Anti-LGBTQ+ hate incidents tripled during Pride month this year

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/07/anti-lgbtq-hate-incidents-tripled-during-pride-month-this-year/

The violence underscores a year that included hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ incidents.

By Daniel Villarreal Saturday, July 22, 2023

a colorful group of people march in the Los Angeles Pride Parade holding a sign that says "All are welcome here"

Los Angeles Pride paradePhoto: Shutterstock

The incidents included the deadly Club Q shooting, the murder of a lesbian woman at a gas station, vandalism against Pride flags, bomb threats sent to LGBTQ+-associated venues, public protests against inclusive brands like Target, and death threats against doctors and politicians.

“Since many anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism incidents go unreported, the true numbers are likely far higher,” the report said.

A majority of queer youth feel hopeful despite widespread bullying & stress

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/08/a-majority-of-queer-youth-feel-hopeful-despite-widespread-bullying-stress/

 
 
LGBTQ+ students, youth, schools,
Photo: Shutterstock

Nearly half of all LGBTQ+ youth feel unsafe in school settings, and over half said they had been bullied due to their queer identitiesa new report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) found.

But even though over half of queer respondents also showed signs of anxiety and depression, majorities of LGBTQ+ youth have also come out to their families and feel hopeful for the future nonetheless.

Approximately 54% of transgender and gender-expansive youth and 46% of LGBQ+ youth surveyed said that they felt unsafe in at least one school setting. Nearly 60% of all LGBTQ+ youth said that they had been “teased, bullied, or treated badly” at school over their LGBTQ+ identities.

Only one in five LGBTQ+ youth reported school bullying to a school staff member. While 23.3% of these kids said the adult “didn’t help me at all,” 20.0% said the adult “helped me a lot.”

Additionally, 55.1% of survey respondents screened positive for depression, 63.5% screened positive for depression, and 64.7% rated their ability to manage stress as “fair” or “poor.” These rates were on average five points higher for transgender and gender-expansive youth. 48.9% of LGBTQ+ youth had received therapy in the prior year.

The HRC noted that these findings have likely been affected by the spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide. During the most recent legislative session, 10 have passed transphobic “bathroom bills,” 23 states have passed transphobic “sports bans,” six have passed “forced outing” bills requiring schools to out trans and gender-expansive youth to their parents, and six have passed “Don’t Say LGBTQ+” bills banning queer content from classrooms.

Despite this, 90.3% of LGBTQ+ youth said they were proud to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, and nearly 83% of queer youth said that they had come out to at least one member of their immediate family.

Trans and gender-expansive youth who feel free to express their gender identity around their families and those whose family members use their correct pronouns and names also reported the lowest levels of depression and anxiety among trans and gender-expansive youth.

Additionally, 56.8% of LGBTQ+ youth said they somewhat or strongly agree that “the LGBTQ+ community is accepted more and more every day.”

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text (678-678), or phone (1-866-488-7386). Help is available at all three resources in English and Spanish.

Mom shares why she let her 17-year-old get top surgery. His face says it all.

https://www.upworthy.com/mom-explains-trans-sons-top-surgery

Thank you, Ali, for the link, just sorry it took me so long to post it.   Hugs

I am waiting for the screaming comments about kids getting life changing surgeries, about kids / minors having body parts chopped off when they are too young to understand it.  So before you get stupid and write that comment, read the entire story.  Then think about the fact that kids as young as 13 and 14 years old get charged as adults in the US.  Kids / minors as young as 12 get married in many states in the US, a very life changing even they are too young to understand.  Kids / minors are being forced to carry pregnancies to term no matter how young (one was only ten), giving birth to children while they are children if they survive the ordeal which is a life-changing event / surgery that they are way too young to begin to understand or consent to.  Plus breast surgery is common for young females in the US with girls 16 or younger getting reductions or enlargements as gifts from parents, and a popular surgery for minors is rhinoplasty.  Yes kids / minors getting nose trims.   The point is that many surgeries happen for kids, especially wealthy and or white kids.  Look up the stats before you start screaming about kids being mutilated.   Even more important is the saving of lives that transitioning does for trans kids, those studies are real, well documented, and are available for the haters to see anytime they could put their hate aside long enough to read them.    Hugs

“Cody’s heart is so full…”

trans kids, gender affirming care, top surgery
@jannatransmomma/TikTok

Living in truth is beautiful.

Top surgery, otherwise known as chest feminization or chest masculinization, is a gender-affirming procedure that changes the looks of a trans person’s chest. For female-to-male top surgery, breast tissue is removed to give a more masculine appearance for transgender males and non-binary people who are assigned female at birth.

This procedure, along with all forms of gender-affirming care, is surrounded by stigma and misinformation, especially when it comes to minors. Many parents fear that a teen could make a severe, irreversible decision regarding their gender presentation, given that adolescence is a time when the whole subject of identity is in flux.

It’s partially fears like this that have resulted in gender-affirming care receiving a wave of backlash in America, even being labeled as a form of child abuse.

However, a mom by the name of Janna, who recently helped her 17-year-old son receive top surgery, sees it as a form of love.

“Why would I ever allow my 17-year-old to have top surgery? Why would I do that? That’s insane. That’s crazy. It’s child abuse,” says Janna in a clip posted to TikTok.

Her reasoning is really quite simple—and something that almost every parent can relate to in one way or another.

“You look at the really, really happy kid who walked out of the doctor’s office today, feeling really great about himself for the first time in I don’t even know how long.”

Janna then put the spotlight on her son Cody and asked what it felt like when he saw his chest for the first time.

Getting instantly teary, Cody replied, “Normal…It finally feels right for the first time.”

Janna’s video is captioned “Cody’s heart is so full right now.”

Watch:

 

Janna, who regularly advocates for trans rights, has previously explained in another TikTok that Cody didn’t undergo any surgery until just before his 18th birthday, and that was only after “a lot of meetings” with doctors, therapists and both of his parents since coming out at the age of 15.

 

And prior to his procedure, Janna encouraged Cody to explore through a “social transition,” rather than a medical one. This basically means experimenting with other forms of gender presentation—changing their name, pronouns, wardrobe, etc.—that feel more fitting to their authentic identity before undergoing any surgeries.

Bottom line: “We are not just sending these kids to surgeons to have body parts removed. That doesn’t happen,” Janna stated.

 

When parents support their kids throughout their journey, “one of two things is going to happen,” she added. “They’re going to come out as trans when they’re old enough to really make that decision, or they’re going to say, ‘Yeah, I’m not really a boy.'”

“Either way,” she continued, “their relationship with you will not be tarnished because they know that my mom loved me no matter what my decisions were.”

Like every other turbulent and confusing chapter of teenage-hood, the waters are so much easier to navigate (for both the parent and the child) when there is compassion. Sometimes allowing kids to be who they really are is the best gift a parent can provide.

 

 

 
 
 

Cartoon: The Time Before Gender Ideology

Cartoon: The Time Before Gender Ideology

https://amptoons.com/blog/

Many thanks to Ali for this cartoon.   Again a cartoon expresses a lot of information and corrects an old myth with just four panels.   At the web link above you can read the break-down of the cartoon and the thoughts of the artist.  As well as see other thought provoking cartoons.   Hugs

Flamy Grant, Sean Feucht, and God doing something so good

I am not a religious person.  I do not believe in the supernatural nor in any deity.  I am a confirmed heathen.  I enjoy being a heathen and do not hide it.  But by My Dogs That Love Gravy, I do appreciate and respect this man, this person Rev. Ed Trevors!  I respect him, I support a lot of what he says as is clear in that I repost his videos.  I think I could sit in his congregation and hear a sermon of his with no anger or disgust.  I could spend a happy pleasant afternoon in chat with him.  I wouldn’t believe in his deity or in their holy book, but I do believe in his message of inclusion.   It is one I not only support but want to amplify.  

I want to make one thing very clear on this site, my Play Time (that some days doesn’t feel much like playing or fun), I am against hate, bigotry, discrimination, and abuse of others.  Notice in that list I did not include religion, faith, personal codes of conduct, worship, or any particular deity / religion.   When I joined the military I took an oath to support the constitution of the US and its principles, which I still believe in.  One of those rights was for people to worship their own gods in ways that did not harm others and government wouldn’t / couldn’t form a preference for any religion over any other, including simply having none.  

Notice in the above paragraph I did not include being able to force others to worship and live as you do.  I am against that and the hate churches that preach that.  I post a lot against them.  Just as I don’t insist everyone have same-sex relations just as I do, I fight against heterosexuals who insist others must have the opposite sex relations they do.  I support trans rights, but I don’t insist all cis people must be trans, must dress as the gender they don’t identify with.  When you break it down into those terms you see clearly what the bigot haters are trying to do, what they want to force the world into, a mold of them, just like them and only them.  And they misuse their religion and deity to do this.

Which leads me back to the Rev Ed Trevors.  Here is someone that understand his faith is not justification to harm others.  His faith is not a weapon to use to hurt those who are different from him.  Instead he uses his faith as a guide on how to live his life and treat others.  Just as I do with the Christians who come to my Play Time I respect and admire him.  Those people are welcome and deserve our respect, and that goes for any faith that comes here with the same ideas of respect.  Hugs

 

Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality

00:00 Introduction
2:22 Sodom (Genesis 19)
7:48 (NEW) Sodom Additional Commentary
10:20 Romans1:26-27
16:00 Leviticus 18:22; 20:13
21:06 (NEW) Fourth theory on Leviticus
23:22 First Timothy 1:9-11 // First Corinthians 6:9-10
28:41 Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve

During the Fall of 2020, my college course on the “Theologies of Gender and Identity” was forced to go virtual. This video is one of the pre-recorded lectures from that course that I would like to share with a larger audience. Feel free to respectfully comment and question and I will respond in kind.

This lecture explores the traditional “texts of terror” or “clobber passages” that have been used to justify the marginalization of the LGBTQ people — namely Genesis 19 (Sodom); Romans 1:26-27; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; 1 Timothy 1:9-11 // 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; and Genesis 1-2 (Adam and Eve). For each passage, we’ll apply exegetical tools to determine whether or not this marginalization is justified.

The format of this lecture features a compilation of previous videos from this channel’s Queer Theology series. Most of these videos have been updated and include an additional commentary in between each topic.

Recommended Reading: “Misguided Love: Christians and the Rupture of LGBTQI2+ People” by Charles Fensham; Chapter 4.

Florida’s Book Bans Come For “Raunchy” Shakespeare

Oh clutch my pearls, classical literature is not as pure as today’s fundamentalist Christian nationalist who just don’t want their children to get an education but they demand the right to stop your child or anyone from getting one.   This is not about parental control, it is about one minor fundamentalist religious group having complete control over the education of all the children in the entire state.   But only for public schools.  The schools paid for with tax dollars and that educate the lower incomes.  The private schools do not have to follow these stupid bigoted rules.   My dogs that love gravy, this has been a Christian Taliban moral police take over.   Next girls will only be allowed to attend school until the 8th grade and must wear ankle length dresses, and everyone will be in drab colors.  Hugs


 

Salon reports:

School district officials in Hillsborough County, Fla., have implemented a newly designed curriculum guide for English teachers that will see students reading only selections from William Shakespeare plays.

“There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare. Because that’s what sold tickets during his time,” said Joseph Cool, a reading teacher at Gaither High School.

“I think the rest of the nation — no, the world, is laughing us,” he added. “Taking Shakespeare in its entirety out because the relationship between Romeo and Juliet is somehow exploiting minors is just absurd.”

Rolling Stone reports:

Schools in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa Bay and the surrounding area, are mostly assigning excerpts by the English language’s most famous writer. The schools previously required students to read two of Shakespeare’s novels or plays, in their entirety, per year.

The decision comes as educators must prepare students for a new set of state exams that cover a wide variety of subject matter, and also, “in consideration of the law,” according to a school district spokesperson, which means teaching it could open educators up to disciplinary measures if a parent were to file a complaint.

The “law” in question is the new Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibits teaching any content that is sexual in nature.

 

Start with the Bible. There’s tons of raunchiness in that book

It’s filthy!

It’s worse than filthy it’s fucking disgusting.

Raunchiness, murder, genocide, fratricide, infanticide (lots of this), incest, rape, molestation, racism, drunkenness, prostitution, immolation, cannibalism. It’s all there — so fun!

and donkey dicks and horse ejaculations. Or so I have heard.

Funny how the Bible gets a pass

[Jerusalem] saw this, yet she was more corrupt than [Samaria] in her
lusting and in her prostitutions, which were worse than those of her
sister. She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders,
warriors clothed in full armor, mounted horsemen, all of them handsome
young men. And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way.
But she carried her prostitutions further; she saw male figures carved
on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, with belts
around their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them
looking like officers—a picture of Babylonians whose native land was
Chaldea. When she saw them she lusted after them and sent messengers to
them in Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love,
and they defiled her with their lust, and after she defiled herself with
them, she turned from them in disgust. When she carried on her
prostitutions so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust
from her, as I had turned from her sister. Yet she increased her
prostitutions, remembering the days of her youth, when she prostituted
herself in the land of Egypt and lusted after her paramours there, whose
members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of
stallions. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the
Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your young breasts. – Ezekiel
23:11-2

It needs a good editor!

Perhaps starting with

In the beginning Once upon a time God created the heavens and the earth.”

All Shakespeare’s female characters were performed by men in drag.

I’m just sayin’…..

Will MTG be banned from Florida schools? You never know when Large Marge might suddenly display photos of Hunter Biden’s penis.

“I think the rest of the nation — no, the world, is laughing us,”

Ya think? If it makes you feel any better, they probably didn’t start with this one.

Florida’s new education motto:

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No colleges outside of Florida will likely accept these kids who are getting fucked over

They are first in line at Liberty University doctoral programs.

They’ll get into faith based colleges

Good luck getting a job though

About that…

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Because Matt Gaetz’s girlfriends keep aging out of the job?

I think Texas might actually be a little bit worse about those child beauty pageants; Little Miss Texarkana, etc.

Teachers remove books out of fear

It is happening in Sarasota County too: “Teachers offloading books in DeSantis’ Florida, resellers say,” Aug. 4.

I work in a Sarasota County thrift store. This summer, the store has received thousands of books from schools and classroom libraries. They are marked with the names of teachers or schools.

It is clear from the wide variety of titles that teachers work hard to help every student feel validated and included in a diverse classroom.

I literally cried in the store when I saw the titles: Newbery Award and Honor Books, the highest award a children’s book can receive from the American Library Association, no longer available to children in their schools. Most of the books depict characters from minority and vulnerable populations.

Reading novels with characters that face struggles the reader does not experience develops empathy for others. Perhaps our governor could read a few and develop a little empathy himself.

Pamela Brown, Venice


https://www.heraldtribune.c… 

I feel sorry for all the youngsters in Florida who are being deprived of everything except a selective education which intentionally leaves gigantic holes in their curriculum.

Those who go off to college (esp. out of state) are going to find out they’re years behind their classmates.

Only the public schools. The elite private schools are not bound by the state curriculum and will be able to teach real history, literature, art, etc. Rhonda’s children go to private school.

The ones who are exceptionally smart will find a way to get educated. I’m concerned about the others. Not every child is going to be able to do what Tara Westover did.

 

FL Students Need Permission Slips To Use Nicknames

I am running out of words to describe how fucked up and out of touch with reality the fundamentalist Christian nationalist racist dictatorship of DeathSantis Florida kingdom.   They are so scared of not following 1950s gender stereotypes and the social acceptance of LGBTQ+ kids that even nicknames must now get a parent’s approval / permission slip.   I can see that teacher phone call “Mrs Bigot your 8 your son Theodore wants to be called Teddy and your 10 year old son Harold wishes to be called Skip, I need to inform you of this in case it is a gender sexual orientation thing and get you to write your formal approval”!  WTF It is nutz.  What about kids calling each other names?  What about the mean names the bigots kids are taught to call the gay or trans kids, do the teachers need to get permission for that?  They are not allowed to stop it anymore in the bigoted kingdom of DeathSantis.  Hugs


 

The Insider reports:

Students who attend school in Florida will now need parental permission to use a nickname or preferred name in school, thanks to a law put in place by the state’s governor, Ronald Dion DeSantis, who famously goes by a nickname — Ron.

The rule will soon hit all Florida districts and follows new legislation that was adopted in July that aims to “strengthen the rights of parents and safeguard their child’s educational record to ensure the use of the child’s legal name in school or a parent-approved nickname,” according to Florida’s Department of Education.

Orlando’s Fox affiliate reports:

Students who wish to be called anything other than their legal name in school will need their parents to sign off, according to memos sent to parents by Orange County Public Schools and Seminole County Public Schools. Marion County Schools and Volusia County Schools confirmed to FOX 35 that they have plans to issue similar memos.

For example, if your child’s name is Robert but likes to be called “Rob,” the form will need to be filled out to make that happen.

This form also applies to transgender students who wish to be called something other than their legal name, according to the school district. This, however, does not allow teachers and staff to use a student’s preferred pronouns, and does not allow a teacher or staff member to ask a student’s preferred pronoun, which was barred under House Bill 1069.

 

But it’s liberals who want to regulate away all our freedoms, right? SMDH.

At least they’re banning Shakespeare.

In 1962 Macbeth was in our English lit book. At some point the phrase “a tinker’s wench” appeared. Our teacher was steamed.

“The word is whore!” he shouted loudly enough to be heard down the hall. “W. H. O. R. E.! WHORE!!

But we were actually taught that slavery was wrong, too

some people are shocked when I tell them the unabridged complete works of Shakespeare was in the bookcase of the bedroom I shared with my brother when I was 8 years old and he was 4. The set was given to this pastor’s family by another pastor.

And “they” talk about a “classical education.”

What the fuck. I’ve gone by my middle name — without needing anyone’s permission — for decades. The only people who call me by my first name are 1) my mom, and 2) telemarketers.

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Just finished reading for the second time “Downfall” byTraudl Junge Hitlers personal secretary. For Florida aand indeed America in many many ways an exacting template If we do NOT learn from history we are destined to repeat in It.’s been not quite 100 years

Even my mother doesn’t call me by the name she gave me.

I had one high school teacher, Sister Mary Robertine, who insisted on calling all students by their “real” name. Classmate Frank gave it to her when she called him “Francis” (Frank was his legal name).

“FL Students Need Permission Slips To Use Nicknames”

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Ain’t nobody stopping him, so it’s only gonna get worse.

Homocons And Armed Nazis Menace WI Pride Event

Compare the actions of the pride attendees and the Nazi thugs.  The pride people were having fun, smiling, laughing, dancing, singing.  The Nazis were screaming threats while brandishing weapons, scaring the kids and others attending the event.   Which one was presenting what was good for children to see, angry face covered armed shouting men or dancing happy singing pride people?  Also these thugs claimed that masks kept them from breathing when it was necessary due to a public health threat now wear them to hide their identity so they don’t get fired for what they are doing.  Notice in one of the tweets, one of the men loaded a round in the chamber to threaten reporters on a public street.  These are the thugs that DeathSantis hires as staff and refuses to denounce.  These are the people that trump claimed were very good people on both sides.   Hugs.


Newsweek reports:

An armed Neo-Nazi group protested a Pride in the Park event in Watertown, Wisconsin, on Saturday afternoon that featured a drag story time and drag shows.

Video journalist Oliya Scootercaster took to Twitter on Saturday to document the protest and wrote, “BLOOD TRIBE group marching in Watertown Wisconsin protesting Pride in the park.” In her videos, one Neo-Nazi group member can be seen carrying a weapon.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Blood Tribe is described as “a neo-Nazi group with semi-autonomous chapters in the United States and Canada. Blood Tribe promotes hardline white supremacist views and openly directs its vitriol at Jews, ‘non-whites’ and the LGBTQ+ community.”

Read the full article.

 

The proud people are the ones not concealing their faces.

The others are coward losers.

Fortunately, Harrisburg’s Pride had no visible Nazis on Saturday. Just the usual Truly Religious…not there to heckle or incite, of course, just concerned about our souls. They’re just so fucking thoughty, bless their hearts.

Pride organizers must be ready with videographers to document these protests. And news outlets must show videos making the public aware.

Eventually this menacing won’t be enough for these haters.

It’s just a matter of time before one of these Nazis pulls the trigger.

To be followed by a deafening ‘look what you made him do’ from the media.

 

P.S. Sometimes I listen to those right wing talkers on the radio (talk about a soul killing experience). The outrageous and inflammatory venom directed at Transfolks (and those who support them) is going to egg on someone to do violence and they know it.

They know it, they make money off it. And they will make money off of the result of their stochastic terrorism as will their MSM peers. They will make even more money as they squeal about how unfairly they are being portrayed and they cycle continues. Stay safe, my dear.

 

Anti-Trans Bigot Calls Police on Mom Who Took Non-Verbal Autistic Son in Women’s Bathroom

A New Jersey theater manager called the police on a mom who took her non-verbal autistic son to the bathroom, accusing him of being trans, saying “this is not a transgender bathroom.” Her son isn’t trans, rather, he needs her assistance to use the bathroom. This is one of many stories that demonstrate how anti-LGBTQ hate is so widespread it’s harming non-LGBTQ people too.