Lynchburg, Virginia USA – April 14, 2023 – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking at Liberty University on April 14, 2023.Photo: Shutterstock
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently sent a message to his followers comparing LGBTQ+-inclusive elementary school teachers to Hamas fighters who have gunned down and kidnapped Israeli civilians.
“I have seen the Left’s indoctrination dangerously worsen in the last couple of decades — from student organizations praising Hamas at Ivy Leagues to elementary school teachers pushing radical gender ideology down the throats of first graders,” DeSantis’ message said, according to Florida Politics.
Don’t Say Gay laws and “parents rights” groups are all part of a plan to completely defund public education.
On October 7, Hamas members gunned down Jewish settlers, worshippers, and attendees of an electronic music festival; launched rocket attacks; and took women and children hostage. Their attacks have ignited a long-simmering military conflict with Israel as the neighboring countries battle over control of the region.
DeSantis has claimed that some pro-Palestinian U.S. student groups, like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), are “pro-Hamas” and want a “second Holocaust.” While Hamas is an Islamist militant movement and one of the Palestinian territories’ two major political parties, supporters of Palestine don’t automatically support Hamas or its actions. Nevertheless, DeSantis has ordered his state’s universities to disband SJP groups, threatening to persecute and cut government funding to them otherwise.
DeSantis is equating support for Hamas with elementary school teachers who support LGBTQ+-inclusive student policies (or “radical gender ideology,” as DeSantis calls it), such as allowing trans students to use names, pronouns, and bathrooms matching their gender identities.
Palestine Legal, a group that provides legal support for pro-Palestinian groups, says that DeSantis’ ban on SJP groups is part of his larger effort to restrict freedom of speech on campuses.
“Florida, particularly under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, has been actively undermining education, freedom of speech, and social justice movements, including by banning anti-racist courses and trying to criminalize protests. It is not surprising that this egregious move to silence the student movement for Palestinian rights is being pursued under DeSantis,” it said Wednesday in a statement, according to WJTV. “If it goes unchallenged, no one’s political beliefs will be safe from government suppression.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Transgender Law Center have filed a federal lawsuit against a Tennessee law that requires HIV-positive sex workers to register for life as a “violent sex offender.”
The aforementioned advocacy organizations filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state LGBTQ+ advocacy groups OUTMemphis and four “Jane Doe” plaintiffs who were convicted under the law. The plaintiffs, which include a transgender woman, allege that they have faced discrimination and life struggles because of their violent sex offender status. These struggles have forced the trans woman to continue doing sex work, since finding a job can be difficult for someone on the registry.
Another plaintiff said that they were sent back to jail after violating the registry’s requirements. The plaintiffs allege that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by handing harsher punishments to people with HIV, a chronic disease covered by the ADA’s anti-discrimination statutes. Tennessee is the only state with this law, according to the Edge Media Network.
“This statute solely targets people because of their HIV status and keeps them in cycles of poverty while posing absolutely zero benefit to public health and safety,” said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. “HIV stigma is becoming a thing of the past, and it’s time for state law to catch up.”
The lawsuit lists Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN), Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch, and Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada as defendants.
While sex work is a misdemeanor crime in Tennessee, the HIV criminalization law turns the crime into a felony. An estimated 83 Tennesseeans are currently in the registry because of it. Tennessee legislators passed the law in 1991 near the height of the AIDS epidemic when over 100,000 Americans had died from the illness, and scientists were still trying to find effective medical treatments against it.
In 2021, Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia repealed their felony HIV criminalization laws. However, in 2022, Pennsylvania signed a law making it a felony to pass on a communicable disease when they “should have known” that they had it — the law included HIV.
As of 2022, 35 states have laws that criminalize HIV exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many of the laws were passed at a time when little was known about HIV and millions were dying from the virus.
Medical professionals have said that HIV criminalization laws do nothing to stop the spread of the virus and may even encourage people not to get tested for fear that the knowledge could subject them to criminal penalties.
“Many of these state laws criminalize actions that cannot transmit HIV – such as biting or spitting – and apply regardless of actual transmission, or intent,” the CDC wrote. “After more than 40 years of HIV research and significant biomedical advancements to treat and prevent HIV transmission, many state laws are now outdated and do not reflect our current understanding of HIV.”
A 2018 Williams Institute study on HIV criminalization in Georgia found that “Black men and Black women were more likely to be arrested for HIV-related offenses than their white counterparts.” While 26% of HIV-related arrests were of white males, 46% of HIV-related arrests were of Black males. Additionally, 11 % of those arrested were white females, while 16% were Black females.
It’s not rhetoric, but action that proves how different the two parties are. Can we PLEASE stop treating them as if they’re two sides of the same coin? It’s not only lazy, but dead wrong.
Wow, really pushing the religious idea a woman’s place is to obey the men in her life, she is owned by her husband, and along with the misogyny of strict 1950s gender role there is the long debunked idea of what makes kids gay, only now just pushed on to trans kids also. These people simply refuse to accept modern science which has shown that kids are born with their sexual orientation and their view of their gender identity. Regardless of how often, how forceful, how authoritarian the person telling them they are not gay, gay kids know they are. Same with trans kids, despite the same people telling them they are the gender they were assigned at birth, they KNOW who they really are inside. But this is what we face with the religious Nationalist right wing take over and push to return to the 1950s. These are the same people that deny other science because their bibles / really their preachers / priest / pastors tell them that science is wrong because the bible is right. These same people claim there was a worldwide flood and that an ark built by a 600-year-old man held every creature on earth, and also the world is only 6000 years old so that same family had a lot of fucking / child birthing to do to get to the number of humans alive today. None of it makes sense if you try to take it literally. But they don’t care, their feelings / beliefs are more important than reality or facts. They feel the same on sexual / gender issues. Yet in at least 26 US states these people have the majority in government. Can the US afford this? Hugs. Scottie.
It also tells dads to go on “man time” dates with their sons and make them do manly things like hunt animals and mow the lawn.
The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) — a Christian anti-LGBTQ+ hate group that uses its professional-sounding name to push transphobic and anti-abortion propaganda — has unveiled a new website encouraging parents to send their trans kids to conversion therapy. The website tells mothers not to be “dominant” and not to be “critical” of nor “display hurt or angry emotions” towards their husbands.
The website, called the “Biological Integrity Initiative,” offers outdated and non-clinically backed “resources” for parents, teens, physicians, schools, and policymakers, all geared towards denying the identities of trans youth, particularly those of trans girls. It introduces gender-questioning teens to the tale of right-wing de-transitioner Chloe Cole, tells teachers to oppose trans-inclusive school policies (referred to as “gender interventions”), and tells policymakers that they must pass bans on gender-affirming healthcare to “protect civilization” and “human dignity.”
It tells mothers not to be critical of their husbands or “overly sensitive” to their sons. Mothers are advised to frequently “compliment the father” and to refrain from showing their children any “angry emotions” towards their husbands. It also tells mothers to “set a good example of womanhood” for their daughters because, if they don’t, their daughters may “develop a wrong perception… and may resist embracing a female identity.”
“A mother who is not emotionally connected to her daughter may leave her daughter craving motherly love. Likewise, a father who is not closely connected to his son may leave a son craving fatherly love,” the site’s handout on “Affirming Your Daughter’s and Son’s Sexual Identity” states.
“Mothers should not favor a son over his father, even if the son is more responsive and compassionate than the husband,” the handout continues. “If mothers make this mistake, the son may identify with the mother and fail to bond with the father.”
This concept — that emotionally distant and physically unaffectionate parents create gay or “gender-confused” children — is a popular but widely debunked concept from 19th-century Freudian psychology. While psychologists have observed that neglected and abused children may risk their personal safety to find support and affection from other sources, there’s zero proof that parental distance causes homosexuality or trans identity.
Similarly, the handout says that molestation, sexual abuse, and graphic pornography can cause trans identity. The same has been said of homosexuality, and there is no proof to back up either claim.
The group tells fathers to be “physically active” and “wrestle on the floor” with their sons, “play tackle and praise him for being tough when he is knocked down,” and also to go on “man time” dates with the boy. It also tells dads to have their sons help mow the lawn, fix the toilet, shovel snow, build model cars and benches, go hunting to kill animals, and “throw, kick and dribble a ball… even if he chooses not to play sports.”
Under the website’s “Teen FAQ,” it states, “There is no evidence that opposite-sex hormones make you feel better,” even though a large-scale 2023 study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that hormone therapy improves mental health for trans youth. The FAQ also claims that “opposite sex hormones can increase thoughts of hurting yourself,” “increase unhealthiness,” “may cause permanent infertility,” and “will make teens ‘a medical patient for life.’”
The site backs up some of its claims by referring to a 12-year-old Swedish study of data on 324 trans people collected from 1973 to 2003. The study found higher rates of suicide and criminal convictions among trans individuals, but such actions may be explained by transphobia and the fewer economic opportunities and social support resources for trans people.
As for “infertility,” trans journalist Erin Reed noted that fertility counseling is a regular part of any medical care for trans youth. Reed said that the ACPeds site pushes gender exploratory therapy, “a new type of conversion therapy which seeks to persuade transgender individuals that their gender identity stems from anything but authentic transness.” The ACPeds website’s “Find a Therapist” section links to numerous Christian and Catholic conversion therapy groups.
In her newsletter, Reed wrote, “The Gender Exploratory Therapy Association frequently denies that it engages in conversion therapy. They assert that their therapeutic approach is ‘neutral in nature’ and ‘does not prejudge outcomes.’ Yet, this association opposes bans on conversion therapy, submits public comments in favor of blocking Title IX protections against gender discrimination for trans students, and its official account has been observed endorsing tweets like ‘trans healthcare is the latest in a long line of medical fads.’ Such actions hardly mirror the claims of a ‘neutral, non-prejudiced’ entity.”
The republicans don’t care they keep losing. This is a holy war for them. They are doing god’s work of wiping the LGBTQIA from society and returning women to their submissive roles. But their goal is to roll back and undo any progress in the US for equality and allowing others to enjoy civil rights. They want a theocracy instead of a democracy. Hugs. Scottie
Murfeesboro tried to ban drag queens from a local Pride festival. A federal judge put a halt to it.
While Tennessee Republicans have done their best to vilify drag queens and ban drag shows, they keep getting knocked back by judges who rule that the bans are unconstitutional.
The city of Murfreesboro became the latest municipality to find out the hard way when a federal judge blocked their attempt to interfere with a local Pride festival.
‘Drag Race’ alums and local performers joined the Grammy-winner onstage in Knoxville.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Tennessee sued over the city’s efforts to silence a local LGBTQ+ organization, including a city-wide policy denying the group permits to host events and a local ordinance banning drag performances.
The lawsuit accused the city of Murfreesboro of “flagrant and ongoing violations of TEP’s constitutional rights to free speech and expression, due process, and equal protection under the law.”
“Since at least October 2022, the City has engaged in a targeted campaign to silence TEP’s speech in support of the Murfreesboro LGBTQ+ community,” the suit claimed. “First, the City put in place a discriminatory policy, prohibiting TEP from obtaining permits to host its annual BoroPride Festival and any other events on City property. Then, it enacted a discriminatory ordinance meant to drive TEP and the City’s LGBTQ+ community—and, in particular, its drag performers—out of the City’s public spaces. These actions, which were driven by animus against the LGBTQ+ community, are blatantly unconstitutional.”
“We are relieved that the court has taken action to ensure that Murfreesboro’s discriminatory ordinance will not be enforced during the BoroPride festival. We look forward to a safe, joyful celebration of Murfreesboro’s LGBTQ+ community,” Tennessee Equality Project Executive Director Chris Sanders said in a statement.
Several other cities have made efforts to discriminate against LGBTQ+ groups and Pride festivals, but the efforts have consistently failed.
A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump ruled against Tennessee’s ban on drag performances, saying that the law is both “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad,” that it will encourage “discriminatory enforcement,” and that it violates the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
“There is no question that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. But there is a difference between material that is ‘obscene’ in the vernacular, and material that is ‘obscene’ under the law,” Judge Thomas Parker ruled in June. “Simply put, no majority of the Supreme Court has held that sexually explicit — but not obscene — speech receives less protection than political, artistic, or scientific speech.”
I love this substack and the effort the author goes to in presenting the facts. I wanted to share the titles of a few posts to show you what is going on. Hugs. Scottie
A paper about “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria,” retracted in March, was republished in a journal with a shady record. Major anti-trans accounts celebrated this as a “victory.”
The website leans heavily on religious therapy and “gender exploratory therapy” a misleadingly named type of therapy meant to convince trans people they are not truly transgender.
Republican Attorneys General representing 18 states have filed a brief in Dekker v. Weida, a case in which trans people in Florida have been denied Medicaid coverage for gender affirming care.
It has been a difficult year for transgender people in the US. Looking ahead, the battle lines are becoming clearer, as 2024 promises to be a decision point for the future of trans people in America.
Explosive allegations have emerged about Jamie Reed’s allegations against a gender affirming care clinic in Missouri. One family alleges Reed lied about the cause of their child’s liver damage.
In a major ruling released Wednesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States ruled that Florida’s ban on drag will continue to be blocked from enforcement statewide.
You can not compromise with these people. They are on a mission from their god, and they don’t care who it hurts. Why do they do this, to make their god happy with them? Maybe they think if they deny rights to women, LGBTQIA, and black people then all the bad things they did will be forgiven? Hugs. Scottie
A patient looks at her ultrasound before proceeding with a medical abortion at Alamo Women’s Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S., August 23, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
Two Texas jurisdictions will consider measures this week to outlaw the act of transporting another person along their roads for an abortion, part of a strategy by conservative activists to further restrict abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Commissioners in Lubbock County are slated to vote on the proposal on Monday. A few hours north, the Amarillo City Council on Tuesday will weigh its own such law, which could lead to a future council or city-wide vote.
Lubbock and Amarillo are the biggest jurisdictions of the 10 places in Texas that have considered restrictions on abortion-related transportation since the June 2022 end of Roe, which had granted a nationwide right to abortion. Five cities and counties in the state have passed bans.
Lubbock and Amarillo are both traversed by major highways that connect Texas, which has one of the county’s most stringent abortion laws, to neighboring New Mexico, where abortion is legal.
Anti-abortion activists backing the proposals say they are meant to bolster Texas’ existing abortion ban, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who provides or “aids or abets” an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Advocates of reproductive rights say the measures could deter people from seeking abortions or helping others get abortions, even though there is no clear way to enforce the bans. No violations have been reported in the five jurisdictions that have adopted them. Their reliance on citizen enforcement makes them difficult to challenge in court.
The greater impact of the ordinances so far appears to be how each side is using them to galvanize voters and pursue bigger political goals heading into an election year in which abortion remains a hot-button issue.
BOTH SIDES MOBILIZING
The campaign to ban abortion-related transit in Texas was started by Mark Lee Dickson, a Christian pastor who began pushing communities to outlaw abortion by declaring themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn” in 2019.
Dickson travels widely to pitch his measures. He also mobilizes supporters to unseat local leaders who oppose the proposals, with the aim of electing officials who will also push other far-right policies.
He took that approach in Odessa’s city elections in 2022 after the council initially blocked one of his “sanctuary city for the unborn” proposals. Dickson responded by marshalling support for council candidates who pledged to approve it.
Once elected, the candidates he backed not only declared Odessa a “sanctuary city,” but also adopted the state’s first abortion transport ban and took other steps Dickson supported, such as rejecting state and federal COVID-19-related mandates.
“This isn’t over just when you address one issue,” Dickson said in an interview.
He plans to be at the meetings in Lubbock and Amarillo this week.
Lubbock County Commissioner Jason Corley said he was inspired to bring the transport ban to a vote on Monday after hearing Dickson promote it at Lubbock’s Constitutionalist Society. Corley, who has supported Dickson’s work for years, said he expected the measure to pass.
Not all backers of abortion restrictions support Dickson’s transport bans, however.
Amarillo Mayor Cole Stanley said he supported Dickson’s “sanctuary city” movement, but is concerned that the transport bans rely on civil enforcement and do not clarify what local authorities are expected to do, potentially entangling the city in investigations brought by private actors.
The debates over the transport bans are spurring new shows of support for abortion access.
In Lubbock County, Kimberleigh Gonzalez is organizing a local Facebook group of 1,100 reproductive rights supporters to show their opposition to the measure at Monday’s meeting.
The group formed after Lubbock voters approved a “sanctuary city” ordinance backed by Dickson in May 2021. Each new attack on reproductive rights “brings us together a little more tightly,” Gonzalez said.
“Since 2021, I know a lot of people personally that are involved that weren’t before, and it just continues to grow and strengthen,” she said.
Abortion rights supporters, including four abortion funds in Texas, said they expected the transport bans to backfire on the anti-abortion movement by galvanizing political participation from abortion rights advocates in the lead-up to next year’s presidential election.
“We’re going to make sure that there are political and electoral consequences for this,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March activist organization.
Reporting by Julia Harte Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Leslie Adler
The mifepristone (abortion medication) legal case continues to be asinine propaganda bullsh*t. It was propaganda nonsense when it was originally filed and it still is, because in what world should a bunch of non-medical experts be allowed to review the safety of a medication that’s been proven TIME AND TIME AGAIN to be EXTREMELY SAFE?! Safer than literal Tylenol. It makes me so angry and the only way to vent that anger is to tell you all about it, so here it is: an update on the mifepristone lawsuit.
This is one of the more honest videos done on the subject. It shows just how much control Israel has over Gaza and the horrible living conditions Israel has forced the people there to live in. It details with facts the dates that Israeli militants took over the deported over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands so they could steal the land for Israel. Then the video report shows how Israeli settlements have grown in the West Bank, and some are so large they are the size of major cities. This mistreatment is the catalyst for the rage that keeps erupting as a desperate people with no hope, no home state, see everything taken from them as they are abused. Killing of civilians is wrong, but it is just as wrong on both sides. To answer the question of where was the Israeli army, guarding illegal settlements and the settlers who attack and harass Palestinians, destroying their homes, corps, and yes even killing them in an attempt to drive them out. Why because one god says the land is Jewish, another god says the land is Muslim, and no gods are real. Hugs
For decades, Israel has prioritized illegal settlements for Jewish Israelis in the West Bank
In the early hours of Saturday, October 7, Israelis living near the border with Gaza awoke to the sounds of Hamas fighters killing and kidnapping their neighbors. As the hours stretched on and they hid, terrified, their frantic text messages contained versions of this question: Where is the army?
To answer that question, we need to travel to the West Bank.
Watch this video to better understand how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s obsessive focus on the West Bank has left Israelis everywhere vulnerable.
Lynchburg, Virginia USA – April 14, 2023 – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking at Liberty University on April 14, 2023.Photo: Shutterstock
HIV criminalization lawsPhoto: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Scottie's Playtime 