We’re proud to put up 6 “In Florida … We Say Gay!” billboards across Florida to celebrate Pride Month with a message of support and solidarity, funded by over 1,000 Cedar Key Progress donors.
The stakes have never been higher than they are right now for the trans and queer community
Florida Republicans are trying to make it so that our state is unsafe for anyone who isn’t a Christian, straight, white man, and we won’t stand for being known for all of this bigotry and hate. We say gay because the Florida we know welcomes everyone, whether you’re trans or cis, gay or straight, Black, brown or white.
Cedar Key Progress Poll: Floridians Oppose Book Bans, Support DEI
A recent Cedar Key Progress poll of 400 Floridians, conducted May 18-22, 2023 by Civiqs, found that Floridians oppose LGBTQ+ book bans and Ron DeSantis’s attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Do you support or oppose laws removing books mentioning gay and transgender people and history from public school libraries? Support 42% Oppose 48% Neither support nor oppose 7% Unsure 3%
Do you support or oppose laws banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from colleges and universities? Support 39% Oppose 50% Neither support nor oppose 7% Unsure 4%
Nobody said Gay when I was a kid, there were no Drag Queen Story Hours, no Pride events, no representation of any kind, and I still turned out Gay. These clowns have no idea what they’re doing, they’ll end up hurting kids in the long run. For awhile, I thought we’d made some progress in this country, now I realize the hate, fear and ignorance was just festering, waiting until it was lauded by the Republican Party. The billboards are nice, but they aren’t likely to change anyone’s mind.
My hope is that all this poison can be treated like an infection in the body like an abscess. Now that it has come to the surface, it can be lanced and dealt with. But I am at a loss as to what will be the cure.
Just read yesterday that a whole lot of LGBTQ folks are trying to move away from Florida now. Including parents of gay and trans kids who are terrified the state will seize their children from them.
Valid fear. My friend and his husband left just last month. As my friend put it, the medical scare his husband had is in the past but if one arises again, they didn’t want to risk being in FL and being denied care.
I wonder what will happen, when school comes back into session, and High School Students, consistently ask questions about being Gay in their classes??? What will the schools do to them???
Again the bill is vague to keep fear in the performers / venues that they may be arrested or fines. It is vague so that anything can be a violation of the law if the authorities don’t like it. In fact I am listening to Vaush describe this right now, it is a deliberate attempt to outlaw something that courts would prevent legislators from outlawing. That is why they took drag out of the bill specifically because courts have held up laws outlawing drag in other states, but they added prosthetics depicting sexual organs meaning fake boobies as sexual conduct. The bill classifies as sexual conduct the use of “accessories or prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics,” accompanied with sexual gesticulations. Also anything can be a sexual gesture even dancing. Remember when dancing was thought to be sinful and simulated sexual movements. This is clearly am attempt to eliminate any performance of someone dressed in gender clothing different than their assigned at birth sex. If a man adds fake boobs or a woman puts something to add a bulge to their pants, it is prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics. And the people pushing the bill admit they find drag disgusting and they want it removed from public / society. The US Taliban. Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, authored SB 12 after a small but loud group of activists and extremist groups fueled anti-drag panic by filming drag shows and posting the videos on social media. Those groups characterized all drag as inherently sexual regardless of the content or audience, which resonated with top GOP leaders in the state, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Notice that these same Christian lawmakers exempted super large breasted servers at restaurants designed to excite straight boys or adult men. I guess exaggerated sexual female sexual characteristics are OK if it is heterosexual prurient interest in sex. Democrats questioned whether the bill’s language would also ensnare restaurants like Twin Peaks that feature scantily clad servers. Shaheen said the way the bill is written exempts these types of performances. At the end of the article I will add some more stuff based on the bills author’s Christian beliefs that have been pushed into law or tried to get to be laws. Hugs
Originally pitched as an effort to restrict children from seeing certain drag shows, the House and Senate agreed on a version of the bill that could still ensnare LGBTQ performers.
The Texas State Capitol on June 8, 2022. Credit: Kylie Cooper/The Texas Tribune
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The Texas Legislature gave final approval Sunday to a bill that will criminalize performers that put on sexually explicit shows in front of children as well as any businesses that host them.
Originally designed as legislation to restrict minors from attending certain drag shows, lawmakers agreed on bill language that removed direct reference to drag performers just before an end-of-day deadline. The bill now goes to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
Under Senate Bill 12, business owners would face a $10,000 fine for hosting sexually explicit performances in which someone is nude or appeals to the “prurient interest in sex.” Performers caught violating the proposed restriction could be slapped with a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
After lawmakers from both chambers met in a conference committee to hash out the differences between their versions of the bill, the House and Senate released a new one that expanded the penal code’s definition of sexual conduct.The bill classifies as sexual conduct the use of “accessories or prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics,” accompanied with sexual gesticulations.
Advocates said this addition is aimed at drag queens’ props and costumes, which is evidence that lawmakers are still targeting the LGBTQ community.
Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, amended the legislation in the House by removing explicit reference to drag. Shaheen told The Texas Tribune that members had viewed videos of performances in which children were exposed to “lewd, disgusting, inappropriate stuff.” He said the updated bill addresses what was in those videos. Shaheen did not specify which videos concerned lawmakers.
Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, authored SB 12 after a small but loud group of activists and extremist groups fueled anti-drag panic by filming drag shows and posting the videos on social media. Those groups characterized all drag as inherently sexual regardless of the content or audience, which resonated with top GOP leaders in the state, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
Advocates say the revisions to the legislation still target drag, even if those types of performances aren’t directly mentioned in the bill.
Brigitte Bandit, an Austin-based drag performer, criticized the addition of “accessories or prosthetics” to the bill. Drag artists performing in front of children don’t wear sexually explicit costumes, Bandit said, adding that this bill creates a lot of confusion over what is and isn’t acceptable to do at drag shows.
“Is me wearing a padded bra going to be [considered] enhancing sexual features?” Bandit asked. “It’s still really vague but it’s still geared to try to target drag performance, which is what this bill has been trying to do this entire time, right?”
Shaheen said that including direct reference to drag performers wasn’t necessary to the intent of the bill, which was to restrict children from seeing sexually explicit material.
“You want it to cover inappropriate drag shows, but you [also] want it to cover if a stripper starts doing stuff in front of a child,” Shaheen said.
Rep. Mary González, D-Clint, spoke against the bill Sunday just before the House gave it final approval in a 87-54 vote. She criticized the removal of language that previously narrowed the bill’s enforcement to only businesses. González warned that the bill’s vague language could lead to a “domino effect” of consequences.
“The broadness could negatively implicate even the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders,” said González. “It can go into your homes and say what is allowed in your homes after the lines ‘commercial enterprise’ were stricken out.”
During a House hearing on SB 12, Democrats questioned whether the bill’s language would also ensnare restaurants like Twin Peaks that feature scantily clad servers. Shaheen said the way the bill is written exempts these types of performances.
LGBTQ lawmakers applauded the removal of the direct reference to drag performers. But advocates fear the phrase “prurient interest in sex” could be interpreted broadly since Texas law doesn’t have a clear definition of the term, said Brian Klosterboer, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas who testified against the bill in a House committee.
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, the term is defined as “erotic, lascivious, abnormal, unhealthy, degrading, shameful, or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion,” though the language’s interpretation varies by community.
The Texas House sponsor of the bill, Rep. Matt Shaheen [photo above] first appeared on JMG in 2015 when he introduced a bill to nullify LGBTQ protections statewide.
The author of the bill, state Sen. Bryan Hughes, appeared here in April for his bill that would defund public libraries that host Drag Queen Story Hour.
In March, he appeared here for his bill to raise taxes on bars that host drag shows. A Texas lesbian bar has since been denied insurance.
Last year Hughes appeared here when his bill to force public schools to display “In God We Trust” posters went into effect.
In 2021, he appeared here for his bill banning criticism of white supremacy in history lessons.
RELATED: Several Pride organizations in Florida have banned drag performances or canceled events since DeSantis signed a similar bill that criminalizes shows that would potentially be within the view of children.
AyJayDee221 hours ago edited These aren’t conservatives – they’re theocratic fascist arsonists trying to burn the country down so they can rebuild it as a white Christian supremacist authoritarian regime.
Raising the debt ceiling is not a “concession” by Republicans — it's their constitutional duty.
Republicans are extorting the American people by threatening to crater the economy to extract unreasonable demands they'd never be able to get in the ordinary appropriations process. pic.twitter.com/XTi03tmPvA
It explicitly encourages local law officers such as the sheriff and county prosecutor to not enforce state and federal laws they deem unconstitutional.
Who wakes up and decides to call businesses that operate 2000 miles away and threaten them with violence? Well a very devout christian might do something like that. Tim McVeigh was a VERY DEVOUT christian.
It is also a second charge for obstruction. Then there is the report he was showing the documents to people not authorized to see them. Remember Jack Teixeira, the kid who was arrested a few weeks ago for posting documents online? Unauthorized retention and dissemination of classified material is what Jackie-boy is facing and if these media reports are accurate then Trump is going to be facing them soon as well.
“We need to go after Target in a very serious way.” This from the guy who has complained umpteen million times about how horrible cancel culture is. It turns out, like everything else, that was a lie. He just can’t stand when he (or the white christian nationalists) don’t have power in any aspect of life.
It is always, ALWAYS about power. Never about the children, never about god/jeebus/Christianity… it is ALWAYS about more power for them… and no rights for anyone else they deem as “other.” That is the only endgame for these people.
Imagine what the MEDIA would have to say if the LEFT were calling for ANY kind of violence! THIS, because it comes from the RIGHT, gets a PASS from the corporate sellout FRAUDS! (Electoral-Vote recently said Republicans inclined to speak out are afraid to speak out against Trump because they KNOW it will place their LIVES at risk, theirs and their children’s, that THAT is the purpose of the violent rhetoric, the stochastic terrorism, coming from Trump and his followers, to silence any criticism from Republicans who are alarmed by the FASCISM that has taken control of their party! WHERE are the MEDIA, the “Guardians of Democracy,” to call out and DENOUNCE this fascist rhetoric, these fascist tactics which are an ASSAULT on the democracy it is their journalistic DUTY to DEFEND from just such attacks?! They do NOTHING to call it out–they have instead infamously NORMALIZED it, something they NEVER would have done if ANY Democrat had EVER called for his opponents to be “taught a lesson”! Imagine if OBAMA had EVER adopted such an attitude! The media would have exploded in a RAGE and demanded his resignation! But such rhetoric from the right gets a PASS–they are in no way held accountable!)
WHERE is the DOJ? Where is GARLAND, that goddamned WEAKLING? What a pathetic FARCE!
Oh, the thing is, the Wingers have no problem using violence and threats of violence to get their ways. Since they do not have a majority on the social issues, that is one way they know to get what they want.
“I will not allow my kid to be corrupted by this trans agenda.” First, the only agenda I know of is that trans people want the right to live as a man or woman depending on their perceived gender identification. That has nothing to do with your children or you. And if you don’t want your children in Target, keep them home. Some people may want the merchandise they are selling, and it is none of your business whether Target sells it or not. You right wingers are just busybodies with too fucking much interest in stuff that is none of your damned business. (He reminds me of Gladys Kravitz.)
House Democrats offered amendments to bar proselytizing or attempts to convert students from one religion to another; to require chaplains to receive consent from the parents of school children; and to make schools provide chaplains from any faith or denomination requested by students. All of those amendments failed. Rep. Cole Hefner, who authored the House version of the bill, said in debates that local school boards will be allowed to set requirements for chaplains.
As I reported on Monday, the bill is the work of a Texas evangelist who falsely testified to the Texas House that the chaplains will not be “working to convert people to religion.” In fact, his organization has been open about their desire to proselytize to public school students.
Unlicensed religious chaplains could work mental health roles in Texas public schools under a bill the Legislature passed.
Critics fear the bill is an attempt at evangelizing kids and will worsen mental health through disproven counseling approaches. https://t.co/Bbup8Pv6Vt
When the Texas House was debating SB763, the bill that allows districts to replace counselors with chaplains, @DiegoBernalTX flat out asked Cole Hefner if a district could replace ALL counselors with chaplains. The answer was YES.#txlege#txedpic.twitter.com/NixV3KV18D
— Christopher Tackett @cjtackett@mastodon.social (@cjtackett) May 10, 2023
That jumped out at me too. So their long-standing argument that parents should have a voice in their children’s education has been bullshit all along? Got it.
The Texas family finds Oregon welcoming — but urges vigilance
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — When Karen’s daughter was 3, she knew how she felt. She didn’t know the word “trans” but she knew how she felt. She felt like a girl.
“I just shot that down real quick,” Karen told KOIN 6 News. “‘You’re not a girl, you’re a boy. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to be a girl to like girl things.’”
But the feeling didn’t ever go away.
“I just saw her disappearing into herself and she came to me in the kitchen again. She was 6 years old and she said, ‘Mom, I’m a girl.’ And I repeated the same thing, ‘You don’t have to be a girl to like girl things.’ She went, ‘I know. But I’m a girl who likes girl things.’ And she just held my gaze,” Karen said. “I knew. And I knew she meant it and I didn’t understand but it was my job to find out because I’m her mom.”
Karen’s love for her child turned into advocacy — in Texas, where she, her husband and children lived.
Karen is the mother of an 11-year-old trans girl who moved her family from Texas to Oregon, May 2023 (KOIN)
In 2021, Karen joined other people rallying at the state capital in Austin against a slate of bills targeting health care for transgender children, like puberty blockers, or even seeking therapy from a behavioral health provider.
The bills and the attacks were relentless. The attacks focused on their health care, tried to go after providers of care that has been deemed best-practice medical care by literally every major medical association. After advocates and some push back from the business community, many of the bills did not pass that session.
Then in 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott — facing primary challenges to his reelection — ordered the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate providing gender-affirming care as child abuse. He also ordered the parents who provided it to their children to be investigated.
“I would always say, ‘Well, I’m going to stay here and fight until they try and take my kids away.’ And I would say it as, like a, well, you know, that’s never going to happen. But then it did,” Karen said.
“We were advised to leave before we couldn’t leave.”
Karen is the mother of an 11-year-old trans girl who moved her family from Texas to Oregon, May 2023 (KOIN)
Her lawyers said her public advocacy made her a target. She remembers the children of family friends were approached at school by Protective Services agents. She had to train both her children about what to do if that happened to them.
“We had to talk about, ‘Here is the little card that you will carry around with you in your pocket and in your backpack. And if CPS shows up at your school you show them the card that says, ‘I don’t consent to talk to you. This is my lawyer’s information.”
The tipping point to move
A year ago Karen feared not only for her daughter’s safety but the affect the politics in Texas was having on her.
Her daughter was having panic attacks. One day in the car, the stress became clear when Karen asked her daughter if she wanted to record a statement for a rally in front of the Texas governor’s mansion.
“She was very quiet and she was sitting behind me,” Karen said. “Then, I just heard her little 10-year-old voice ask, ‘Am I going to die?’”
“It seems to come from out of nowhere except, no, that kind of question must be on her mind constantly hearing about all of this hate, all of these lies about her. So I pulled over and I asked, ‘Why would you say that? Of course you’re not going to die.’
“She looked at me and said, ‘Because everybody hates me here.’ And I just knew I can’t ask her to grow up in a place like this.”
Karen is the mother of an 11-year-old trans girl who moved her family from Texas to Oregon, May 2023 (KOIN)
The order by Gov. Abbot to investigate families of trans kids was struck down by a court last summer around the same time Karen and her family fled their native Texas.
Her husband’s employer saw the stress the political battle was having on their family and helped accommodate their move to Portland.
It was immediately a reset for Karen’s daughter.
“When we got into Oregon we went downtown. Then there’s this massive Pride festival and I thought it was really cool,” she said. “I felt like I’m in the right place. This is where I live now and I don’t plan on moving ever again.”
Karen sees a freedom in her daughter she didn’t see when they lived in Texas, a freedom from worry, freedom of thought — and freedom to be a kid again.
“I remember before she first started school (in Oregon, I asked) ‘Are you going to tell them that you’re trans?’ And she went, ‘Probably. It’s safe, right?’ I went, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ She just feels so supported.”
Her daughter said she was really nervous at her new school. “But I knew there was another trans kid in my class because when I visited, everyone told me this other person was trans just so I could know. And I was, like, cool. Then I felt more safe. Then I adjusted to my school more because everyone was so nice and so friendly. And it was so beautiful and I spent most of the time playing.”
Playing at school, like an 11-year-old should.
Karen feels relief in Oregon. She’s finally able to testify on legislation she supports. But during testimony in Salem earlier this spring she heard similar false arguments made here that she heard in Texas.
Just this year there have been more bills targeting the existence of transgender children introduced than the last 8 years combined, according to TransLegislation.com.
She hopes Oregonians remain vigilant in protecting equal rights for transgender people.
A transgender high school student in Mississippi missed her graduation ceremony after a federal judge denied her request to wear a dress and heels. The student, who has not been identified, had been planning to wear a dress and heels under her graduation gown in accordance with the school’s dress code for female students. However, the school’s principal told her that she would not be allowed to wear the dress and heels, citing the school’s dress code policy.
The student’s family filed a lawsuit against the school, arguing that the dress code policy was discriminatory. However, a federal judge denied the family’s request for an injunction, allowing the school to enforce its dress code policy. As a result, the student missed her graduation ceremony.
The student’s case has drawn attention to the issue of transgender rights in schools. Transgender students are often subjected to discrimination in schools, including being denied the right to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. The student’s case is a reminder that transgender students still face significant challenges in schools, and that more needs to be done to protect their rights.
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Scottie's Playtime 