Photo: flickr / public domainA gay teen who was driven to attempt suicide after his mother came under the sway of the group Moms for Liberty is telling his story publicly.
A Vice exposé details how Moms for Liberty went from a local campaign to harass one Florida school board member to a national organization driving the politicization of education in the U.S. in just a few years. The piece also includes the heartbreaking story of one of those LGBTQ+ students, Tony, and his mother, Carolyn, whose last names are withheld to protect their privacy.
As writer David Gilbert reports, after being outed by his boyfriend’s parents in early 2022, Tony was berated by his Southern Baptist mother, who told him he was going to hell and forced him into counseling with their pastor, who told him that being gay was evil.
After Tony’s mental health began a precipitous decline—he reportedly stopped playing baseball, locked himself in his bedroom, and engaged in self-harm—Carolyn briefly consented to allowing him to undergo counseling with the local chapter of LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Rainbow Youth Project.
At the same time, however, Carolyn contacted Moms for Liberty after learning about the anti-LGBTQ+ group on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. For months, the group reportedly bombarded Carolyn with anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation, convincing her that Rainbow Youth Project would “convince Tony to have his private parts removed and changed.”
When Carolyn pulled her son out of counseling with the group, Tony told her, “Mom, you just killed me.” He attempted suicide that same day.
Carolyn continued to engage with Moms for Liberty, receiving a visit from a member of the group’s Austin, Texas chapter who suggested that she sue Rainbow Youth Project for “damaging” her son. Tony’s mental health continued to decline, and a second suicide attempt followed.
“They were trying to indoctrinate me to be a foot soldier for their cause,” Carolyn now says of Moms for Liberty. “Looking back, it was never about Tony. It was about them.”
Crushingly, Tony says that his experience is not unique. He says he knows of at least four other young people who participated in a Rainbow Youth Project virtual peer group “that have been through exactly what I have been, where Moms for Liberty and Fox News have totally pulled their parents into this same trap my mom went through.”
Carolyn now holds Moms for Liberty partially responsible for what the now 19-year-old Tony went through after she found him unconscious on his bedroom floor, overdosing. “I’m responsible because I was literally putting him second to all of this, for lack of a better term, bulls**t, that they were giving to me, and I will never do that again. Ever,” she says.
“They are preying on people and when you have a question and you’re trying to save your kid, they took advantage of me and I honestly believe they do that with other parents.”
Tony said that he and his mother are working on their relationship.
“A lot of people hold her responsible for what happened and she is partially responsible. We’ve had that discussion and she knows how I feel about that,” he said. “But she’s really trying. Our relationship is getting stronger. We’re not there yet, but it’s getting stronger.”
Moms for Liberty’s tactics include relentless harassment, smear campaigns, and even threats of violence that are driving more moderate officials off local school boards and pro-LGBTQ+ educators out of the education system across the country, leading at least in part to a teacher shortage that is threatening schools.
As one California school board member told Vice, the group is “inciting people with conspiracy theories and inflammatory accusations about grooming that put trustees, teachers, and LGBTQ students in real danger.”
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgment-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Category: Children / Kids / Minors / Teens / Family
For transgender kids, a frantic rush for treatment amid bans
https://apnews.com/article/transgender-gender-affirming-care-ban-55773f9fa1e3decd9bc77990ad9af61d
I want to thank Ali for noticing the post I tried to do on this did not include the link or the article. Thankfully because she added the links so I could find it again. I don’t know why it did not post correctly. I wanted to make sure to post the photos so people can see that these are real kids going through a real gender issues that these laws would prevent, forcing them to go through a puberty of the gender they won’t want to live as or feel is them. That makes it much harder to live as the gender they are, including using the bathroom of the gender that they are and looking so different they need to spend what money they have on cosmetic surgeries to fit what some people say the look for their gender should be. Remember this fact, less than 2.4% of kids who transition regret it for many different reasons, they mostly do it for peer / family pressure often related to religion. Also a fact most should understand kids don’t turn gay or trans from reading or watching which includes seeing gay / trans / or drag queen people. It is not a choice, it is who you are. Hugs
Hugs
Original post that was screwed up here. https://scottiesplaytime.com/2023/04/22/ap-news-for-transgender-kids-a-frantic-rush-for-treatment-amid-bans/
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Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices guitar in his bedroom, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. When Asher began menstruating, he felt a terrifying disconnect between how his body was changing on the outside and how he felt inside. His mom began researching online to understand what was going on with her son, while Asher’s father, Brian, looked to doctors for expertise. With referrals from his longtime pediatrician, Asher met with therapists and doctors who helped explore his history, personality and feelings over his whole life. (AP Photo/ErinAsher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, poses for a portrait with his sticker-adorned skateboard, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Asher still struggles with moments of gender dysphoria. Friendships that were once strong fizzled after Asher came out as transgender. Parents have disinvited him from their houses out of fears he’s a “bad influence.” (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)7 of 9Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices with his skateboard at an elementary school playground after school hours on Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Asher’s parents have noticed his emotions stabilize through his treatment. “From a parent’s view, I see him as being able to be himself authentically, which is wonderful for him,” Elizabeth said. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As a third grader in Utah, mandolin-playing math whiz Elle Palmer said aloud what she had only before sensed, telling a friend she planned to transfer schools the following year and hoped her new classmates would see her as a girl.
Several states northeast, Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier listened to punk rock in his room, longing to join the shirtless boys from the neighborhood playing beneath the South Dakota sunshine. It wasn’t until menstruation started, and the disconnect with his body grew, that he knew he was one of them.
Both kids’ realizations started their families on a yearslong path of doctors, therapists and other experts in transgender medicine.
Now teenagers, their journeys have hit a roadblock.
Republican lawmakers across the country are banning gender-affirming care for minors. Restrictions have gone into effect in eight states this year — including conservative Utah and South Dakota — and are slated to in at least nine more by next year.
Those who oppose gender-affirming care raise fears about the long-term effects treatments have on teens, argue research is limited and focus particularly on irreversible procedures such as genital surgery or mastectomies.
Yet those are rare. Doctors typically guide kids toward therapy or voice coaching long before medical intervention. At that point, puberty blockers, anti-androgens that block the effects of testosterone, and hormone treatments are far more common than surgery. They have been available in the United States for more than a decade and are standard treatments backed by major doctors’ organizations including the American Medical Association.
The new laws have parents scrambling to secure the care their kids need. They worry what will happen if they can’t get the medications they’ve been prescribed, especially as their kids start puberty and their bodies change in ways that can’t be reversed.
“My body’s basically this ticking time bomb, just sitting there waiting for it to go off,” said Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, now 13.
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Elle remembers her first day at the school after she transferred. Before leaving, she came downstairs in rainbow sparkle-embroidered cowboy boots her mother worried would only spur bullies. Taunts from kids at Elle’s prior school drove her into depression so deep she had suicidal thoughts.
But on that first day, a boy told Elle he loved her boots. Some kids bullied her, but classmates and teachers were far more supportive than at her prior school. Elle discovered new passions in hip hop and drama class, and she settled into a new school and a truer version of herself. She started to see a therapist as her uncertainty about how she fit in the gender spectrum grew more pressing.
Elle came out as a transgender girl in fifth grade. Now in seventh, she planned to start hormone treatment this summer so potential side effects wouldn’t interfere with her life during the school year, especially her team’s extracurricular math competitions.
But then Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a gender-affirming care ban in January. In a compromise, the law let kids keep taking medications if they were already on them. So Elle’s mom rushed to get her treatment months earlier than planned, as did other parents.
The waitlist at one Utah clinic swelled to six months. Doctors were confronted with difficult decisions about who to get in for appointments.
Elle’s medication arrived in the mail just before Utah’s law went into effect. A small stick implanted in Elle’s forearm is slow-releasing hormone blockers to prevent the effects of male puberty from taking hold. Eventually she may be prescribed estrogen, and she and her parents will have to navigate the next steps, and whether they’ll find doctors to continue her care.
At least for now, they have a reprieve.
“It feels like we can breathe again now,” Cat Palmer said.
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There’s no relief for Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier’s family — not yet.
When Asher began menstruating, he felt a terrifying disconnect between how his body was changing on the outside and how he felt inside.
Elizabeth began researching online to understand what was going on with her son, while Asher’s father, Brian, looked to doctors for expertise. With referrals from his longtime pediatrician, Asher met with therapists and doctors who helped explore his history, personality and feelings over his whole life.
Nearly two years ago, doctors prescribed puberty blockers and birth control to slow breast development, regulate menstruation and lower the pressure of his disconnect with his body.
He’s 13 now, and finds solace in music to ground him in a world of occasional bullying and constant mistaken pronouns. He practices Blink-182’s “All the Small Things” on guitar, plays trumpet in the school band and is rehearsing various singing roles for the Cinderella school musical. When he’s not thinking about testosterone to lower his voice or eventually getting top surgery, he looks forward to playing in the high school marching band next year.
Asher still struggles with moments of gender dysphoria. Friendships that were once strong fizzled after Asher came out as transgender. Parents have disinvited him from their houses out of fears he’s a “bad influence.”
But his parents have noticed his emotions stabilize through his treatment.
“From a parent’s view, I see him as being able to be himself authentically, which is wonderful for him,” Elizabeth said.
Now he and his parents worry they’ll have to start over.
In February, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a law banning the medications and procedures that doctors have increasingly prescribed for transgender teens.
Asher’s current doctors in South Dakota won’t be able to prescribe his medications, so the family is looking for a new doctor in neighboring Minnesota, where the Democratic governor has signed an executive order explicitly protecting gender-affirming care for minors. They’re hoping to find a clinic close enough they can drive to appointments and don’t have to pay for hotel stays.
The planning has been time-consuming. Logistical questions to their current South Dakota doctors for referrals have gone unanswered. They want to beat whatever onslaught of patients from other states enacting similar bans will bring to providers in Minnesota, but also want to maintain as much normalcy for Asher as they can.
The sudden twists in Asher’s trajectory makes him question why his health care is of concern to politicians.
“Even though trans people don’t make up a big percent of the population doesn’t mean that we’re not part of it still,” Asher said.
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The full consequences of the bans on care for minors aren’t yet clear.
Dr. Nikki Mihalopoulos, an adolescent medicine doctor in a Salt Lake City specialty clinic with transgender teens, worries the new laws will make families too scared to seek help and doctors too scared of losing their licenses to provide care.
In the middle are kids like Elle and Asher.
Multiple studies have shown that transgender youth are more likely to consider or attempt suicide and less at risk for depression and suicidal behaviors when able to access gender-affirming care.
Both sets of parents are trying to shelter their kids from the stress and anxiety caused by the recent changes in the laws.
After years of worrying about their kids’ safety and mental health, they still fear what could happen if they can’t find the drugs their kids have been prescribed.
“My kid being OK is my number one priority. I know what the suicide rate is. I do not want my child to be a statistic,” Cat Palmer said of Elle.
“Kids Are Safer At Drag Shows Than At Church”
I forgot if I posted this video before. But I am finished watching it again and I like the message. I like the way this man thinks. Hugs
Over a quarter of US high school students identify as LGBTQ, CDC report says
FILE: Young people holding LGBTQ rainbow flag (Getty Images)
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows over one out of every four high school students in the United States identifies as LGBTQ.
Using data it collected in 2021, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) found that 74.2% of American high school students identified as heterosexual. The CDC surveyed 17,508 students from 152 schools across the U.S.
According to results, 3.2% of students identified as either gay or lesbian, 5.2% identified as “questioning” and 12.2% identified as bisexual. About 3.9% of students answered the question by saying they were “other” and 1.8% claimed they didn’t understand the question.
The CDC says the number of students in the United States who identify as LGBTQ has increased from 11% in 2015 to 26% in 2021. That increase “might be a result of changes in question wording to include students identifying as questioning,” the report claims.
About 57% of those high school students in the CDC’s data said that they have not had any sexual contact in their lives, while 34.6% of those students said they had sexual contact with someone of the opposite sex.
Just 2.4% of students reported that they’ve had sexual contact with the same sex, and 6% said that they’ve had sexual contact with both sexes, according to the CDC.
Polling shows that younger people are increasingly identifying as LGBTQ. Research from the analytics firm Gallup says the number of Americans who identify as LGBTQ has doubled in the last decade.
Critics, including some from the LGBTQ community, say that an “agenda” pushed in U.S. schools had led to the increase.
Everyone’s like ‘No, no, no, no that’s not indoctrination. We’re just teaching inclusion, so it doesn’t count.’ I totally disagree with that,” former U.S. Marine and bisexual member of Gays Against Groomers, Samantha Viscount, told KMPH News in Fresno, California. “I think that if you teach children all this LGBT material way too early on of an age before they understand it, it’s absolutely indoctrination.”The concern is that our children in the schools are being taught in regards to the transgenderism, the LGBTQ agenda,” Pastor Jesse Alvarez of Valley Life Community Church in Selma, told KMPH. “And that’s one side of the story that’s an opinion, a culture, a belief in our country.”
https://youtu.be/1ptEO7xg7mI
However, LGBTQ advocates call such concerns “ignorant.”
No, I don’t think that should be a concern at all or an issue to bring up because it sounds ignorant,” Equality California’s Jorge Reyes Salinas said. “We all read books about animals. We all read books about things that may be fantasy or whatever and we’re not saying that we’re going to be that character in a book or anything like that.”Gallup polling shows that LGBTQ identification among adults in the U.S. “leveled off” in 2022 after reaching 7.1% in 2021.
Most Of Kenyan Starvation Cult’s Victims Are Children
I am sorry but I can not deal with this. For the last few days I have read of how bad gays and trans people are and I have even posted religious leaders screaming about this. I am really not able to process that the very religion’s that scream about how bad people like me are but they don’t seem to care about the members of their faith that rape or even kill the followers of their faith. Before anyone tries to tell me about the very few gay / trans killers please remember that our community did not gather around to protect those horrible people. Churches / religious organizations do! Hugs
Hugs
Some trans news
Another trans man
Oh, that’s just brilliant. GOP lawmakers prefer that these people use the ladies rooms:
And these folks should use the men’s rooms:
If it actually happened, the initial result would be hysteria and attacks by the majority of Kansas patrons. But the actual result will be that transgender Kansans will refrain from using public bathrooms, refrain from making themselves a target, and move away. And that’s the GOP’s ultimate goal, of course: the elimination of transgender people from their state. After which, these loathsome politicians can aim their attacks at lesbians and gays, Jews, Blacks and other “undesirables.”
As April tells us it is not the trans people who blend in that these bills will hurt, but trans people like her who do not blend well due to having to go through the wrong puberty and transitioning later in life. She is correct, not that she is an ugly woman, but these laws give the haters a reason to challenge those that they don’t think are womanly enough or manly enough so these haters will demand others prove to them their gender. They don’t have that right but these laws make them think they do. April is now scared to use public facilities in her state for fear she will be assaulted by people who don’t think she is feminine enough to use a woman’s bathroom. Hugs
Texas school cancels theater visit over one parent’s concerns over actors in ‘drag’
https://www.rawstory.com/spring-branch-texas/
A Texas school district canceled a field trip to see a performance of “James and the Giant Peach” after a single parent complained that actors were dressed in drag.
The parent raised concerns at a recent school board meeting that some actors were playing both men and women in the performance, saying that was inappropriate for children, and the Spring Branch Independent School District canceled the visit, reported KTRK-TV.
“Spring Branch ISD’s pending field trips to the Main Street Theater performance of ‘James and the Giant Peach’ are being canceled due to concerns raised about the age-appropriateness of the performance,” administrators told the TV station.
The play, which is based on the Roald Dahl book, is intended for children as young as first grade, and a spokeswoman for Main Street Theater said the parent who complained was wrong.
“Drag is a different art form,” said Shannon Emerick, the theater’s marketing director. “There is a whole art form that is drag. The amazing thing is the kids just believe the story. They’re not interested in any agendas or anything else anyone thinks is going on.”
A Spring Branch parent agreed, and said that shouldn’t matter either way.
“Drag is not a big deal — it’s theater, it’s art,” said parent Cheri Thomas. “It’s been part of our culture for years.”
Michigan Republicans fight effort to repeal ban on unmarried cohabitation
Talk about the party of small government. I guess small enough to fit in your bedroom and in your underwear or bed. How do these people figure they have a right to decide which adults can live together, Oh right they are the Christian Taliban moral police. First they decide what women can do with their reproductive health needs forcing them to carry pregnancies they don’t want or that will kill them, then what is proper clothing to wear for each gender, then who can live with whom, then what those gender roles must be. Oh and notice what they use as justification for preventing consenting adults of different sexes living together? Yes the children, have to protect the children while pushing that Christian religious morality. Here it comes. Hugs
Law signed in 1931 is rarely enforced but carries penalty of prison time and $1,000 fine
In Michigan, for the first time in four decades, Democrats control the legislature and the governor’s mansion. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/AP
An attempt to repeal a Michigan law that punishes unmarried couples who live together is being thwarted by Republicans in the state legislature.
The law, which dates to 1931, targets “any man or woman, not being married to each other, who lewdly and lasciviously associates and cohabits together”.
It is rarely enforced but violations carry a penalty of up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Senate Bill 56, which seeks to repeal the law, attracted support from all state senate Democrats and half of Republicans. But nine Republicans voted against.
Edward McBroom, a Republican, spoke in opposition to the bill on the senate floor – for, he said, the sake of the “common good”.
He said: “This law was not passed to be mean … it was passed for the betterment of society, particularly for children.”
McBroom argued that unmarried cohabitation does not promote marriage, and that such arrangements lead to broken homes that hurt children.
Another Republican state senator against repealing the antiquated law said his reasons for doing so were tax-related.
Thomas Albert said: “I very easily would be a yes on this bill if the tax structure continued to encourage marriage.”
According to federal law, an individual may not claim someone such as their domestic partner as a dependent, if their state outlaws the nature of their relationship. Only one other state – Mississippi – has a similar law regarding unmarried couples.
In Michigan, for the first time in four decades, Democrats control the legislature and the governor’s mansion.
Referencing that new landscape, a Democratic state senator, Erika Geiss, tweeted: “Between this and the anti-abortion laws that are now repealed in Michigan, 1931 was quite the year in Michigan when its legislature was composed of solely men.
“But this legislature in 2023, composed of mostly women, is fixing that shit.”
The bill now moves to the statehouse.
FL Pride Parade Canceled Over Impending Drag Law
And the religious right gets their way using vague language in laws and wording in the laws that provides the public can sue with no costs and even if they lose the party sued still has to pay all the costs. “The bill DOES NOT ban drag or pride. But it relies on vague language and harsh penalties to instill fear that inevitably leads to self-censorship– that was their goal.” It is the bounty hunter scheme first started by Texas and used in Florida against schools to get the teachers ordered to remove books just in case a maga parent sued. The goal of these laws are not to ban sex shows, not to police nudity or exaggerated genitalia but to remove any sign of men dressed as women from society and the public view. What will the right manage to ban from public view next? Jewish symbols? Non-Christian religious symbols? Women in pants? Men with long hair such as mine? Hugs
From Treasure Coast Pride’s Facebook page:
As all of you know, the political climate that we are currently in has us all very concerned for our community. After multiple meetings with city officials, it is with a heavy heart that Pride Alliance of the Treasure Coast has to announce that this weekend’s Pridefest will now be a 21 and older event.
The city has decided that with the likelihood that the Governor will sign the latest bill into effect this evening, that we will need to be on the side of caution and has required us to make this necessary change.
We are obviously upset and dishearten that it has come to this. We also regret to announce that we will have to cancel our plans to bring back our beloved parade.
We hope that everyone understands that this is definitely not what we wanted at all and are working with the city to assure our safety as well as produce a positive event.
We have held off as long as we could in making this announcement as we were hoping it would not have to be made. We hope that everyone still supports out community and attends this event!
We will be making an announcement in the near future about a family friendly Party in the Park where our youth can celebrate who they are as well in conjunction with the Sanctuary of the Treasure Coast.
Port St. Lucie, population 200,000, is on the east coast about 90 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale.
