Category: Animals / Insects / Water Life / Plants / Nature

Republicans attack Kansas Gov Laura Kelly for supporting trans people. She responded in 8 words

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/09/republicans-attack-kansas-gov-laura-kelly-supporting-trans-people-responded-8-words/

I have covered the swimmer ground before.   In the past anti-trans people have tried to claim that men who cannot win in men’s sports against men then claim to be women so they can compete in an easier contest against women while biologically still men.   That is not just not happening.    Male swimmers are competing in a men’s contest on Monday and then on Wednesday decide to swim in a female contest.   What is happening is trans women living as the gender they identify as wanting to participate in a sport they enjoy.   To participate in the sport a trans woman must meet the medical qualification of what is considered the normal hormone ranges for females.   Often there is at least one or two years of transitioning before joining a women’s team, during which time the benefits of male puberty are diminished / dissipated / removed.    Also it is important to note that trans women do not win all the events and take all the awards.   You know what determines the winners of these sports events?  Those who have natural talent and practice the sport more, longer, harder, and make the effort to be the best at their sport.  

But the sports thing is really a misdirection.    It really is not what these bills are for.   Remember the governor who vetoed on of these bills because there was only one trans child in their schools and that child was not interested in sports?   The republican legislature overrode the veto because it is entirely an issue to rile up the base and get the rabid right wing to vote.   It is not about kids, health, or education but it is entirely about getting the religious people and the rabid right who cannot accept the changes in society to be upset enough to vote republican.   That is entirely want this is about.    Are you uncomfortable that your traditions are not universal now, that other ideas are present?  Return to the past where it was all good and you were comfortable because you understood it all, vote republican.   This is what it really is what these anti-trans / don’t say gay laws are about.    Hugs

She doesn’t have time for the BS.
 
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Topeka, Kansas - January 14, 2019: Democrat Governor Laura Kelly delivers her inaugural speech is front of the steps of the Kansas State Capitol building

Topeka, Kansas – January 14, 2019: Democrat Governor Laura Kelly delivers her inaugural speech is front of the steps of the Kansas State Capitol building Photo: Shutterstock
 

The Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) is saying Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) is lying about her record on transgender rights as she faces attack ads from the conservative organization over her two vetoes of transgender sports bans.

In 2021 and this past April, Kelly vetoed bills that would have banned transgender girls from participating in school sports as their gender. The bills did not similarly restrict transgender boys.

“We all want a fair and safe space for our kids to play and compete,” she said when she vetoed this year’s bill. “However, this bill didn’t come from the experts at our schools, our athletes, or the Kansas State High School Activities Association. It came from politicians trying to score political points.”

RGA has been running ads attacking Kelly for those vetoes. One of those ads featured cisgender swimmer Riley Gaines who said, “I was forced to share a locker room with a biological man. It was uncomfortable and it was wrong.”

“This has to stop,” she concluded. “If Laura Kelly can’t protect women, she shouldn’t be governor.”

In one of her ads, Kelly responded to the claims succinctly.

“You may have seen my opponent’s attacks,” she said in the ad. “So let me just say it: of course men should not play girls’ sports. OK, we all agree there.”

The rest of the ad calls out her opponent, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R), for his support of cutting school funding.

Her statement is true: these laws are not about stopping boys or men from playing girls’ or women’s sports, they’re about banning a subset of girls and women – those who are transgender – from participating in school sports. Like most mainstream Democrats, Kelly is in favor of transgender people getting access to full educations – sports education included – but isn’t in favor of removing gender distinctions in schools.

But Republicans are now accusing her of lying, mainly because they refuse to acknowledge transgender people for who they are.

“Laura Kelly is looking Kansans in the eye and flat out lying about her record of failing to protect girls and women from having to compete against biological men in athletics,” said a spokesperson for RGA Kansas in a press release issued today.

The press release didn’t defend Schmidt when it came to his record on cutting funding for schools.

 

Menstruation Stigma

Times change.   Medical understandings lead to social and cultural changes.   This is one of them.   In some parts of the world women are still required to leave the home and stay in an outbuilding or even just outside.  I remember about a year ago a woman died because her period happened during a hurricane and she was forced to go outside and stay there during the storm.  It was in a country that had religious laws instead of science as their fundamental rule making requirements.   But she was a woman so only her family that loved her really cared about it.    Are we ready for the US Christian Taliban take over now?   Hugs

Right wing troll targets another hospital for helping transgender people

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/09/right-wing-troll-targets-another-hospital-helping-transgender-people/

Again the moral police anti-trans US Christian Taliban managed to shut down the web site of a hospital providing legal medical best practice trans affirming care.    That is what all the major medical groups support.   Here is some of the medical organizations that support trans affirming treatment. 

 Look over the list again.   These anti-trans haters like Matt Walsh claim to know more than all these medical providers.   Based on their religious beliefs I guess.   These gang of thug maga right wing win bigots are doing the dirty work so that the red state governor can pretend there is a problem, but these haters are making the problem.   It is like they flood a bathroom by stopping up the drains and then stage an investigation into the plumbers’ organizations claiming that they are why the bathroom flooded.  How long is the US going to be ruled by a small minority of thugs, gangs using threats of violence, lies, and misinformation to force the rest of the public to follow their religious views of sexuality / gender.  They want to erase all the social gains of the last 60 years.   They want the women to return to being subservient to men and the LGBTQ+ to go away / not to exist.   Hugs 

The state’s anti-LGBTQ governor is threatening to launch an investigation based on a Twitter thread.
 
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Right wing troll targets another hospital for helping transgender people
Photo: Shutterstock
 

Conservative anti-LGBTQ commentator Matt Walsh has targeted Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) this week in a crusade against gender-affirming healthcare.

In a Twitter thread on Tuesday, Walsh claimed that based on the results of an investigation by him and his team, the staff at VUMC’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.

And his accusations are fueling anti-LGBTQ politicians. In response to Walsh, anti-LGBTQ Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) released a statement expressing that Walsh’s claims warrant an investigation.

“The ‘pediatric transgender clinic’ at Vanderbilt University Medical Center raises serious moral, ethical and legal concerns,” Lee said. “We should not allow permanent, life-altering decisions that hurt children or policies that suppress religious liberties, all for the purpose of financial gain. We have to protect Tennessee children, and this warrants a thorough investigation.”

The office of the state’s Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti also reportedly confirmed an investigation is taking place.

VUMC has since shut down the website for the Transgender Health Clinic and has released a statement defending the work they do for the trans community. The statement opens by saying the video footage and social media posts Walsh used to accuse the hospital of using trans people to make money “misrepresent facts.”

“VUMC began its Transgender Health Clinic because transgender individuals are a high-risk population for mental and physical health issues and have been consistently underserved by the U.S. health system,” the statement says.

“We have been and will continue to be committed to providing family-centered care to all adolescents in compliance with state law and in line with professional practice standards and guidance established by medical specialty societies.”

The hospital emphasized that parental consent is required to treat all trans minors and that employees may decline to participate “in care they find morally objectionable.”

“The Trans Buddy program mentioned in the video has received national acclaim,” it continued. “Its purpose is to provide peer volunteers who support persons who are seeking highly personal care in an unfamiliar environment, and who may have been refused medical services in the past or avoided seeking them out of fear of being met with hostility.”

Anti-trans conservatives continue to put hospitals (and the children they treat) at risk by spreading lies about gender-affirming health care.

The Boston Children’s Hospital was recently forced to evacuate after an anonymous bomb threat was called in following a weeks-long harassment campaign from anti-LGBTQ groups.

After far-right Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik falsely claimed the hospital was conducting gender-affirming surgery on children as young as two or three years old, physicians received so many death threats, harassing calls, and emails that the hospital had to hire extra security and give doctors new guidance on responding to threats.

Around the same time, Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C. was targeted with bomb and death threats after the far-right anti-LGBTQ Twitter account Libs of TikTok falsely claimed that the hospital was performing hysterectomies (the removal of the uterus, cervix, fallopian tubes, and sometimes ovaries) on transgender children.

In reality, gender affirming surgery is almost never performed on minors.

Instead, puberty blockers are used in the treatment of transgender youth to hold off the permanent changes of puberty so that young people have more time to understand their gender identities better.

The reversible medications have been shown to significantly reduce lifelong suicide risk among transgender people. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, and other major medical/mental health organizations all support gender-affirming care for pubescent youth when appropriate.

Republicans push anti-LGBTQ+ bill in Pennsylvania that ‘goes further’ than ‘Don’t Say Gay’

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/09/21/pennsylvania-anti-lgbtq-bill-dont-say-gay/

“The intent of these bills seems to be to wipe out any discussion and pretend that [LGBTQ people] don’t exist,” Ward said.    And after they get the gays out of view in society who will be the next scapegoats.    Remember this pandering by red state governors are to their base, which is a small minority of vocal and thuggish people.   The majority of the public doesn’t want these enforced bigotry bills.   The vast majority of the public wants acceptance and tolerance of diversity.   Also don’t be fooled when the bills say notify the parents of any healthcare treatment they are talking of social transitioning such as name changes and use of pronouns.   Basically outing kids to their parents.    Hugs

Several people hold up LGBTQ+ Pride and trans Pride flags

Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania have introduced a new bill,  “patterned” on Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, that would ban discussions on LGBTQ+ topics in classrooms. (Getty)

Republican state lawmakers are rallying behind newly introduced anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that would ‘go further’ than Florida’s reviled ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law. 

GOP politicians held a rally at the Pennsylvania state capitol Tuesday (20 September) to introduce House Bill 2813. The bill shares similarities with Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which bans discussions of LGBTQ+ topics in classrooms between kindergarten and third grade. 

Pennsylvania state representative Stephanie Borowicz, the bill’s primary sponsor, said HB 2813 is “patterned” on the Florida legislation but actually “goes further” than the other measure, according to PennLive. 

 

The bill states that any public or charter school “may not offer instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity to a student in kindergarten through fifth grade”. 

It would also require schools to notify parents of “health care services offered by the school entity” to students. The legislation would also allow parents to bring civil action against schools that they believe are violating the measure. 

Borowicz added she believed the bill could be extended further in the future and wanted to ban classroom discussions on LGBTQ+ topics through high school. 

“It really needs to be protected up through 12th grade, we need to go all the way,” she said. 

However, the bill is unlikely to pass into law as Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf has already promised to veto HB 2813 and other ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills if they land on his desk. 

 
Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf speaks at a podium
Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf has promised to veto HB 2813 as he says it “denies humanity by reinforcing homophobic ideologies”. (Getty)

Wolf wanted lawmakers in the state to focus on the real issues facing Pennsylvanians rather than “engaging in discrimination and bullying”, WHTM reported. 

“HB 2813 is an effort to scorch individuality and normalise unacceptance,” Wolf said. “This legislation denies humanity by reinforcing homophobic ideologies.”

Sharon Ward, senior policy advisor for the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania, warned this bill – like other ‘Don’t Say Gay’ measures – could “really add to the existing targeting and bullying of LGBTQ kids in schools”. 

“The intent of these bills seems to be to wipe out any discussion and pretend that [LGBTQ people] don’t exist,” Ward said.

 

Pennsylvania lawmakers in the state Senate passed a similar bill, Senate Bill 1278, in June and currently awaits consideration in the House. 

SB 1278 would also ban classroom discussions of LGBTQ+ topics for pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students. Instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity would also be prohibited between sixth and twelfth grade unless it is done in an “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” manner. 

 

Several people hold up LGBTQ+ Pride flags during a protest
Campaigners have denounced the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills as they attempt to “wipe out any discussion and pretend that [LGBTQ people] don’t exist”. (Getty)

 

The Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs described SB 1278 as a “copy-paste version of Florida’s discriminatory ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill that would harm students and set back human rights” in the state.

Rafael Álvarez Febo, executive director of the LGBTQ Affairs Commission, said the bill is a “cruel attempt to politicise” queer people and “deny their humanity” to “score cheap political points”. 

“We at the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs know that the guise of calling LGBTQ people and topics ‘age inappropriate’ is really just fearmongering,” Febo said. 

Febo continued: “Bills like these will cause LGBTQ teachers to have to conceal their identities and strip any resources available for LGBTQ youth out of schools. 

“Even more alarming, these bills have emboldened far-right hate groups to mobilise to commit violence against LGBTQ people.”

Wolf has promised to veto both HB 2318 and SB 1278, but the bills await an uncertain future as Pennsylvania will have a new governor next year. 

The Republican running for office, state senator Doug Mastriano, voted in favour of SB 1278. He described the anti-LGBTQ+ measure as a way to “empower parents” to ensure children aren’t exposed to so-called “sexually explicit materials and bizarre discussions about gender identity”.

Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro, the state’s attorney general, has openly opposed the measure. Shapiro’s campaign spokesperson said the state legislature needed to stop “wasting time and taxpayer dollars on these attempts to bully LGBTQ Pennsylvanians”. 

 

Watch Barn Owls Swallow Rodents Whole | Deep Look

Barn owls swoop down on rodents and swallow them whole – gophers, voles and mice, gone in a few gulps. But how do they keep down all that food? Well, they don’t. In a few stomach-turning steps, they transform the varmints into compact balls of fur and bones known as pellets.

America’s Busiest Troll

Let’s talk about Banned Books Week 2022….

Texas Sheriff Getting Threats After Saying He’d Investigate DeSantis for Migrant Plane Stunt

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjkzn7/texas-sheriff-javier-salazar-threats-desantis

Republicans are not a political party as much as they are a crime syndicate.    They are a mob of gang thugs.   In their minds they are above the laws, that the law doesn’t apply to them.   They believe they can have anything they want by threats of violence.   No one else has rights but them, their rights are always sacred but again no one else matters.  They have no desire for a civil society, they want their way and will use violence and threats of violence to get what they want, which is one reason they are so demanding of being able to carry their guns everywhere.    Is this a decent society to live in, where there is no civil discourse, where everyone is forced to live under threats of violence, and there can be no criticism of the people in charge?   I have seen that in East Berlin under the rule of communist Russia / the USSR in the 1980s.   Please notice that again DeathSantis admits that the numbers of immigrants coming to Florida are very small.  The state is not being flood or overwhelmed by asylum seekers who are legally here nor by undocumented (illegal) immigrants.   The ones that come here are by one or two at a time.   So rather than use the $12 million in tax payer money to help the people DeathSantis instead is using it for a political photo session and to rile up his base.   Hugs

After the Florida governor sent dozens of people seeking asylum from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a local sheriff says he believes laws were broken.
 
PB

 

Rafael Eduardo (left) an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela hugs another immigrant outside of the Saint Andrews Episcopal Church, on Marthas Vineyard. Photo by Dominic Chavez

A Texas sheriff announced Monday that he would investigate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration flying Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last week.

And now, his office says, it’s received “numerous threats.”

Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, where the flight last week originated, announced Monday that he was opening an investigation into the flight. The sheriff told reporters that he believes the migrants were “lured” to Martha’s Vineyard under “false pretenses” for a “photo-op and stranded,” and that both county and federal laws were broken.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson from the Bexar County Sheriff’s office told VICE News in an email that “there have been numerous threats, an influx of calls to our dispatch and administrative offices, along with hateful emails received” since the investigation was announced.

“Additionally, as in any instance when our office receives threats precautionary measures will be made for safety of all personnel,” the spokesperson said. 

After the plane carrying the 48 migrants touched down in Martha’s Vineyard last week, local officials blasted the DeSantis administration for allegedly making false promises to the migrants. Migrants were offered “eight months cash assistance,” “food,” “housing,” and “job placements,” according to a brochure given to the migrants which was published by the newsletter Popular Information on Monday. 

State Rep. Dylan Fernandes, a Democrat who represents the Martha’s Vineyard area, called DeSantis’s move “fucking depraved.” On Sunday, Fernandes called for a federal trafficking probe “to hold DeSantis (and) others accountable for these inhumane acts.” 

On Tuesday afternoon, the migrants filed a class action lawsuit against DeSantis and the Florida Department of Transportation, according to Popular Information.

DeSantis, who is up for re-election this year, has become one of the most popular figures in the Republican party due to his relentless hostility towards his perceived political enemies and the media, and has been rumored as a potential candidate in 2024. DeSantis’s campaign and PAC have raised a combined $178 million this year, a gubernatorial fundraising record, according to OpenSecrets.

DeSantis asked for and secured $12 million in the Florida state budget earlier this year for an “immigration relocation program.” 

After saying last month that he would bus migrants to President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware, the same plane used in last week’s flight was scheduled to depart Longview, Texas today and land in Georgetown, Delaware, according to FlightAware. Vertol Systems, the same company that the state of Florida paid $650,000 for the flight last week, was paid another $950,000 Monday, according to state records. The company’s contract is for Florida’s “relocation program of unauthorized aliens.” 

After multiple delays, however, the flight from east Texas rerouted to Nashville, and is now scheduled to land in Bergen County, New Jersey Tuesday evening. It’s unclear why the flight was re-routed and who the passengers are. However, local officials say they are prepared in case migrants are dropped off. 

The office of Delaware Gov. John Carney did not respond to a request for comment from VICE News, but told The News Journal that Delaware’s emergency management and health and social services agencies “are working with community organizations and other partners to make sure that migrants who arrive here have the support that they need.”

Georgetown is located roughly 40 minutes miles west of the North Shores beach community, where President Joe Biden owns a beach house, but the more rural Georgetown is a minority-majority community with one of the highest concentrations of Guatemalan-Americans in the country. 

On Tuesday, Biden was asked about the plane and told White House reporters that DeSantis “should come visit. We have a beautiful shoreline.” 

On Tuesday, DeSantis said at a press conference that he “cannot confirm” he was flying migrants to Delaware. He also offered up a confusing defense of why his administration went to another state to purposefully seek out migrants to ship them elsewhere. 

“The problem is we’re not seeing mass movements [of migrants] into Florida, so you end up in a car with maybe two [migrants],” DeSantis said. “It’s just coming in onesie-twosies. We’ve had people on the border since last summer…everyone down there will say between 30 and 40 percent of the people coming across are seeking to end up in Florida.” 

DeSantis said during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Monday that the migrant flight was “voluntary,” and called claims that he trafficked them “nonsense.”

“[Democrats] accused the governors of Arizona, Texas, and me of political stunts dealing with illegal immigration,” DeSantis told Hannity, referring to Texas and Arizona bussing migrants to Washington D.C. and New York City. “But the biggest stunt was Biden coming into office and reversing [former President Donald] Trump’s [immigration] policies.”

Community services groups in Massachusetts mobilized to provide the migrants who landed in Martha’s Vineyard, who included small children and the elderly, with food and shelter. The migrants were later taken to Joint Base Cape Cod, where they are now being provided with services, according to the Cape Cod Times. 

In Delaware, a pastor at an Episcopal church in Georgetown was ready to welcome migrants Tuesday. 

“If this happens,” Pastor Elizabeth Kaeton told the News Journal, “we’re gonna be as generous as we can be and do exactly what Jesus told us to do, which is love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” 

The smoking gun in Martha’s Vineyard

https://popular.info/p/the-smoking-gun-in-marthas-vineyard

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Tucker Carlson Endorses Anti-LGBTQ Vigilantism – JMG

Tucker Carlson Endorses Anti-LGBTQ Vigilantism

This one of the most watched loudest voices in right wing media.  Spreading more lies so more people will be targeted for violence and more LGBTQ+ events will get shut down by the Proud Boys gang thugs enforcement arm of the republican party.    Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. Children and young people who are groomed can be sexually abused, exploited or trafficked. Anybody can be a groomer, no matter their age, gender or race.   Teachers are not groomers, nor are drag queens reading stories with parents present.  The ones sexualizing kids is the right who are claiming anything they don’t like is sexualizing kids, and anyone they are against is a grooming pedophile.   Kids understand gender from the time they notice mommy and daddy, brother and sister, and kids understand love attraction again because they see it at home, on TV, at church, anywhere there are people in relationships.   They understand it if Mr. T and Mr. B are a couple that they love each other like their family.  They are not sexualized to see a picture of a straight spouse on a teacher’s desk and they are not sexualized to see a picture of a same sex spouse on a teacher’s desk.   It doesn’t sexualize them in anyway.   It is just the world around them.  What does sexualize them is what the right wing is doing, making children a sexual pawn to criminalize / ban everything you don’t like in society.  Don’t bring the kids into your hate, be honest and just say you hate some and are against it.   Don’t hide behind the kids.   Hugs

“In a healthy country, with an intact social fabric, neighborhood dads would give out instant justice to anyone who even thought about sexualizing their kids.

“And if you doubt that, go out and try it in Bulgaria or South Africa or the Solomon Islands. Good luck. Let us know how that ends, if you can still speak.

“Libs of TikTok was being banned from the internet — why? Because it showed documentary evidence of what was happening. Some people described what was happening as grooming.

“We are not exactly sure what that means, but if it’s sexually abusing children — yeah, that is what’s happening. But the term groomer is now hate speech, says NBC News.

“What you’re seeing is a society that hates children. You would have to hate children in order to sexualize them. Because sexualizing children screws them up for life — ask anyone to whom it has happened — period.

“No one should put up with this. No parent should put up with this for one second, no matter what the law says. Your duty — your moral duty — is to defend your children.

“This is an attack on your children and you should fight back.” – Tucker Carlson, on last night’s show.

Libs Of TikTok is still active on Twitter and Facebook.