A new Alabama law that targets trans youth went into effect on May 8 and is causing concern for LGBTQ+ people, their families, and allies. Signed into law by Governor Kay Ivey on April 8, the “Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act” makes it a felony for doctors to prescribe hormones and puberty blockers for those under age 19, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The law is part of a wider swath of anti-trans youth legislation cropping up across Republican-controlled states, but this bill is uniquely extreme in targeting health care providers with potential felony charges. Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, an Alabama pediatrician who treats gender dysphoria in children, testified during the bill’s federal court hearing: “This will force us into a place of risking a felony conviction for providing evidence-based care.”
As of this writing, the law is in effect, meaning that providing gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in Alabama is a felony. According to AL.com, the law is being challenged by a lawsuit filed by parents of four transgender youth who argue the law will “deprive their children of access to established medical care that is safe, effective, and necessary.” Also party to the suit are a child psychologist who works with trans youth, a pediatrician, and a pastor. In the meantime, plaintiffs are asking for a temporary hold on the law.
Trans advocates and experts are sounding the alarm. As Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, told Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman during a May 9 appearance on the program, this “[creates] an absolutely terrifying sea change in the reality on the ground for trans people, their families, and their doctors in Alabama — and not just in Alabama, but across the Southeast.”
I have been working in trans legal advocacy for 18 years and today is probably the most upsetting day with a felony ban on health care going into effect in Alabama. Not much noise nationally from our “allies” either.
“The University of Alabama has a gender clinic that is serving trans adolescents and their families, not just in Alabama, but in Georgia and Florida and Tennessee and Mississippi,” Strangio continued. “And in a matter of hours, all of that care is becoming a felony, which means families are uprooting their lives. They’re trying to figure out what, when, and whether they can get life-saving care for their adolescent children.”
In other states, legislators are pushing to adopt “trans refuge” policies that would welcome trans people and their families from hostile states. California senator Scott Wiener, who sponsored a bill in his home state as part of this effort, publicly criticized Alabama’s law. “At midnight, Alabama’s vile law criminalizing trans youth accessing gender-affirming care — threatening parents & doctors with 10 years in prison — went into effect. We’re working in coalition w/19 other states to pass laws granting refuge to impacted families. We have your backs,” Wiener wrote on Twitter.
According to Bay City News, the proposed California bill would stop other states from subpoenaing medical records from California in order to separate trans children from their parents or to penalize families for seeking gender-affirming care, and would bar law enforcement from, as reported by the outlet, “making or intentionally participating in the arrest of an individual with an out-of-state warrant for allowing a child to receive gender-affirming health care.”
Twenty-one LGBTQ lawmakers in 16 states have committed to introducing similar legislation, according to the Victory Institute, an organization that promotes LGBTQ politicians.
Republican lawmakers are echoing the anti-immigrant rhetoric. An MSNBC political panel joined American Voices with Alicia Menendez to discuss the danger of touting lies about immigrants.
Ten people were killed and three injured during a mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket Saturday afternoon, according to the city’s police commissioner. The manifesto left by the perpetrator of the hate crime appeared to get his talking points straight from Tucker Carlson, Fox News, and the Republican Party Video by Francis Maxwell.
Prayer in school has been a recent debate in the Supreme Court.
The case involves Joe Kennedy, a former high school football coach who was fired for allegedly pressuring students to perform Christian prayers.
Back in 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that New York state public schools could not begin school days with a state-composed prayer.
The court’s opinion was that the practice violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause since it amounted to government-sponsored religious instruction.
The Supreme Court now leads with more conservative judges and seems to be searching April 25 to rule in favor of a former coach who was fired for praying.
In the United States, Pew research shows a recent sharp decline in Christianity.
65 percent of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade.
Americans now describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” up from 12 percent in 2009. Members of non-Christian religions also have grown modestly as a share of the adult population
So what’s next for the Wylie ISD teacher? She has since refused to resign and says this can go on her record.
It was also expressed that one Wylie teacher retired early because of a threatened lawsuit.
“We need to stand firm in our principles and faith,” Parrish said.
Since news broke of her firing, Parrish said she feels “blessed” by the response she’s gotten in the following statement:
“Thank you so much to everyone who has reached out. You have no idea how much it means to me and my family. Being a teacher and coach is one of my greatest blessings. I’m so thankful to God for the special amazing students and athletes that he placed in my life. You all have blessed me more than you’ll ever know. Our family appreciates your continued prayers. Blessings to you.”
Nellie Parrish
The Wylie ISD superintendent has since responded, disputing her claims:
“Nellie Parrish’s contract termination was not because of prayer or Christianity,” said Light.
“This is false information and district personnel matters will not be discussed due to privacy,
Parrish said the school would play Christian music in the cafeteria alongside holding a prayer before football games, adding that Joey Light, the district’s superintendent, is known to lead a prayer on the first day of school.
Her claims are bullshit. They can’t just terminate her for no clear reason. If she was new to that district and still probationary status, they could non-renew her contract. That would make me wonder if she had been released from other districts for similar reasons. Something is missing from this story.
A gentle reminder: Not all Christians proselytize.
I’m married to a devout Christian man. He’s never – in the 48 years we’ve been together – proselytized in any way to me. Like all good and compassionate people of faith, he keeps his personally-held religious beliefs to himself, with no desire to “convert” anyone to anything.
He’s far from alone.
There are many many good and compassionate people of faith.
This is the part of right wing media that drives me nuts. Outright racist lying to create anger that the base will never bother to check if it is true and they wont accept the truth when you tell them. Hannity, who proudly says he is an opinion host not a journalist, makes a big display and statement and they accept it with no question. When you point out the lie of the entire thing, they attack you and ignore anything you say because they disagree with you. Clearly you get the point. They have been indoctrinated to believe only their cult leaders on Fox backed up by other smaller right wing media. Any other information is fake or false to them and those that tell them are clearly the enemy they must destroy. How do we have a country when this is the stuff going on? Yes the cult is only like 15 to 20% of the population, but they are the most violent and thuggish part, and they are dragging the country further down with them. On top of that there are the ones using them to gain what they want to take the country culturally back a century or more. I don’t have the solution but we better find one quick. I love what the leader of NZ said when asked why they did not have a problem with their covid response, she replied we did not let Murdock set up a fox station here.
“Look at that,” Sean Hannity said on Fox News Thursday night, pointing to a photo being shown next to him, “pallets and pallets of baby formula for illegal immigrants and their families even as hardworking American” — and now there was another photo — “families, we are now suffering a massive nationwide shortage.”
The photos had been provided to Fox by the office of GOP Rep. Kat Cammack, whose account of someone in the Border Patrol telling her of “pallets” of formula being sent to a border processing center had set off a whole outrage cycle on the right. They were used Friday morning as well on “Fox & Friends” during an extended interview with Cammack.
And they did not show baby formula. The photo Hannity pointed to, and the one that followed it, showed boxes and boxes clearly labeled NIDO. As anyone at Fox could have discovered with about a minute’s worth of fact-checking, NIDO is not baby formula; it is powdered milk. As its maker, Nestlé, specifically notes: “NIDO® products are only intended for children ages 1 year and older.”
This is beyond frustrating. While shelves here at home are empty, pallets of formula make their way to the border courtesy of the U.S. government. https://t.co/0DyFRcDDZd
— Congresswoman Kat Cammack (@RepKatCammack) May 12, 2022
Pallets of baby formula available at the border. But on shelves here at home, a crisis-level shortage for American families. This is Biden's America Last agenda on display. https://t.co/o2GcOoqggM
— Congresswoman Kat Cammack (@RepKatCammack) May 12, 2022
Kat Cammack torches Biden admin. on baby formula shortage: Exactly what 'America last' looks likehttps://t.co/eEP0G61RJ2
The genius of Donald Trump is his understanding that the greatest lie you can tell someone is the lie that the person wants more than life itself to believe.
Asking Fox to fact check their reporting is like asking Trump to stop lying. I can find pallets of powdered milk in nearly every grocery chain in America. I just checked Costco’s website. Even they have it.
As anyone at Fox could have discovered with about a minute’s worth of fact-checking, NIDO is not baby formula; it is powdered milk. As its maker, Nestlé, specifically notes: “NIDO® products are only intended for children ages 1 year and older.”
Asking Fox to fact check their reporting is like asking Trump to stop lying. I can find pallets of powdered milk in nearly every grocery chain in America. I just checked Costco’s website. Even they have it.
So, why can't we just import baby formula?
Heh heh, glad you asked.
Every heard of the United States Canada Mexico Agreement? That bit of legislation Trump and Republicans proudly replaced NAFTA with? Remember Trump bragging about that? Remember?
The same baby formula producer that had contaminated product and led to this shortage used billions of dollars to buy back stock instead of investing in their product safety. Putting profits before the safety of our children is unacceptable.
If Rupert Murdoch cared about truth, decency, democracy, or anything beyond lining his own already-bulging pockets he would put an end to this nonsense, but he won’t because he doesn’t.
I think the reality is they hate the idea of immigrant children getting baby formula. So should we let them starve? I’d bet most of those “compassionate” Christians would say yes. “Formula is only fer ‘Muricans!”
“And under President Donald Trump, the U.S. entered into a new North American trade agreement that actively discourages formula imports from our largest trading partner, Canada.” https://t.co/suWTf8u5v5
I wish that there were laws that protected citizens from such lies. Free speech is one thing, but this shit, while not sparking a full blown panic, is just keeping things simmering. One of my absolute dearest friends (talking to you Angela) hardly speaks with me, I’m guessing because of Facebook posts about the orange one. It’s sad, but as i get older I’ve just decided to stop chasing after friendships. I held Angela when her husband, and then her Mother passed away. She’s never once reached out to me, and 2021 was a helluva year for me. She and her boyfriend watch fox “news” and parrot what they see. You can’t change people, and it’s not worth trying. As you get older, your circle gets smaller. Fox News makes it all the worse.
American industry, unfortunately, CAN'T just spin up to replace the lack of supply from Abbott Nutrition. Because the US Dairy Industry has worked very hard over several decades to ensure the supply of infant formula is strictly managed to maintain a steady profit margin. https://t.co/Y9ygH2PDyg
Even taking them at their premise. Gotta love all these “pro-life” folks upset that.. we’re feeding people we’re keeping in custody? Especially infants that obviously had no choice in the matter?
Huh. Very “pro-life” indeed, since the clear implication is that we.. shouldn’t be feeding those infants we’re keeping in custody.. hmm. I mean, could take this as a reason to not keep them in custody? But that’s silly, I’m sure. Better to suggest that we just shouldn’t feed them.. while they’re in custody.. which.. uhhh.. not so pro life if you ask anyone who knows anything about how digestion works?
Is this the US exceptionalism that the right keeps saying we need to instruct kids in schools? No this is the part of history they want to whitewash away. This is what the rabid right wing and Republicans like DeathSantis and Stephen Miller do not want US kids to know about. The US was not always the shining knight doing the best thing for everyone. The US like every country has a dark past that needs to be acknowledged and accepted so we can heal and never repeat them again. But if the right can erase these actions then they can also repeat them.
Is this indoctrination? Compare this to the don’t say gay bills Republicans are pushing in public schools and the public school religious staff that push their religion on the kids despite the laws against it. People need to understand this is a concentrated push to rewind the culture war on LGBTQ+ that the right lost and make the LGBTQ+ go away so they can pretend the right way to live and the way everyone does is heteronormative and in accordance with church doctrines. I went to a private church boarding school. Yes most were straight horny kids, but there was a bunch of gay kids, just very much in the closet. We had to pretend we agreed with the anti-homo language to survive and graduate but for those raised in the church it ate deep into them. It agonized them about the thing they were that their god despised along with everyone they knew and loved. It is a horrible thing to try to pray away part of yourself and think you are going to hell because of something you cannot change. I know, I lived it. Thankfully for me it was only for only 2 years and it got me out of a worse hell. I know boys raised in the faith who are gay who never got over it. One boy was so terrified of being found out he was gay he wouldn’t even shower nude, he wore his underwear. We had large communal shower rooms. To me doing that to a kid, installing that much fear over a normal thing they are born with is child abuse. Yet there are people still doing it to their kids and there are others doing everything they can to push us back to those days. By the way the comments I found were very interesting as well. Hugs
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A homework assignment given to several middle-schoolers at Christian Academy of Louisville encourages students to persuade an imaginary friend to reject homosexuality.
And parents, members of the LGBTQ community and others aren’t pleased.
The assignment, which was due Thursday, came to the light Friday, when JP Davis, a Kentucky-based business owner, posted screenshots of the assignment on social media.
CAL officials confirmed the assignment late Friday afternoon.
Davis told The Courier Journal he was shown the homework by a close friend with a child who attends CAL who was “visibly and understandably upset about the assignment.”
“Her kid is in the class that was given the assignment, and he and her are both uncomfortable with it,” Davis, owner of the JP Davis Partners consulting agency, said. “She doesn’t know how to handle it. … And her kid’s upset.”
Screenshots show the assignment required students to write a letter to a hypothetical friend “struggling with homosexuality” and persuade them “God’s design for them is good,” “homosexuality will not bring them satisfaction” and “you love them even though you don’t approve of their lifestyle.”
Modern day education assignment at Christian Academy of Louisville. Middle school. Write a letter to your homosexual friend explaining why it’s wrong. Shameful. #stopthehatepic.twitter.com/UdgXv3FEBA
“Assume that you have known this friend since kindergarten, that you go to the same church and that you have been pretty good friends over the years until now,” the screenshot of the assignment read. “… The aim of your letter should be to lovingly and compassionately speak truth to the person you’re talking to in a way that does not approve of any sin. Instead, TRY TO PERSUADE THEM OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S DESIGN for them.”
In an email Friday afternoon, Christian Academy of Louisville School System Superintendent Darin Long said the assignment had been given to students in a middle school Bible elective class.
The homework was “part of a unit of study which discusses ‘What are humans and where is their identity?'” Long wrote, and “in context, was how a person could discuss homosexuality with a friend from a biblical perspective with compassion and love.”
“This hypothetical friend conversation was for our students to review the class discussions and their perspectives on the subject,” his statement said. “Moving forward, we will review this assignment to ensure there is clarity in its purpose and language.”
The Christian Academy School System is a private school system in the region with a Christianity-based curriculum. It has four campuses in Louisville and Southern Indiana. More than 3,000 children are in the school system.
Davis said the issue is personal to him. He spent the first 23 years of his life hiding his homosexuality, he said, before coming out as a gay man.
It took him a long time to gather the courage to go public, he said, and as he gets closer to 40, Davis said he doesn’t want the next generation to face the same struggles.
“The statistics speak for themselves on suicide among LGBTQ+ people, and these are seventh-graders that are being subjected to hate and division, and it’s not necessary,” Davis said. “I know it’s a Christian school, but that’s not my Christianity. That’s not my values. And that’s not what Jesus, if they want to make that argument, represented. Jesus didn’t go around asking people to judge and tell other people how they’re wrong and shame.”
A 2002 CAL graduate with ties to the school, Kylee Marcy told The Courier Journal she was also outraged when she heard about the assignment Friday morning through a social media post. She said she immediately reached out to other alumni, as well as parents who have kids at CAL.
She was angry, she said. But she wasn’t surprised.
“I would not call this out of character in any way,” she said. “But I was still really disappointed because I’ve been gone 20 years, and I would’ve hoped that in 20 years maybe they would have learned that love is the way to go, as opposed to the fire-and-brimstone hate. But it doesn’t seem like it to me.”
Marcy said the text and contents of the assignment indicate it was homework issued in the school’s Christian Worldview class. She questioned why CAL would focus an assignment targeting one sin — “if you do believe homosexuality is a sin, which I personally do not” – and called on the school to make some changes moving forward.
“I would like them to issue an apology and change the Christian Worldview class curriculum, and I would like that this specific teacher issue an apology to at least the parents and the students,” Marcy said.
In Long’s statement, he said CAL teaches content “with a biblical worldview” and said the school believes marriage should be between a man and a woman and that it also encourages tolerance.
“We believe that God created the marriage covenant to be between one man and one woman (Gen. 1:27, Gen. 2:24). We believe that sex is a good gift of God, to be celebrated within the confines of the marriage covenant, agreeing that all other sexual expressions go against God’s design. (1 Cor. 6:18, Gal. 5:19),” Long’s statement said.
“We believe that all individuals are created in the image of God, and therefore should be treated with compassion, respect, dignity and love at all times even in disagreement.”
It makes me uncomfortable when you make me touch your pee pee during confession. I specially don’t like the sticky mess that it causes. Could you please stop doing that? My teacher said it is wrong and that I should write you a letter.
By the time I was in Middle School, I was clearly aware that I was gay. My first thought on reading this is what happens to the kid in this school who is struggling with all of this? It’s that particular brand of cruelty and manipulation that goes by the name christian.
Turn The Table: Public school assignment from atheist teacher requires students to write a letter to a hypothetical friend “struggling with Christianity” and persuade them “God isn’t real,” “fairy tale beliefs will not bring them satisfaction” and “you love them even though you don’t approve of their chosen religious lifestyle.”
“The school was one of ten private schools established in the wake of a court ordered busing to desegregate public school in Jefferson county in 1975. Farmer claimed that the school was not an escape from integration, but that busing “caused people to take a closer look at the school system.”
Because I’m so far removed from first coming out and from being in this kind of Christian environment, I laughed at this. I realize that for many it’s not funny, and I’ll address that in a minute. But these assholes actually think that we’re all sitting around waiting for them to come to our doors and tell us what they think about how we ought to live our lives. We aren’t. As the 70s song said, “You can’t even run your own life. I’ll be damned if you run mine!” So it’s just funny to me that they think this “letter” will contain something about how parts of society view homosexuality that an actual homosexual has never heard or thought about. I mean really. But that’s how those people think.
Of course this isn’t funny that young people are being taught that being a buttinsky isn’t going to get them smacked in the face (literally or figuratively) because it is. Of course they’ll just play martyr when that happens. But it’s what they deserve. It’s the same thing you’d deserve if you walked up to someone and commented on their weight or how they are dressed. That’s on you if you want to do shit like that. I don’t recommend it and when they smack you one, I’m going to cheer and by them a hot beverage of their choice.
Anyway, this just typical of how this crowd thinks. I wonder what sexual harassment that school is covering up at the moment while they worry that some people are off being gay somewhere. Yeah. Fucking pile of hypocrites, the lot of them.
Christians and other religious cults have to recruit members to the cult because no one‘s born believing in a religious cult. They have to be recruited, indoctrinated and brainwashed into them, peferably from birth.
Scottie's Playtime 