A CNN investigation has uncovered the horrors of a shadowy detention facility where Palestinian prisoners are blindfolded, handcuffed and forced to wear dirty diapers. Watch Matthew Chance’s full report.
I thank Ten Bears for this. When I first heard of it I couldn’t find anything to post. Then when I saw Ten Bears’ post, I was too tired and stunned to post it. So I waited until I could deal with it. Just like the food workers in the WCK clearly marked trucks with the Israeli military giving the OK for their route, the rescue people here had permission to go to the girl, then they were killed. The reports from hospitals in Gaza witnesses said the IDF were targeting anyone in scrubs, the workers and medical people avoided being near a window and changed clothing before leaving the building. Israel’s goal has long been the extermination of all Palestinians and any support group for them. Any Palestinian male over 10 is considered Hamas by Israeli troops. Finally Biden is doing something, but it is far too little and long too late. Too late for all the dead Palestinian adults and all the dead Palestinian children. I watched an Israeli spokesperson angrily complaining no one seemed to care about the 100+ soldiers they lost in this war, but he had no remorse for the more than 40,000 dead civilian Palestinians, claiming that there have been very few civil casualties, that they were all Hamas or civilian combatants. Hugs. Scottie
One of the anti-trans haters go to things is that the European countries are reversing themselves on pro-trans beliefs. It is all selective misinformation and ideologically driven attempts to deny the progress in medical science / understanding over nearly 50 years. Their goal is to roll society back to when the LGBTQ+ had no representation nor equality. It is entirely to create the idea that trans kids / people and their best medical practice is wrong and shouldn’t be. But this article again shows they are incorrect. Just so those who are denying the progressive trend for trans rights in the European countries, a quote is below. Hugs. Scottie
Elias Fjellander, chairman of the organization’s youth branch, said it would make life better for its members. “Going forward, we are pushing to strengthen gender-affirming care, to introduce a third legal gender and to ban conversion attempts,” Fjellander said in a statement.
Last Friday, German lawmakers approved similar legislation, making it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official records directly at registry offices.
A view of the Swedish Parliament as lawmakers vote on the new gender identity law, in Stockholm, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The Swedish parliament passed a law Wednesday lowering the age required for people to legally change their gender from 18 to 16. Young people under 18 will still need approval from a guardian, a doctor, and the National Board of Health and Welfare. The government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has been split on the issue.(Jessica Gow/TT News Agency via AP)
BY JAN M. OLSEN
Updated 12:17 PM EDT, April 17, 2024
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Swedish parliament passed a law Wednesday lowering the age required for people to legally change their gender from 18 to 16. Those under 18 still need approval from a guardian, a doctor and the National Board of Health and Welfare.
No longer required is a gender dysphoria diagnosis, defined by medical professionals as psychological distress experienced by those whose gender expression does not match their gender identity.
Sweden joins a number of countries with similar laws including Denmark, Norway, Finland and Spain.
The vote in Sweden passed 234-94 with 21 lawmakers absent, following a debate that lasted for nearly six hours.
Sweden Democrats, the populist party with far-right roots that supports the government in parliament but is not part of the government, opposed the law.
Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, told reporters it was “deplorable that a proposal that clearly lacks the support of the population is so lightly voted through.”
But Johan Hultberg with the Moderates of Sweden’s conservative prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, called the outcome “gratifying.” Hultberg called it “a cautious but important reform for a vulnerable group. I’m glad we’re done with it.”
Kristersson’s center-right coalition had been split on the issue, with the Moderates and the Liberals largely supporting the law while the small Christian Democrats were against it.
Peter Sidlund Ponkala, chairman of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights, known by its Swedish acronym RFSL, called the law’s passage “a step in the right direction” and “a recognition for everyone who has been waiting for decades for a new law.”
Elias Fjellander, chairman of the organization’s youth branch, said it would make life better for its members. “Going forward, we are pushing to strengthen gender-affirming care, to introduce a third legal gender and to ban conversion attempts,” Fjellander said in a statement.
Last Friday, German lawmakers approved similar legislation, making it easier for transgender, intersex and nonbinary people to change their name and gender in official records directly at registry offices.
In the U.K., the Scottish parliament in 2022 passed a bill allowing people aged 16 or older to change their gender designation on identity documents by self-declaration. It was vetoed by the British government, a decision that Scotland’s highest civil court upheld in December. The legislation set Scotland apart from the rest of the U.K., where the minimum age is 18 and a medical diagnosis is required.
Marchers carry a rainbow flag to the Alabama Capital during the 2019 Pride March and RallyPhoto: Mickey Welsh / Advertiser/ via IMAGN
Alabama’s legislature is advancing two censorious anti-LGBTQ bills: H.B. 130 would ban LGBTQ+ flags in classrooms and expand the state’s “Don’t say gay” law to include grades 6-8; H.B. 385 would jail librarians for giving “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent. Both bills were approved in the Alabama House of Representatives this week and now head to the state’s Republican-led upper legislative chamber.
Alabama’s current “Don’t Say Gay” law says that K-5 classrooms “shall not engage in classroom discussion or provide classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” H.B. 130 would also remove the section “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” banning LGBTQ+ discussions completely.
The sweeping education bill also includes a trans bathroom ban.
The H.B. 130 expansion, which passed the state House on Tuesday, would expand the law to include grades 6-8 and also prohibit “flags symbolizing sexual orientations or gender identities” in all grade school levels.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Mack Butler (R), said the bill is necessary to “purify the schools” of “some indoctrination going on,” ABC News reported.
“[LGBTQ+ discussions and flags are] a component of Marxism where we’re – you know – destroying the family and teaching some of these things. Let it happen somewhere else other than our schools.” Butler said.
The ACLU of Alabama has spoken against the law, saying that it would silence “inclusive” and “essential” discussions among students and teachers in classrooms while violating their First Amendment rights to free speech.
On Thursday, the Alabama House also passed H.B. 385, a bill would expand the state’s definition of “sexual conduct” to include conduct that “knowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd and lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent.”
The law would place libraries in the same category as “adult-only” stores, movies, and entertainment” in order to criminalize librarians who provide “sexual or gender-oriented material” to minors without parental consent.
The bill would force school and public librarians to remove any books that other people find “obscene” or “harmful” to minors — though the law doesn’t specify who would determine what’s “obscene” or “harmful.” After filing a written objection to the library director or principal, librarians would then have seven days to remove the book from shelves.
Librarians who fail to do so could initially face a misdemeanor criminal charge and a fine of up to $10,000 and a county jail or hard labor sentence of up to one year. If a librarian is convicted of a second or subsequent violation, they could face a class C felony charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison, The Alabama Reflector reported.
State Rep. Neil Rafferty (D) said the law is so broadly written that it could allow a single complaint to result in a warrant being issued for someone who wears an objectionable Halloween costume or sundress.
“I do still have some serious problems with this because I feel like this is a violation of First Amendment, I feel like is easily going to be abused, and we will be dealing with unintended consequences of it,” Rafferty said.
“This bill is government overreach, robs parents of their rights, and would have a chilling effect on free speech by potentially incarcerating librarians because particular books are available, including even the Bible,” wrote Craig Scott, president of the Alabama Library Association.
Both bills are among several copycat laws across the country that seek to block minors from accessing LGBTQ+ content under the belief that such content “sexualizes” and “indoctrinates” children. Sponsors of these bills never note that numerous types of classroom and library materials have depicted heterosexual romance and issues without much parental or political objection.
This interview points out some of the flaws in the Cass Report, and how Cass herself was a known anti-trans person who had worked with DeathSantis and his administration. Talk about asking the fox about the hen house security. The people who wanted a badly done report on trans care / trans kids choose a known anti-trans person to do it. Erin Reed is a trans person who is very well versed in trans issues. The video is not long, about 14.19 minutes long but very informative if you know someone who is an anti-trans hater who often says well look at the UK and those places they are stopping care, or someone who likes to refer to the Cass report. Hugs. Scottie
Journalist Erin Reed, author of the Erin In The Morning newsletter on SubStack, discusses the recent gender identity review by the National Health Services (NHS) in the United Kingdom.
Erin Reed and Emma then jump right into the background for the UK’s recent Cass Report on transgender care, stepping back to briefly cover the rise of transphobic activism in the UK at the end of the 2010s, and the major policy impacts it had despite fringe following, including the NHS-sponsored ‘independent’ and ‘unbiased’ review by Hillary Cass. After giving some background on the evidently not-so-unbiased Cass herself, Reed parses through the clear failure of the report itself to live up to these supposed standards, actively excluding both trans voices and experts on trans care from the report, relying on outdated and fraudulent statistics (compiled by notorious homophobes nonetheless), and repeatedly requiring absurdly high standards for trans care – standards not met by the vast majority of both adult and pediatric care – while rarely substantiating any of the claims about the supposed dangers.
Owen Jones then joins, as he and Emma reflect on the last seven months of constant scenes of devastation and genocide coming out of Gaza, and the mainstream media’s heart-wrenching insistence on downplaying the horror, denying the deaths, and running cover for Israel’s project of ethnic cleansing under the guise of victimhood.
Jones and Emma explore how the severe repression and propaganda from mainstream Western political institutions is seeing an en-masse public awakening to the genocide of Gaza, and the Western elites’ violent commitment to controlling the discourse, with supposed “liberal democracies” from the US to the EU and UK defaming anti-zionist Jews and anti-semites and uplifting actual racists and Jew-haters as legitimate actors.
If you go to the link, you will see one state representative claimed he started having relations with his wife when they were 16 and they did not need input from anyone else. He then claims that he considers they were married from that point, even though they did not get legally married until they were adults. Which says a lot of about his mind set. Seriously, nothing in the bill prohibits what he and his girlfriend did. They had teenage sex. They did not get married then. The bill says girls can not be forced to get married if they are minors. Period. Because if there were loopholes people who want an as the article says one representative described minor girls as a ripe, fertile age and may have a pregnancy and a baby involved. He sees girls / women as breeding stock. Just something to carry the man’s issue to term. Hugs. Scottie
The New Hampshire House passed a bill Thursday raising the legal age of marriage to 18, sending the legislation to Gov. Chris Sununu’s desk after years of advocacy. Senate Bill 359, which passed 192-174, states that “no person below the age of 18 years shall be capable of contracting a valid marriage, and all marriages contracted by such persons shall be null and void.” Under present law, that age is 16.
Rep. Jess Edwards argued that taking away the possibility of marriage could lead more 16- and 17-year-olds to abortion. “If we continually restrict the freedom of marriage as a legitimate social option, when we do this to people who are a ripe, fertile age and may have a pregnancy and a baby involved, are we not in fact making abortion a much more desirable alternative, when marriage might be the right solution for some freedom-loving couples?” he said.
This is the frickin' mentality that we have to deal with in New Hampshire. Children (girls) should be allowed to get married because they are "ripe and fertile."
Soooo…this creep believes that fertility is the only requirement for marriage. Someone hide that poor, Ohio 10 year-old impregnated rape victim from this deviant codger.
You mean, before the upstart, rebellious American colonies declared independence from the King of England?
Speaking of which… I’m sure all those Reichwingers in the US celebrate July 4th, commemorating our throwing off a real, visible tyrant and dictator. Interesting that they not only accept, but would have us submit to, an invisible dictator! And he’s the One Special Invisible Dictator who may not be questioned!!
Probably wants to do away with no-fault divorce, too.
Teen wives can’t legally hire a divorce attorney. Edwards said he would write an amendment to the bill to allow underage wives to hire divorce attorneys, but he didn’t actually do that.
Don’t know if you saw this earlier, different state, but…
NPR: Pregnant women in Missouri can’t get divorced. Critics say it fuels domestic violence
Destonee requested she be identified by only her first name. She says she still lives with abusive threats from her ex-husband. She couldn’t end her marriage because Missouri law requires women seeking divorce to disclose whether they’re pregnant — and state judges won’t finalize divorces during a pregnancy.
Rep. Jess Edwards voted against any exception for rape or incest, but changed his mind to allow for abortion in the case of non-viable fetuses, because he “doesn’t think the government should play Solomon between a live woman and dead fetus.” < eyeroll >
Fucking old goat actually thinks 16 year old girls are salivating over musty old balls like this dude clearly has. Hopefully by the time these young ladies turns 18, they’ll run far far away from NH.
Scottie's Playtime 