FILE: Young people holding LGBTQ rainbow flag (Getty Images)
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows over one out of every four high school students in the United States identifies as LGBTQ.
Using data it collected in 2021, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) found that 74.2% of American high school students identified as heterosexual. The CDC surveyed 17,508 students from 152 schools across the U.S.
According to results, 3.2% of students identified as either gay or lesbian, 5.2% identified as “questioning” and 12.2% identified as bisexual. About 3.9% of students answered the question by saying they were “other” and 1.8% claimed they didn’t understand the question.
The CDC says the number of students in the United States who identify as LGBTQ has increased from 11% in 2015 to 26% in 2021. That increase “might be a result of changes in question wording to include students identifying as questioning,” the report claims.
About 57% of those high school students in the CDC’s data said that they have not had any sexual contact in their lives, while 34.6% of those students said they had sexual contact with someone of the opposite sex.
Just 2.4% of students reported that they’ve had sexual contact with the same sex, and 6% said that they’ve had sexual contact with both sexes, according to the CDC.
Polling shows that younger people are increasingly identifying as LGBTQ. Research from the analytics firm Gallup says the number of Americans who identify as LGBTQ has doubled in the last decade.
Critics, including some from the LGBTQ community, say that an “agenda” pushed in U.S. schools had led to the increase.
Everyone’s like ‘No, no, no, no that’s not indoctrination. We’re just teaching inclusion, so it doesn’t count.’ I totally disagree with that,” former U.S. Marine and bisexual member of Gays Against Groomers, Samantha Viscount, told KMPH News in Fresno, California. “I think that if you teach children all this LGBT material way too early on of an age before they understand it, it’s absolutely indoctrination.”
The concern is that our children in the schools are being taught in regards to the transgenderism, the LGBTQ agenda,” Pastor Jesse Alvarez of Valley Life Community Church in Selma, told KMPH. “And that’s one side of the story that’s an opinion, a culture, a belief in our country.”
However, LGBTQ advocates call such concerns “ignorant.”
No, I don’t think that should be a concern at all or an issue to bring up because it sounds ignorant,” Equality California’s Jorge Reyes Salinas said. “We all read books about animals. We all read books about things that may be fantasy or whatever and we’re not saying that we’re going to be that character in a book or anything like that.”
Gallup polling shows that LGBTQ identification among adults in the U.S. “leveled off” in 2022 after reaching 7.1% in 2021.
The authoritative right wing governor who is against woke and pushed through the don’t say gay bills in schools including up to 12th grade (yes no child has internet and heard about gay people by the time they are legal able to vote) has appointed a board to judge each teacher / professor by their ideology. If they are not republican enough, then they get fired or denied tenure. Remember the point of tenure was to ensure that political influence was removed from higher education teaching. That has not worked well for Republicans that are now a dying minority desperate to hold on to power. This is scary as everything DeathSantis has managed to do in Florida has been copied in other red states. Hugs
During a contentious Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, five professors at the New College of Florida were denied tenure—even though they had already received approvals at every other point in the process.
Those professors are the latest casualties of the culture-war politics that led conservative trustees appointed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis to spearhead a self-declared “hostile takeover” of the college.
The tenure denial prompted the abrupt resignation of Matthew Lepinski, the faculty trustee on the board, who accused fellow members of destabilizing NCF. Lepinski walked out after the vote, announcing suddenly that he was “quitting the college.”
The school’s interim president, DeSantis ally and former state House Speaker Richard Corcoran, said in a memo to the trustees that he wanted the professors’ tenure denied or delayed in part because of the administrative changes and because of “a renewed focus on ensuring the college is moving towards a more traditional liberal arts institution.”
The trustees denied tenure for all five professors on identical 6-4 votes, with the new conservative board members in the majority. Shouts of “shame on you!” came from the audience afterward.
The five professors denied tenure are Rebecca Black and Lin Jiang, who both teach organic chemistry; Nassima Neggaz, history and religion with a focus on Islam; coastal and marine science professor Gerardo Toro-Farmer; and Hugo Viera-Vargas, whose specialty is Caribbean/Latin American studies and music.
— The Chronicle of Higher Education (@chronicle) April 28, 2023
In my 13 years in the Florida State University System I have NEVER seen a Board of Trustees overturn a tenure decision. The justification here were vague "extraordinary circumstances," with one board member citing "questionable publication histories." A 🧵on why that's bunk:
All 5 New College professors going up for tenure were denied today, despite approval from the college's faculty and previous administration. Every academic should be paying attention to what's happening there, now. Florida is very likely your future. https://t.co/9ZyvU7meyP
Tenure isn't just a rubber stamp. It's a years long process involving all levels of university governance, and it's incredibly thorough. These are the steps those candidates would have gone through before the Board decided to overturn it on a whim:
When you're hired to a tenure-track position, you receive both annual performance evaluations and annual tenure appraisals from your department chair. These monitor your progress towards tenure, and provide guidance for hitting the relevant marks.
At the midpoint between hiring and tenure, you undergo mid-tenure review. This involves compiling an exhaustive dossier of your accomplishments, which is appraised by a committee of your colleagues, your chair, and the dean.
All candidates must go up for tenure by their 6th year in a tenure-track position. If you go up early, as all of these New College professors did, it's because your case is a slam-dunk. You also tend to get extra scrutiny from your colleagues for going up early.
The tenure dossier is literally hundreds of pages, and it's a colossal amount of work to assemble. I've been through this process twice, once for tenure, and again for promotion to full professor. It's not fun.
Once your dossier is complied, it goes through multiple levels of review pursuant to established departmental, university, and CBA criteria. Most cases are approved (self-selection), but even then it's not 100%. Rejections happen, and it sucks for everyone involved.
By self-selection, I mean that weaker candidates tend to be weeded out earlier. Their appraisals and mid-tenure reviews make it clear that they are not progressing adequately, and they look for other positions rather than face rejection. Denial of tenure is a really bad look.
Tenure cases are reviewed by external referees, a committee of departmental faculty, the department chair, the dean, the university promotion & tenure committee, the provost, and the university president before ever getting to the Board of Trustees.
The university promotion and tenure committee is where most rejections happen. It consists of faculty from all over the university, and they take their job very seriously. The time commitment is immense, and I have the utmost respect for my colleagues who take this service on.
This basic process is used at every Florida SUS institution, including New College. There are some variations. New College, for instance, has divisions instead of departments, and a provost's advisory committee rather than a tenure and promotion committee, but you get the idea.
So by the time these cases arrived on the desks of Chris Rufo and his fellow partisan hacks, they had already gone through an exhaustive internal and external review process at the university level, and been found to have satisfied all of the relevant tenure criteria.
A note about the Boards of Trustees in the Florida State University System. They consist of 13 members: 6 appointed by the governor, 5 appointed by the SUS Board of Governors, as well as the student body president and the faculty association president.
DeSantis made 6 appointments to the Board back in January. They voted unanimously to deny tenure, and they were the only Trustees to do so. The vote was 6-4 in all five cases. I haven't seen any reporting yet on why three Trustees did not participate in the vote.
So there you have it. Five exceptional academics were voted down by a board of partisans appointed by a governor who's using the nation's highest ranked system of public universities as a political football in his quest for higher office.
Since these professors went up early, they can still apply for tenure again next year. But the more likely outcome is that they'll look for jobs elsewhere, as talented university faculty across Florida are now doing in ever-increasing numbers.
i just got a text from a friend in Florida this morning. Her husband has accepted a teaching position here in Connecticut. She’ll miss the climate, but not the crazy as she so nicely put it.
We had a job opening in our department over the summer. When Dodds was announced multiple people withdrew their applications. It was a nightmare filling the job because multiple people offered the job declined the offer. This after multiple interviews and all that. We wound up with a good hire in the end (which just shows how many qualified people there are for many of these jobs) but his wife did not come here with him so I doubt he’ll stay more than a couple of years.
They want to create Florida’s answer to Wheaton College. There are a few of these schools around the country that are known for indoctrinating students already right-leaning. They want a Florida version of that and creating it. There’s really not much anyone can do to stop them either. I have no idea what the result will be. Will they succeed or (more likely) just make a big mess of things. There are very few of these schools where you can get the liberal arts college experience/education at public school prices, so this and another school in Georgia (I forget the name) and I don’t know of many others. But be clear about this, control it or destroy it…either is fine with the far right.
The real reason faculty need tenure is so they won’t be fired at 50 and replaced with someone right out of school who will ask for less money. That’s the main reason workers fought so hard for things like seniority. I hear people sneer at that, but never anyone who was looking for a job after about 45. Yes, academic freedom is important. Your work should be judged by peers not business people who bought their way onto the board.
Today we’re discussing the proposed change to the UK Equality Act and how absurd and unworkable it is, as well as the unignorable link between gender critical activism and white nationalism.
Please consider making a donation to Gendered Intelligence, a trans-led and trans involved grassroots UK organisation with three key departments. One provides education and training for professionals, organisations, schools, colleges and other educational settings. Another department runs a number of youth and community services where young gender variant people can meet, socialise and learn as well as get 1 to 1 support from a trans youth worker. The third GI department focuses on Public Engagement, running campaigns that challenge misinformation, provide consultations and interviews and more. https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/su…
In the video please note the drag queens. None have exaggerated sex organs on display as republicans claim all drag is. In fact Seven of Nine on Star Trek Voyager wore more tight-fitting boobie pushing outfits on national TV so the show could attract the young male teen demographic. Hugs
Tennessee tried to ban drag shows. So Lizzo invited drag queens onstage https://t.co/l2G61VYQIW
Republicans are frantically working to make it harder for young people to vote as Gen Z has turned out for Democrats in record numbers. Idaho Republicans are banning student IDs to vote while Texas Republicans proposed banning voting centers on campuses. https://t.co/SZ9piZkDPV
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 15, 2023
community values** are reflected in each school library catalog in the district
**Some exclusions apply
Gay, trans, Black, Muslim, non-Christian community member’s values will not be reflected – or even acknowledged.
Also, Missouri has out-uglied Texas.
In Missouri, the Republican-controlled House on Tuesday approved a budget that completely defunds public libraries. The move came in response to an ACLU lawsuit filed by the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association, challenging a recent law that bans certain books. The measure has led to the removal of over 300 books from school libraries — many with LGBTQ characters and social justice topics. Missouri Democrats have denounced GOP censorship
For adults. This is not about protecting children, it is about wiping out a group of people that the religious right doesn’t like. It doesn’t fit their view of the world created by their god. So the right doesn’t just live and let live, these religious right groups force everyone to live by their church doctrines. Hugs
Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced plans to restrict health care for transgender people weeks ago, when protesters rallied at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass a law banning puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for children. But the discussion was focused on minors, not adults.
Oh my god.
Missouri AG just essentially banned gender affirming care for most trans adults via emergency rule.
Requires 3 years of dysphoria, 18 months of therapy sessions, doesn't allow people with autism/depression.
Note how effortlessly the goalpost has shifted from saving harming minors to harming adults? Of course, as we here have always known, it was never about “protecting children.”
They’re testing the waters. Trans people are easy targets for the theofascists. I guarantee you that 80-90% of Americans know absolutely nothing about trans people, their lives and their challenges.
The theofascists’ ultimate target is the LGB community.
They see what other nations like Russia and Hungary are doing, and are envious.
This is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Creeping restrictions on civil rights and criminalizing the existence of ‘suspect’ groups of people. We have to fight back and beat this before it spreads to other states.
The federal government is going to have to intervene. They did it in the civil rights movement for black people and they are going to have to find their will and courage to do it again. These people mean us harm and will not stop
This has always been the goal – not “protecting children,” but eliminating trans people from society, with an eye toward eliminating gays, lesbians and bisexuals too. Trans people are just the easiest target, and going after them makes for an effective divide and conquer strategy if you can get homocons and TERFs on board.
Anyone with a working brain knew this was going to happen. Like other people have said, this whole “think of the children” BS was just a cover! Now they are coming after trans adults. After that they will come after gay rights! I guarantee it! I’m sure interracial marriage will be on the chopping block too. These fascists will stop at nothing to get the right wing theocracy they crave. We must fight these asshats tooth and nail!
DeathSantis has made the state of Florida racist bigoted white supremacist religious right conservative maga paradise. He has made minority rule of pushing hate and intolerance against anyone not following the maga Christian talking points. It is not enough for these people to publicly live their maga Christian right hateful lives they demand they get to use those Christian maga conservative views against others, they feel entitled to attack those they feel are not following their church doctrines and they attack those that allow or are tolerant of others. They feel that every one around them must act according to their regressive, backwards beliefs. Hugs
Many elected leaders like U.S. Sen. Rick Scott denounced the Nazi salutes, anti-Jewish slurs and Nazi regalia. On Monday, the governor did not condemn the demonstrators. Instead, he criticized Democrats.
Meanwhile, bomb threats forced the temporary closure of historically Black colleges and universities. Also, on the first day of Black History Month, DeSantis asked the Florida Supreme Court whether Black congressman Al Lawson’s district was unconstitutional. Lawson responded that the governor is race-baiting to build political points with his base.
Wow. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) is now requiring state board applicants to write 500 words about what they “admire” about her before they can be considered for a job. The same application only requires 250 words for other questions. https://t.co/uJpJLLRD2U
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 12, 2023
Originally I was not sure that if DeathSantis was a true believer, a gang thug, or just a pandering republican. I have come to the opinion that he really is all three. While he seemed smart enough to get through an Ivy League school, he was considered really backward and thuggish in the military, which carried over to him being thought of as stupid in the congress. He really is as ambitious, as religious, as callous, and as entitled thinking a white man who will hurt anyone to advance himself as they come. The only difference between him and trump is his age and his willingness to listen to others who tell him they can get him what he wants. Otherwise, he is a trump clone. Give him authority and power and he will abuse it to enrich himself, create more authority for himself, and to hurt those he can while enjoying doing so. Terrifying because he took the trump base and entrenched himself as the governor that will do what every they want regardless of how it hurts others or is illegal, if they will continue to support him. In the article you will see a free link to the story and I suggest you use it. I have and won’t abuse the privilege to copy it here. Hugs
Backed by GOP supermajorities in both chambers, Mr. DeSantis is waging frontal assaults on press freedom, reproductive freedom, free enterprise and academic freedom. Meanwhile, in the name of protecting gun rights, he has scaled back prudent safety rules. And now he’s poised to target undocumented immigrants, including “dreamers,” with what will be some of the cruelest policies in America.
One of the cruelest steps Mr. DeSantis plans to take in the coming weeks to bolster his presidential bona fides is a crackdown on undocumented immigrants. He wants to require hospitals to collect data on the immigration status of patients, which would deter people from seeking needed medical care. Another measure under consideration would make it a felony to shelter, hire or transport any undocumented immigrant.
"Backed by GOP supermajorities in both chambers, Mr. DeSantis is waging frontal assaults on press freedom, reproductive freedom, free enterprise and academic freedom"https://t.co/nFI2W74yPi
He’s a fascist with a fascist supermajority legislature supporting him. Having said that, I don’t see him winning outside of Florida. If Trump drops dead maybe he can get the R nom but even then I’m not sure.
Watch what he does with the Disney thing. As long as he can bully his opponent he can run over them but when he can’t (see: Disney) he becomes a petty, vindictive bitch who resorts to bluster (tolls! taxes!) and just comes off as throwing a tantrum.
The Disney fiasco is going to cost the taxpayers in Floriduh a lot of money. Tourism may suffer too, with groups advising their members not to travel to Florida due to the real danger they could face there.
Definitely. One would hope that would turn some people in Florida off from supporting DeSantis but they do seem to love their fascist government given his margin of victory in his reelection.
I do wonder if his base won’t care too much because the brunt of the punishment is going to be felt in and around Orange County, which is blue.
I think him ignoring the looming insurance disaster while he’s out running for president/on his book tour might get him in more trouble with his base but we’ll see.
Everything they say is true. And it’s playing well to his base, which is part of the plan (securing the GQP nomination for president, the other part being pretending he’s Viktor Orban).
But there’s another side to this coin. He may have enshrined all this fascist ideology into Florida law and got lots of media coverage doing so. But that will come back to haunt him if he runs in the general because he won’t be able to walk it back, to tack to the centre. That will spell his doom.
Am expecting DeSantis to be 2023-2024’s Scott Walker (remember him?).
I hope that’s the case, but I can’t be too sure. American voters can be astoundingly shallow come Election Day, not to mention the potential for the Green Party to ratfuck the Democrats like in 2016.
Though Trump was nominally against abortion in 2016 (typically it was hard to pin down exactly what his position was), few believed Roe v. Wade would be in danger if he was elected. It just wasn’t a big issue.
But it is now and will be even more so in 2024. And DeSantis’s position is crystal clear. Add in other things like his stance on guns, his white supremacy, his weaponizing of government, his picking on the beloved Disney franchise, his targeting of minorities and his blind ambition, none of which play well with the US public, and it’s clear he has an uphill battle ahead of him, even if the shitgibbon is somehow neutralized.
Not saying your skepticism is misplaced. A sharp downturn in the economy, say, or war with Russia or China could radically change the calculus. But if so, most voters would be voting against Biden, not for DeSantis.
That’s what worries me – enough people voting for DeSantis just because he’s “the other guy” or sitting out or voting third-party would be enough to hand the GOP fascists the White House.
They tried this in Alabama about 15 years ago. Guess how many houses didn’t get build and construction companies that folded. They had no one to pick watermelons, oranges, etc. They rotted in the fields. So you do that Ronnie!
Georgia boned at least one vidalia crop with their anti-migrant labor BS, (which was therefore short-lived) …cause local people can’t *live* harvesting one crop a year for subminimum wages, or even minimum wages, thus did not appear. Seasonal labor essentially *has* to move around to get through every year, and average American job-seekers neither have an unofficial system and infrastructure for that, nor do they generally find that appealing.
Not to mention that if someone that’s a citizen is physically-capable of that kind of labor, chances are they will have a *better* job than that at least available. I mean, when I was homeless I made an attempt to get something out of that but between the disability that largely put me there in the first place and the whole not-being-fed part, all I got was sick from being in the Sun and …no pay at all to use to go eat something and try again the next day.
I think what Republicans and racists expect to happen very quickly proves to not be what happens. But they still will neither pay for better arrangements or stop blaming the migrant labor they presume is ‘illegal’ for all their perceived problems.
Georgia boned at least one vidalia crop with their anti-migrant labor BS, (which was therefore short-lived) …cause local people can’t *live* harvesting one crop a year for subminimum wages, or even minimum wages, thus did not appear. Seasonal labor essentially *has* to move around to get through every year, and average American job-seekers neither have an unofficial system and infrastructure for that, nor do they generally find that appealing.
Not to mention that if someone that’s a citizen is physically-capable of that kind of labor, chances are they will have a *better* job than that at least available. I mean, when I was homeless I made an attempt to get something out of that but between the disability that largely put me there in the first place and the whole not-being-fed part, all I got was sick from being in the Sun and …no pay at all to use to go eat something and try again the next day.
I think what Republicans and racists expect to happen very quickly proves to not be what happens. But they still will neither pay for better arrangements or stop blaming the migrant labor they presume is ‘illegal’ for all their perceived problems.
Why do you think I call him DeFascist? Fucking WaPo! All of you bastards in the both sides media are complicit in bringing this about. How long have you scoffed at those of us who have literally spent decades warning you that this was happening? That is what happens when you are securely ensconced in your ivory tower. You look out at the world and think that you have sure knowledge of reality when actually you’re just seeing your own biases.
Who the fuck does he think is going to tend to the landscaping all of the low rent gated communities? Who is going to harvest the agricultural bounty? Can’t wait for next year’s strawberry crop to rot in the fields.
They think the only way to compete is also to go far right.
It’s stupid. DeSantis constantly increases the size and authority of the Floridian government and its control over Florida’s people, you’d think that “small government” would be an easy rallying cry without having to tread on going far right.
“…would make it a felony to shelter, hire or transport any undocumented immigrant.” Replace “undocumented immigrant” with “Jew” and it’s a page right out of Hitler’s playbook.
Drag usually involves cross-dressing. A drag queen is someone who performs femininity and a drag king is someone who performs masculinity.
What is the difference between drag and burlesque?
Drag does not typically involve nudity or stripping, which are more common in the separate art of burlesque.
What is drag in culture?
Drag refers to an entertainment style wearing stylized clothing. Most common, it is men wearing women’s clothing cross-dressing, generally for the purpose of a performance. The origin of the term drag is uncertain. The first recorded use of drag in reference to actors dressed in women’s clothing is from 1870.
What is the definition of drag?
Drag is a type of entertainment where people dress up and perform, often in highly stylized ways. The term originated as British theater slang in the 19th century and was used to describe women’s clothing worn by men.
There is a lot more information online. Stop listening to hateful right wing media and republican MAGA leaders with an agenda to vilify groups to get votes. Drag is nothing new or scandals. It simply is being made out that way to create fear and loathing of the right wing voters to turn back the clock of social acceptance of the LGBTQ+
I am stunned at how fast and how forceful some religious groups are pushing their demand that everyone live by their church dictates instead of civil law. In One state the pride parade is barely going to be allowed to have a permit after 20 people showed up to push religious reasons to deny the parade permit. They claimed their bible / religious views took priority to any other considerations because of their god / Satan. These people a decade ago wouldn’t have been listened to yet now seem to be calling the shots. In Florida Christian religious views trump all other considerations at town council / legislative meetings. I know in the south a lot of Christian privilege is assumed and there is little you can do right now against it, but it used to never take over the state legislatures. It is terrifying to see how entitled these Christians Taliban are in regulating other people’s personal lives, what other people’s kids can read, what other people’s kids can watch. These religious Taliban are not about keeping their freedoms they are about taking away other people’s freedoms, they are not about being to worship as they believe but about forcing others to follow their churches dictates in what is right or wrong. Hugs
Blistering Democratic opposition couldn’t stop legislation that criminalizes allowing minors into adult shows with “lewd” content from winning Senate approval. The Senate legislation, advancing on a 28-12 party-line vote, doesn’t mention “drag shows.” But (SB 1438) that Clay Yarborough, sponsored, is largely aimed at stopping children from attending those shows.
It authorizes state government officials within the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) to suspend or revoke the liquor license of any establishment that admits minors to a live, adult performance. A person who admits a child to such a show would face a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to $1,000 in fines and up to a year in prison.
Democrats believe that the bill could also criminalize public drag shows such as those at outdoor Pride events.
Sen. Clay Yarborough [photo above] 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. Or something.
“I would say that when I read Romans Chapter 1, I see striking resemblances between where Rome was just prior to its fall in comparison to where America is today. There are striking similarities in what we allow in our societies. Rome did not fall from an outside attack, whether it was military or otherwise. It fell from within because it was morally bankrupt. And I believe we have been treading in that area for a while and the more that we do not embrace that which honors the Lord, we shouldn’t be surprised if the blessings do not continue on our land.”
It comes just one day after GOP Rep Barnaby went on an unhinged, transphobic rant likening trans people to “mutants, demons, and imps” — and GOP leadership remains silent.
Because that same bigotry is animating bills like the Drag Ban that passed in the Senate today.
You should see the parade of young women at the LA Fitness locations here in the Fort Lauderdale area. The women are dressed like something out of Mad Max, strips of clothing barely covering their tits, hanging out all over the place. I don’t object to what they are doing. I’m objecting to the application of one standard at LA Fitness (nothing…kids can go) and drag shows (aunties in drag are being banned).
You’re confused, Caitlin. It’s only embryos/fetuses (esp White ones in ‘merka) that are sacred. After they’re born, fuhgettabout ’em! AR-15 target practice the lot of the lil’ rugrats!
LOL! I am (was) a WASP, but I went to a Catholic college. First time I had (yes, mandated due to course work) to go to mass, I kept thinking, these men are in dresses. With filigree, embroidery, and really ornate hats.
They demand that parents have the right to make medical decisions for their kids, like not vaccinating them, then make it a serious crime to get their child gender affirming care.
GOP: “Parents know best what’s right for their children so government should back off!”
Also GOP: “Our (Republican) government knows better than parents what’s right for children when it comes to drag shows, CRT, education, gender affirming care, rape and pregnancy.”
“When are the sane Floridians going to wake up and do something?“
Probably about the same time that all the sane women in America finally organize to protect reproductive rights….. I’m frankly amazed it hasn’t happened.
The one thing that keeps me hopeful is that, socially, we have not backslid. One could make an argument that social progress is still moving forward. What’s critical is that our straight Allie’s be very awake and stand by us as we beat back these laws. If they “sit this one out” politically, we’re in (deeper) trouble.
Already is undone. Im just shocked at how quickly they are being allowed to take over. Before the feds wake up and realize it, its going to be to late to cut out this cancer
Many years ago (about 30) I was out with my friends at Houston’s pride parade. In addition to the gay and lesbian people you’d expect to see there, there were also a good number of Hispanic families with their kids. I found that odd until a friend told me that this is what Carnaval is like where they are from (including drag queens) so this is just good fun for the whole family to them. They didn’t think they had to shield children from adults in elaborate costumes. They were just putting on a show to entertain the crowd. They got it. I think most Republican leaders get it too. They just need a minority group to bash to distract their base from how sucky their lives are under GQP policies.
The people who habitually groom children into their stupid fucking cult feel they have the right to control others’ freedom of expression, and without any sense of irony, seek to enforce that control by labeling all expression they don’t approve of as “grooming”.
If you REALLY are concerned about children, why not protect them from Ministers and Priests? I mean, if you consider EVERY GAY PERSON a groomer, shouldn’t you consider EVERY Priest and Minister a child diddling monster? Close, or at least tax, the chucrhes.
A man read a passage from the Bible about resisting “sexual immorality.” “You think you are doing things based on laws,” a crying woman said, “but … you are letting Satan in.”
1) We don’t govern based on the Bible.
2) Actually, this is more like letting Satan *out.* :p
OT, but relevant; Back in the day when segregation laws were repealed, white people would just close down all the public pools and fill them in with concrete in order to spite black people. They literally made their own lives joyless in order to prevent other people from having fun as well.
And now that the children of those bigots are being told that reading is not a crime and they have to put all the hidden books back…. they’re doing the same thing and making new rules to just get rid of public libraries altogether.
It’s always the same shit with the Christians. They could quite easily change the channel, not check the book out, not go to the movie, not marry someone of the same sex, not have an abortion, but that isn’t enough. They have to prevent other people from doing things they object to. Newsflash, Christians: your god is losing ground and followers BECAUSE of your annoying and destructive nonsense.
They have their tax-exempt Churches, their schools, home schools, their colleges, their businesses, their radio/TV stations, their internet sites, their Christmas national holiday since 1870, and their cult is protected by the constitution…but that’s not enough, they want to force everyone to join their cult.
Festival organizers have already agreed that there won’t be any drag performances.
Just goes to show it doesn’t matter how may times you make concessions to these maniacs they will not stop until the entire LGBT+ community is erased. I’d go so far as to say that banning drag for fear of being called “groomers” merely encouraged them, and they clearly did not shy away from alleging child sexual abuse, “drag performances” or not.
It’s been said many times, but there’s no hate like christain love.
They claim moral superiority and at the same time overwhelmingly support the most immoral leaders the world has known. They screech about obscenity and at the same time are the most vociferous consumers of porn. They harp on “family values” and at the same time their kids are getting impregnated in middle school, are being beaten by their fathers and are being sexually abused by their clergy. They label us as sexual deviants and at the same time there’s no sexual act that we enjoy that they don’t also engage in. They lie and lie and lie and lie again–claim “gay friends” that they clearly do not have, claim knowledge about us, our lives, our intentions and our activities that they clearly do not hold, and the biggest lie of all–claim that their oppression and marginalization is an expression of love. The glee and schadenfreude that can clearly be seen on their faces every time they succeed at fucking over our community exposes their hypocrisy and treachery.
They may claim to love people like me despite my being an evil sodomite, but I don’t mirror their lie. So I feel free to say that I hate these assholes with the burning heat of a thousand suns. Every time one of these brain-dead morons opens their mouth to mewl about protecting their drooling simpleton brats from people like me, I want to smash their face with a bat. Every obstacle that our community has ever faced can be traced back to the hands of these religious freaks. They cannot die off soon enough for me.
Fuck your god, fuck your families, fuck your values, fuck your churches, fuck your morals and fuck you!
FILE: Young people holding LGBTQ rainbow flag (Getty Images)
