Federal court rules that trans youth healthcare ban is a form of sex discrimination

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/federal-court-rules-trans-youth-healthcare-ban-form-sex-discrimination/

Yes! Some good news for a change. Sadly the haters and medical science deniers will appeal this. I wonder what the trump judges and the Christian supreme court will do with this? Hugs

Arkansas cannot enact its law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth.

By Daniel Villarreal Thursday, August 25, 2022

Photo: Shutterstock

A federal appeals court has said that Arkansas cannot enact Act 626, its law banning gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth because the law relies on sex discrimination.

On Thursday, the three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling blocking the state from enforcing the law.

Act 626, which was passed by the state legislature in April 2021, prohibits medical providers from offering puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, or surgeries to anyone below the age of 18. Such surgeries remain costly, inaccessible, and extremely rare for minors.

The law also prevents medical providers from referring trans youth to other providers who might offer such care. Any medical professional who violated the law would be subject to possible discipline by professional regulatory bodies.

“Because the minor’s sex at birth determines whether or not the minor can receive certain types of medical care under the law, Act 626 discriminates on the basis of sex,” the court’s ruling stated.

The lawsuit challenging the law was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of four trans youths, their parents, and two Arkansas doctors.

In a public statement celebrating the ruling, ACLU of Arkansas executive director Holly Dickson said, “Today, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that no child should be denied medical care they need.”

“We are relieved for trans youth,” Dickson continued. “Research shows that denying gender-affirming care to transgender youth contributes to depression, isolation, eating disorders, self-harm, and suicide. Transgender people deserve the right to live healthy lives without fear and discrimination. It’s time for the Arkansas Legislature to protect trans kids, not target them.”

The ACLU also said that the law furthers no important governmental interest and that the state offered no legal or evidentiary support to show why the law should even exist.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) vetoed Act 626 in April 2021. But the Republican-led legislature overrode his veto. That same year, Hutchinson signed two other anti-LGBTQ bills: one banning trans student-athletes from playing on school sports teams matching their gender identities, and another allowing health care providers to refuse to perform procedures that they religiously or morally objected to.

Alabama and Arizona have both passed laws banning gender-affirming care for trans youth. Similar bills remain in committee in the Ohio and New Hampshire legislatures. Similar bills failed to become law in 12 other states.

The lower court judge who initially ruled against Arkansas’ law will hear a case in October on whether the law violates the rights of trans youth, their families, and health care providers.

Pennsylvania GOP candidate says it’s “disgusting” that people want to end conversion therapy

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/pennsylvania-gop-candidate-says-disgusting-people-want-end-conversion-therapy/

When they tell you who they are believe them the first time. This racist bigot also denies the accepted medical science that conversion therapy is a torture that never works. This type of therapy / actions to change sexual orientation / gender has been found to not only work but be very harmful to the people it is done to. Advanced countries around the world ban it. But notice what the candidate and the interviewer say about the LGBTQ+. They are confused, that they are not a community, the interviewer seems to think only ethnic groups are a community? Mastriano is more worried about the parents wishes not being followed but he has no concern about the child that will be abused by this. Another reason that teachers must not be made to tell the parents about out kids. But he made it clear way back in 2001 how he felt about gay people. He is one of these people who cannot accept the change in society and fights against the growth of understand the modern world has. Hugs

So-called conversion therapy has been denounced as harmful and ineffective by nearly every major U.S. medical and mental health association.

By Daniel Villarreal Friday, August 26, 2022

Doug MastrianoPhoto: Senator Doug Mastriano’s Facebook page

Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, a Christian nationalist, said that it’s “disgusting” that the state’s current Governor Tom Wolf issued an executive order against so-called conversion therapy, a widely discredited form of psychological torture that purports to change people’s sexual orientations and gender identities.

Speaking Thursday on 103.7 FM, a conservative talk radio station, Mastriano expressed anger at Wolf’s recent executive order directing state agencies to ensure that neither government workers nor taxpayer funds promote conversion therapy, The Huffington Post reported.

Mastriano also expressed anger that his Democratic political opponent, Josh Shapiro, has spoken out against conversion therapy too.

“This is disgusting to me, where bureaucrats and Tom Wolf — and Josh Shapiro — thinks it’s okay to come in and threaten parents and therapists because their kids might be confused,” Mastriano said in his radio interview.

The interviewer, Michele Jansen, said she also opposed Wolf’s executive order, adding “[the LGBTQ movement is] an activist, political, ideological group. They’re not an ethnicity. They’re not a community of people.”

To be clear, Wolf’s executive order doesn’t “threaten” parents. It contains no consequences for parents seeking conversion therapy for their kids. Wolf’s order merely ensures that state government resources don’t support a pseudoscience that has been disavowed as ineffective and harmful by the nation’s largest medical and mental health associations.

Also, Mastriano’s comment about kids just being “confused” echoes a popular right-wing talking point. Right-wingers claim that young people coming to terms with possible queer identities are actually just “confused” or have been “indoctrinated” by teachers, peers, and media that essentially pressure them into identifying as part of the LGBTQ community. These arguments have been used to claim that all LGBTQ content should be banned from schools.

During his interview, Mastriano blamed educators for confusing kids and said that schools “have graphic pornographic books laid out.” His latter claim is almost certainly untrue, as any school displaying explicit sexual images would have news and images of the content quickly go viral online, becoming a major news story as it outrages parents and community members across the political spectrum.

In truth, claims of in-school pornography have only been repeated by conservative activists looking to ban LGBTQ-themed books and sex educational materials from schools and local libraries.

Mastriano’s comments aren’t really surprising considering his numerous past actions against the queer community. As a state senator, he has supported anti-LGBTQ legislation including a bill that would ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams and a bill that would force trans people to use public bathrooms matching the gender they were assigned at birth. He has also endorsed legislation that would stop same-sex couples from adopting children.

Additionally, his 2001 college thesis expressed disgust for anyone who doesn’t hold the view that homosexuality is a form of “aberrant sexual conduct,” according to The Washington Post.

The true dangers of so-called conversion therapy

Wolf’s press release announcing his executive order mentioned a peer-reviewed study from The Trevor Project which showed that 13 percent of LGBTQ youth nationwide had reported being subjected to conversion therapy. Of those, 83 percent were subjected to it before reaching the age of 18. The study showed that young people who underwent conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide afterward.

The methods of so-called conversion therapists include encouraging queer people not to masturbate, redirecting their sexual energy into exercise, “covert aversion” (a fancy name for imagining possible negative consequences of being queer), Bible study, directing same-sex sexual desire onto opposite-sex partners, inflicting pain and humiliation anytime LGBTQ feelings arise, and forcing people to act out stereotypical gender roles in behavior and personal appearance.

“Researchers found that when they accounted for the harms caused by conversion therapy – including negative mental health outcomes and substance use – conversion therapy costs our nation $9.23 billion each year,” Wolf’s announcement said.

“Conversion therapy is a traumatic practice based on junk science that actively harms the people it supposedly seeks to treat,” Wolf noted. “This discriminatory practice is widely rejected by medical and scientific professionals and has been proven to lead to worse mental health outcomes for LGBTQIA+ youth subjected to it. This is about keeping our children safe from bullying and extreme practices that harm them.”

Twenty-nine U.S. states have either passed full or partial bans on conversion therapy for minors. In three of those states — Alabama, Georgia, and Florida — court injunctions have stopped the bans from going into effect while legal challenges to the bans proceed in court.

A year ago, I started a journey as Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Here’s what I’ve learned.

A year ago, I started a journey as Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Here’s what I’ve learned.

This article was sent to me for all of us to read from Ali. Thank you Ali. I would add that that what this person says about the Kansas legilature can be said about all of them including the federal one. Hugs

CLAY WIRESTONE

AUGUST 18, 2022 3:33 AM

After a year on the job, Kansas Reflector opinion editor Clay Wirestone says he has learned several truths about the state. (Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism)

A year ago Tuesday, I came aboard the good ship Kansas Reflector as opinion editor. While my first column on the job promised big goals and lofty aspirations, I’ll admit that doubts lingered in the cobwebbed recesses of my mind.

Would the work make a difference? Would readers pay attention? Would they and I find it satisfying, both journalistically and creatively?

Thankfully, the answer to all of those questions has been a resounding yes. No, I don’t believe this section and my columns have changed the course of Kansas history, but I think they did a good job of reflecting that history over 12 months. In turbulent times like these, that counts for something.

According to my tally, this is the 123rd article I’ve written from Kansas Reflector’s opinion seat. Here’s more of what I’ve learned over the course of those columns.

Visitors to the Kansas Statehouse could be glimpsed at the bottom of the rotunda on the last regular session day of the Legislature. (Clay Wirestone/Kansas Reflector)

The Kansas Legislature is more badly broken than you imagine.

I thought I knew about the dysfunction at the Kansas Statehouse. I worked in nonprofit advocacy for four years before joining Kansas Reflector and had seen how seldom the needs of everyday Kansans were considered by legislators.

But I didn’t have the full picture.

Watching the full body over the past session taught me difficult lessons. Legislators obscured what they were doing, repeatedly and willfully. The worst derailed hearings and grabbed headlines by attacking the powerless. Worst of all, perhaps, leadership repeatedly ignored good policy and pursued their own power-hungry ends.

Medicaid expansion? Forget about it. Lowering barriers to public assistance? Nope. Not when there’s a Democratic governor to demonize.

Rep. Cheryl Helmer, right, and Rep. Michael Houser respond to having their picture taken during House action April 27, 2022, at the Statehouse in Topeka. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Extremism has taken root in state politics, and we all have to be wary.

This doesn’t have to do with Democrats or Republicans. This has to do with the loudest voices in the room and how they manipulate the public.

You could see this happen in the debate over health measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outspoken residents and legislators spread disinformation that put their fellow Kansans at risk. That’s just the start, of course. We also endured lies about critical race theory and transgender folks.

While outside groups have tried to quantify that extremism, they have fallen short. The news media and public at large have much work to do in shining a light on those who would breed hate and anger for political advantage.

Attendees at the Kansans for Constitutional Freedom watch party in Overland Park applaud after Kansans vote to keep abortion a constitutional right on Tuesday. (Lily O’Shea Becker/Kansas Reflector)

When the stakes are high, Kansans come through.

With all of the above being said, I have to recognize the surprise abortion-rights victory Aug. 2.

Freedom contended with fundamentalist repression on the ballot. Our state chose freedom. That vote, and the nearly 20 percentage point rejection of extremism, suggests that Kansans are fully capable of grasping the stakes when fundamental rights are on the line.

Nearly a year ago, I wrote: “A state that was once known for its moderation and temperance has become, too often, a wannabe member of the confederacy.” For most of the last year, those words rang true for me.

After the vote, I have re-evaluated. Perhaps that moderation and temperance endures, slumbering somewhere underneath the plains, roused only by a genuine threat.

Columnist and documentarian Dave Kendall sent along this image of a crowd singing along with “Home on the Range” at the end of the 2021 Symphony in the Flint Hills concert. He wrote a piece about the event, and then shared video after a storm cut it short this year. (Dave Kendall)

So many of you have so much to say. Please keep doing so.

Kansas Reflector has been lucky to publish so many talented writers in the opinion section.

Max McCoy held down the Sunday column slot for much of the first year, until he decided to step aside. Since then, we’ve welcomed weekend work from Kansas poet laureate Huascar Medina, documentarian Dave Kendall, Mark McCormick, Inas Younis and Brenan Riffel, among others. Do yourself a favor and check them out.

But that’s not all! University of Kansas instructor Eric Thomas has held down the Friday columnist slot, first writing about podcasts and then widening his gaze. Throughout the rest of the week, we’ve welcomed contributions from throughout the state.

Interested in adding your voice to the mix? Send me an email at cwirestone@kansasreflector.com.

The Ad Astra statue aims high atop of the Kansas Statehouse on Jan. 24, 2022. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas Reflector readers are the best.

The biggest surprise this past year has been the support and feedback I’ve received from readers. Two decades in journalism had prepared me for a chorus of catcalls and barrage of brickbats.

Instead, the Kansas Reflector’s opinion section has been welcomed. I’ve heard from so many readers who appreciate a different, people-focused take on news and politics. And while many progressives have gotten in touch, so have libertarians and conservatives. I might lean left, but I also value the honest and open exchange of ideas.

So, thank you. Thanks for the kindness you’ve shown me, and thanks as well for pointing out any missteps via Twitter. Thanks for following along throughout the last 12 months. I’m still learning, and I hope to keep learning until the primordial seas that once covered Kansas return.

Here’s to the next year and beyond.

GOP lieutenant governor wants to ban social studies & science in elementary schools

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/gop-lieutenant-governor-wants-ban-social-studies-science-elementary-schools/

Everyone thought I was over the top when I said the Christian nationalist were trying to destroy public education and to change what schools taught removing science and biology and instead pushing the Christian religion. Well here it is right from the republican Christian Taliban themselves. This hate preacher is the Lt Governor in NC, and recently attacked a fellow lawmaker who disagreed with what the Lt Governor was saying, the Lt governor threatened him publicly and refused to even admit he did wrong by threatening someone. He is a large bully, a thug and proud of it. He is the maga and wants to rule in a theocracy not a democracy. Hugs

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson said gay people go to elementary schools to “teach kids about what you do in the bedroom.” (We don’t.)

By Alex Bollinger Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Lt. Gov. Mark RobinsonPhoto: Anthony Crider/via Flickr

North Carolina’s extremely anti-LGBTQ Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) is now calling for eliminating science and social studies education in elementary schools.

In his soon-to-be-released memoirs – entitled We Are the Majority: The Life and Passions of a Patriot – he railed against kids learning about history in first through fifth grade.

“In those grades, we don’t need to be teaching social studies,” Robinson wrote. “We don’t need to be teaching science. We surely don’t need to be talking about equity and social justice.”

Science classes should end because they’re teaching kids about climate change.

“Guess what? Most of the people of North Carolina know global warming is junk science,” he wrote. Whether or not most people in North Carolina believe it, there is scientific consensus that the planet is warming.

Robinson also attacked the state Board of Education, saying the state should “get rid of it.” He also said that “traditional public schools might be a thing of the past” because of charter schools.

“We need to build more, not limit them,” he wrote. “And if we find success along the way, we should bring it into the system. We might adopt charter school methods throughout the system.”

Robinson got national attention last year when his extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric during sermons at a local church were made public in online videos.

In one sermon, he compared gay people to maggots and said that maggots at least have a “purpose.”

“If homosexuality is of God, what purpose does it serve? What does it make? What does it create? It creates nothing,” Robinson said.

Robinson said he was once asked by a gay man: “So you think your wife and you, you think your heterosexual relationship is superior to my husband and my homosexual relationship?”

“Yes!” Robinson emphatically told the congregation.

“These people are superior because they can do something these people can’t do,” Robinson said, referencing having a child. “Because that’s the way God created it to be. And I’m tired of this society trying to tell me it’s not so.”

In another sermon, he called homosexuality and trans identity “filth.”

“I’m saying this now, and I’ve been saying it, and I don’t care who likes it: Those issues have no place in a school. There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality — any of that filth,” Robinson said, “and yes, I called it filth. And if you don’t like it that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you.”

And he didn’t back off of LGBTQ issues in his book, writing, “Gay marriage is not marriage either in the eyes of God or even by definition.”

“But I don’t believe you should come down to the school, most especially the elementary schoolhouse, and teach kids about what you do in the bedroom, as if your sexual preferences and practices ought to be celebrated and govern government approval and even support,” he wrote.

In another part of his upcoming book, Robinson attacked Pride and said that minors can’t be gay.

“Telling a child, ‘Oh, you’re gay,’ or dressing a kid up at the gay pride parade in a fairy costume with a pair of rainbow flags—using kids like that is demented,” he wrote. “You shouldn’t let them walk around seeing men with their butts hanging out.”

Robinson attacked transgender people: “Someone who is troubled in this way has something wrong with their brain.”

Robinson also opposed abortion. He went so far as to compare it to murder: “It’s no different than, for instance, me killing my neighbor because he’s standing in the way of me having a job that I want.”

He also wrote that Black people are trying to be “a victim forever.”

“Have you been a victim of wrongdoing?” he wrote. “Yes. But you were victorious over that. Somebody was victorious over that on your behalf. There’s no reason for you to look at yourself in the mirror and think you are a victim. You’re a receiver of benefits because of what people who came before you did. You should be a benefactor for others.”

Hate preacher warns congregation that gays will get you drunk & “into some weird junk”

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/hate-preacher-warns-congregation-gays-will-get-drunk-weird-junk/

People ask me why I post stuff said by these hate preachers. Well I just posted about a school that shut down a student newspaper and ended the journalism courses simply because the paper respected the pronouns and asked for name of a trans person which got them punished, punished for being respectful, and in the last issue reported on the history of the LGBTQ+ people. Simply having a story about the history of a group of people caused them to be canceled and the entire course of study removed! Think about that. The school administrators believe that just the mention of gay, lesbian, or trans people is so inappropriate that it must never be mentioned. Being respectful used to be something people were proud of in young people, now if they are not mean and targeting of LGBTQ+ for abuse they are being too nice and must be punished. It is because the school administrators believe most of what people like these hate preachers are saying, they believe the garbage that red state governors spout about how the LGBTQ+ are pedophiles and forcing kids to be gay or transition. Teachers and other LGBTQ+ are forcing kids to be a different gender and sexual orientation even though we are the ones who use science to show that it is something we are born with and can’t be changed. But these religious hate preachers say it, and the red state maga armed gang thugs enforce it. That is why I post what they say and why I fight back against it. If you cannot see how flawed and wrong what they are saying is, then they are reaching you and those around you. It must be combated and fought against. This guy has been banned from other countries because what he says is not acceptable in a civil society yet he is celebrated in the land of the free. Hugs

In the past, he has encouraged his congregants to kill all gay people, calling it a “cure for AIDS.”

By Alex Bollinger Thursday, August 25, 2022

Steven Anderson Photo: screenshot

A preacher known for his hatred of LGBTQ people warned his congregation that gays and lesbians want to get them drunk and then make them do “some weird junk that you have no desire to get into.”

“These people are going to take you down a dark path,” said Steven Anderson, founder of the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist movement and pastor at the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona. He has been banned from 34 countries because of his hate speech.

“You start hanging around with a bunch of fa***ts and lesbians, you know what they’re gonna do?” he continued. “They’re gonna ply you with alcohol or ply you with drugs and they’re going to abuse you.”

“They’re going to molest you. They are going to get you into some weird junk that you have no desire to get into.”

“Stay away from them! They are evil, they are freaks, they are predators, they’re not reproducers they are recruiters, they are molesters, they are predators. Stay away from them.”

Christian hate-preacher Steven Anderson, who's banned from stepping foot in 34 countries, is still spreading harmful lies about gays and lesbians. pic.twitter.com/Gim3iPUDRP
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) August 24, 2022

Anderson earned himself the reputation as one of the most anti-LGBTQ preachers in the country after he praised the Pulse nightclub shooter, calling the victims “a bunch of disgusting perverts and pedophiles” and “disgusting homosexuals who the Bible says were worthy of death.”

In the past, Anderson has encouraged his congregants to kill all gay people, calling it a “cure for AIDS.” He has also advocated for world governments to execute gay people.

His extreme hate speech has gotten him banned from dozens of countries, including all 26 of Europe’s Schengen states, Botswana, Jamaica, Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Australia banned him in 2020. In response, Anderson claimed that God punished Australia with wildfires because they were “banning and deporting preachers of the Gospel” so they were facing “the judgment of God.”

Yesterday … everything was going grand until yesterday …

Ron and James left Monday night for NC and then after a day + there they were going to NH. I am at home taking care of the inside / outside cats and keeping everything together. Tues and Wednesday were good days, pain under control, did my daily walk, got lots of posts done, got lots of comments done, figured I would finish up on Thursday. But Thursday decided I needed to not be so cocky about things. So I get up at 6 when my alarm went off to take my morning pain pills. I got up and fed / watered both inside and outside cats, made coffee, cleaned the cat box, did all the morning chores. Sat at the computer and started to catch up on blog stuff and news stories.

I went for my walk which I did really well doing it, I think. It is not the walk a lot of people would find taxing, but it is for me. It is helping my weight, it is helping my blood work, it is helping my heart rate, but it does increase my pain. So a trade off. I will take it.

Ron had tried to get everything I would need before he left including 4 pounds of hamburger. Not sure if he thought I would be throwing a party. But he forgot cat litter and can cat food. I might have stretched the cat food but as I needed litter I decided to go to the local Publix store about 2 miles down the street. I like the store, I am known there, and the people are very helpful. For example they ask if you need help to take out the groceries you bought, and they will even load it in the car, which I admit I have had to let them do a few times but they wont take a tip for doing it. If you ask where something is they will take you right to it, no just pointing or telling you, they stop what they are doing and find it for you. We also use the pharmacy there.

If you remember the day we were to vote I was doing so badly and so shaky I needed my walker. Ron had wanted to stop at this store and get our flu shot as he wanted it before he went north. But due to my condition even though I was willing he refused saying I was not doing welling enough. I decided since I was there now I would get my flu shot. I went to the pharmacy and the grand people there said Hello Scottie. They used to call me Mr. Miller but as I called them by their first names why shouldn’t they call me by mine. So I let them know it was OK. I asked about the flu shot and they got me started on the paperwork. I asked about the shingles shot Ron got, and yes I qualified for that also. So I got that one also. That is a two part set and I have to go back for the second shot on that one. They asked about Ron, told you we were known there, not sure if it is a good or bad thing, but we both get a lot of medications and he picks up my pain medications for me, so they must know he is my spouse for that anyway.

I got my shots and feeling quite proud of myself started picking up things I needed / wanted. I want to just get some cat litter and cans of fancy feast food for Odie. Ron gets the large size jug of litter, but I got two small ones. But then I saw something I needed some of the outside dishes that work so well for feeding the outside cats. They are shorted sided metal dishes with a rubber base. Then I figured I had better get a different body wash. For some reason all soaps / washes are causing my face to go red with it looking like I am a burn victim and it hurts. I cannot put any cream or anything on it. Got to see a dermatologist soon. Another doctor. For now I rinse the washcloth out as best I can and wash my face with cold water. Not fun but neither is this face burn.

Here are the pictures of my face yesterday, warning scary old man pictures.

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Long story short I had nearly $100 dollars of goods in the cart. Got home and brought the groceries in.

A couple of pictures of the cart.

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Then realized I had not eaten and I was hungry. When you are dieting you shouldn’t cook or eat when hungry. I made 2 pounds of taco meat for just my self. I ate five of them. Five large tacos. And drank a couple glasses of milk. I don’t normally drink milk due to the sugar content, but I was splurging like a kid.

The taco stuff I made, I am going to be eating this for a while. I don’t use cheese or sour cream like James and Ron do. I like lettuce, meat, and lots of red sauce. Also I add to the mix different seasonings while cooking to give it more flavor.

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I was over full, I was having the too much sugar and need to sleep effect, so after cleaning up the left overs I went to bed. I woke up well into the evening. Fed cats, did chores then went back to bed. No comments replied to and none of the 12 open tabs posted. Also it threw my medication schedules off.

I woke up at 4 AM and I was in serious pain. My right shoulder where I got the shots felt swollen. I tried to go back to sleep and it was not happening. I felt sore and crappy and Odie was on the bed wanting his breakfast. Figures. So I got up at five. First thing I did was a glass of water and pain pills. Then morning chores. Now writing this. Two hours later the pain pills are kicking in and I don’t feel too bad, wonder how I will feel after my walk. Oh yes I an going to keep walking even if I have to take my walker. Ron left it out in the family room for me. Also I should be able to reply to the comments today, which I am looking forward too. Hugs to all, Scottie

DeSantis Calls For Assaulting Fauci: “Somebody Grab That Little Elf And Chuck Him Across The Potomac” – JMG

DeSantis Calls For Assaulting Fauci: “Somebody Grab That Little Elf And Chuck Him Across The Potomac”

A state governor is calling for a person to be assaulted. Think about that. A governor acting like a thug because he knows the base he needs for reelection are a cult gang of thugs. Forget that this Dr. Fauci has done nothing wrong they just hate him because he disagreed with their cult leader and he works for the government. tRump was the president making the decisions and ordering the lockdowns. But the cult cannot admit their leader did anything wrong, so they attack a worker with no authority to do what they claim. That is beside the point. The highest elected office holder in the state is calling for an illegal act of abuse and harm to be done to a person, knowing his angry base of emotional gun carrying violent thugs might attempt to harm that person as he calls for. This is what passes for republican leadership! This is what the republican party is now. They used to say they were the party of law and order, now they are the party of getting their way regardless of the laws by being violent thugs intimidating everyone else. Is this democracy, or is it something that is seen in dictatorships or states run by drug war lords? My dogs that love gravy the state of Florida used to be a swing state, used to have more democrats than republicans. But now with this king of cult gun loving thugs flocking to the state we have become hard right maga land. DeathSantis rules like Saddam Hussein and other dictators. Beware any who might criticize him or disagree with him. This gang leader is said to be super ambitious and wants the presidency of the US. Think about him as president. tRump will be nothing to how brutal DeathSantis will be. Democracy will be dead under him as soon as he is sworn in. He has done everything he can to kill it in Florida. He has restricted voting as much as possible to just the ones most likely to vote for him, sometimes illegally. He and his gang of thugs don’t care, they demand to rule. Hugs

“You have people like Fauci saying that his lockdowns didn’t cause any permanent damage to any young kids. I got news for you. It did. And we’re going to reap those rewards across the whole country for years and years and years because they treated kids so poorly.

“And I’m just sick of seeing him. I know he said he’s going to retire. Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.” – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, speaking today with Sen. Marco Rubio on his “Keep Florida Free” tour.

DeSantis on Fauci: "I'm just sick of seeing him. I know he says he's gonna retire. Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac!”pic.twitter.com/zB20gKOiZZ
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 24, 2022

Aged Viking Nemerah S. • 14 hours ago • edited

In my youth, it would have been deeply shameful to threaten a frail and elderly (81) man with such violence. Him being small would have made matters worse.

Nemerah S. Aged Viking • 14 hours ago

Reminds me of when Gianforte punched a reporter and the far-right called him “strong” and “alpha”. It creeps me out.

HZ81 • 15 hours ago

Man who killed thousands of Floridians wants to hurt the man who helped save millions of Americans.

What a gross, small “man.”

Darreth HZ81 • 15 hours ago

You missed the foundation of his statement. He’s addressing EVANGELICALS. They’re violent and quite delusional. He knows they want blood due to their worship of a genocidal deity. I’m serious. That’s really what’s going on here.

2patricius2 HZ81 • 15 hours ago • edited

And some people think he may be the next Rethuglican nominee for president. No class. Crass and crude. Mean and destructive. Deadly. This is what the Rethuglican Party has devolved into. Who knows how much deeper into the sewer it will sink.

HZ81 2patricius2 • 14 hours ago

He’s just revolting. A perfect reflection of his party.

Give to Crist. Let’s get this fucker out of our lives.

heleninedinburgh • 15 hours ago

He wants to be Viktor Orban when he grows up.

Firecrown heleninedinburgh • 14 hours ago

He wants to be Viktor Orban when he ~~grows up~~ gets older. People like DeSantis never grow up.

Skeptical One • 15 hours ago

I still recall a time when you had to have a modicum of maturity to become governor of a state.

Chuck in NYC Skeptical One • 15 hours ago

Yeah, this is the smart aleck of 8th grade style rhetoric.

danolgb • 15 hours ago

Small problem with the GOP narrative, Fauci didn’t lock anyone down. He doesn’t have that power. The states locked down and it was democrat and republican governors alike.

Misutaa Roboto danolgb • 14 hours ago

Right? It’s almost as if DeSantis is a lying fascistic cunt who won’t let reality get in the way of his fomenting violence or something. Weird.

amy cuscuriae • 14 hours ago

What a horrid little violence promoting man Ron DeSantis is

AtticusP • 15 hours ago

DeSantis is just trying to out-asshole Donald Trump.

And nobody can do that because Donald Trump is the Emperor of the assholes.

Gigi • 14 hours ago

Maxine Waters told people to “get in the faces” of Republicans in public spaces like restaurants and shops. The right-wing went APOPLECTIC. “She’s encouraging violence!!!”

DeSantis encourages violence. Right-wingers are all: “Ya. Get Fauci!!!”

Nemerah S. • 15 hours ago • edited

The bizarre height-shaming shows me that these people are thugs who understand and value nothing but strength. Why is it even socially acceptable?

Firecrown Nemerah S. • 14 hours ago

It’s only acceptable to people who share the mentality of a playground bully, always punching down. I wouldn’t call that strength.

Dr. Oz Asked Trump Admin to Clear ‘Potential Pandemic Solution’ Hydroxychloroquine in Leaked Emails

Dr. Oz Asked Trump Admin to Clear ‘Potential Pandemic Solution’ Hydroxychloroquine in Leaked Emails

Mehmet Oz petitioned top White House officials to green light the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in March of 2020, newly released emails show.

The drug, which never showed any success at fighting Covid-19 in spite of multiple trials, was presented by Oz as a “potential pandemic solution” in emails to Dr. Deborah Birx and others.

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post obtained emails, text messages, and other correspondence from a congressional panel probing the response to the pandemic.

During the initial days of the spread of Covid, on March 23, 2020, Jared Kushner responded to an email from Oz with a subject that read, “Oz French Study Game Plan.” The email was about a European trial regarding how Covid-infected patients reacted to hydroxychloroquine.

Kushner wrote, “What do u recommend to speed it up?”

Oz responded by portraying the drug, which was at that point being invoked by former President Donald Trump in media briefings, as a “potential pandemic solution.”

Kushner responded, “I believe the clinical trials are starting this week.”

Oz responded with a lengthy message about the trial, and the need for one in the U.S. He also sent Kushner a video link to a segment from his show.

In a separate email to Birx, Oz asked to recruit patients for a trial.

“I will personally recruit patients and pay for trial,” Oz wrote on March 22, 2020. “We have manpower since elective surgery is canceled. We just need drugs.”

On March 28, 2020, Birx forwarded an email from Oz to then-FDA head Stephen Hahn.

“We should talk,” she said while relaying a message from Oz with a claim that using the drug for Covid was safe and noted a “reduction in infectivity within a week.”

Hydroxychloroquine was dismissed by most of the medical community, minus a few outliers, early on during the pandemic.

The emails have been released amid reports the Trump administration pressured the FDA to rush emergency use authorization for vaccines.

GOP candidate said it’s “totally just” to stone gay people to death

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/gop-candidate-said-totally-just-stone-gay-people-death/

Understand these people put their religion first and they are running for elected office that will allow them to craft laws based on their religious views that the rest of us must follow. He is a republican candidate that thinks being gay is an “insidious addiction” and that homosexuals are such an affront to his god they need to be put to death. What kind of laws do you think he will champion? Do you think he could fairly judge anti-discrimination laws? How about the don’t say gay bills for schools, will he agree with science or his bible? These hyper religious people are not running for office because they have nothing else to do, they are trying to get into positions to enforce their church doctrines and make the rest of the nation follow their religion. They are trying to make a theocracy, trying to reduce the rights for women and minorities. Here in Florida they are trying to take over school boards as they did in Texas. You know the kinds of things that they tried to insist kids be taught there, things like the constitution was written by god and Moses, that slaves were unpaid workers or simply forced to relocation, that science / biology are suspect but intelligent design is possible. They snuck as much disinformation and American exceptionalism along with teaching the nation was founded on the Christian religion as possible. If we don’t stop them now, we won’t have a democracy. Hugs

“Well, does that make me a homophobe?… It simply makes me a Christian. Christians believe in biblical morality, kind of by definition, or they should.”

By Alex Bollinger Monday, August 22, 2022

Scott EskPhoto: Campaign Facebook page

A GOP candidate in Oklahoma is getting attention for comments he made several years ago when he justified the death penalty by stoning for gay people. When asked recently about it, he didn’t disavow his previous comments.

Scott Esk, 56, is running in the Republican primary runoff election tomorrow for a seat in the state house, and local media is bringing up some extreme comments he made in the past. He’s not handling them well.

In 2013, Esk was commenting in a Facebook conversation about the Pope saying that he couldn’t judge gay people. Esk posted some Bible quotations, including the part of Romans 1 where the Bible says that a long list of people who sinned is “worthy of death.”

Another person asked him: “So, just to be clear, you think we should execute homosexuals (presumably by stoning)?”

Esk responded: “I think we would be totally in the right to do it… Ignoring as a nation things that are worthy of death is very remiss.”

A year later, a journalist asked him about those comments. He said it was “totally just” to kill gay people.

“What I will tell you right now is that that was done in the Old Testament under a law that came directly from God,” he said at the time. “And in that time, there was, it was, totally just came directly from God.”

After those comments, he put out a long video where he claimed he “sets the record straight.” In those videos, he claimed he has “compassion on anybody in the grips of an insidious addiction, such as homosexuality.”

“Any Christian should be in the position to say that this is sin or this is good. If we don’t make that distinction, we’re not going to help people,” he said in the first video published in 2015.

In the another video, which was from earlier this year, Esk called a local TV news report on his comments a “hit piece on the fact that I had an opinion against homosexuality.”

“Well, does that make me a homophobe? Maybe some people think it does,” he said. “But as far as I and many of the people, the voters of House District A7 are concerned, it simply makes me a Christian. Christians believe in biblical morality, kind of by definition, or they should.”

He said that he is not in favor of “expanding the death penalty in Oklahoma for homosexuality,” he just wants everyone to know that gay people are so offensive to his god that his religion wants them dead.

“The fact is, that it’s much more offensive knowing what obscene things homosexuals do with each other than it is for somebody to hold the view that it is indecent,” he said in the second video.

Now that the runoff election is tomorrow, The Oklahoman asked Esk about those comments to see if his opinion has changed at all.

He refused to do an interview and pointed The Oklahoman to the two videos.

“I’ve stood up for what is right in the past, and I intend to in the future and I am right now,” he stated. “That’s got me in trouble. The media are not my friends, as far as I’m concerned.”

Earlier today, Esk posted a video to his YouTube channel entitled “Scott Esk sets the record straight for the 3rd time,” in which he calls The Oklahoman piece and a piece by News 4 “hit pieces” and says that the media is against him because they want his opponent Gloria Banister to win.

He also responded to being fired from his job as a data manager in 2011 because he was arrested after he allegedly threatened and harassed the leadership of his church. In the video, he calls those church leaders “snakes” and makes some opaque references to the divorce and custody battle he was going through at the time.

Whoever wins the primary tomorrow will run against the Democratic winner in November. The seat is currently held by state Rep. Collin Walke (D), who is retiring.