Category: Clothing

Palestinian child prisoners ‘abused’

****   TRIGGER WARNING FOR CHILD ABUSE ****

In this video you will see the photos of a kid, yes a young teen who to me looks 13, just home from Israeli detention after being held and beaten for four hours, he was then charged and released for a later court date where he will be found guilty.  Once found guilty, the kid will be taken to a prison in side Israel where his family and any friends are not allowed to see him.   He will have no rights, and no one to help him.   

Picked up off the street, he was then beaten and abused.   Israeli spokes people are on every major news network claiming how brutal Hamas is, how they must be destroyed even if that means killing every Palestinian, man, women, and child.  Right now the confirmed totals are over 24,000 dead, 10,000 are children.  The estimated total is around 32,000 dead, another 64,000 injured and maimed.   This is the way Israel has long treated Palestinian children in detention, the Palestinians have long asked the international community for help in stopping it.  But no one could, because Israel treats Palestinians as bad or worse than black in apartheid South African and almost as bad as black slaves in the US.  Listen to how many Palestinian kids, minors from the West Bank where there is no Hamas in charge are taken in to custody and tried by military courts, they have no rights in these courts, nor does their families.   This is why there is no peace, why Hamas attacks Israelis.  Yet Netanyahu brags about denying the Palestinians a state and calls them animals.   Hugs.   Scottie 

Hundreds of Palestinian children are arrested by the Israeli military every year for throwing rocks at occupying forces. They are tried in Israeli Military Courts and human Rights organisations say the trials lack due process and are against international law. Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports from Abu Dis in the occupied West Bank.

Below there is another short video.   Please notice the date on this one.  It was ten years ago.  This is how they treated Palestinians ten years ago, how much worse do they treat them now!   This time of the Israeli military detaining, taking a five year old because he was throwing stones, they go collect the boy’s father.  Notice the video of the father and boy in custody, the father is bound and blindfolded.  He can not help his five year old son, and neither have rights under the military occupation.  While this is illegal internation Israel claims the child, a five year old, was a threat.   While they claim he was not arrested, think of the lifelong trauma of being taken, his father humiliated and unable to even comfort him.   Think he grew up to support Israel, or be another Hamas soldier?   Hugs.  Scottie

Jul 12, 2013

Video footage has emerged of a 5-year-old Palestinian child being detained by the Israeli army. 

Below in another video only one year ago, a 7 year old boy dies from fear while being chased by Israeli soldiers.  Children so scared of soldiers they fear them to death.  Why would a 7 yr old be so scared?  This was the West bank, not even Gaza, and again no Hamas.  Think to the many stories of abuse that are and have been coming out that Israel has long denied.   Seems they were true.   What other horrors is Israel lying about.   The people there claim the main goal of the army is to cause this fear and maintain complete control.   These are an occupied people in an open air prison.  No wonder they fight back, wouldn’t you?  Hugs.  Scottie  

Thousands of Palestinians have taken part in the funeral of seven-year-old Rayyan Sulaiman in the village of Tuqu near Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank. His family says he died out of fear after Israeli soldiers chased children in the village. The Palestinian Health Ministry says efforts to resuscitate him failed. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reports from the occupied West Bank.

The mistreatment continues.  This video was only 7 months ago, at the start of last summer.   By that time Israeli soldiers had already killed 155 Palestinians in the West Bank.   Remember the US military sniper that loved to kill little brown children in Afghanistan, he murdered detained prisoners by knifing them, he was brought up on charged yet tRump as commander in chief made the military give him back his awards and pardoned him.  Well Israel has lots of soldiers like him that feel that way towards the Palestinians.  They are nothing, they are simply fun targets to hurt, kill, torture, and destroy.   Like a live action video game.  Below the Israeli solders shoot a car with a man and a toddler … because they can.  Hugs.  Scottie.  



188,662 views Jun 6, 2023

Two-year-old Mohammad Tamimi — who was injured along with his father after being shot by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank — has died. Though the Israeli army says the toddler was mistakenly shot, the child’s father has denied the narrative

Just five days ago this inexcusable horror happened, Israeli soldiers stormed a building and in front of the family members stripped, tortured and beat the men, then executed them.  Like a gang of thugs on prey.  Then they left and knowing the women and children were still in there, Israeli solders shelled the building.  Horrible.  Hugs.  Scottie

412,724 views Jan 18, 2024 #Aljazeeraenglish #News

A Palestinian family in Gaza says they witnessed the summary execution of 15 men when Israeli soldiers raided their apartment last month.

Again please look at the date.  A year ago.  Two crying terrified children, not even teenagers.  Their crime, being Palestinian.   This is why there is no peace for Israel!  This is why there is anger.  The story says the soldiers arrested the kids, that means they did not go home, but instead into detention for processing.  Reports say this can take a day to four months, and the child has no rights, no legal council, even their family is often not notified.   It is complete terrorism.  It is designed to harass and break the Palestinian people, to try to get them to self deport to where they will have a chance for a decent life.  This short clip says it all.   A 6 or 7 year old kid begging and crying out “What will happen to us” and “What are they going to do to us”.   What are they going to do to us … if that was your child would you like the people / government that did that?  Or would you want to hurt them back.   Hugs.  

An Israeli soldier appears to arrest two frightened Palestinian children in occupied East Jerusalem

There are more, it seems an unending amount of these videos.   Going back decades.  Now that I have watched a few, the grand YouTube pusher wants me to view them all.   I can not.  I have done my part.  I just beg that others who can do more not only stop Israel, but punish them for what they are doing.   Hugs.   Scottie

What in the fuck is going on

How far the down in the gang thug chaos are the republicans wanting to go?  Attacking the defenseless simply because they already have nothing and nowhere to go.   What happened to bettering society, making things better for everyone?  These people only want to make it great for them, the rest are for exploitation and amusement.  This country, the US, had a brief resurgence of enlightenment and now in the last 8 years, especially the last 3, the right wants to tear it all down, destroy anything good or enlightened in the country.   They mock decency and act like they are superior for being cruel.   I am at a loss these days what is driving these people.   I have seen them before, in my childhood.  I thought they were going extinct, yet here they are within inches of full power over everything.   Hugs.  Scottie

The bill would at the same time enhance penalties for drug use (specifically fentanyl, as it is their go-to talking point at the moment), and making it a felony to run away from the police…

Just anything that is observed among those whose living situation is so desperate, and basically saying it is illegal for anyone from a minority community to be fed up with this shit..

–

Also, considering the rate of LGBT+ homelessness compared to the general population. 5% of the youth population in general, yet accounting for 25% of homeless youth. I consider the Bill to be specifically targeted at LGBT+ people.

http://banconversiontherapy…

Considering the above. Some bigoted parents could disown their kid, kill them, and claim it was homeless trespass?

Republicans Are Fighting to Let Bigoted Foster Parents Abuse LGBTQ Kids They Adopt

A new rule proposed by the Biden Administration would protect LGBTQ+ youth in the foster care system by requiring adoption agencies to place them in homes that affirm their sexual orientations and gender identities. Republicans, however, have come out in opposition to the change.

Missouri just debated 8 anti-trans bills in a single day

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/01/missouri-just-debated-8-anti-trans-bills-in-a-single-day/

This is the most important issue the republicans think they have to deal with.  Trans and gay people / kids.  Not kids being hungry, not schools shootings, not educations test scores or financing.  Nope what bathroom a person can use and what medical treatment is available. 

The republicans think they have a winning issue with their base because these are hate bills, socially regressive bills.   But these are a driven minority fueled either by hate or driven by religious beliefs, possibly both.   The majority rejects that hate, that bigotry, that demand to control how others live.  These anti-trans bills mirror the anti-gay bills of the 1970s, and that mirrored the anti-race integration.  It is all about resisting changes in society and inclusion of those who are different.  It is about not progressing, instead wanting things to never change.  But look at history, every generation advances society in some way, with causing more friction with the older generations, that forget they changed society of their elders also.  Think of the bathroom bills and then think how white people did not want to share bathrooms or any place with black people.   The bathroom bills trying to keep trans kids from public bathrooms and out of locker rooms is the same bullshit that I faced as a gay man, these same people wanted to keep me from using bathrooms, using locker rooms claiming gay men would sexually attack straight men.  Sounds just like trans women would attack cis women.   The bills about keep trans people out of sports are very like the racial segregated sports teams in the 1950, claiming first black people were inferior then also saying that black men would take over the sports winning over the whites.  Does it all sound so familiar.  It is the same hate, same bigotry, just repackaged to use against a new group for these people to hate. 

Also these people just refuse to accept well known documented medical science / studies that show people are not made gay or trans, but born that way.   You cannot force a straight person to be gay, and you can not force a gay person to be straight.  Also while these bills forbid any mention of a non-cisgender or non-straight orientation, that requires the forced reinforcement of cis heterosexuality.  Hugs.  Scottie

The state is considering 41 other bills attacking transgender rights this year.
By  
An opponent of one of several anti-trans bills testifies before the Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee.
An opponent of one of several anti-trans bills testifies before the Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee.Photo: Screenshot

Lawmakers in both the Missouri House of Representatives and Senate debated a total of eight anti-transgender bills in a single day this week.

The measures, affecting trans people’s ability to access healthcare, bathrooms, and other facilities, and legal recognition of their gender identity, represent just a fraction of the 49 anti-trans bills Missouri Republicans have already introduced this month. Trans journalist Erin Reed described the latest wave of proposed laws as “a firehose of legislation that touches every aspect of trans people’s lives.”

RELATED:

Two students sue University of Missouri for denying trans-related healthcare

State law allows the university to provide gender-affirming care, but it still refuses to do so.

On Wednesday, Missouri’s Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee heard testimony on S.B. 728, one of two bills, which would establish a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” in the state. Among other provisions affecting school curriculum, S.B. 728 “prohibits public school officials from encouraging a student under the age of eighteen years old to adopt a gender identity or sexual orientation.” It also requires school officials to “inform a student’s parent within twenty-four hours if the student expresses confusion about their documented identity or requests to use personal pronouns that differ from their documented identity” and to “obtain written parental consent before allowing a student to use a name other than the name provided by the parent when registering the student for school and before encouraging a student to wear certain items of clothing.”

Effectively, the bill requires schools to out suspected trans and nonbinary students to their parents.

The committee was also scheduled to hear S.B. 770, another “Parents’ Bill of Rights” measure that included a ban on transgender girls participating in school-sponsored girls’ athletic teams. The hearing on S.B. 770 was canceled, however.

Meanwhile, in a nine-hour hearing, the state’s House Emerging Issues Committee took up seven separate anti-trans measures.

Two bills sponsored by Missouri state Rep. Brad Hudson (R) target access to gender-affirming healthcare. H.B. 1519 would allow healthcare professionals—including, as Reed noted, pharmacists, desk workers, and nurses—to refuse to treat trans people receiving gender-affirming care. During public testimony, opponents of the bill noted that it would not only legalize discrimination but could also result in cisgender, nonbinary, and intersex people being denied medication by providers who mistakenly assume they are trying to access gender-affirming treatment.

Hudson’s H.B. 1520, meanwhile, aims to strengthen and extend Missouri’s “Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act.” Signed by Gov. Mike Parson (R) last June, the law banned all gender-affirming care for minors but included an exception for trans young people who are already receiving such care, as well as a sunset provision, causing the law to expire in August 2027. H.B. 1520 would remove those provisions, forcing trans minors who are currently receiving gender-affirming care to detransition and extending the law beyond the 2027 expiration date.

State Rep. Ashley Aune (D) noted that the sunset provision was included in the SAFE Act so that lawmakers could assess the law’s “unintended consequences.” Hudson responded that there is already “enough evidence out there” and that he knows “these drugs are not good for kids.”

In fact, every major American medical association has acknowledged that gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, is evidence-based, safe, and effective for the treatment of gender dysphoria.

The committee also heard testimony on four bills aimed at banning transgender Missourians from using bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity. Proponents of such laws almost universally focus, without evidence, on the supposed threat transgender women pose to cis women in public restrooms. But during Wednesday’s hearing, opponents noted that, far from alleviating any discomfort, the bills would force masculine-presenting trans men to use women’s restrooms and also endanger trans women forced to use men’s facilities while doing nothing to prevent actual predators from accessing women’s bathrooms.

Additionally, one of the bathroom bills introduced by state Rep. Adam Schnelting (R), H.B. 2308, would legally define the terms “male” and “female” according to a person’s reproductive biology.

Similarly, H.B. 2309, also introduced by Schnelting, aims to legally redefine “gender” as synonymous with biological sex. According to Reed, the bill would end any legal recognition of transgender people in the state and would likely affect the gender markers on their birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and other forms of ID.

Schnelting testified that his bills would affect “bathrooms, dorms, shelters, everything” and might even “nullify sex-specific scholarships” given to trans individuals.

Democrats on the committee blasted their Republican colleagues’ seemingly single-minded focus on limiting the rights of transgender Missourians. State Rep. David Tyson Smith (D), who noted that Republicans make up 40 percent of his constituents, argued that people want lawmakers to address “inflation, grocery store prices.”

“People are wondering why we are spending time on this,” Smith said.

State Rep. Doug Mann (D) sounded an even more urgent alarm. “When it became no longer acceptable to be anti-gay in public, people moved to being anti-trans,” he said. “When you start to attack an already vulnerable group of people, you do not stop with that already vulnerable group of people.”

“I’m going to be honest, I do not trust that this is the end,” Mann said of the anti-trans bills. “Everything I have seen as a student of history, as a student from politics, as a student of government, tells me that it is going to go farther. Things are going to get worse, not better.”

NAZI Town USA …

NAZI Town USA …

Ten Bears again has posted a must watch short historical video. I did not know a lot of the information in the video, and it so closely matches what some are trying to do today. I think that might be because the same people now older and wealthy enough to fund this grew up during that time believing in that idea. They couldn’t get it done then, they think they can now. We must not let them, we must stop them as they were stopped then. Hugs. Scottie

Another few intrusive memories hit, new memories of abuse. So hard the last 6 months.

Know I am safe.   Ron is grocery shopping, but I have people to contact.   Please understand once I got past the shock and could deal I texted Randy.  But he is at work and the boss, so I am OK enough not to need his time, even though he offered.   He is so grand, if the abused people ever had the same set-up as the AA / friends of Bill, he would be the world’s best sponsor.  I am not in a safe enough mind place to tell everyone about the new memories / fragments.   I have just stopped crying because I wanted to type and forced my attention on the keyboard.  Every time I try to type what I remember, I fall apart.  But part of me knows to turn to the computers, to Scotties Playtime, to focus hard on this … what ever this is.  Because if I don’t the vortex may come.  Even the thought of it just started body reactions I am struggling to control.   Part of me is trying to deny the memories, to force them back into forgetfulness, to put them back in that chest wrapped with chains thrown into the deepest part of the ocean … but … I know enough to understand I can not heal or maybe even really deal with them until I am able to write them, to vocalize them, to accept them and then conquer them with all the strength of the person I am.  I have to get the emotions under control.  I want to slide into despair, wondering if it will ever stop, to what if I lose control, to wanting to hide, to crying / shaking / scared when as an adult right now in my home I have no reason to be afraid.   I think that now that Ron knows so much more when he gets home, I should tell him about this.  My instinct, what I have always done, is hide it from him.  But maybe it will help if I tell him.     Anyway.  Got to go, everything hurts, I … Just have to go.   Love and hugs.  Scottie

Florida GOP Bill Would “Legally De-Trans” Individuals

Florida GOP Bill Would “Legally De-Trans” Individuals

Aside from the normal hate and bigotry towards the LGBTQIA that religious republicans normally show, this guy adds a new wrinkle.  And it goes back to the point I made that some people can not accept change.   While not really old at 59 he shows he can not adjust to modern times.  He says, “From time immemorial, we have known that your sex was dictated by your biology,” Black said. “All I am doing is putting into Florida Statute, what we have always known, and only recently, a few people have become confused about.”  He seems to reject any advancements since time immemorial.  You do know that at one time humans thought thunder and lightning were caused by gods, we also thought the world was flat, we were sure that sickness and disease were caused by spirits and demons, religious leaders at one point were so certain that the earth was the center of everything with the sun orbiting the earth that they burned anyone to death who said otherwise … so much more we always knew, took as concrete never changing fact, and we were totally wrong about.  Just as he is about gender, sex, trans issues, and anything his religious teaching say about the LGBTQIA people.  He rejects modern science and medical best practices but instead demands that proven harmful conversion therapy be mandated by law.   “”It would also require coverage of so-called conversion therapy by requiring health insurance policies to cover mental health services “to treat a person’s perception that his or her sex is inconsistent with the person’s sex at birth” by affirming their birth sex”. Hugs.  Scottie

January 12, 2024

Jacksonville’s ABC affiliate reports:

A Northeast Florida lawmaker wants to legally define the words “man” and “woman” based on biological sex at birth. Jacksonville Rep. Dean Black filed the proposed What Is A Woman Act this week, which would also impose new requirements related to transgender individuals on state agencies and insurance companies.

House Bill 1233 requires state agencies to revoke any identification cards, like driver’s licenses, that don’t match up with a person’s sex on their birth certificate.

“From time immemorial, we have known that your sex was dictated by your biology,” Black said. “All I am doing is putting into Florida Statute, what we have always known, and only recently, a few people have become confused about.”

NBC News reports:

Black’s bill would also require any health insurance policy in the state that covers transition-related “prescriptions or procedures’’ to also cover “treatment to detransition” from such procedures.

It would also require coverage of so-called conversion therapy by requiring health insurance policies to cover mental health services “to treat a person’s perception that his or her sex is inconsistent with the person’s sex at birth” by affirming their birth sex.

The bill would also require any school district or state agency “that collects vital statistics for the purpose of complying with anti-discrimination laws or for the purpose of gathering accurate public health, crime, economic, or other data” to identify the birth sex of people in the data set, potentially restricting data collection on trans people.

Dean Black last appeared here for a bill that would allow DeSantis to remove any elected official who votes to remove Confederate monuments.

In October 2023, Black called for banning elected officials from participating in Pride events after Jacksonville’s newly-elected mayor led her city’s parade.

 

Sam_Handwich a day ago edited

This freakish GQP obsession with other people’s crotches is fuckin creepy.

Max-1 🔫+cult(R)=☠️  Sam_Handwicha day ago

G.enital
O.bsessed
P.erverts

Lizard  Sam_Handwicha day ago

My favorite is all the dudes who scream about trans women using women’s bathrooms. Uh………dudes? We don’t see each others’ genitals in the bathroom anyway. Because we use stalls. With locks. I have no way of knowing if the woman in the stall next to me is trans. Why would I care?

Mark McGovern  Lizarda day ago

They want Laith to use the women’s washroom?

Thumbnail
 
MrPendog  Mark McGovern a day ago

No. They don’t want him to exist at all

Steverino  Mark McGovern 21 hours ago

Notice how their obsession is overwhelmingly with trans women. Trans men, not so much. This is evident in his proposed legislation being titled the “What is a Woman” act.

Once again, misogyny is the root of all hatred of sexual minorities.

clay  Lizarda day ago

But having a “guy” piss near you puts you at risk of pregnancy!

/s

Sister_Bertrille  Lizarda day ago edited

They also seem to think that it’s a big party in there, when all we’re doing is peeing, pooping, and menstruating. Most of us don’t even talk to anyone in there.

GrandmascienCe  Sister_Bertrille 14 hours ago

Take out all urinals. Put in stalls. Make every bathroom unisex. That way, men will have to wait in line just like women do now.
(I went to a football game where they had port-a-potties while they were building the bathrooms. Port-a-potties, of course, are unisex. But there was one that was for women only, and of course I waited in that line for it. The other ones were disgusting.

Gregory In Seattle  Lizarda day ago

Which makes me wonder why they would want transmen using a woman’s rest room, a lot of them are more stereotypically masculine than many cis men.

Myrikin  Gregory In Seattlea day ago

They seemingly have better facial hair than I do, that’s for sure. So jealous of trans men.

Karl Dubhe IV  Lizarda day ago

They’re only telling everyone that they look at other people’s dicks in the men’s washroom. What’s wrong with them doing that? Oh, right…

amandagirl15701  Lizard17 hours ago

They don’t realize that they’re saying men can’t control themselves around women and are constantly suppressing the urge to rape someone. Hell, Mike Huckabee said something like this a few years ago.

San_Ban  Sam_Handwicha day ago

THIS!!!

WTF does it matter to me what’s inside a stranger’s pants unless I want to get into them?

vap  Sam_Handwicha day ago

Well they have no plans to fix any of the real problems in the country. So they invent ones to enrage their base.

Paul ‘n Minnesota  Sam_Handwicha day ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if someday that red states require a mandatory genital’s check to make certain that you are male or female per their standards on gender and ID. Sigh.

Wintercat  Paul ‘n Minnesotaa day ago

They HAVE tried that with CHILDRENS’ sports.

IamSmartypants  Wintercat a day ago

The Ohio legislature just did that with children’s sports.

clay  Paul ‘n Minnesotaa day ago

Uh, this bill would do exactly that.

Coxygru  Sam_Handwicha day ago

This freakish GQP obsession with ruining other people’s lives is fuckin’ criminal.

Flatlander  Sam_Handwich18 hours ago

Speaker Johnson knows when his teen son is ovulating. 🤡

Paddycakes2001  Sam_Handwich19 hours ago

And dontcha love when people utterly ignorant of history start a sentence with, “From time immemorial, we have known . . . .”

JCF  Sam_Handwich19 hours ago
Thumbnail
 
Lizarda day ago

“Filed the What Is A Woman bill…”

Oh FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING FUCKHEAD.
Signed, a cis woman tired of being used as your cudgel against trans people.

clay  Lizarda day ago

Next on his agenda, a “Do Women have Souls?” bill.

amandagirl15701  clay17 hours ago

We already have the “Women are Expendable” laws in many Red States that goes into effect every time conception occurs. So that’s a possibility.

Bungeea day ago

Not only is he an asshole, but he’s simply fucking wrong. Factually incorrect, whether he knows or accepts it. Humans can be born with XX, XY, XO, XXY, (Klinefelter’s Syndrome) or XYY chromosomes. Take your “there are only two genders” bullshit and fuck off for all eternity.

clay  Bungeea day ago

also, XXX, androgen-insensitivity, and physical development anomalies.

Ed B  Bungeea day ago

It’s almost like these politicians aren’t even doctors…. Who knew… 🤔🤷

amandagirl15701  Ed B18 hours ago

But they all pretend to be preachers and there is a lot of crossover between religion and the practice of medicine.

Gregory In Seattle  Bungeea day ago

Not that these idiots care about science, but SciShow did a great episode on this topic a few years ago.    

 

 

Let’s talk about cold weather and what to remember….

New rule designed to protect LGBTQ foster children draws GOP opposition 

New rule designed to protect LGBTQ foster children draws GOP opposition 

This is pure Christian bigotry.   They don’t want to be forbidden to harass LGBTQIA homeless kids, tell them they are broken and wrong so they need Christian fixings.  It is all about being able to forbid trans kids to transition even socially, and to send gay and trans kids to conversion therapy.   Ask yourself why it is so important to them to disrespect LGBTQIA kids?  And the fact is, this rule does not keep religious people out of the foster system.  What it does is prevent LGBTQIA children from being placed in homes where they would face abuse due to their being gay or trans.  But it prevents Christian bigots from being able to harass and harm gay and trans kids.  Again that is what the republicans are fighting for, the right to force gay and trans kids to live as straight cis kids while trying to force them to join Jesus.     Hugs.   Scottie

A bill filed in the House and Senate in November by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a former GOP presidential candidate, would prevent government agencies from penalizing child welfare service providers that are unwilling to “take action contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs,” including affirming a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The duo introduced identical legislation in 2019 and 2021.

Nonreligious service providers, meanwhile, have largely argued that the draft rule is needed to protect LGBTQ young people already vulnerable to abuse.

BY BROOKE MIGDON – 01/03/24 2:14 PM ET

A new rule requiring child welfare agencies to place LGBTQ children in “environments free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse” based on the child’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression is drawing opposition from Republicans.

The proposed rule, issued in September by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), also would require caregivers to undergo cultural competency training to ensure LGBTQ youths are placed in homes where their identities are affirmed.

In a statement, Health Department Secretary Xavier Becerra said the proposal puts “children’s well-being first.”

Studies have shown that LGBTQ young people are overrepresented in the child welfare system. Lesbian, gay and bisexual children are more than twice as likely to experience foster care placement compared with their heterosexual peers, a 2019 study found, and roughly 30 percent of foster youth identify as LGBTQ, according to the Children’s Bureau, the federal agency responsible for overseeing the child welfare system in the U.S.

About 5 percent of foster youth identify as transgender.

But the rule has met some opposition in the GOP. 

A bill introduced last month by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who is currently running for an open Senate seat, would prevent foster and adoptive families from being required to affirm a transgender child’s gender identity. The measure, called the Sensible Adoption For Every Home Act, has four Republican co-sponsors.

Banks in a statement to Fox News said the bill was drafted in response to the HHS proposal, which he said discriminates against prospective caretakers that are “opposed to irreversible sex change procedures on kids.”

LGBTQ rights advocates have denounced the Indiana congressman’s bill and his justification for introducing it, which they say reflects misconceptions about gender-affirming health care for youth and misrepresents what the Health Department’s draft rule aims to achieve.

“No part of this says anything about changing the sex of a child,” said Allen Morris, policy director at the National LGBTQ Task Force. “It’s talking about making sure that [LGBTQ youths] are not in an abusive home or somewhere that’s going to mistreat them.”

Other Republicans have argued that the proposed rule would discriminate against faith-based providers.

A bill filed in the House and Senate in November by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a former GOP presidential candidate, would prevent government agencies from penalizing child welfare service providers that are unwilling to “take action contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs,” including affirming a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation. The duo introduced identical legislation in 2019 and 2021.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of the bill’s 17 Republican co-sponsors in the Senate, wrote in a December editorial that the measure would effectively overrule the Biden administration’s “new woke standards.” Rubio’s Lifting Local Communities Act, introduced last January, would similarly bolster the ability of religious organizations that receive federal funding to operate in accordance with their religious beliefs.

In a Dec. 8 letter to Becerra, however, 19 Democratic senators voiced their support for the Health Department’s proposed rule, writing that its stipulations are needed “to protect children in the foster care system more than ever.”

“As members of Congress we are committed to ensuring all children, including LGBTQIA+ children, thrive in safe and stable environments,” the senators, led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), wrote in the letter.

Compared with their cisgender and heterosexual peers, LGBTQ children and adolescents in the child welfare system are more likely to report poor treatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity. In a 2014 study of LGBTQ foster youths in Los Angeles, nearly 38 percent reported poor treatment connected to their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Twenty-eight states and Washington, D.C., have explicit laws or policies in place to protect LGBTQ youths in foster care from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and another six have laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation only, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit organization that tracks LGBTQ laws.

In 13 states, state-licensed child welfare agencies may legally refuse to place and provide services to children and families — including LGBTQ people and same-sex couples — if doing so conflicts with their religious beliefs. 

Republicans at the state level have also sought to push back on the rule.

In a November letter to the Children’s Bureau, more than a dozen Republican state attorneys general said the Health Department’s proposal discriminates against Christian caretakers and provides solutions to a problem that does not exist.

The letter, led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R), references a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that sided with a Philadelphia Catholic social services agency that had refused to accept same-sex couples as foster parents.

“This proposed rule seeks to accomplish indirectly what the Supreme Court found unconstitutional just two years ago: remove faith-based providers from the foster care system if they will not conform their religious beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity,” the attorneys general wrote in the Nov. 27 letter.

A Health Department spokesperson declined to comment on the letter but said members of the public are encouraged to express their views on the draft rule. A 30-day public comment period ended Nov. 27.

Responses to the proposed rule from Christian organizations have been mixed, although most submitted to the Health Department center around concerns that the rule, if implemented, would discriminate against faith-based providers and hinder the recruitment and retention of foster families, many of whom are religious.

“Among the most concerning — and most likely — negative impacts of the proposed regulations would be a significant chilling effect on the involvement of people of religious faith in the foster system,” one group wrote in a Nov. 20 letter to Becerra. “This rule would push many of them away.”

Nonreligious service providers, meanwhile, have largely argued that the draft rule is needed to protect LGBTQ young people already vulnerable to abuse.

“With all of the pain, rejection, broken promises and separation that many youth in foster care experience, a targeted and specific plan for LGBTQI+ youth’s health and wellbeing through safe and appropriate placements can ensure youth are acknowledged and affirmed when they express their needs,” wrote a coordinator for a Cleveland-based nonprofit that works with foster youth.

“Then, when this plan is followed through, youth will actually experience their needs being met, their voices mattering and a caring network of individuals,” they wrote. “This is vital for all youth, but especially youth who identify LGBTQI+ because we know that so often this is not the case.”

But some nonreligious and Democratic organizations have been critical of the proposal, which they say does not go far enough because it still allows for individuals who do not support LGBTQ identities to become foster parents.

Multiple groups in comments submitted to the Health Department referenced a 2021 survey of young people who concealed their LGBTQ identities prior to placement over fears of “how their social worker may react” and “concerns about losing their placement.”

“The flexibility allowed within the rule presumes that those who are LGBTQI+ and not yet out would be served well when placed with any family — including those who opt out of being ‘safe and appropriate,’” the executive director of one children’s rights organization wrote. “However, not requiring that every provider be a safe and appropriate placement for LGBTQI+ children will mean that LGBTQI+ youth are placed in inadequate placements.”

GOP Opposes Protections For LGBTQ Foster Children
Banks and other Republicans are also seeking to reinstate a ban on transgender military members. Earlier this year Banks founded the House Anti-Woke Caucus.

 

Tim 🇺🇦2 days ago
Thumbnail
 
Gustav22 days ago
Other Republicans have argued that the proposed rule would discriminate against faith-based providers.

 

Thank God it would!!

Gustav2  Gustav22 days ago edited

What they are really complaining about is it would take away over 30% of their government grift.

VodkaAndPolitics  Gustav22 days ago

LGBTQ kids shouldn’t be within a hundred yards of a faith based foster service.

zhera 2 days ago

They read

“environments free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse”

and immediately thought “that means us christians!!”

How very, very telling that their hate is more important to them than helping kids who need a family.

You Again?  zhera2 days ago

Similar to this:

Ninja09802 days ago

Many LGBT youth end up in foster case because their “parents” etc. reject them.
The notion they should be set up for more abuse or worse cuz religious freedom is straight up bullshit.

Rebecca Gardner 2 days ago

The Pro-Child Party*

* – “Child” only applies to white, male, straight, cis-gendered, christian, children.

clay  Rebecca Gardner2 days ago

. . . raised in the families of their birth. The GOP aren’t fans of supporting foster children. They complained about automatically extending benefits to high school graduation, and a six month transition. They didn’t like opening up public colleges to them.

boatboy_srq  Rebecca Gardner2 days ago

Pro-Child like Pro-Life. Only in their terms, and only at times it can be used to oppress others.

Gregory In Seattle  boatboy_srq2 days ago

And pro parental rights. Parents have an absolute and inviolate right to do what they deem best for their children… but only insofar as that furthers the white supremacist Talibangelical agenda.

Coxygru  boatboy_srqa day ago edited

They’re so pro-life that in cases of unviable pregnancies they want mothers to die in childbirth. I dunno ’bout you guys, but if I had a wife, a sister, or a niece, I’d want the doctors to do everything they could to save her life.

They’re so pro-life that in cases of unadopted kids who are no longer babies, they call them “unadoptable” (read: unlovable).

They’re so pro-life that they rip immigrant families apart and but babies, children, and adults in cages in squalid conditions. And then don’t even both to keep track of who is who and where they’ve been placed.

clay 2 days ago edited

“Other Republicans have argued that the proposed rule would discriminate against faith-based providers.”

This is why I hate the combination of Citizens United, Hobby Lobby, and Catholic Charities v. Philadelphia. Faith-based organizations are not persons, have no right to freedom of religion, and have no standing in child placement. The only basis for child placement decisions in PA state law, and the only basis for child placement decisions in practice should be the welfare of the child. Not the parents, not the state, and not the fucking private provider.

John_Manyjars  clay2 days ago

Death cults probably shouldn’t be a part of a kid’s mental development, just sayin’

Todd20036 2 days ago

I’m not surprised. In their eyes LBGTs merely “chose” to be LBGT, and all they need is good straight parenting to “fix” them

And we all know how well that works out

Chucktech  Todd200362 days ago

“Train up*” a child…

*That means beat the Jesus into them.

thatotherjean  Chucktech2 days ago

For some right-wing Christians, it certainly does–uncritical obedience, too.

 

Texas Drag Show Canceled After Right Wing Crusade

Texas Drag Show Canceled After Right Wing Crusade

Again it is forcing people to stop doing a legal activity because you personally don’t like it.  Is this liberty for all?  Is this freedom that the right likes to brag about?  It is rule by gang thugs.  It is gangland stuff.   But again the right makes threats because they don’t care if they hurt people and the left backs down and doesn’t hold the event that the haters shut down because the left care if people get hurt.  These people are terrorists.   They must be resisted.  Today it is drag queens, then the rest of the LGBTQIA, then anything not in their fundamentalist world they will shut down.  The US Christian moral police Taliban.  Plus these people constantly claim to be the majority or that they represent the country, when the fact is they are a small minority very vocal violent   Hugs.  Scottie

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports:

Piaf Kitchen + Wine + Bar had promoted a “drag show” Dec. 31 as part of a circus act at a premium-priced party that also will include a fire thrower, a magician, a palm reader, dinner, music and a DJ.

The restaurant posted Friday on social media, the lineup was changed, “For the safety of our Performers, and Staff, and for a pleasurable experience for our Guests … to ensure a more universally enjoyable and safe experience for everyone.”

Piaf had been the target of hundreds of online complaints after ads for the $75-$150 event including “drag entertainers” were circulated Thursday on social media. One post came from Julie McCarty, leader of the Grapevine-based True Texas Project tea party group.

Read the full article. As you can see below, McCarty’s group has endorsed a raft of far-right, anti-LGBTQ, Christian nationalist extremists.

kaydenpat a day ago
Thumbnail
 
Houndentenor  kaydenpata day ago

In my day Evangelicals pretended not to drink alcohol. I guess they’ve given up that lie at this point.

Doug105  Houndentenora day ago

But jesus turned water into grape juice!

Houndentenor  Doug105a day ago

Yes, that’s what we were taught. Also the earth is only 6,027 years old.

Thumbnail

Harveyrabbit 🐱  JoeMyGoda day ago

“You’re confusing drag with church”

Yeah, that’s it.

Thumbnail