on federal capital punishment and calls for expanding it.
The widely expected order—one of several issued on Inauguration Day—was swiftly criticized on factual and moral grounds.
Attorney and death penalty expert Robert Dunham pointed out that the order “starts with a demonstrable falsehood (‘Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes’), signaling that the administration intends not to allow the facts to affect its policy decisions.”
“In fact, the death penalty does not contribute anything to public safety,” said Dunham, citing a study by the Death Penalty Policy Project, which he directs. “As for ‘deterring the most heinous crimes,’ see my analysis of the worst of the worst mass shootings in the United States.”
“It is essential, with the importance and deadly consequences of this policy, that media coverage report the truth and not just the rhetoric,” he stressed. “The executive order is grounded in a false, dark fantasy about deterrence and has nothing to do with making the public safer.”
Declaring that “the death penalty is unjust and cruel,” the ACLU warned that Trump’s order not only directs an expansion of its use at the federal level but also encourages states to do the same.
Specifically, the order says that “in addition to pursuing the death penalty where possible,” the attorney general shall seek it “regardless of other factors” for federal cases involving the murder of a law enforcement officer or a capital crime committed by an undocumented immigrant—and shall “encourage state attorneys general and district attorneys to bring state capital charges for all capital crimes with special attention to” those circumstances, “regardless of whether the federal trial results in a capital sentence.”
The order further directs the head of the U.S. Department of Justice to “seek the overruling of Supreme Court precedents that limit the authority of state and federal governments to impose” the death penalty and “ensure that each state that allows capital punishment has a sufficient supply of drugs needed to carry out lethal injection.”
Last week, outgoing U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “withdrew the Justice Department’s protocol for federal executions that allowed for single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital, after a government review raised concerns about the potential for ‘unnecessary pain and suffering,'” The Associated Pressreported. “The protocol could be imposed by Trump’s new acting Attorney General James McHenry III, or his pick to lead the Justice Department, Pam Bondi, once she’s confirmed by the Senate.”
Though Trump’s order doesn’t name Garland, it explicitly takes aim at former President Joe Biden for his moratorium as well as his attempt to prevent another GOP killing spree like the one that occurred at the end of the Republican’s first term, accusing the Democrat of commuting the sentences of “37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport.”
Biden said last month that “in good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” He left Charleston church gunman Dylann Roof, Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers, and Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on death row. The others now face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Trump cannot reverse Biden’s commutations, but he directed the attorney general to “evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement for each” of those 37 men and “take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose.”
The president also said that the attorney general “shall further evaluate whether these offenders can be charged with state capital crimes and shall recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities.”
Death Penalty Action executive director Abraham Bonowitz said in a Monday statement:
President Trump’s executive order demanding capital charges for the murder of law enforcement officers or capital crimes by illegal aliens is unnecessary bluster, because the death penalty already exists for such crimes. But Trump can’t help himself. Donald Trump’s Agenda2025 articulated his plan to drastically increase executions, and we all know this is one promise he can’t wait to keep.
We are also dismayed at President Biden’s cynical compromise that commuted 37 federal death sentences while leaving seven prisoners on federal and military death rows. While expressing both his personal opposition to the death penalty and his desire to maintain the moratorium on executions he imposed in 2021, Biden has nevertheless primed the pump for Donald Trump to resume his execution spree.
Social media users also slammed Trump’s order, with one saying that “this is extremely disturbing” and another calling it “one of the most ghoulish things I’ve ever fucking read.” Many critics highlighted that the president issued the measure while pardoning over 1,500 insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, which led to the deaths of multiple police officers.
James Goodwin, policy director at the Center for Progressive Reform, noted that it “is straight out of Project 2025,” the sweeping Heritage Foundation-led playbook from which Trump unsuccessfully tried to distance himself during the campaign.
Trump has a long history of supporting capital punishment. As journalist Prem Thakker put it, “On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the man who bought [a] full-page [newspaper] ad calling for the execution of the Central Park Five—five Black and Latino teens wrongfully convicted of rape—makes one of his first acts as president to restore and prioritize the death penalty.”
This study is grand. If you read it you will see it debunks the trans haters talking points of lower bone minerals and the complete shown to be false Cass report.
The guidelines also directly push back against claims in the U.K. Cass Review that puberty blockers affect cognition, revealing that they have “no negative effect” on any measures of intelligence or academic success.
The guidelines even provide a definitive rebuke to the claim that puberty blockers cause lower bone mineral density (BMD) by saying, “Trans youth have an average BMD before the onset of puberty that is lower than that of the general population, regardless of treatment. This is probably related to the consequences of dysphoria: less physical activity, eating disorders, and/or poor dietary balance.” After taking the hormones that align with their gender identity, the guidelines’ authors note that trans patients’ BMD is “comparable to that of the experienced gender.”
The guidelines strongly oppose a beloved tactic among anti-trans activists, dubbed the “wait-and-see” approach, wherein medical providers render no care to see if the patient still desires transitional care — the approach has been likened to conversion therapy. The approach, also known as “gender exploratory therapy,” is swiftly criticized by the guideline’s authors who state that it “does not reduce psychological distress.” Instead, it “increases the risk of committing suicide and can affect psycho-affective and cognitive development.”
Medical professionals in France just came out in strong support of gender-affirming care for transgender minors, according to independent trans journalist Erin Reed.
The French Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology released a set of guidelines that can be considered the first consensus to come out of France for gender-affirming care. The guidelines were thoroughly conducted: Each section of the review is broken up up into separate categories evaluated by smaller groups of study authors who incorporated input from external experts. The final guidelines were also refined by the broader group of authors.
Trans youth in states that enacted anti-trans laws had up to a 72% increase in suicide attempts.
The authors and studies in the report unequivocally support gender-affirming care, backing puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for trans minors. The approach to care they suggest is individualized and evidence-based, promoting the right of trans youth to explore their gender identity and find where they fit in on their own time. By allowing youth to transition early, some elect to skip future surgeries entirely, the study said.
The guidelines strongly oppose a beloved tactic among anti-trans activists, dubbed the “wait-and-see” approach, wherein medical providers render no care to see if the patient still desires transitional care — the approach has been likened to conversion therapy. The approach, also known as “gender exploratory therapy,” is swiftly criticized by the guideline’s authors who state that it “does not reduce psychological distress.” Instead, it “increases the risk of committing suicide and can affect psycho-affective and cognitive development.”
A study published in September shows that anti-trans laws increase the likelihood of suicide by upwards of 72%, suggesting that attempts at implementing these bans on care and advocacy for the “wait-and-see” approach are only harming transgender individuals.
The guidelines even provide a definitive rebuke to the claim that puberty blockers cause lower bone mineral density (BMD) by saying, “Trans youth have an average BMD before the onset of puberty that is lower than that of the general population, regardless of treatment. This is probably related to the consequences of dysphoria: less physical activity, eating disorders, and/or poor dietary balance.” After taking the hormones that align with their gender identity, the guidelines’ authors note that trans patients’ BMD is “comparable to that of the experienced gender.”
The guidelines also directly push back against claims in the U.K. Cass Review that puberty blockers affect cognition, revealing that they have “no negative effect” on any measures of intelligence or academic success.
The French guidelines are especially detailed in that they contain information on how trans youth can alleviate dysphoria as well. They discuss binding techniques, how transfeminine people can tuck, and how to best treat youth in varying stages of their transition.
Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.
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Maga cult members and the fundamentalist Christians (maybe they are the same) are feeling very emboldened. They feel they have the right to erase those they don’t like or agree with. Remember their refrain is to make America great again and take back their country back. Their country, only theirs. No one else matters, no one else should be here if they disagree with them or live differently from the maga Christians. They want a country for only them by only them. We really have to fight this hard. Hugs.
A New Hampshire man is under investigation for possible civil rights violations.
Frank Hobbs Jr. is accused of swiping someone else’s signs supporting gay rights.
New Hampshire authorities say Hobbs was caught on camera stealing signs from a Goffstown intersection.
A woman had lawfully placed signs in support of the LGBTQ community, and when one of them disappeared, she decided to do some detective work.
“She set up a trail camera to monitor the intersection and make sure her signs weren’t taken down,” said Senior Assistant New Hampshire Attorney General Sean Locke.
Sure enough, that camera recorded another theft taking place.
“She was able to capture someone on video coming to the intersection removing the signs and driving away,” said Locke.
It happened last June during Pride Month, and the New Hampshire Department of Justice has now filed a complaint against Hobbs accusing him of civil rights violations.
Local law enforcement said he was easily recognizable because he’s well known in the community.
According to court documents, Hobbs denied knowing anything about the incident, but when informed there were photos, he said he’d been told by people at Town Hall he could remove signs that displayed “pedophile symbols” and that he found the signs offensive.
“These identity-based or bias-based behaviors and unlawful acts create a perception in the community that this may not be a safe place if you’re a person who identifies as LGBTQ+ if these signs are getting torn down,” said Locke.
Hobbs has not returned multiple requests for comment.
He will have a hearing and is facing thousands of dollars in fines depending on what a judge decides.
