Category: Anger

Belgium bans ‘conversion therapy’ for LGBTQ people

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/323548/belgium-bans-conversion-practices-for-lgbtq-people

I wish the US could do something like this.    The entire idea behind conversion therapy is that if a person / kid is hurt enough they wont do that behavior anymore.  That is the idea behind spankings and corporal punishment.  Even the people still pushing this admit it won’t change the desire, just make the thought of it so painful, the feelings about it so adverse that the person is unable to go forward with the desire.    Think of that.  Say you are attracted to a set gender / sex and you are tortured to the point where every time you try to fulfill that desire the effects / memories of the torture kick in giving you a fresh taste of the torture.  It doesn’t matter your sexual orientation or what gender you ID as, if your conditioned to hate it in yourself or hate it in anyway, you have just been programed to hate yourself forever, all of yourself.    This is done to teens by religious parents who think their religion gives them the authority to claim such feelings either don’t exist or are from the devil and because of laws in most places the parents in that case have the unquestioned authority to force their teenager to go to these places and undergo the torture.  That is why these bans on these conversion therapy places need to happen.   Hugs

Friday, 18 November 2022
By Maïthé Chini
 

Belgium bans 'conversion therapy' for LGBTQ people

11th edition of the ‘Antwerp Pride’ parade. Credit: Nicolas Maeterlinck

Belgium is banning conversion practices – a pseudoscientific practice of trying to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms – for members of the LGBTQ community, announced State Secretary for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunity and Diversity Sarah Schlitz.

Although Belgium is regularly regarded as a model of LGBTQ rights due to its extensive legislative arsenal, conversion practices – often referred to as “conversion therapy,” which is considered a misnomer by medical professionals as it does not constitute a legitimate form of therapy – were not yet officially banned in the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Belgium is a pioneer in the field of LGBTQ rights. Numerous legislative reforms and social efforts bear witness to this, but a ban [on conversion practices] was sadly missing from our legislative arsenal,” Schlitz said in a press release.

 

 

 

While the phenomenon is better known abroad – especially in the United States where at least 700,000 cases of conversion practices are known – Belgium is not spared from it: a recent study by the ‘Centre Permanent pour la Citoyenneté et la Participation’ (CPCP) reveals the stories of LGBTQ people who have been victims of these so-called medical therapies or even forms of exorcisms.

 

Symbolic, psychological and physical violence

 

Conversion practices are “deceptive, ineffective and dangerous” practices that aim to change, suppress or eliminate the sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression of LGBTQ people.

“The opportunity to be yourself and the freedom to live the way you want is a fundamental principle of our society that must not be compromised under any circumstances,” Schlitz said. “This prohibition is a powerful act to protect the victims from this symbolic, psychological and sometimes physical violence.”

 

Methods range from psychotherapy and electroshock therapy to beatings and even “corrective rape.” They can take place in religious, medical or sectarian environments, can be carried out by relatives or pseudo-professionals and have terrible consequences for the people who undergo them.

From now on, carrying out conversion practices will be punishable by imprisonment of one month to two years and/or a fine of €100 to €300.

The court will also take into account whether the offence was committed by a person in a recognised position of trust, authority or influence over the victim and whether the offence was committed against a minor or a person in a vulnerable situation.

Suggesting or inciting conversion practices, directly or indirectly, will also be penalised. The court will be able to prohibit people convicted of conversion practices from carrying out a professional or social activity related to the commission of these offences for a maximum period of five years.

$1.4M For DeSantis’s Migrant Flights “Unaccounted For” – JMG

$1.4M For DeSantis’s Migrant Flights “Unaccounted For”

Did we just catch him with a state funds kick back?   We know he is dirty and willing to do what ever he has to win the big prize, but is the crimes going to be this easy to catch?   Next is to try to hold him accountable, as he has set up a kingdom here in Florida that he can order to block and defend him.    Hugs

The Miami Herald reports:

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has so far paid more than $1.5 million to a politically connected contractor for a program to fly migrants from Texas to northeastern states — but the private jets chartered by the contractor cost only a fraction of that sum.

Newly released public records show the contractor, Destin, Florida-based Vertol Systems Company, was quoted a price of roughly $153,000 for two charter plane trips from San Antonio to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. That leaves about $1.4 million in Florida taxpayer funds unaccounted for.

Vertol has connections at the top of the DeSantis administration. The high-ranking DeSantis official who supervised the migrant flight program, public-safety czar Larry Keefe, handled Vertol’s legal work for years. He also served as President Donald Trump’s U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

Read the full article.

Glenn • 6 minutes ago

Somebody had pay to get the FOX camera crew there to record the migrants’ arrival. Also, I think there was a videographer on board not to mention the mysterious coyote (recruiter) who seems to have disappeared.

jeffg166 • 14 minutes ago

Check Ron’s cookie jar.

Friday • 18 minutes ago

I can dream DeSantis gets busted and thrown in prison right after the right-wing donors get done shoving aside and destroying Trump. 🙂

Davið • 25 minutes ago

Can you say “Secret Illegal Offshore Bank Account”?

rednekokie • 27 minutes ago

Just another example of politicians sucking the government cow. It happens daily, folks.

cfa • an hour ago

They also had to pay a few hundred dollars to the “travel agents” who recruited the passengers for the flights.

So it’s really only $1,399,500 that’s missing.

UiscePreston Mark • 3 hours ago

Since sales tax is 80% of Floridumb’s revenue stream, it does rely on a huge tourist trade to make up for a lack of state income tax. So it’s not just the idiotic voters.

Karl Dubhe IV • 4 hours ago

Kickbacks? Maybe Ron can join Don in prison? If the DOJ gets off of their asses.

John T • 3 hours ago

No big deal, he’ll just write an executive order to criminalize woke journalists who ask questions about how Florida government spends money. Florida voters will love his display of dominance.

Eliot • 3 hours ago

I’ll bet his well-documented history of corruption had NOTHING to do with his election “victory.”

clay • 3 hours ago

A Christian Adoption Service! A Biblical Theme Park! A Children’s Cancer Charity!

check their pockets.

Jenna Hope ❤(●’◡’●) 2022 • 3 hours ago • edited

But he has Christian values$$$, case dismissed ! Christians ALL vote for him for his Christian decency (culture!) and Christians ARE VERY FORGIVING!

DJ Fifth-and-a-Half Element • 3 hours ago • edited

DeSantis will have anybody who comes after him detained/arrested/disappeared faster than you can say Rebekah Jones.

Let’s talk about 50 million spent by the GOP….

Marjorie Taylor Greene HUMILIATES herself in FIRST act with new Republican majority

Children’s hospital faces third bomb threat due to anti-trans conspiracy theories

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/childrens-hospital-faces-third-bomb-threat-due-anti-trans-conspiracy-theories/

Hate and anger has replaced common decency and reduced society to gang thug level.   These people cannot accept the advancement in society.   These people demand to have what they want and they don’t care if they have to break laws or hurt people to get it.  This is their new abortion issue.   just as they did everything to close abortion clinics (even clinics that did not perform abortion but had the hated name) and killed abortion providing doctors they are now doing that for trans care / treatment.   This has to stop.  Science has disproved the entire anti- trans conspiracy and all their misinformation has been debunked.  First there is no sign kids are being rushed into socially transitioning, there is mental health exams and treatments at every step, 98% remain happy with their transitions and some of those that detransition so because of social pressure such as negative actions / treatment from family and former friends, sexual reassignment surgeries are not happing to kids.   We know from studies that positive gender affirming treatment which the major medical associations support saves lives of trans kids and adult.   Hugs

Conservatives falsely claimed in August the hospital was performing hysterectomies on “young girls.”
 
By  
Children’s hospital faces third bomb threat due to anti-trans conspiracy theories
Boston Children’s Hospital
 

Boston Children’s Hospital was the target of another bomb threat Wednesday, the third since August. The hospital serves transgender youth and has been the subject of a right-wing harassment campaign this past year.

“This morning, the hospital was again the target of a bomb threat,” the Harvard-affiliated medical center said in a statement. Boston Children’s is “committed to ensuring the hospital is a safe and secure place for all who work here and come here.”

The previous two bomb threats were directed at the hospital’s Gender Multispecialty Service program, the first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program in the country.

Right-wing troll Matt Walsh, Chaya Raichik of LibsofTikTok, and Fox News host Tucker Carlson began whipping up outrage over the summer with false claims the hospital was mutilating children.

After staff and patients were evacuated Wednesday, police determined the latest threat to be a hoax.

In October, Catherine Leavy, 37, was indicted on one count of making a false bomb threat and one count of intentionally conveying false or misleading information that a bomb was on the way to Boston Children’s Hospital, in relation to the threat called in on August 30. A search of Leavy’s residence on September 15 turned up the phone allegedly used to make the call.

In August, Raichik spread the false story to her 1.5 million followers that Boston Children’s was performing hysterectomies “for young girls” as part of their gender-affirming care program. No such surgeries were or are available to trans boys under 18. The disinformation was amplified across right-wing media.

In September, Walsh targeted Vanderbilt University Medical Center with similarly false information, claiming the hospital’s Transgender Health Clinic “now castrate, sterilize, and mutilate minors as well as adults, while apparently taking steps to hide this activity from the public view.”

Walsh criticized the clinic’s Trans Buddy program – which offers peer support to patients – and repeatedly accused the medical staff of “drugging and sterilizing” kids for financial gain.

Soon after, Carlson shared the names and photos of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s board of directors, while ranting against hospitals that provide gender-affirming care. He urged the board, and by extension his viewers, to “do something to stop these crimes.”

White supremacists protest a Chattanooga all-ages drag brunch

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/white-supremacists-protest-chattanooga-ages-drag-brunch/

Again gang thugs.   Funny white supremacy and Nazis do not bother the republicans and churches but peaceful creative dress up does.   But I see that these thugs are not getting the big crowds and backing they used to get, I think the good people are pushing back against this rule by gang violence.     Hugs

Some demonstrators reportedly carried Patriot Front flags and shouted “white power.”
 
By  
White supremacists protest a Chattanooga all-ages drag brunch
Anti-LGBTQ protesters in Chattanooga, TN Photo: Screenshot
 

A drag brunch in Chattanooga, Tennessee drew protest Sunday, in a scene that has become all too common over the past year.

The crowd of about 30 people outside the Seed Theater was reportedly organized by Chattanooga-based right-wing group Tennessee Neighbors for Liberty. But, as the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports, in photos and videos posted to social media, several protesters can be seen carrying flags bearing the logo of white supremacist group Patriot Front.

In one video, a protester appears to throw a Nazi salute and shout “white power.”

Neo-Nazi throwing a Hitler salute and yelling ‘white power’ at today’s drag brunch protest organized by the Tennessee Neighbors For Liberty from Chattanooga

 

Protesters chanted slogans like “strong families, strong nation,” and “reclaim America,” and held signs saying “stop the abuse of children,” “groom dogs not children,” “cross-dressing is an abomination to the Lord,” and “You do not know what love is.”

They were met, however, by a group of counter-protesters, which was reportedly slightly larger, holding Pride flags and chanting “love will win.”

Police were present at the protest, but no incidents were reported, according to a Chattanooga Police Department spokesperson.

Elizabeth and Brenton Haley started the Seed Theater earlier this year to give LGBTQ people like their 15-year-old transgender son a place to feel safe.

“That’s what we hear more than anything from parents, especially for teachers and young people in those important formative years, they don’t have places their kids can go to,” Elizabeth Haley explained. “Having a safe space their children can come and experience community is really important.”

Sunday’s drag brunch, which was billed as an all-ages event, was the second show at the Seed Theater to draw protests. But Haley said that the backlash has actually led to an increase in support and donations to the theater.

“It’s been really great for our community, as difficult as it is,” she said. “It’s very clear that we have a strong and healthy presence of LGBTQ people and allies here in Chattanooga.”

Haley said that Sunday’s drag brunch sold out all 80 tickets.

Earlier this month, Tennessee Republicans introduced a bill that would ban any “adult cabaret performance” — including “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest” — on public property within view of anyone who is not an adult.

Herschel Walker HUMILIATES himself unlike ever before in DISASTROUS appearance

Let’s talk about getting more conservative as you get older….

Youngkin Under Fire For New History Lessons Standards – JMG

Youngkin Under Fire For New History Lessons Standards

The right cannot help themselves.   The bigotry just pours out of them.  There was not any need to do this, to change the learning standards except to enshrine bigotry and promote the false idea that there was no one here in the land when the white Europeans showed up.  It misleads the students into not knowing or understanding the brutality the white settlers used against the natives to take what the natives had.  We were not interested in living together, we stole what we wanted by violence.   They can not stand that white people are not the most important people, that white people are not given automatic authority.  No diversity, no respecting other cultures or differences.  It must be only and all what the white republicansdo and want.   Hugs

 

Richmond’s ABC affiliate reports:

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is overhauling former Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration’s proposal that would have set history and social science standards in Virginia schools.

Youngkin’s VDOE’s new draft proposal would determine what students learn about American history and Virginia history inside the classroom.

If adopted by the Virginia Board of Education, the new standards will be in effect for seven years starting in the 2024-2025 school year. Professional development would begin in the summer of 2023, according to a fact sheet that was sent to legislators and obtained by 7News.

The Washington Post reports:

The old guidelines call for lessons teaching that “Indigenous People were the first inhabitants of the land that we now call Virginia and the United States” and that “multiple tribes have always and continue to live in Virginia and the United States today.” The new guidelines do not mention Indigenous peoples, instead stating that students should learn to “describe life of Virginia’s earliest settlements.”

The old guidelines suggest students learn about a wide variety of holidays and traditions including Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Juneteenth and the Fourth of July. The new guidelines only mention learning about Presidents’ Day. Finally, the new guidelines delete a suggestion from the previous version that kindergartners be taught “respect for diversity.”

Forteaneye • 2 hours ago

Youngkin is the most dangerous kind of Maga. He is soft spoken and comes off as intelligent. This masks his real hatred and fascist beliefs. He has the ability to do more harm than the Maga idiots who wear there hate on their sleeve.

Todd20036 • an hour ago

I l armed about how the savages welcomed the Europeans to make them civilized. I never learned of the Trail of tears until later

This was in the early 1980s

If you don’t get taught history, you’re taught fairy tales

Thumbnail

Will they be returning to the “Happy slave narrative”?

Charles in Bloomington Dave B • 37 minutes ago

Oh, so they could preach, conduct a funeral, sing and dance. I’m sure that solved everything.

Makoto • 2 hours ago

Per the article – The Governor’s 53-page proposal would require:

Kindergarteners to learn patriotism which includes pledging allegiance to the American flag
Forcing that would be illegal, found so by SCOTUS in the past. I’m guessing he’s hoping for a reversal on that ruling, or just isn’t aware that the pledge, even if mandatory to offer, is still optional for students to recite.

Students would learn critical thinking skills starting in the first grade
Somehow I don’t think he means actual critical thinking skills, but rather to try for “both sides” arguments about stuff like evolution to sneak in ID

clay Makoto • 2 hours ago

Most students aren’t really ready for critical thinking until junior high. If there were educators on the curriculum panel they would have known that.

JackFknTwist Makoto • an hour ago

How pathetic.
The kids will think that flying the flag is ‘jingo-normal’
Just look at Trump in Mar-a-Loco when he announced he’s running for the nomination, I counted at least 20 flags.
Jingoism is not normal.

Karl Dubhe IV • 2 hours ago

White Christian Nationalist Education. Perfect for raising a generation of fascists.

How many parents are going to want their kids to be good little authoritarians?

Town defunds its own library again after conservatives said it supports “sinful desires”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/town-defunds-library-conservatives-said-supports-sinful-desires/

They want a Christian country forcing everyone to follow her churches dictates and morality.   She is not even interested in thinking for herself, nor what the opinions or how others want to live their lives.   She wants the authority over them, she feels entitled to do it.   I get so sick of these people.   She wants to live by her church rules great, she may go for it.   But I don’t belong to her church and should be forced to live by her demands.    Nor should the schools, libraries, and kids have to regress to have society fit in with her religion.   Plus the usual equating positive LGBTQ+ messages with sexual grooming of kids.  Do these people even understand what grooming is?    Hugs

The town voted against a property tax to fund the library after conservatives claimed it was “grooming” children.
 
By  
books burning
Photo: Shutterstock
 

A town in western Michigan voted again to defund its local library after claims that it was “grooming” children by making LGBTQ books available.

Last Tuesday, 56% of Jamestown Township voters voted against a small property tax used to provide 80% of the funding to keep the local Patmos Library open.

“They are trying to groom our children to believe that it’s OK to have these sinful desires,” said Amanda Ensing, one of the people who campaigned against the library. “It’s not a political issue, it’s a Biblical issue.”

The library has been targeted by local conservatives all year for having LGBTQ books in its collection, including books like Spinning and Kiss Number 8. Both books have teen girl characters who discuss their feelings for other girls. Library officials said that the library has about 90 books with LGBTQ themes in its 67,000-book collection.

The library agreed to keep the most controversial book – asexual and nonbinary author Maia Kobabe’s memoir Gender Queer – behind the main desk so that people would have to ask a librarian to read it, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy the conservatives.

“Pray that we can make changes and make the Patmos Library a safe and neutral place for our children,” said a flyer from one of the local organizations, Jamestown Conservative, this summer.

Two library directors resigned as a result of the hateful messages they received from conservative residents.

The Patmos Library’s funding was on the ballot in the August primary elections, and voters rejected the tax used to pay for the library in that election.

“50% Millage INCREASE to GROOM our kids? Vote NO on Library!” one sign that was directly across the street from the library said, using the regional term “millage” to refer to the property tax.

The story made national headlines. The attention raised over $100,000 for the library in donations, which could cover part of its $245,000 yearly budget. But the library hoped to still get local citizens to pay for their library and put the tax question back on the ballot to ensure the library’s funding over the next decade.

“However, we know very clearly that what this library needs to remain open over the long term is to pass the 10-year levy renewal in November,” the library board wrote in a statement thanking donors for the outpouring of funding. “We cannot run the Patmos Public Library for the next decade without stable taxpayer support.”

“If the levy passes, we will remain a public library and use the donations to add to our capacities. If the levy fails, we will put these donations to work in the best way we can for as long as we can.”

After the township voted against the tax again, the library announced reduced hours due to “staff shortages” on their Facebook page.

Ensing, who called the issue “Biblical,” said that she didn’t even want the library to close. She just wanted the votes to be a “wake-up call” for the library’s directors.

“A wake-up call to what?” library board director Larry Walton asked. “To take LGBTQ books off the shelf and then they will give us money? What do you call that? Ransom? We stand behind the fact that our community is made up of a very diverse group of individuals, and we as a library cater to the diversity of our community.”

He added that the library provides many services to the community, including free wireless access to people who can’t afford internet access otherwise. Even the community room that was used for voting will have to be closed if the library is closed.

The tax in question is about $24 on houses with a market value of over $250,000.