Notice how these bills are written as vague as possible to include anything the right doesn’t like. Remember, gender and sex includes more than trans or gay people, it also includes all the hetero straight people. They have gender and they have sexual relationships. But of course the people behind these bills don’t mean the straight hetero kind as it is “normal” right. They only mean that icky kind they don’t like. Who cares that gay and trans people exist, let’s make any mention of them illegal, just like Russia did. Remember when the president of Iran said they don’t have gays in Iran, as that is a western disease? They just force all gay men to become women and as for lesbians, well women have no rights so they are forced into relationships with me. That is what these bills in Florida and other red states comes down to, the forcing the end of LGBTQ+ people out of society and back into hiding again. The writers of these bills don’t care about the health or well-being of the gay or trans kids, it is about pushing their religious church doctrines of moral correctness on everyone else. Same with the attempts to ban everything their religion hates, it is about forcing every person in these red states to live by strict Christian church doctrines and standards. Fuck you if you have a different idea or way of living, you will live by our demands, by our church morals because we are the Christian Taliban. Hugs
Indiana’s governor on Thursday signed a bill that will require schools to notify a parent if a student requests a name or pronoun change at school, one of the final bills approved in a legislative session that had targeted LGBTQ+ people in the state, especially students. Critics worry the law could out transgender children to their families and erode trust between students and teachers.
It also prohibits, from prekindergarten through third grade, instruction on “human sexuality,” something that is not defined in the bill. Holcomb said in a statement Thursday,“I also just believe its commonsense that sex education should not be taught in prekindergarten through third grade.” GOP bill author Rep. Michelle Davis said the law will “ensure Hoosier parents are in the driver’s seat when it comes to introducing sensitive topics to their kids.”
The bill’s author, Rep. Michelle Davis [photo], has appeared on the Family Research Council’s daily podcast. Republicans hold supermajorities in both Indiana chambers.
Indiana’s governor signed a bill that will require schools to notify a parent if a student requests a name or pronoun change at school, one of the final bills approved in a legislative session that targeted LGBTQ+ people in the state, especially students. https://t.co/RxHIq56mtm
⚠️Governor Holcomb today signed HB 1608, the "Don't Say Gay" bill, into law. This law attempts to erase LGBTQ voices, histories, and lived experiences from schools.
Our attorneys are assessing the law, and we will do everything in our power to protect LGBTQ rights.
Because of its incredibly vague language censoring discussions on “human sexuality"—a term with no definition in state code—HB 1608 could be used to: ❌silence any mention of LGBTQ people ❌ban books with LGBTQ characters ❌fire LGBTQ teachers ❌bar Pride flags in classrooms
LGBTQ students and teachers deserve safe, inclusive schools—not censorship and discrimination based on who they are.
HB 1608 does nothing but harm. LGBTQ people have always existed in Indiana, and we won't allow their stories and identities to be erased. https://t.co/SVAedNVshi
“I also just believe its commonsense that sex education should not be taught in prekindergarten through third grade.”
First off, where in the hell was “sexuality” being taught in K-3, and secondly, does this now mean you can’t refer to your teacher as Mr., Miss, or Mrs. as they all explicitly imply gender, and Mrs. implies that there is a sexual relationship somewhere.
Oh that’s ok. When you talk about straight people you talk about good, normal people
When you talk about LBGT, you talk about straight people who have sodomy because they’re sick snd evil
I guess there will be mass arrests on the first day of kindergarten when the teacher shows the children where the (gasp!) boy’s and girl’s restrooms are.
They’re just working their way toward making us illegal in the literal sense – it’s only a matter of time before they try to get Lawrence v. Texas overturned.
And Santos thinks if gays and lesbians abandon trans people the MAGAts will leave us alone I don’t think he really thinks that. He’s just helping the fascists in their attempts to divide us up into as small groups as possible so that they can stamp on each in turn.
Sadly there are some that will agree with that message, thinking that they are the good upstanding ones, and those trans / drag queens / kinky people / whoever are ‘making us look bad‘.
(I’m also not sure why the message included TQIA+ as the ‘others’. What do they have against questioning people? Most of us were at some point. Asexual / Aromantic people are no threat to anyone. They can’t pretend that Intersex people are ‘making a bad choice’ like they try with the rest of us, since they were obviously biologically born that way! Just looks like a transparently lazy way to split the community.)
No surprise here. Indiana is a racist hater State that flies under the radar. Our politicians are pussies and are usually a year or two behind the others. Today, I am putting my Rainbow Flag out and keeping it there.
Our local GOP rep decided to not seek re-election because she was so disgusted with her fellow colleagues in that party She and her husband are now independents. She refused to endorse any GOP candidate for her seat.
Often overlooked in media discussions of this wave of anti-LGBT legislation is the fact that some kids will attempt — or succeed in — suicide on account of the hate directed to them.
The Republicans engaged in this campaign of hate are murderers, pure and simple.
Do we have any progressive straight allies paying attention to this wave of homophobic bullshit? Are there any wealthy or powerful gays in the fight or we still just in the “tsk tsk” stage of a fascist overthrow?
He kiddies if you want to be an ally, change your name. If you’re Susie, ask to be called Susan. If its Malik, ask to be called Mallie. If your name is Billy, asked to be called Mister Smith. There are plenty of name changes that are not gender related. While this puts a burden on the teachers, it will point out the ridiculousness of this law.
What happened to parent’s rights? Why can just one parent stop a field trip to see a play because they object to any children seeing an actor in a female role, yet a parent has no rights to help their child socially transition? The only parents who have rights are maga republican parents. This is the state that the king wannabe governor calls the “free state of Florida”? This is the enforcement of a Puritan religious belief and view of Christian morality. This is enforcing a dress code on the entire public to agree with church doctrine of how the bible says to dress. This is real child abuse to separate children from loving parents following the medical advice of doctors, following the approved accepted best practice from the major medical organizations including the AMA and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the US. But what do doctors know compared to religious conservatives who get their medical information from a book written 2,500 years ago before people even knew about germs. Think of what the republicans are doing and have managed to do in the last two years. They have set the country and civil rights back 100 years and have set child labor laws back 150 years. Every poll says what the republicans are doing is unpopular and unliked by the majority, the republicans don’t care. Why, because they want to rule the people, not serve the public. Hugs
The Florida legislature passed a bill Thursday that will let the state take transgender minors away from their families if they are receiving gender-affirming care.
The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 26–13, mainly along party lines, and the House shortly after by a vote of 83–28, again along party lines. The measure now goes to the desk of Governor Ron DeSantis, who has previously expressed support for it and will likely sign it into law.
If he signs it into law, the measure will allow the state to take custody of a child if they have been “subjected to or [are] threatened with being subjected to” gender-affirming care, which includes puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.
“Parents have the right to raise their children as they see fit, and government intervention should be a last resort,” Senate President Kathleen Passidomo [photo] said in a prepared statement Friday.
“Unfortunately, all too often we are hearing about treatments for gender dysphoria being administered to children, often very young children. That’s just wrong, and we need to step in and make sure it isn’t happening in our state.”
The bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Clay Yarborough, appeared here in March for his bill banning minors from public drag shows.
He first appeared on JMG in 2010, when as a member of the Jacksonville City Council he declared that gays, Muslims, and atheists should not be permitted to hold public office, otherwise God will smite the fuck out of the country.
One of the many, many reasons I pleaded with the American public to care about family separation. It was just a matter of time before it came for all of us
The bill that would grant Florida the power to seize trans-identifying children receiving or likely to receive treatment for gender dysphoria is sponsored by Republican state senator Clay Yarborough, who is a follower of Christ. @Clay_Yarboroughhttps://t.co/rp83mxCzFNpic.twitter.com/7mWED7xNva
100% horseshit, its all made up to attack trans people. period. Its a start too, they’re not going to stop with trans kids. Next it will be taking children from gay couples and we need to know thats where its going.
Kids are being operated on. Approximately 1.5% of breast augmentation surgeries are preformed on girls under the age of 18. Thousands of cisgender girls receive “gender affirming” surgery every single year.
Funny how no Republicans are writing laws to take those girls away from their parents.
I’ve been tired of the Florida bashing but now I’m feeling the same way. Fuck this state. I want to get the fuck out of here ASAP. I just hope I can sell my home quickly. This place has become a quagmire of insanity. It’s horrible for all of the good LGBTQ+ people who choose to live here, including myself.
Parents, get your Trans kids out of the state now. I am sure they included provisions to detransition the children too. You know he’ll sign it. Anything to hurt someone.
You can bet Florida is going to eventually be setting up contracts with “ministries” to “counsel” the trans kids they steal from their parents to pray away the trans.
This is all about forcing their religious views on others, despite the medical evidence they are wrong. People are born gay, conversion therapy won’t work. But more important, being gay is not a sickness needing a cure. These people do such harm in their attempt to push their hate and the hate of their god on to everyone else. These are the Christian Taliban and the Christian ISIS missionaries. They demand the right to oppress others, and since they lost that right in most developed countries they are trying to prevent acceptance in the undeveloped countries from ever taking hold. They came their god is all powerful and that their god creates every person individually, so why does their god keep making gay and trans people? Hugs
WTF is happening in the US? This idea of the US being founded as a Christian Nation is a complete fiction, yet there are so many republican governors and legislators pushing it. When did the bible become more important than the constitution? I remember that shit being push on James when he was a teen and he is now 3o years old. We have a serious problem that generations since the 1980s have grown up being taught this fiction as fact. This was done through homeschooling and church schools. This fiction was / is promoted by churches to increase their political power and the income from adding more asses in pews. I have to tell you this drive to turn the US into a theocracy is terrifying to me and should be to others. We have seen it happen in other countries where a fundamentalist religion get governmental power, and they use it to wipe out personal freedoms in order to establish a religious doctrine enforced by the power of the state. Look at Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan. Those restrictive laws entrench the political power and funds of the religious leaders but restrict any kind of growth or advancement for the public. I can not imagine how devastating it would be for the US people to be forced to live according to the dictates of people who think morals and science was at its peak 2,500 years ago. Hugs
“Oklahomans, we have a clear choice in front of us. When it comes to our schools, do we want the radical ideology in our classroom that pushes gender theory? That pushes graphic pornography in order to push a social experiment on our kids?
“Or do want the US Constitution? Do we want documents like the Federalist Papers and the bible? So that our kids understand our history and how our government was put together?
“Those core fundamental principles have made us the greatest country in the history of the world. Real Americans know that we’ve got to support our kids by giving them a great understanding of our history.
“Radical leftists and Biden administration, they would prefer to sexualize our kids.” – Oklahoma superintendent of public schools Ryan Walters.
Walters, who was appointed state secretary of education by Christianist Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2020, faced calls to resign in 2022 after it was revealed that a Koch-funded group that advocates for privatizing public schools was paying him $120,000/year.
Stitt rejected calls for Walters’ resignation and attempted to reappoint him again earlier this year, but the state Senate refused to allow him to hold the elected superintendent and appointed secretary of education posts at the same time.
Walters last appeared on JMG in October 2022 when he called for reeducating all teachers with “Christian patriotic history” in a program operated by Michigan’s far-right Hillsdale College.
OK Superintendent of Schools says the Biden Admin is pushing graphic pornography and gender theory in schools to sexualize our kids, but he says students should be taught from important historical documents like the Bible. pic.twitter.com/fxum2wn3xx
Oklahomans, we have a clear choice in front of us. When it comes to our schools, do we want the radical ideology in our classroom that pushes gender theory? That pushes graphic pornography in order to push a social experiment on our kids?
Are people so stupid that they think teachers are hauling out their Honcho magazines into the classroom? That’s what Sunday school is for.
That’s what gets me. People eat this crap up with absolutely no proof of any of it. And hey, what happened to the kitty litter in the classrooms issue?
Please remember that what the republicans say this is about and what is really happening it two different things. The republicans claim she violated decorum by claiming that she accused them of killing kids. That is not at all what she said. She said if the republicans pasted the bill denying trans kids medical assistance would cause kids to try to commit suicide, which is true, so the people passing the bill would have blood on their hands. No one doubts the validity of that statement. But this was the opening they used with republicans claimed victimhood and talked of how badly they were being abused by being accused of having kids blood on their hands. Yes the big bad in charge republicans were the victims here.
What this really is about is the fact Rep. Zooey Zephyr is trans! And the republicans want her gone! That is what this is about. They don’t care her constitutes not only voted her in to office to represent them, they have increased their support for her after this happened. So they are trying to make her life so miserable, hoping she will just go away. That is what the anti-trans and anti-drag people bills are about, trying to make those people so miserable they will just go away. It is what red states with the don’t say gay laws are doing in schools, just trying to make gay / trans kids just hide and go away. How proud the republicans must be to make people hide who they really are just so republicans can feel good in their lives.
Please note every act the republicans took was to make her life miserable which included locking her out of the work areas and bathrooms. She is forced to work and vote representing her voters from a public hallway, so this week some hateful people made sure to show up and occupy the only seating available, causing an elected official to be forced to stand all day and work from a food counter. This is not democracy people! This is one party trying to make those they don’t like to disappear from the public. Hugs
Republicans moved to sideline Zephyr further by canceling some meetings of the two committees on which she serves and moving the bills they were to hear to other committees, Democrats said.
She spent the first day of her exile last week battling to use a bench in a statehouse hallway. Her key card to access Capitol entrances, bathrooms and party workspaces was deactivated, according to the lawsuit.
Zephyr spoke briefly during a House Judiciary Committee meeting Monday morning. The full House — minus Zephyr — reconvened in the afternoon. Zephyr cast votes from a statehouse snack bar because several people occupied the bench.
Read the full article. As you can see in the photo below, the bench seats three people and the evil bitches have a fourth woman on standby as a seat-filler for bathroom breaks.
@ZoAndBehold works from the lunch counter outside the House of Representatives chamber today because a group of women have been occupying the bench she used last week. #mtlegpic.twitter.com/ImMaYdaioS
I agree. What the slave state legislatures like Montana’s are doing is trampling on any and all minorities’ civil rights. She didn’t break decorum. She was very measured and impeccable with her word. She never raised her voice. Her crime was that she told them the TRUTH. People will die. There IS blood on their hands.
I’ve tweeted to Montana Dems, the Montana ACLU, and Montana Pride with a plea for allies to come tomorrow and hold the bench for Zooey. I added that a couple of drag queens would be a nice touch.
Joe, I’d like to see someone bring in a comfy folding chair for her, even though both state houses would vote, and the governor would sign, a bill banning them on capitol grounds the next day.
I was just looking for that photo, that is EXACTLY what I was reminded me of. I hope they know they are on the WRONG side of history on this issue, and will be shamed for many years.
This is interesting. It lays the plan of the Christian Nationalists out clearly with their goal of RULING the rest of us. Hugs
Ahn told the faithful that Trump’s victory would be their victory: “We’re going to rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.” Ahn has long been explicit in his quest to have Christians conquer the mountains of influence — to become the “head not the tail” in directing government and culture. “Once we do get to the head, then all of a sudden we can make decrees and declarations,” he explained in a 2010 interview. “When you get to the top,” he said, “you can start doing some radical things for the Lord.”
Why Are So Many Democrats Backing an Accused Christian Nationalist?
Derrick Peterson claims he’s running “to represent diversity in its purest form,” but his Christian nationalist affiliations suggest otherwise
“I’M NOT A Christian nationalist,” Derrick Peterson, a leading school board candidate in Portland, Oregon, tells Rolling Stone.
It’s an unusual declaration. But Peterson is an unusual politician.
In the biography he touts, Peterson is a career law enforcement officer — a Black man who spent 35 years rising through the ranks of the local sheriff’s department, before making an unsuccessful election bid for sheriff in 2022.
But Peterson has other credentials that he does not trumpet. He’s a commissioned “apostle” in the church of a Christian-nationalist preacher who rejects the separation of church and state as a myth “from the pit of hell,” and who traveled to Washington, D.C., to back president Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
In 2020, Peterson was also named to the board of that church’s anti-abortion activist organization, 1Race4Life, whose members pledge to always “vote pro-life” and to “defend the sacred covenant of marriage between a man and a woman.” (Peterson now disputes this affiliation.)
This second set of bona fides present Peterson as an uneasy fit in uber-progressive Portland, where abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights are politically sacrosanct. But on the strength of his public credentials, Peterson has been endorsed by a wide swath of the city’s center-left establishment, including by The Oregonian, the Willamette Week alt weekly, as well as by a gay city commissioner, the progressive county DA, prominent local Black politicians, and the Willamette Women Democrats.
Is Peterson a stealth candidate — poised to secure a victory for the religious right in the beating heart of blue-state liberalism?He disputes this notion, telling Rolling Stone: “I have no hidden agendas.” But a leading scholar of the charismatic Christian movement that holds up Peterson as one of its own, calls the candidate’s explanations “hard to square.”
Nationally, school boards have emerged as a front line in America’s culture wars — with high stakes for the hearts and minds of young Americans. Right wingers are pushing into school governance in an effort to stymie evolving social norms on gender and sexuality as well as to block a factual accounting of America’s dark history of enslavement and genocide. School boards can set local standards on everything from banning books; to forcing trans students to use the wrong pronouns or the wrong bathrooms; to muzzling teachers from discussing their own racial and gender identities with students.
This cultural fight goes hand-in-glove with a rising tide of Christian nationalism that seeks to remake America according to fundamentalist biblical standards, in hopes of hastening the second coming of Christ. Christian nationalists have raised alarm at the “grooming” of a younger generation in public schools — a move away from God’s truth orchestrated by what they perceive as “demonic” forces.
For his part, Peterson — a registered Democrat — claims he’s been the victim of a misunderstanding. He hotly contests that he was, in fact, on the board of the anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion 1Race4Life — and that his name and likeness were misappropriated. “I am not affiliated with this group, nor does it reflect my views on marriage equality and reproductive health,” he said in written answers to Rolling Stone’s questions. “My view is that everyone has the right to make their individual personal choice about what they do with their own body. I have also been an active advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.”
Despite appearing on 1Race4Life’s website since 2020, Peterson claims he only became aware of his disputed board membership last week and “took action to have my picture, name, and information removed immediately.” 1Race4Life did not return Rolling Stone’s inquiries about Peterson. (The entire website is currently down at press time, though its social channels are still active.)
1Race4Life is a project of the ministry of Ché Ahn, a leading Christian nationalist, affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation. NAR preachers come out of the Charismatic or Pentecostal tradition that believes in “gifts of the spirit” — including speaking in tongues and the performance of miracles. NAR ministries also hold that prophecy is not a bygone biblical artifact, rather that we live in a new age of “prophets” and “apostles” who receive direct messages from God and help exert His authority here on Earth. Many adherents believe that it is the job of Christians to seize control of government and culture to bring the world into biblical alignment so that Christ can return and reign over the Earth.
1Race4Life was Ahn’s response to the uprisings after the George Floyd murder — seeking to channel the emotions around the value of life into protecting the unborn. 1Race4Life describes itself as “an apostolic network of ethnically and culturally diverse, pro-life Evangelical leaders committed to seeing the end of abortion on a local, state, and national level.”
Along with Peterson, the 1Race4Life board included top Christian nationalist figures including Lance Wallnau. Wallnau is a chief promoter of the Seven Mountains Mandate, which calls on Christians to attempt a national takeover by capturing the seven pinnacles of culture — including religion, entertainment, government, and education.
“It’s implausible to me that Derrick Peterson had no idea that he was getting placed on this board with all these brand-name people in that independent charismatic world,” says Matthew Taylor, Protestant Scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies who is writing a book on the role of religion in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Ahn has long been explicit in his quest to have Christians conquer the mountains of influence — to become the “head not the tail” in directing government and culture. “Once we do get to the head, then all of a sudden we can make decrees and declarations,” he explained in a 2010 interview. “When you get to the top,” he said, “you can start doing some radical things for the Lord.”
Ahn was a based Trump supporter who insisted that the 2020 election was stolen through “egregious fraud.” He spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 5, 2021, insisting that Trump was going to stay in the White House and that America would be a “red nation in perpetuity.” Ahn told the faithful that Trump’s victory would be their victory: “We’re going to rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.”
“We are here to change history,” dominionist “apostle” Ché Ahn told “Stop the Steal” rally a day before the insurrection. He predicted that "we’re gonna rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.” pic.twitter.com/KlqDUqFlYc
Peterson now says, “I do not support the political agenda of Ché Ahn.” He insists: “I do not follow his appearances or have contact with him. This is the first time I heard about his appearance in D.C. I do not condone the acts that happened that day. I support democracy.”
Peterson did confirm to Rolling Stone, however, that he was commissioned in 2020 as an “apostle” in Ahn’s Harvest International Ministry (HIM). Today, Peterson downplays the position as if it were a service award: “I was honored for my community work as an apostle, an honorary title.” He adds: “I was being recognized for the authority I carried based on my position at work, the community, and as a long time DEI instructor. This included my ability to network, galvanize, and bring people together.”
Taylor, the expert in NAR theology, finds this explanation far-fetched. “I can’t speak for Peterson’s perception of it, but HIM does not [commission apostles] ad hoc or willy-nilly. They want to invest in these people as leaders in their network.” Peterson was named a “marketplace apostle” which in the NAR context, Taylor says, is someone who “advances the Kingdom of God outside of church.” It is a designation, Taylor adds, that “puts you in the upper tier of religious leaders.”
Peterson claims his intersection with Ahn was fleeting: “I attended one meeting and have not been involved with that church since.” Yet Peterson has since traded on his “apostle” credential, preaching at churches in the Pacific Northwest directly linked to Ahn, including the New Harvest Church outside of Tacoma, Washington.
That church’s “Statement of Faith” refers to Christians being “empowered to influence” the seven “cultural mountains”; touts “our mission to subdue the enemy and bring the Kingdom of God to the Earth”; and compares gay marriage to incest and pedophilia.
During a guest sermon in September 2020, Peterson gently corrected the church pastor who said Peterson was “not an official ordained minister” by touting that he’d been “officially commissioned as a marketplace apostle.”
Peterson’s sermon that day called on Christians to assert their power: ”It’s time to rise up and take your place — take your authority — walk in the majesty of Jesus Christ, of God, what He has given you.” He called on Christians to “get out of your seat” and begin “knocking” on the doors of power.
The service — held at the height of the George Floyd protests in Portland — closed with the church’s official pastor taking the stage with Peterson and leading a prayer to call on God to “cancel” what the pastor called “the demonic power inspiring those riots.”
Peterson’s name has also been scrubbed from the web page for Ché Ahn’s church that announced his commissioning as an apostle. “Who is he calling to get those pages pulled down, if he really doesn’t know what is going on?” asks Taylor. “The whole thing just doesn’t track.”
Following the money, Peterson’s political ambitions have been funded with donations from a pair of preachers, including a fellow apostle in Ahn’s network, and a Wichita, Kansas, minister who is the lead translator of a controversial version of the New Testament that Ahn touts as “the Bible of choice for the next Jesus people movement.”
For his part, Peterson tells Rolling Stone that his only objective in running is “to represent diversity in its purest form,” adding that “as a school board member, I will be committed to further helping my community, schools, and youth.”
Peterson does have competition in the vote-by-mail race, which wraps up May 16. He faces longtime school teacher Patte Sullivan, who — ironically — threw her hat into the ring before Peterson declared for the race, aiming to prevent Portland from becoming part of the national trend.
“I signed up sort of the last minute,” she said in an endorsement interview with Willamette Week last week, before Peterson’s unusual affiliations became public. “I heard on the radio that there were school board positions opening, and the back of my mind I said, ‘Oh school board — that’s where the right wing sneaks in.’ ”
I want to thank Ali for noticing the post I tried to do on this did not include the link or the article. Thankfully because she added the links so I could find it again. I don’t know why it did not post correctly. I wanted to make sure to post the photos so people can see that these are real kids going through a real gender issues that these laws would prevent, forcing them to go through a puberty of the gender they won’t want to live as or feel is them. That makes it much harder to live as the gender they are, including using the bathroom of the gender that they are and looking so different they need to spend what money they have on cosmetic surgeries to fit what some people say the look for their gender should be. Remember this fact, less than 2.4% of kids who transition regret it for many different reasons, they mostly do it for peer / family pressure often related to religion. Also a fact most should understand kids don’t turn gay or trans from reading or watching which includes seeing gay / trans / or drag queen people. It is not a choice, it is who you are. Hugs
CORRECTS IDENTIFICATION TO ELLE PALMER FROM ASHER WILCOX-BROEKEMEIER – Elle Palmer, 13, speaks during an interview, Monday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Salt Lake City. Republican lawmakers across the country are banning gender-affirming care for minors. The new laws have parents scrambling to secure the care their kids need. They worry what will happen if they can’t get the medications they’ve been prescribed, especially as their kids start puberty and their bodies change in ways that can’t be reversed. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices guitar in his bedroom, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. When Asher began menstruating, he felt a terrifying disconnect between how his body was changing on the outside and how he felt inside. His mom began researching online to understand what was going on with her son, while Asher’s father, Brian, looked to doctors for expertise. With referrals from his longtime pediatrician, Asher met with therapists and doctors who helped explore his history, personality and feelings over his whole life. (AP Photo/Erin
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Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier sits for a portrait in his bedroom, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. More than a year and a half ago, doctors prescribed puberty blockers and birth control to slow breast development, regulate menstruation and lower the pressure of his disconnect with his body. He’s 13 now, and finds solace in music to ground him in a world of occasional bullying and constant pronoun mistakes. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, poses for a portrait with his sticker-adorned skateboard, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Asher still struggles with moments of gender dysphoria. Friendships that were once strong fizzled after Asher came out as transgender. Parents have disinvited him from their houses out of fears he’s a “bad influence.” (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
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Elle Palmer, 13, poses for a photograph, Monday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Salt Lake City. Elle came out as a transgender girl in fifth grade. Now in seventh, she planned to start hormone treatment this summer so potential side effects wouldn’t interfere with her life during the school year, especially her team’s extracurricular math competitions. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices with his skateboard at an elementary school playground after school hours on Monday, March 27, 2023, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Asher’s parents have noticed his emotions stabilize through his treatment. “From a parent’s view, I see him as being able to be himself authentically, which is wonderful for him,” Elizabeth said. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As a third grader in Utah, mandolin-playing math whiz Elle Palmer said aloud what she had only before sensed, telling a friend she planned to transfer schools the following year and hoped her new classmates would see her as a girl.
Several states northeast, Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier listened to punk rock in his room, longing to join the shirtless boys from the neighborhood playing beneath the South Dakota sunshine. It wasn’t until menstruation started, and the disconnect with his body grew, that he knew he was one of them.
Both kids’ realizations started their families on a yearslong path of doctors, therapists and other experts in transgender medicine.
Now teenagers, their journeys have hit a roadblock.
Elle Palmer, 13, plays her mandolin, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Republican lawmakers across the country are banning gender-affirming care for minors. Restrictions have gone into effect in eight states this year — including conservative Utah and South Dakota — and are slated to in at least nine more by next year.
Those who oppose gender-affirming care raise fears about the long-term effects treatments have on teens, argue research is limited and focus particularly on irreversible procedures such as genital surgery or mastectomies.
Yet those are rare. Doctors typically guide kids toward therapy or voice coaching long before medical intervention. At that point, puberty blockers, anti-androgens that block the effects of testosterone, and hormone treatments are far more common than surgery. They have been available in the United States for more than a decade and are standard treatments backed by major doctors’ organizations including the American Medical Association.
The new laws have parents scrambling to secure the care their kids need. They worry what will happen if they can’t get the medications they’ve been prescribed, especially as their kids start puberty and their bodies change in ways that can’t be reversed.
“My body’s basically this ticking time bomb, just sitting there waiting for it to go off,” said Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, now 13.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices guitar in his bedroom in Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
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Elle remembers her first day at the school after she transferred. Before leaving, she came downstairs in rainbow sparkle-embroidered cowboy boots her mother worried would only spur bullies. Taunts from kids at Elle’s prior school drove her into depression so deep she had suicidal thoughts.
But on that first day, a boy told Elle he loved her boots. Some kids bullied her, but classmates and teachers were far more supportive than at her prior school. Elle discovered new passions in hip hop and drama class, and she settled into a new school and a truer version of herself. She started to see a therapist as her uncertainty about how she fit in the gender spectrum grew more pressing.
Elle came out as a transgender girl in fifth grade. Now in seventh, she planned to start hormone treatment this summer so potential side effects wouldn’t interfere with her life during the school year, especially her team’s extracurricular math competitions.
Elle Palmer, 13, poses for a photograph in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
But then Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed a gender-affirming care ban in January. In a compromise, the law let kids keep taking medications if they were already on them. So Elle’s mom rushed to get her treatment months earlier than planned, as did other parents.
The waitlist at one Utah clinic swelled to six months. Doctors were confronted with difficult decisions about who to get in for appointments.
Elle’s medication arrived in the mail just before Utah’s law went into effect. A small stick implanted in Elle’s forearm is slow-releasing hormone blockers to prevent the effects of male puberty from taking hold. Eventually she may be prescribed estrogen, and she and her parents will have to navigate the next steps, and whether they’ll find doctors to continue her care.
At least for now, they have a reprieve.
“It feels like we can breathe again now,” Cat Palmer said.
Elle Palmer, 13, speaks during an interview, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
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There’s no relief for Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier’s family — not yet.
When Asher began menstruating, he felt a terrifying disconnect between how his body was changing on the outside and how he felt inside.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier sits for a portrait in his bedroom. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
Elizabeth began researching online to understand what was going on with her son, while Asher’s father, Brian, looked to doctors for expertise. With referrals from his longtime pediatrician, Asher met with therapists and doctors who helped explore his history, personality and feelings over his whole life.
Nearly two years ago, doctors prescribed puberty blockers and birth control to slow breast development, regulate menstruation and lower the pressure of his disconnect with his body.
He’s 13 now, and finds solace in music to ground him in a world of occasional bullying and constant mistaken pronouns. He practices Blink-182’s “All the Small Things” on guitar, plays trumpet in the school band and is rehearsing various singing roles for the Cinderella school musical. When he’s not thinking about testosterone to lower his voice or eventually getting top surgery, he looks forward to playing in the high school marching band next year.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, pulls an a album by The Offspring from his cassette tape collection. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
Asher still struggles with moments of gender dysphoria. Friendships that were once strong fizzled after Asher came out as transgender. Parents have disinvited him from their houses out of fears he’s a “bad influence.”
But his parents have noticed his emotions stabilize through his treatment.
“From a parent’s view, I see him as being able to be himself authentically, which is wonderful for him,” Elizabeth said.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, poses for a portrait with his sticker-adorned skateboard. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
Now he and his parents worry they’ll have to start over.
In February, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a law banning the medications and procedures that doctors have increasingly prescribed for transgender teens.
Asher’s current doctors in South Dakota won’t be able to prescribe his medications, so the family is looking for a new doctor in neighboring Minnesota, where the Democratic governor has signed an executive order explicitly protecting gender-affirming care for minors. They’re hoping to find a clinic close enough they can drive to appointments and don’t have to pay for hotel stays.
The planning has been time-consuming. Logistical questions to their current South Dakota doctors for referrals have gone unanswered. They want to beat whatever onslaught of patients from other states enacting similar bans will bring to providers in Minnesota, but also want to maintain as much normalcy for Asher as they can.
The sudden twists in Asher’s trajectory makes him question why his health care is of concern to politicians.
“Even though trans people don’t make up a big percent of the population doesn’t mean that we’re not part of it still,” Asher said.
Asher Wilcox-Broekemeier, 13, practices with his skateboard at an elementary school playground after school hours. (AP Photo/Erin Woodiel)
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The full consequences of the bans on care for minors aren’t yet clear.
Dr. Nikki Mihalopoulos, an adolescent medicine doctor in a Salt Lake City specialty clinic with transgender teens, worries the new laws will make families too scared to seek help and doctors too scared of losing their licenses to provide care.
In the middle are kids like Elle and Asher.
Multiple studies have shown that transgender youth are more likely to consider or attempt suicide and less at risk for depression and suicidal behaviors when able to access gender-affirming care.
Both sets of parents are trying to shelter their kids from the stress and anxiety caused by the recent changes in the laws.
After years of worrying about their kids’ safety and mental health, they still fear what could happen if they can’t find the drugs their kids have been prescribed.
“My kid being OK is my number one priority. I know what the suicide rate is. I do not want my child to be a statistic,” Cat Palmer said of Elle.
How dare anyone question the king wannabe? How dare anyone say something different from the authoritarian thin-skinned guy who runs the state like a mob boss. Just like the trump who first made him governor DeathSantis thinks he is smarter than anyone else and knows more than any other. He attacks those who even dare ask him a question he doesn’t like, and tries to destroy those who dare to disagree with him. One of DeathSantis claims is his standards teach students civic, but I guess it is only credit worth if it is republican ideology being supported, not time to go to the capital and protest the hateful republicans. Hugs
The administration is coming after the Leon superintendent’s teaching certificate as well.
Florida officials are threatening to revoke the teaching license of a school superintendent who criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis, accusing the educator of violating several statutes and DeSantis directives and allowing his “personal political views” to guide his leadership.
Such a revocation by the state Department of Education could allow DeSantis to remove Leon County Superintendent Rocky Hanna from his elected office. The Republican Governor did that last year to an elected Democratic prosecutor in the Tampa Bay area who disagreed with his positions limiting abortion and medical care for transgender teens and indicated he might not enforce new laws in those areas.
Disney also sued DeSantis this week,saying he targeted its Orlando theme parks for retribution after it criticized the governor’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that then banned the discussion of sexuality and gender in early grades, but has since been expanded.
Hanna has publicly opposed that law, once defied the governor’s order that barred any mandate that students wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, and criticized a DeSantis-backed bill that recently passed that will pay for students to attend private school. The Leon County district, with about 30,000 students, covers Tallahassee, the state capital, and its suburbs.
“It’s a sad day for democracy in Florida, and the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, when a state agency with unlimited power and resources, can target a local elected official in such a biased fashion,” Hanna said in a statement sent to The Associated Press and other media Thursday. A Democrat then running as an independent, Hanna was elected to a second four-year term in 2020 with 60% of the vote. He plans to run for reelection next year and does not need a teacher’s license to hold the job.
“This investigation has nothing to do with these spurious allegations, but rather everything to do with attempting to silence myself and anyone else who speaks up for teachers and our public schools in a way that does not fit the political narrative of those in power,” Hanna said.
He said the investigation was spurred by a single complaint from a leader of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative education group, requesting his removal.
“We are fighting tirelessly with our local school board to no avail,” Brandi Andrews wrote DeSantis, citing Hanna’s mask mandate, his opposition to the state’s new education laws and directives and his public criticism of the governor. She noted that she had appeared in a DeSantis reelection TV commercial.
Her letter was stamped “Let’s Go Brandon,” a code used by some conservatives to replace a vulgar chant made against President Joe Biden. DeSantis is expected to soon announce he will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in next year’s election. Andrews issued a statement saying her complaint against Hanna was one of many.
Education department spokesman Alex Lanfranconi said in a statement that while officials would not discuss the Hanna investigation in detail, “nothing about this case is special.”
“Any teacher with an extensive history of repeated violations of Florida law would be subject to consequences up to and including losing their educator certificate,” he said. The threatened revocation was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper.
Before any punishment is meted out, Hanna can have a hearing before an administrative judge, attempt to negotiate a settlement or surrender his license. He said in his statement he has not decided what he will do.
Hanna received a letter from Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. earlier this month saying an investigation found probable cause that he violated a 2021 DeSantis directive barring districts from mandating that students wear COVID-19 masks. Hanna required students to wear masks after a Leon third grader died of the disease early that school year. The fight went on for several months until Leon and several other districts had their legal challenge rejected by the courts.
Diaz also cited a memo Hanna issued before this school year telling teachers, “You do You!” and to teach the way they always had, allegedly giving instructors approval to ignore new laws enacted by DeSantis and the Legislature. That includes the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which supporters call the “Parental Rights in Education Act.”
His letter also cites the district’s failure for one month in 2020 to have an armed guard or police officer at every school as required after the 2018 Parkland high school massacre. Hanna said then that there weren’t enough available officers to meet that requirement and the education department cleared him of wrongdoing.
Diaz also complains that parents were told that their children could get an excused absence if they chose to attend a February student protest at the state capitol opposing DeSantis’ education policies.
Offering students a “free day off of school” to attend the rally “is another example of (Hanna) failing to distinguish his political views from the standards taught in Florida schools,” Diaz wrote.
Notice it is his god, not a generic god or an inclusive what ever your deity may be god. Nope he wants to marry the nation to his Christian god and screw anyone with a different religious view. Hugs
Right-wing priest James Altman ranted that "we should crush like the vermin that they are—and they are—every filthy school board member or teacher who tries to shove their mentally ill tranny freak show down the throats of our precious children." https://t.co/BjHHnSQShShttps://t.co/ELOfq7L0HFpic.twitter.com/9ziVTimPBJ
Scottie's Playtime 