I just watched a break-down of this on the Sam Seder’s The Majority Report. The mother was anti-trans to begin with and did not want their child to transition. The article written by a report from an organization created by well known transphobic Bari Weiss, who is a right wing hack who first came to fame trying to get professors who supported Palestinians fired, is complete wrong and filled with anti-trans bias. When the teen the article was based on tried to correct the lies written, the writer Emily Yoffe told them they had no say in it and published the misinformation, including dead naming the teen. Lies, myths, and fringe unscientific conspiracy theories are what these anti-trans haters use to influence the public. The saddest part of this is they are hurting the very people they pretend to be helping, just like crisis pregnancy centers claim to be helping pregnant people while they are really just pushing a right wing ideology to deny others the right to live their lives as they wish, but instead force all others to live by their right wing ideology based in some idea of 1950s social myths of morality. Hugs
The Missouri teen says their mother misrepresented their story in an anti-trans piece published by Bari Weiss’s ‘Free Press.’
A Missouri teen has refuted their mother’s account of being “bullied” into allowing her child to go on puberty blockers.
On Monday, The Free Press, a conservative outlet founded by former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, published a story based on Caroline Miller’s claims that she was pressured by doctors at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital to allow her then-14-year-old child to receive a pharmaceutical implant that would deliver the puberty blocker Supprelin for two years. According to the Free Press piece, Miller and the child’s father were both informed of potential side effects, and after some initial resistance on Miller’s part, both parents signed off on the implant.
Hormone therapy improves mental health for trans youth
Researchers tracked 315 trans and non-binary young people in what is reportedly the largest study in the U.S. to date.
But Miller claims that within months of receiving the implant, her child’s mental health declined, their grades dropped from “all As and Bs to a report card dotted with Ds and Fs,” and they expressed “suicidal thoughts.” Blaming all of this on the puberty blocker, Miller revoked her consent and demanded that the implant be removed. Doctors declined, saying that they needed both parents to sign off on the removal.
In an April 4 tweet, Miller said she was contacted by The Free Press after reaching out to a lawyer. She gave the outlet permission to report on her child’s treatment. The resulting story, by writer Emily Yoffe, identified Miller’s child as “Casey” and misgendered them throughout.
On Tuesday, the now 16-year-old “Casey,” whose real name is Alex, took to Twitter to refute the Free Press story. In a long tweet thread, Alex, who uses they/she pronouns, said that their mother’s account is based on “false perceptions that my mom has about the doctors and clinic.”
Alex says that Miller informed them of the story only after speaking with Yoffe. “When I read the draft I was disgusted with what the reporter and my mom had made my experience out to be,” they wrote.
After speaking with Yoffe, Alex says they were told they had no say in whether the story was published.
Miller claimed that she felt pressured to agree to the puberty blocker implant after doctors implied that Alex was at high risk of suicide if they didn’t receive the treatment. Alex says that while doctors did quote statistics around suicide in transgender adolescents, they never said that Alex was at substantial risk.
They also say that Millers claims about their grades and mental health were exaggerated. “My grades were on a steady decline since 2020 due to unrelated mental health concerns,” they wrote. “The article claims that my mental health issues can be attributed to the Supprelin implant, however, my personal experience shows that this is not the case. Since Covid-19, my mental health has been declining, and it was already an issue.”
Alex also praised their counselor at Washington University Transgender Center, but says that they were denied access to counseling after Miller retroactively objected to the Supprelin implant.
In atweet responding to Alex’s thread, Miller identified herself as Alex’s mother (the Free Press story omitted her last name) and asked that users not “harass my child.” She also defended her decision to speak to The Free Press. “This is actually my story about how I was treated as a parent at this center,” she wrote. “Alex has a story too, but this article wasn’t it. Don’t confuse the two.”
Below I have unrolled the entire twitter thread. Hugs
I have reinstalled Twitter to respond to this story and make sure my voice is fully heard. I am Casey.
My real name is Alex but my mom decided it would be best to hide it for anonymity. But this is my story, not hers. This is not the free press’s story.
Caroline was told that a puberty blocker would relieve her child's psychological distress. That's not what happened.
About a week ago my mom contacted @EmilyYoffe without my knowledge and told her what was supposed to be our story. She expressed her frustration with the transgender clinic at Washington University, many of which are false perceptions that my mom has about the doctors and clinic.
I learned of this article through my mom over the phone when she asked if it was okay that @TheFP published the article. I said that I wanted to read it first. When I read the draft I was disgusted with what the reporter and my mom had made my experience out to be.
Upon interviewing Emily Yoffe myself I was told that I had no say in whether or not the article was published. I asked if my consent was required to publish the article and the reporter told me, “that’s not how these things work.”
After she had edited the article and published it (I had not found this out until 20 hours later) I was extremely frustrated. The article makes it out that my mother had no say in the implant of the Supprelin. This is completely false.
My mother claims that she was pressured into saying yes by the doctors. A big issue they point out is that the doctors quoted suicide statistics in transgender adolescents. I do not deny that these statistics were quoted, but I also sustain that the doctors didn’t say (continued)
(continued) that I was at substantial risk of this.
The article mentions that my grades dropped from A’s and B’s to D’s and F’s in a semester. This is a completely exaggerated statement. My grades were on a steady decline since 2020 due to unrelated mental health concerns.
Speaking of mental health, the article claims that my mental health issues can be attributed to the Supprelin implant, however, my personal experience shows that this is not the case. Since Covid-19, my mental health has been declining, and it was already an issue.
I was in counseling with the Washington University transgender care center in which I was treated amazingly by my counselor. She was a friend to me and offered a great amount of support. This was taken away when my mom revoked consent for the Supprelin.
After she revoked consent, my father and I, along with the university, attempted to set up a meeting with my mom. She did not attend this meeting, claiming that she was not contacted. Later, she admitted that she was.
This post has taken me three days to do. I had all these open tabs that I finially got cleared. I have to even looked at todays news yet. But I think after I post this I will go to bed. Hugs
Trans people deserve better journalism How the anti-trans movement took over legacy media.
“As far as trans health care is concerned, however, the medical consensus is well-established: Nearly a dozen major medical associations, including the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics support and recommend gender-affirmative care.
“Yet the specific arguments about this care that make it into many mainstream media outlets result in stories that undermine the experts, stemming not from legitimate concerns but from a larger orchestrated push by the far right to mainstream transphobia.
“Journalists are failing at more than just reporting on the science. Mainstream publications like the Times increasingly follow the lead of anti-trans agitators, treating what should be understood as a fundamental human rights battle more like a semantic “debate,” fixating on terminology and labels and medical minutiae, instead of humanizing trans and nonbinary people and their experiences. In fact, this has become such a contentious pattern at the Times that this February, contributors and members of the Times’s staff posted an open letter protesting the paper’s escalating bias toward anti-trans talking points and pointing out many of these tactics.
Men have been performing in drag since at least Shakespeare’s time, and probably long before that. But the fact that someone criticizes this as being “sexual” tells us more about the person who claims that than it does about the person performing.
As proven at trial, between September 2016 and November 2016, Mackey conspired with other influential Twitter users and with members of private online groups to use social media platforms, including Twitter, to disseminate fraudulent messages that encouraged supporters of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to “vote” via text message or social media which, in reality, was legally invalid.
For example, on November 1, 2016, in or around the same time that Mackey was sending tweets suggesting the importance of limiting “black turnout,” the defendant tweeted an image depicting an African American woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign. The ad stated: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925,” and “Vote for Hillary and be a part of history.”
The fine print at the bottom of the deceptive image stated: “Must be 18 or older to vote. One vote per person. Must be a legal citizen of the United States. Voting by text not available in Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii. Paid for by Hillary For President 2016.”
Prosecution cross-examined Douglass Mackey and repeatedly showed him his Ricky Vaughn-era statements calling Black people gullible or low IQ.
He called women: “children with the right to vote.”
Dark, nauseating vibes in court.
Tucker Carson has made this man a cause célèbre.
— Michael Edison Hayden (@MichaelEHayden) March 23, 2023
The wide-ranging bill (HB 1069) also seeks to restrict the way teachers and students can use preferred pronouns in schools and bolsters a process for people to object to instructional materials and school-library books.
It also expands school board jurisdiction to classroom libraries. The bill would allow a parent who disagrees with a district’s ruling on a book challenge to appeal the state education commissioner to appoint a special magistrate to hear the dispute.
“This bill has given a ticket for racist, homophobic people — that this chamber does not support – to pull books that matter to our children,” said state Rep. Robin Bartleman (D-Weston).
And in about a month, they’ll expand it yet again to all grades and start looking for ways they can force their anti-LGBTQ pogrom on colleges and universities.
Incredible scene outside the Florida House chamber this afternoon as hundreds of LGBTQ students descend right as the Don’t Say Gay expansion bill passes.
When are we actually going to become a decent country? Think about all the nice things that other industrialized nations have and have had for decades: reasonable gun control, universal health care, paid maternity leave and the like, not to mention democracy that isn’t slipping into outright theocratic fascism.
When do we get to have those things? How fucking shitty and unlivable does America have to become before it finally hits rock bottom and starts to become a better country?
I’m just so fucking sick and tired of watching everything deteriorate and nothing ever fucking gets better, and anytime something does get better everyone knows deep down it’s only a matter of time before the Republicans demolish it. Meanwhile the world passed us by a long time ago when it comes to just basic human development.
I’m becoming increasingly convinced this country is headed toward fascism, civil war or both, and there’s really nothing we can do about it. The Democrats are too weak to stop it, and the media will just bothsides it.
I’m sorry to be pessimistic, but shit like this just completely drains whatever hope I have left.
“Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years….Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.” – President Truman, 1952
A powerful speech against anti-trans legislation from Kentucky State Rep. Pamela Stevenson (D-Louisville):
"First, you hated Black people. Then, you hated Jews. Now, you're hating everybody. So the question is when the only people left are you, will you hate yourself?" pic.twitter.com/9N5xHyAHpP
This is the first time that a state has put a law on the books that restricts its residents from interstate travel for abortion access. Idaho already has a near-total abortion ban in place. Neighboring Washington and Oregon allow minors to get an abortion without their parent’s consent.
Idaho’s HB 242 would imprison for up to five years any adult who accompanies a minor across out-of-state without a parent’s consent — an action that the bill calls “abortion trafficking.”
I heard last night on MSNBC that Obstetricians are leaving Idaho. Soon there will not be doctors to deliver babies in the state. It seems that doctors were not without alternatives in front of a maniacal state government.
Correct. Its happening in multiple states. First, blue states have a surge in demand so can offer higher pay. Second, treatment of legit miscarriages could cause an a doctor to be subject to police investigation or worse. The maternal death rate in red states (already higher than blue states) is going to skyrocket.
My daughter is an OBGYN in Georgia. She calls me and tells me terrifying and gory stories of things that happen on occasion, sometimes to young and perfectly healthy women, in the delivery room. Sometimes even the most skilled doctors have to hit the panic button and summon in a specialist because things can go terribly wrong in a fraction of a moment, even under the best of circumstances. Imagine now what will happen when the doctors have fled from the red states and there are not enough to go around to save the lives of these mothers and forced mothers to be? I get a chill when I think about it. What a terrifying time it is to be a girl/woman.
Frightening as hell. I image we will see an intra-country medical tourism where wealthy women will travel to blue states to spend there last few pregnant months near a hospital capable of delivering competent care.
It’s starts with “protecting the kids” to “we know what’s best for our women.” I’ve heard arguments that “the unborn are our state’s citizens, and we have the right to safeguard them.” How women and any men who love them aren’t outraged & unleashing hell upon their would-be captors stuns me to no end.
“Papers please. Please pee on this stick for us before you leave the state.”
Read the full article. Perhaps obviously, the bill is meant to allow Moms For Liberty fascists from anywhere in the state to run for school boards where they’d have a shot at winning. Last year Steele, a freshman rep, reported a net worth of over $440 million.
ICYMI #Florida’s GOP super majority is changing the way local communities elect their school boards: reducing school board term limits to 8 years, making those races partisan AND allowing people who don’t even live in your county to run for school board. https://t.co/pSgdj7bBvw
Seems the GQP are blood thirsty for children. “One statistic in particular stood out: one in 25 American five-year-olds today will not make it to their 40th birthday. No parent should ever have to bury their child, but in the US one set of parents from every kindergarten class most likely will.”
MO State Rep. Peter Merideth (D) on a just-passed GOP budget defunding libraries: "They actually took out all state aid for public libraries explicitly because librarians are suing over their First Amendment rights … We are starting to live in a dystopian future from 1984." pic.twitter.com/fej8ywxbCf
“And I mean, there’s things all throughout the week that I know is right to do. And sometimes, I don’t do them. And so we can nitpick what the Bible says is right and wrong, but I think just having that heart posture of wanting to serve God and do the right thing is so important.
Says the woman who attacks the gays and trans because her god hates that, but her underage son having sex outside of marriage and getting a girl pregnant is OK and hands off for some reason. WTF! Hugs
Exactly. Some portions of the Bible must be taken verbatim, and some require interpretation and context… but only Republicans can decide which and when, and that decision can vary dependent upon the situation as they see it at that particular time.
Situational Ethics, a philosophical system originally developed by Congregationalist pastor Charles Sheldon and Episcopalian priest Joseph Fletcher. In the hands of the GOP, it morphs from “How would Jesus love?” to “How can I excuse this?”
SB1993 author Sen. Mayes Middleton [photo] last appeared here for his bill to prosecute and disbar members of a law firm for “reimbursing travel costs of employees who leave Texas to murder their unborn children.”
Pretty wild: A bill in Texas would allow the SOS to overturn election results in Harris, Dallas, Bexar and other populous counties #SB1993https://t.co/xeM2uEdwqQ
Nope, not for Rethugs. First they turn a majority of voters into a minority of representation. Then they take away that minority representation altogether, creating one-party-only rule.
The demise of the US is accelerating. I can see this being illegal, but not really since so many lifetime judges are now IQ45 worshipers. Even if this were go to the SCOTUS it’s still up in the air. If it goes there and SCOTUS says TX has the right to decide an election and not the People then we will absolutely know for a fact that we are not a republic.
It’s long been the dream of “conservatives” to disfranchise Black voters. The polysyllabic racist, William F. Buckley, Jr., proposed legislation doing just that back in the 1950s, in areas where Black voters could influence the outcome of elections…because the “advanced race” just had to prevail.
He conceded that in order for the legislation to have the appearance of being Constitutional, some white voters might also be disfranchised. I don’t think he would shed too many tears over that if they were in heavily unionized areas.
Both women have alleged in interviews that the president compared them to Ivanka Trump.
Both below, courtesy of Anderson Cooper interviews with women.
Stormy Daniels : Yeah. He was like, “Wow, you — you are special. You remind me of my daughter.” You know — he was like, “You’re smart and beautiful, and a woman to be reckoned with, and I like you. I like you.”
McDougal: You know, he, he’s very proud of Ivanka, as he should be. I mean, she’s a brilliant woman. She’s beautiful. She’s — you know, that’s his daughter, and he should be proud of her. He said I was beautiful like her and, you know, you’re a smart girl. And there wasn’t a lot of comparing, but there was some, yes. I heard a lot about her. Yes.
The suit was brought by extremist anti-LGBTQ activist Steven Hotze [photo], who was recently ejected from a Texas Senate hearing after repeatedly calling transgender people “pedophiles.”
Hotze appeared on JMG in September 2022 when he explained how COVID vaccines are designed to connect people to the internet “so you can be mind-controlled by artificial intelligence.”
In April 2022, Hotze was charged with two felonies related to a bizarre 2020 “voter fraud search” incident.
Hotze appeared on JMG that year when he left a voice mail for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, telling him to “shoot to kill” Black Lives Matter activists.
You may recall that Steven Hotze has compared gays to “communist termites” eating away at America’s moral fabric. He is also fond of declaring that it’s now a hate crime to denounce homosexuality.
It was Hotze who bankrolled the successful campaign to repeal Houston’s “wicked, evil, Satanic” LGBT rights ordinance, during which he compared gays to rapists and murderers.
According to Hotze, same-sex marriage will result in children “practicing sodomy” in kindergarten.
In 2017, he appeared here when he “prophesied” that God will deliver “just retribution” to lawmakers who vote for LGBT rights.
When he’s not calling on God to kill politicians or for the governor to kill Black Lives Matter activists, Hotze sells “miracle” supplements because high cholesterol doesn’t really cause heart disease.
Hotze regularly quotes QAnon slogans.
Y’all want to know why conservative judges get shouted down at law schools? Because they’re literally looking for ways to justify exposing a disfavored group to a deadly virus and claiming it’s about administrative law formalism. They’re bigots in a robe.
O’Connor has widely been described as conservative. O’Connor has become a “go-to” favorite for conservative lawyers, as he tends to reliably rule against Democratic policies. Attorneys General in Texas appear to strategically file cases in O’Connor’s jurisdiction so that he will hear them.
More judge shopping by the Republicans. But you won’t hear Democrats even talk about this.
Gov. DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ crusade has left parents of queer and trans kids devastated. Many say they’re ready to move, yet many more say they’ll stay and fight back.
In early February, a massive carpool descended on Tallahassee, Florida’s capital. Dozens of middle and high schoolers had missed Geometry and English class for the occasion; parents had taken hard earned days off work to chaperone their children. However, this was no school sanctioned event. It was the final deliberation meeting of the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, which would determine whether the state would move forward with a ban on gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary youth.
Although the Boards had been discussing a potential ban for months, this was the first and only chance the public would have to voice their concerns about the rule. For the young people who had traveled to Tallahassee that day, the decision would have an immeasurable impact on their lives. School would have to wait.
For three hours in a poorly-lit auditorium in the state Department of Transportation office, trans and nonbinary young people described the feelings of liberation, wholeness, and freedom they had experienced after receiving the kinds of medically necessary, gender-affirming care that was now up for debate. They described missing months of school due to dysphoria, and the friendships and self-love that blossomed when they received treatment.
“Having my needs met in this way for the first time ever was the most beautiful experience I could have asked for,” said one teenager.
“Growing up in a religious and fairly conservative household, I didn’t have the opportunity to receive gender-affirming care until I was 18. Because of that, I attempted suicide three times,” said another. “Gender-affirming care saved my life.”
Behind those who testified, dozens of heads — young people, their parents, siblings, and teachers — nodded in recognition.
Despite their testimonies, and the decades-long support of such treatment by most every governing medical body, the Board voted to move forward with a ban on gender-affirming care for youth. Although they had previously claimed that the field needed more research before hormone replacement therapy and other treatments could be approved, the Board also paradoxically banned gender-affirming care for research purposes at public universities in Florida.
GIORGIO VIERA/Getty Images
Unlike other states that have banned gender-affirming care through their state houses, Florida’s ban went into effect exclusively through the state’s medical board, without the vote of any elected officials. This means advocates and organizers have not had a fair chance to lobby against it, and their only opportunity to appeal will be through a right-leaning Federal Court system. In fact, the Tampa Bay Times has reported that members of the Board of Medicine who were appointed by Gov. DeSantis have contributed over $80,000 to his campaigns and political action committee.
He “has figured out a way to subvert the democratic process, subvert the legislature, and utilize politically-appointed people who he can put into power at his will,” said Simone Chriss, Director of the Transgender Rights Initiative at Southern Legal Counsel.
Policies created by these officials have included the Board of Medicine’s decision to move forward with a ban on gender-affirming care for youth; the Board of Education’s ruling to limit trans people’s access to bathrooms; and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s rule that gender-affirming care can no longer be reimbursed with Medicaid. In each of these instances, DeSantis’ politicalappointees have reshaped LGBTQ+ lives in the state.
If “the Board of Medicine can establish new standards of care for any condition regardless of the consensus of the scientific and medical community nationwide, that’s a really scary precedent to set,” said Chriss. “I hope that the rest of the country is watching and is alarmed.”
In the year since DeSantis passedthe Parental Rights in Education Act, or “Don’t Say Gay,” as it has become known, he has used the idea of “parental rights” to reshape Florida in his political image. Since at least the 1960s, conservative Christian activists have used parental rights as a call to arms to assert their beliefs in schools, which activists on the right believe have been eroded by a progressive embrace of LGBTQ+ children and classroom lessons about systemic racism.
The seeds of Don’t Say Gay were planted at the height of the pandemic, when conversations about mask mandates, vaccines, and in-person schooling quickly transformed into culture war talking points. Two days after “Don’t Say Gay,” DeSantis passed the “Stop WOKE Act,” which “prohibits instruction on race relations or diversity that imply a person’s status as either privileged or oppressed.” Over the past year, these bills have had what activists, LGBTQ+ children, and parents describe as a “chilling effect,” creating an atmosphere of self-censorship and fear.
CHANDAN KHANNA/Getty Images
“Everything is a target now,” said Todd Delmay, an LGBTQ+ parent who has a child in public school and recently ran for state senate. That’s not due to what legislators explicitly wrote into the bill, he said; rather, “it’s what they haven’t.”
Indeed, “Don’t Say Gay” is only six short paragraphs. However, those paragraphs were seemingly crafted to create an environment of paranoia and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, primarily through a clause that empowers parents to sue school districts over any material, at any age, that they deem “inappropriate.”
Over the past year, parents say this has created an environment in which teachers are afraid to mention anything about gender or sexuality, even in casual conversations. “I served in the military, and they’ve essentially created a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell environment for kids,” said Michael Rothgeb, an LGBTQ+ parent in the state.
This has included several school districts, including Miami Dade, removing their Safe and Inclusive Schools Guide, which offered comprehensive guidance on supporting LGBTQ+ students; the removal of pride flags in classrooms across the state; and the banning of books with LGBTQ+ subject matter, including one about two real-life gay penguins.
“All of the things we were most afraid would happen if this bill [Don’t Say Gay] was signed absolutely have,” said Maxx Fenning, founder of Prism Florida, a youth-led nonprofit that provides free sexual health education.
For many parents, this environment has forced them to consider leaving the state. “It’s a conversation that we have every week in our support group,” said NiX, a Florida parent who runs a group for the families of trans and nonbinary children. According to a recent survey conducted by the Williams Institute at UCLA, more than half of 113 LGBTQ+ parents in Florida said they have considered moving because of Don’t Say Gay, and 20% had started taking the steps to do so.
Zeth Pugh is one of those parents. Last year, as it became clear that a ban on gender-affirming care would come into effect, Pugh realized she had to move in order to protect her 15-year-old son, who is trans. He had been hospitalized for suicidal ideation and depression, and was hoping to speak with a healthcare provider about his options for gender-affirming care. “We can’t even get that kind of consultation now. It’s devastating,” said Pugh, her voice filling up with tears. Although their house is almost packed and they have realtors in Florida and Oregon, where they hope to move, Pugh said that she has “a bag ready” to leave the state with her son at a moment’s notice.
Yet many parents are unable to uproot their lives due to economic or social factors. “There are constraints on people’s ability to [move], and it disproportionately impacts people who are low income,” said Dr. Abbie E. Goldberg, who conducted the UCLA survey. “The fact that they’re even having to look into options to change jobs or find a new home speaks to the fear right now,” she added.
Other LGBTQ+ parents say they see staying put as their responsibility. “When your freedoms are literally being taken away, you have to fight,” said Janelle Perez, who lives in Miami with her wife and two children. Her family fled to Florida from Cuba, and the efforts that they’ve made to build a life — a neighborhood full of siblings, devoted grandparents, supportive queer friends — are too immense to leave behind. “I’m not going to let these people push us out,” she said. “We want people to come here and organize and support us.”
This echoes a sentiment shared by many parents and youth organizers. They worry that if supportive adults leave the state, queer and trans children will be left to fend for themselves in an increasingly hostile political environment.
LGBTQ rights supporters protest against Florida Governor Ron Desantis. GIORGIO VIERA/Getty Images
“We’re trying to combat this idea that Florida is a lost cause,” said Fenning. “It’s the third most populous state in the country. There are so many queer people here. We can’t afford to divest from the state in a way that would harm millions of people.”
Fenning notes that if supportive allies move, disparities in access to healthcare, affirming spaces in schools, and sex education will only widen. Indeed, several school districts have already removed LGBTQ+ sex education from their curricula due to outside pressure, including in Miami-Dade and Sarasota Counties. In Jacksonville, JASMYN recently lost a 20-year-contract to support in-school Gay Straight Alliances after right-wing activists screenshotted an image from their social media accounts of a card game about sex-ed, which they sent to the school district with the false claim that JASMYN was preying on children. JASMYN, which has provided essential medical care across Jacksonville for decades, insisted that the game is only played with consenting adults.
These incidents illustrate increasing tension in the state surrounding LGBTQ+ life. At all grade levels, the political atmosphere created by DeSantis has led to fears that things like HIV tests, mental health resources, and in-school Gay Straight Alliances violate “Don’t Say Gay,” despite widespread evidence that community acceptance lowers rates of suicide and depression. “The fact that these [parents] are being coached by conservative leaders to do things that will result in poorer health and even the death of their own children,” says NiX, “is one of the most evil things I can conceive of.”
And more than half live in states where legislators have filed bans.
In light of these never-ending fires, such as the ban on gender-affirming care, classroom censorship, and harassment, many parents and activists are bracing themselves for a drawn-out fight. And, as DeSantis is widely expected to announce a presidential campaign, people outside of Florida may soon find themselves faced with identical policies. “There is no ‘safe’ anymore,” says NiX. “Only safer.”
Simone Chriss, of Southern Legal Counsel, says that she has to constantly remind herself that her work isn’t just about winning legal cases; it’s the fight itself that matters. In her view, this is the far right’s greatest fear: “kids who are comfortable with who they are, who aren’t afraid, who aren’t hiding, and who are going to hold the people in charge accountable.”
bell hooks once wrote that children are the most vulnerable members of our society, as they have no explicit rights, including the right to vote out the politicians who harm them. “When we love children,” she writes, “we acknowledge by our every action that they are not property, that they have rights — that we respect and uphold their rights.” Back in that room in Tallahassee, without the protection of doctors trained to help them, trans and nonbinary children were practicing the ultimate form of self-love: advocating for themselves, by any means necessary.
The little black girl was 6 years old when she lived it. Yet now white parents say that their kids older than she was are too young to learn how bad people of color including children were treated by white people. This is our history, the history of our country. This is one reason we need to keep repeating that black lives matter. The white supremacists do not want evil of the mistreatment of back people known but I wonder why. Is it so they can blame black people for their less economic situation today? Is it so they can repeat the same racist attacks? The reason to teach this is to show what we must not let happen again. Also I notice the same people that screamed “fuck your feelings” when trump was president are now showing a lot of feelings. Hugs
Candace McDuffie
·2 min read
U.S. Deputy Marshals escort 6-year-old Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, in this November 1960, file photo.
Even though the Disney film “Ruby Bridges” has been shown during Black History Month in Florida’s Pinellas County for years, it was recently pulled because a parent was worried that it would teach white children about the racism that Black children faced.
Emily Conklin, whose child attends North Shore Elementary parent, refused to let the student see “Ruby Bridges” when it was shown earlier this month. Conklin believed that the movie was inappropriate for second graders.
She made a formal complaint on March 6, stating that the use of racial epithets and images of white folks who harassed Ruby as she walked into a school will allow white children to see the racist history of segregation.
School officials for Pinellas decided to ban the movie at the St. Petersburg school until a review committee can evaluate it. This is ultimately a result of Florida parents having more say in deciding what children can see and read in schools.
In an open letter, Ric Davis—who is president of Concerned Organization for Quality Education for Black Students—wrote: “Many from historically marginalized communities are asking whether this so-called integrated education system in Pinellas County can even serve the diverse community fairly and equitably.”
He continued: “The (Pinellas) district’s leadership appears to fear the potential consequences of not acting in the way they have on these two decisions. This approach to challenging times in education in our state raises serious questions about Superintendent (Kevin) Hendrick’s leadership.”
The demographics of enrollment in Pinellas district schools is 51% white, 20% Hispanic, 19% Black and 4% Asian, according to state records. The rest of the students enrolled are of Native American or Pacific Islander descent or are categorized as belonging to two or more races.
Conklin was one of two parents who refused to let their children watch the movie after the elementary school sent out permission slips, which included a link to a trailer two weeks before the movie before was shown to classes.
The cancellation of all showings of the PG-rated 1998 film "Ruby Bridges" at North Shore Elementary—following a factually inaccurate complaint by a lone parent who had not watched the whole movie—violated @my_pcs policy, reports @JuddLegumhttps://t.co/Mcvbkpb2uQ#BlackHistory
Ruby Bridges needed guards to walk her through a violent mob when she was 6 just so she could go to school, but apparently second graders in Florida are too young to learn about it. https://t.co/9j5dPDJcF9
After a White parent complained that a film about Ruby Bridges might cause White students to hate Black students, officials of North Shore Elementary in St. Petersburg, Florida, has removed access to the film for all students.https://t.co/col0Rvi2s0
— The Black Wall Street Times (@TheBWSTimes) March 27, 2023
She made a formal complaint on March 6, stating that the use of racial epithets and images of white folks who harassed Ruby as she walked into a school will allow white children to see the racist history of segregation.
It’s Florida. The higher-ups (notice it wasn’t the teacher or the curriculum) are looking for excuses to cancel anything having to do with civil rights, and those parents gave them the excuse they needed.
So, how far does this go? Just sit around and let them white wash history? Are people going to get mad and put a stop to this? I really don’t know, it seems they are getting away with re-writing history to placate Conservatives.
This is being allowed in the land of the free and where the laws apply to everyone! Yes the maga thugs who are the enforcement arm of the republicans preach about freedom but what they mean is freedom for them to oppress anyone who doesn’t do as the right dictates. This is a deliberate scare tactic telling other businesses that if you dare support something the right doesn’t like we will destroy your business and keep you from being able to make a living. Is this the USA we want to live in. When they get their way with the drag queens and drive the trans people from society who will they target next. Those gays who think they have a legal right to exist and marry, beat the shit out of everyone of them who dares to show themselves in public. Who next, any non-Christian? The Jewish people are already under attack by these same thugs who publicly support Nazism while working as the Hitler brownshirts for the republican party. There is a reason why these Nazi gang thugs support DeathSantis and other white supremacist republicans. Hugs
The attacks were relentless, and customers just stopped coming.
A bakery will permanently close its doors after experiencing months of vicious harassment for hosting a drag show.
Uprising bakery & café is located in a Chicago suburb called Lake in the Hills and owned by Corinna Sac, who opened the bakery in 2021 as an inclusive space for all. A press release announcing the closing details Sac’s desire for the bakery to be a space where LGBTQ+ couples could come for wedding cakes.
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“Her dream of an inclusive bakery has since become a nightmare no businessperson could have anticipated,” the release states.
“Closing our doors is the direct result of the horrific attacks, endless harassment, and unrelenting negative misinformation about our establishment in the last eight months,” Sac, who is bisexual, said in a statement. “From an award-winning bakery that donates to local organizations and supports diversity and inclusion, we have been rebranded by misinformation as ‘gay only’ and ‘pedophiles.’”
She added that the relentless protestors have caused local customers to be afraid to visit the bakery out of fear of harassment.
The press release describes the event in question as a “family friendly show featuring drag performers” that was hosted by the café in 2022 and required registration and a ticket.
“The event drew outrage from many resulting in a targeted attack of vandalism at the property the night before. The doors and windows were destroyed, the glass was shattered, and messages of hate were painted on the building.”
Sac said the man who did this, Joseph Collins, was a member of the white nationalist hate group Proud Boys and was charged with a hate crime.
After more attacks took place, the Village of Lake in the Hills then told Sac she could no longer hold events in the space due to zoning, even though she’d already been hosting events there for a year with no issues.
“A campaign was initiated to discredit, damage and defame Ms Sac, her staff, her food, and her patrons,” the press release went on. “Protestors spent more than 120 consecutive days on the property, creating disturbances, inciting violence, photographing license plates of patrons, and harassing them on social media and online.
Because patrons have been too intimated to visit the bakery, Sac’s sales have plummeted and thus, she cannot afford to stay open. She said she’d need $30,000 to keep her doors open.
Sac is currently working to raise money for employees so she can give them some financial padding. There are also events and fundraisers scheduled throughout the rest of the month to try to save the bakery. If they do not succeed, it will close on March 31st.
“Everything I have is in this business,” Sac said. “Our home, our cars, retirement, savings. We put everything we had on the line and personally secured this location, our equipment, and our dreams.”
No matter what happens, Sac vowed never to stop fighting for justice. She recently testified at the state legislature about her experiences.
“If we have to go out, we will go out with a BANG,” she declared in the release, “and make it long-lasting and positive. I will do everything I can to make sure what happened to my American Dream doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Fueled by anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation on social media, over the past year, drag queen story hours and other family friendly LGBTQ+ events featuring drag performers have become a target for far-right groups like the Proud Boys as well Republican politicians. Earlier this month, Tennessee became the first state to pass a law intended to ban drag performances in public spaces. Similar legislation has been introduced in state houses across the country.
This is a guest post from Randy. As most people here already know Randy is someone I admire greatly. Randy is my online brother and a member of our family. Randy is smart, funny, caring, kind, willing to reach out a hand to those in need while also willing to stand up to protect others. Randy is the kind of guy who if he knew a co-worker had no other way to get to a much needed job during a snow storm he would get up out of his warm bed and go take them to work. And not ask any for doing it. I have asked Randy if he would be a guest author as he has time. He has delighted me with the first two posts of what I hope will be many more. Thank you my brother, Hugs.
Why it Matters
In this era of Blue Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter, even All Lives Matter, the defining characteristic is that the authors, the progenitors of the movement, are trying to indicate to the public that there are folks who do not see the lives of some persons either being in jeopardy, being disenfranchised, being set upon as a second class, being abused. The irreparable loses for some came too early, like the Native Americans, and for others they somehow bought in to the larger idea, others still labor under a “lesser than” status that evidences in odd circumstances when people need someone to blame.
It is easy to use extremes to make points in writing, so I’ll use one now. In the late 1930’s an individual rose to power who realized that it was far far easier to capture the public’s anger and fear through hate and destructive rhetoric. Hate is bred from fear, and Germany recovering from WW1 was reeling through poverty, inflation, low productivity, and a miasma from losing a war. This individual captured that fear with not only an ideal he espoused upon the country but a scapegoat: otherwise said is “this is the ideal, but these are the people for whom to blame for our lot.” It should be noted that an erstwhile general failure in his other pursuits, this individual honed a craft of speaking what people begged to hear in a manner that was convincing enough to overpower the very voice of decency within them.
What did that individual do? He convinced people that it was ok to place a mark of second class on another human being. He convinced people that they should be “segregated” for the good of the countrymen. In time, it went from a fringe movement to the government’s position, and men, women, children were rounded up and “quarantined” for the safety of the citizenry. Some bought into this with a passion, others were put into a position of placing their own lives in peril to not go through with this new government program as their neighbors were taken, were abused, disenfranchised and even killed. Only a sociopath would look upon the truth of this matter with anything but horror, but it’s amazing what people can justify to themselves when their own comfort is on the line, when their own well-being is on the line. That individual, after committing war upon his own land, went on to view people in other countries as “lesser than”, as not worthy of existence as neighbors, and went to war with them. The irony learned by the very public this individual used and then abandoned in his bid for power is that they were now only worse off after his blame-game and were forced to face what had been done in their name.
So, why is that relevant today? Anytime, Anytime, Every time we accept a person to be cast as a second-class citizen for no other reason than their very being, we lose. We lost when we decided that Native American Cultures were lesser than. We lost when we decided that African lives, African American lives were lesser than. We lost when we decided that whoever was in power at the moment, however that power was expressed- be it by government, wealth, violence- was the correct arbitrator of a person’s worth as a citizen.
This blog clearly speaks up for those who have felt the abuse of those in power due to their being gay, being trans, being somehow different. Some have looked upon this championing as an acceptable forum for conversation and determination of another’s rights and status when said persons have harmed no one and sought only to be genuine to themselves. The false definition of reality seems a favorite of those who seek to justify abuse, and let it be understood that abuse of power is what it is! I see no debate as warranted or even allowed when we seek to determine how another person defines himself. That is their business, and though we may find it uncomfortable for ourselves we have no right to dictate to another who he or she or they express themselves.
I would like to harken back to the very extreme example used earlier in this writing: Declaring a person to be lower class and unworthy of their own personhood, their liberty, is not American, but damn if it isn’t what Americans seem to demand. Excusing and justifying abuses and horrors in the name of being free is antithetical to the very existence of the Constitution, and yet we do it. Over and over again, we accept abuses on others. You want examples? Ok, we accept a death knell of school children for the right to sell guns to near anyone. We accept the demand that drag shows be stopped because it violates our own religious beliefs. We are demanding that people exhibit who they are defined to be at birth despite who they genuinely feel themselves to be. We demand that children starve in our public schools so that the wealthiest don’t have to pay a fair tax rate. We demand that children go to school, then declare their well-educated instructors abusing them for allowing them to have an education. We demand that the sick seek to gamble their very lives as they balance eating and health care. And, we demand that the mother give birth to her child no matter how old she is, how she became pregnant, the viability of the fetus, the physical and psychological toll it will put on the mother, the financial devastation it will inflict upon her life, even the ability to feed, clothe, educate, and love the child do we still demand she bring it into the world, then we turn our back upon her.
We as a country seem to demand the right to make these decisions for others, to define them, to restrict them, to force them to conform to what we see as comfortable and proper for them, and yet in the near past, especially, have I seen excuse upon excuse for criminal and the worst examples of abuses inflicted upon others. These so-called Christians – and I place that lowercase as they seem to refuse to follow the example of the one written as Jesus Christ – refuse to use a common reality, hold themselves accountable, hold others in their politics driven values accountable, and as I mentioned, refuse to do as Christ demands, yet stomp their feet if someone were to live in defiance of those somehow “deeply held religious beliefs”. And, again, harkening back to the earlier extreme example: 1930’s Germany was a very religious country and look at what they allowed for their politics-driven morals and values.
This is the history of black people in the US that DeathSantis and the republican racists like Marge Greene want desperately to bury and hide. They are making laws to prevent this honest teaching of history illegal while claiming it is just to make white kids feel bad of their white skin. We need to get serious before we lose our entire true history. The Daughters of the Confederacy in both the 1920s and the 1960s raced to slap up monuments to the South, to Dixie, claiming the confederate battle flag represented heritage and the civil war was about states rights. But what right did the Southern states demand, by their own writings it was the right to own black people as property like cattle to do with them as they wished including raping them or other mistreatments. Both times it was about reminding black people that they were less than whites and that whites owned them once and would always be above them. We really have to prevent the white supremist washing of the US history. The US can be the shining city on the hill but only if the people move forward socially instead of retreating into a fake mythical past. Hugs
So are the LGBTQ+ adults. DeathSantis and his maga sycophants have painted target signs on each of us and his violent gang thug enforcers along with the recharged up fundamentalist religious people who feel they have the right to oppress everyone into forcing them to live by the dictates of their religion are making the lives of queer people in Florida miserable. They keep pushing harder and harder to make their way the only way to live. What is acceptable to them is the only acceptable public expression. This is about not allowing any other social public expression than what their church allows them according to their outdated 1950s strict gender role model based on the idea that white Christian men are automatically in charge and women are subservient to them while minorities know their place and stay there. All according to the white males in charge who like it that way. And they use a set of mistranslated writings from 2,500 years ago to back up their demands. I want you to pay attention to what the student says is happening on high school campuses, where conserative right wing teachers / administrators design polices and punishments for queer kids while using those polices to protect themselves from repremand. The student says she has seen teachers mock and out gay kids to parents and laugh about it. Also kids who try to stand up for the queer kids have their own futures placed in jepardy as their transcripts get lost, documents they need lost, and even collage applications no longer approved, or loss recommendations made by the school if they don’t stop speaking out in support of queer kids. Think of that, the change from the days when kids were encouraged to be active in cuases, in socail movements. Hugs
Students who speak out for LGBTQ+ rights say they face retaliation from hostile school administrations determined to silence them.
By Jorge Martinez
Photo: Shutterstock
Under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Florida has become a closely-watched epicenter for anti-LGBTQ+ laws – and advocates say queer youth are feeling the impact.
With the passage of sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, such as the Don’t Say Gay law, gender-affirming care bans, and bathroom restrictions, Florida has become a battleground for queer rights. DeSantis’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has continued to exacerbate the issue, leading to concerns among LGBTQ+ advocates that the state is becoming increasingly unwelcoming to queer youth.
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GOP wants to expand Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law to target teens & transgender kids
The bill would ban LGBTQ+ education up to 8th grade, ban students from changing their pronouns, and that’s not all…
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“We’re terrified,” Christina Guiriba, a transgender youth advocate, told LGBTQ Nation. “As advocates for the community, we’re very torn. We want to continue this fight.”
Guiriba is the founder of Transcending Adolescence, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit aimed at empowering trans youth.
A trans woman and Florida native who has experienced bullying and physical violence during her childhood, she leads a summer camp called Resilience Retreat for around a dozen trans youth to build their courage and resilience. She wants every participant to leave camp having defined success on their own terms, whether that be finally finding a safe space for the first time or going through with top surgery.
“Seeing a staff full of gender-diverse people that are successful and still alive gave them hope,” she said. Through the power of the outdoors and physical recreation, she hopes to continue to be a voice for “those who are afraid.”
But Guiriba said that many advocates are afraid to continue their work as they find themselves the target of right-wing hate. Transcending Adolescence, in fact, was recently the victim of a doxing attack.
As a result, the organization was forced to adopt stricter security measures such as planning escape routes and installing surveillance cameras and panic buttons. They even hired a private security officer, unable to turn to the Jacksonville police due to their transphobic reputation, such as using deadnames in official police investigations, among other reasons.
But Guiriba isn’t stopping. Her work is becoming increasingly relevant as new research shows how ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ attacks are starting to impact queer youth.
“The consequences are really more dire than even most people would imagine,” Caitlin Viccora, programs manager for healthy & supportive schools at Advocates for Youth, told LGBTQ Nation.
A recent CDC report on youth behavior over the past decade shows record-high levels of depression and suicide risk among teenagers in recent years. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey reveals that more than half of LGBTQ+ students have recently experienced declining mental health and more than one in five had a suicide attempt within the past year. Queer female adolescents fared worse compared to males.
In Florida especially, Viccora said the priority for advocates is to set the record straight and clear the air of false information. Parents have a right to know what’s really happening in their child’s classroom without having to rely on the right-wing’s “targeted disinformation campaigns,” Viccora said.
“It’s not just Republicans who are failing to protect LGBTQ+ students,” she added, “A lot of folks are staying silent.”
She urged community members to speak publicly at local school board meetings and fight proposed regulations that impact queer youth. Submitting public comments, organizing to call local officials such as superintendents, or just showing up to the polls to vote are effective ways to protect queer youth.
Queer youth are learning to “shut up and keep their head low”
“Ron DeSantis is a terrifying man,” Iris, a high school senior in Clay County, Florida, who requested to use a different name out of fear of retaliation, told LGBTQ Nation. “[DeSantis] claims to be a Christian but at the basis of Christianity is acceptance and love. Yet he chooses violence and overall bigotry.”
Iris does not identify as queer, but her queer friends would not speak with LGBTQ Nation, citing safety concerns even if they remained anonymous. Instead, they spoke through Iris.
In her previous attempts to speak out, Iris said her school officials claimed to “lose” her documents, opening the possibility of preventing her from graduating high school. She said speaking out would even “jeopardize my college [applications].”
Iris said Gov. DeSantis has created a “hostile environment” for Florida students that enables hatred and punishes those who try speaking out. She recounts an instance where a close male friend dressed as a PowerPuff Girl for Halloween and was viciously bullied during school hours. The bully received no penalty while Iris’ friend was reprimanded for several infractions, one of them being a dress code violation.
In a second instance, she reports that her school principal outed numerous queer kids to their parents. She said the principal was even spotted laughing and mocking the list of students she outed with one of those students’ parents.
This practice is becoming increasingly common across Florida schools, with school administrators developing formal policies to punish or out queer kids to their families.
“Teachers are able to say and do things without consequence,” said Iris, noting that these types of policies serve to primarily protect conservative and right-wing educators.
She added that queer kids are learning that they need to “shut up and keep their head low” in order to survive.
Both Guiriba and Viccora emphasize the importance of remaining positive, continuing their fight to ensure a brighter future for queer youth across the country.
“It’s important for queer people to know they’re not alone,” said Guiriba, also stressing that advocates take the appropriate time to rest. “It’s not easy to find strength.”
“Living as a queer person in America is really scary when you’re looking at headlines,” Viccora said, especially when queer Americans face discrimination and violence at every corner. Despite this, Viccora urges queer youth to remember the “beauty and resiliency” in the simple fact of our existence.
What did that individual do? He convinced people that it was ok to place a mark of second class on another human being. He convinced people that they should be “segregated” for the good of the countrymen. In time, it went from a fringe movement to the government’s position, and men, women, children were rounded up and “quarantined” for the safety of the citizenry. Some bought into this with a passion, others were put into a position of placing their own lives in peril to not go through with this new government program as their neighbors were taken, were abused, disenfranchised and even killed. Only a sociopath would look upon the truth of this matter with anything but horror, but it’s amazing what people can justify to themselves when their own comfort is on the line, when their own well-being is on the line. That individual, after committing war 
upon his own land, went on to view people in other countries as “lesser than”, as not worthy of existence as neighbors, and went to war with them. The irony learned by the very public this individual used and then abandoned in his bid for power is that they were now only worse off after his blame-game and were forced to face what had been done in their name.
of another’s rights and status when said persons have harmed no one and sought only to be genuine to themselves. The false definition of reality seems a favorite of those who seek to justify abuse, and let it be understood that abuse of power is what it is! I see no debate as warranted or even allowed when we seek to determine how another person defines himself. That is their business, and though we may find it uncomfortable for ourselves we have no right to dictate to another who he or she or they express themselves.
Ok, we accept a death knell of school children for the right to sell guns to near anyone. We accept the demand that drag shows be stopped because it violates our own religious beliefs. We are demanding that people exhibit who they are defined to be at birth despite who they genuinely feel themselves to be. We demand that children starve in our public schools so that the wealthiest don’t have to pay a fair tax rate. We demand that children go to school, then declare their well-educated instructors abusing them for allowing them to have an education. We demand that the sick seek to gamble their very lives as they balance eating and health care. And, we demand that the mother give birth to her child no matter how old she is, 
how she became pregnant, the viability of the fetus, the physical and psychological toll it will put on the mother, the financial devastation it will inflict upon her life, even the ability to feed, clothe, educate, and love the child do we still demand she bring it into the world, then we turn our back upon her.
These so-called Christians – and I place that lowercase as they seem to refuse to follow the example of the one written as Jesus Christ – refuse to use a common reality, hold themselves accountable, hold others in their politics driven values accountable, and as I mentioned, refuse to do as Christ demands, yet stomp their feet if someone were to live in defiance of those somehow “deeply held religious beliefs”. And, again, harkening back to the earlier extreme example: 1930’s Germany was a very religious country and look at what they allowed for their politics-driven morals and values.
