Category: LGBTQ+ / Gay / Trans / Gender
Judge Strikes Down FL Ban On Trans Youth Healthcare
I am watching a video by Ethel of Essence of Thought debunking the Cass report and showing how the fear of trans people assaulting women were actively created to cause as much hate and anger at trans women as possible despite there being no evidence it is real or happening. The people who fought to get the message in the media admitted in writing that they had no evidence such violence or attacks had happened or were happening, but they thought it was a wonder why to stop the acceptance of trans people. That is their goal, make trans people the villain’s before they can be accepted like gay people are. Again they admitted this in writing, they felt they needed to move against trans people / kids because they lost the fight against gay people because they started to late they thought. Hugs. Scottie
The New York Times reports:
Key parts of a Florida law that bans gender transition care for minors and imposes hurdles on adults seeking transition care are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. Judge Robert L. Hinkle of Federal District Court in Tallahassee sided with advocacy groups and three families who had said that the law stripped them of parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their transgender children.
In a 105-page order, Judge Hinkle said that “gender identity is real” and that a “widely accepted standard of care” includes puberty blockers and hormone treatments that Florida unlawfully banned. “The state of Florida can regulate as needed but cannot flatly deny transgender individuals safe and effective medical treatment — treatment with medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity,” Judge Hinkle wrote.
Read the full article.
Judge Robert Hinkle, a Clinton appointee, first appeared here in 2014 when he ruled that Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
A small victory for our trans community, but we need to get to a place where trans rights aren’t up to the whims of legislatures, the courts, and the whims of despotic southern governors.
Rights should not be ZIP code dependent.
Not all south. NH is about to pass a shitload of anti-trans legislation, trying to get people to get to MA or elsewhere if they can.
And Eastern Washington would gladly join in the tomfoolery if they could get away with it. We always joke that the Cascade Curtain keeps out the riff raff.
You will soon have the haters screech about the Judge condoning “gender confusion”.
Hey, you so-called experts. Trans folks are not “confused”. They know exactly who they are and what they need to do. If you truly care you’d STFU and get out of the way.
I know. Bashing Trans people is good for building up your brand within the Republican party and the Christian Right.
It’s amazing how some cis people can claim to know more about trans people and gender identity than trans people themselves. I mean, the sheer arrogance of it!
Hell, with what we go through, we transgender people often know ourselves better than most cisgender people will ever know themselves.
The only thing the screechers care about is imposing their hate on everyone else. It is not and never has been about doing what is in a child’s best interest.
Thanks, again, Judge Hinkle!
This is a good thing, until SQOTUS says otherwise
Preaching to the choirpreachers here, but this is a far better way to do restrooms:
Or, a bit more seriously:
Spokane downtown Pride mural isn’t going anywhere, community vows
https://crosscut.com/news/2024/06/spokane-downtown-pride-mural-isnt-going-anywhere-community-vows
These kids were taught this intolerance and shown by adults that acting like a jerk, like a thug disregarding others feelings is acceptable. I wonder why they have that idea? Could it be they watch their parents watch right wing media where maga people shout fuck your feelings to others, and praise gangs of thugs attack libraries and drag queen events? The uncivil discourse being taught these young people are going to get worse unless the adults rise up to stop it, to put it back in the unacceptable place in society it was. See being LGBTQ+ was once unacceptable, but society progressed, now the right wing fundamentalist fanatics are trying hard to make it unacceptable again. And to me it looks like they are winning. Hugs. Scottie
The city-funded rainbow flag has been a frequent vandalism target, but allies have raised $15K to repaint it.
A bird’s-eye view of the new mural, taken atop the Wheatland Bank building. (Ben Tobin for RANGE Media)
This story was republished with permission from RANGE Media.
For 24 hours the intersection in front of Riverfront Park transformed into something akin to a block party as the Pride flag mural was restored to its original glory. The mural, which has been a frequent target of vandalism — as recently as last week — and even arson, was designed by queer Spokane artist Tiffany Patterson as part of the Asphalt Arts program run by Spokane Arts and funded by the city of Spokane.
As Patterson led four painters in restoring the mural last week, gay-associated pop hits like Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor blasted from speakers placed around the intersection. Just off the mural, Matthew Danielson and Skyler Oberst, the executive directors of Spokane Pride and Spokane Arts, respectively, set up tents with refreshments and information about their organizations and fielded the frequent questions from the public and the media as folks walked by the art-in-progress.
Tiffany Patterson (right) and one of their painting assistants (left) repaint the Pride mural downtown. (Ben Tobin for RANGE Media)
For 24 hours the intersection in front of Riverfront Park transformed into something akin to a block party as the Pride flag mural was restored to its original glory. The mural, which has been a frequent target of vandalism — as recently as last week — and even arson, was designed by queer Spokane artist Tiffany Patterson as part of the Asphalt Arts program run by Spokane Arts and funded by the city of Spokane.
As Patterson led four painters in restoring the mural last week, gay-associated pop hits like Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor blasted from speakers placed around the intersection. Just off the mural, Matthew Danielson and Skyler Oberst, the executive directors of Spokane Pride and Spokane Arts, respectively, set up tents with refreshments and information about their organizations and fielded the frequent questions from the public and the media as folks walked by the art-in-progress.
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Volunteers flitted in and out of the roped off intersection, rolling paint, bringing snacks or standing by with angel costumes to block from sight any anti-queer protesters, though few showed up.
The volunteers were mostly friends and family, Danielson said, and the artists who had agreed to donate their time on the first evening to lay down the coat of primer necessary for the paint to stick. Some government officials joined the paint party as well: Mayor Lisa Brown; Rep. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane; State Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane; County Commissioner Chris Jordan and City Council Member Paul Dillon all stopped by to show their support, Oberst said.
“It feels really good to have the community come,” Patterson said. “The massive amount of outpouring of support that happened immediately following [the vandalism] was very rewarding and it showed how important it was.”
Patterson, a transgender artist, paints the stripes symbolizing the trans community in the Progress Pride flag design. (Ben Tobin for RANGE Media)
This is Patterson’s third time leading the repaint efforts, and according to them, “It gets easier every time because we’re learning so much.” Patterson is an experienced public artist with prior mural experience — including the Peaceful Valley basketball court paint job — under their belt, but the project has also created learning opportunities for artists to work under them as paid assistants.
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City funds covered the original cost of the project, but the repaint efforts were completely funded by a wave of donations that came after the vandalism. “We raised it in three days. I could not believe that,” Danielson said. “I kept texting [Oberst] to be like ‘Oh my God we have this much!’ It was great.”
Oberst celebrated too, but was more pragmatic. “Given where the city is at financially, it’s nice to provide this to the community without being a burden to the taxpayers,” he said. “Because we live in a city that is deserving of great art, we want to make sure that all vandalism is cleaned up quickly so we can all enjoy it.”
Additional surveillance was also installed around the intersection, including a high-resolution mobile camera system owned by the Downtown Spokane Partnership, which was moved to the intersection for Pride Month to deter further vandalism.
‘Not going anywhere’
Just a few hours after Patterson and their team finished painting and less than three hours before a new state law was passed making “bias-motivated” vandalism of public property a felony hate crime, four teenagers riding Lime scooters were observed by witnesses and cameras doing burnouts over the fresh paint. The suspects were observed yelling obscenities at witnesses as they vandalized the mural. According to a press release from the Spokane Police Department (SPD), the area is clearly marked to keep traffic away as it was just repainted to repair previous damage.
SPD arrested 19-year-old Ruslan Turko and two minors on the charge of first-degree Malicious Mischief. They were caught 34 minutes after the initial 911 call was placed just before 9 p.m. on June 5.
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Scuffs visible on the mural after the June 5 vandalism. (Courtesy of Spokane Police Department)
The scooter wheels left black scuff marks across the entire mural. Speaking to RANGE as he observed the new damage to the mural for the first time, Oberst said tire marks from Lime scooters are especially hard to clean.
“The wheels are actually made of a particular compound that is really, really terrible when they burn out on public art,” he said. “If you scrub it, it would take forever.”
Because of the nature of the damage and the cost of closing streets safely for repainting, Oberst and Danielson jointly decided to leave the damage intact, at least through Pride weekend, which was last weekend. “I wish I had a better answer for you, because I would love to have it right like yesterday,” Oberst said. “But it’s not going to be the case.”
Oberst said he and Danielson plan to propose a community service program for the young vandals to scrub graffiti on public art and public buildings as a “learning opportunity.”
“It sends a powerful message of who we are as a community. This is not punitive,” Oberst said. “Restorative justice is who we are. We would welcome an extra set of hands for graffiti abatement downtown.”
On Thursday, as he watched the final steps of the mural repainting, Danielson told RANGE that despite the repeated vandalism, he was proud of the community’s support for the project as a whole. “It’s clearly like a very small percentage of people that are not OK with Pride stuff,” he said. “The entire community spoke in raising all this money in three days.”
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As the painters worked, a few drivers and pedestrians had shouted obscenities at them from car windows or the sidewalk throughout the day, according to the painters.
But, Patterson said, “for all of the terrible people saying horrible things, there’s ten times more positive people. And the people that stop and thank us is so surprising. It’s people you wouldn’t expect. And people will drive by and roll down their window and scream ‘Thank you!’ … The community shows up and it’s very apparent that the people that are for it are greater [than those against it].”
Patterson smiles as they get back to painting. (Ben Tobin for RANGE Media)
Patterson had no way of knowing what would happen later that evening, but as they put some of the last touches on their work, they shrugged with a smile on their face. “If it happens again, we’ll paint it again,” they said. “We’re here. We’re not going anywhere.”
Erin Sellers
Erin moved to town from Idaho to attend Gonzaga University, fell in love with Spokane and hasn’t left yet. They are a queer storyteller, and when they’re not pounding Red Bulls (not sponsored) and typing frantically, you can find her on and off stage at a few of the theatres in town. She is passionate about increasing accessibility to public meetings, telling stories from underrepresented communities and pitching funny merch ideas.
Phony Medical Organization Dupes Conservatives into Thinking Doctors Oppose Trans Healthcare
As the host notes, this group is a hate group of anti-LGBTQ+ who formed in 2002 in an attempt to block same sex marriage and adoption of children by gay people. They attacks on gay and trans people are not drive by any science but by their religious ideology. Yes they are a small group of mostly Christian people who use the bible written 2,500 years ago instead of modern science and medical studies to make judgments. Remember when the bible was written people did not know about germs, did not know anything about the world around them. They thought the world raced around the sun and other nonsense, yet they think medical treatments should be based on that book. Hugs. Scottie
Let’s talk about a NY subway station hitting a stone wall….
Jon Stewart Smashes the Myth of Corporate Morality in Pride, BLM, and Beyond | The Daily Show
Anti Pride/LGTBQ+ Passive Aggressive Nonsense
CO Republicans And GOP House Candidates Call For Chair To Resign Over “Burn All Pride Flags” Message
This is what drives the increased hate and attacks on the LGBTQ+. This is what republicans consider to be high quality discourse and thought. Attack anyone different and hurt them hard, wipe them out. It is gang thug rule and it is the cults they are in. Either the tRump cult or the Fundamentalist cult. Hugs. Scottie
Denver’s ABC affiliate reports:
The fallout from the Colorado GOP’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric earlier this week continued Friday with state Republican leaders calling for party chairman Dave Williams to resign.
The latest denouncement came from the Jefferson County Republicans, who on behalf of “numerous Colorado Republican County Chairs, other county party officers, members of the Colorado State Central Committee in all 64 Counties, and many Republican candidates” called on Colorado GOP chairman Dave Williams to “immediately resign.”
The mounting backlash against Williams follows a blast email from the Colorado GOP that was signed by the chairman, in which the party accused the LGBTQ+ community of being “godless groomers” who want to harm children. On its official profile on X, the Colorado GOP also called for the burning of Pride flags.
The Advocate reports:
Williams sent an email to GOP voters earlier this week that referred to queer people as “barbaric,” “creeps,” “degenerates,” “godless,” “groomers,” “predators,” “radicals,” and “reprobates.”
Valdamar Archuleta, the head of Colorado’s Log Cabin Republicans, has been one of the few GOP members to defend Williams. He said Wednesday that “I do not think Dave hates me because I’m gay. I don’t think that Dave is a homophobic person. He’s trying to get a reaction.”
The Colorado News-Press reports:
Five of the six Republican candidates running for Congress in Colorado’s 4th District are disavowing their state party’s leadership, citing its recent anti-LGBTQ messaging and concerns over campaign impropriety.
The conservatives, who are on the primary ballot this month, have called into question Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams and are advocating for new leadership. Only U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who received the endorsement of the party, declined to comment on Williams’ messaging.
Williams has sparked criticism inside and outside of the Colorado Republican Party for an email sent from the state party that claimed people in the LGBTQ community are “evil” and “godless groomers.”
As I reported earlier today, Colorado has seen a spree of stolen Pride flags since the state GOP issued its “burn all Pride flags” message. Williams has called reports of the thefts a hoax.
Last month the Colorado GOP called on Christians to remove their children from public schools because Democrats are using schools to “turn more kids trans.”
Williams is running to replace retiring GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn. Williams, you may recall, lost a lawsuit seeking to have “Let’s Go Brandon” by his name on the ballot during his failed 2022 House bid.
During a December 2023 appearance on extremist Laura Loomer’s podcast, Williams told the Colorado Supreme Court to “go fuck themselves” after they removed Trump from the ballot. It’s what Jesus would want.
My 90 year old Colorado Father in law has always been a republican. He loves his Gay son and his gay sons husband (me), He told us last night, “I’m done with the republican party” after he received this email.
“Only U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who received the endorsement of the party, declined to comment on Williams’ messaging.”
SPLC Reports 50% Surge In White Supremacist Hate Groups, 33% Rise In Anti-LGBTQ Hate Organizations
Again the haters spewed their bigotry non-stop for years, over shooting any other voice, we have to raise our voice just as loud. We were stomping this shit out until the cult of tRump maga made being a low intellect gang thug the in thing. This is driven by those who insist on controlling the lives of others, to make others live as the haters are comfortable with. Hugs. Scottie
The Florida Phoenix reports:
Emboldened by the mainstreaming of hard-right politics ahead of a presidential election cycle, white nationalist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups increased to record levels in the United States last year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest annual report on hate and extremism. The SPLC, which has published the annual report since 1990, documented 835 active anti-government groups, up 133 from 2022’s count, and 595 hate groups, an increase of 72 over the previous year’s figure.
Accounting for a large portion of the increase was a 50% surge in white supremacy hate groups in 2023, the highest jump ever recorded by the SPLC, growing to 165 over 109 in 2022. White power and neo-Nazi rallies across the U.S. totaled 143 in 2023, down from 191 in 2022. SPLC saw a 33% rise in anti-LGBTQ+ organizations over last year, bringing the total to 86. The group said the growth was largely attributable to the anti-trans movement on the far-right.
Read the full article.
The hubby and I got a couple of guns (locked away for safekeeping) but if push comes to shove, we’re not going down quietly.
Hate to have to think that way now.
Church Does Mass Checkout Of Library’s LGBTQ Books
There is no hate as strong as some Christian’s “love”! I love you so much I must hurt you badly, deny you exist, deny you have worth, I love you so much I must format hate against you. With loving friends like that who needs enemies. Hugs. Scottie
NPR reports:
A Wichita pastor recently encouraged members of his church to mark Pride Month by checking out mass amounts of gay- and transgender-themed books from their local library. “One way you can love your neighbors and your community is to gather together some of the men in your church and go empty the local library of all their LGBTQ+ books,” pastor Kyle Lammott [screenshot] wrote in a recent post on Instagram. “Start with the kids’ books and work your way up.”
The post featured a photo of more than 100 books checked out of the Andover Public Library. The titles include dozens of young adult novels with LGBTQ characters or themes, books about the Black Lives Matter movement and an autobiography of tennis star Billie Jean King. Lammott, lead pastor of Exodus Church in east Wichita, declined an interview and did not say whether he plans to return the materials.
Read the full article.
From the church’s about page:
We believe that men and woman are created in the image and likeness of God, but through Adam’s sin mankind is also fallen. We have inherited a sinful nature and have become alienated from God. Man is thus separated from God and, left to himself, incapable to remedy his fallen condition.
We believe that God, being rich in mercy, did not leave His people in their fallen condition, but through the blood of Christ purchased for Himself a people. Redeeming them from their sinful state and conforming them into the image of Christ.
Lammott has made his Instagram account private since the NPR’s report was published.
Join us for a Prophecy Conference on Saturday, March 2nd at Exodus Church. There will be thought-provoking lectures anchored in scripture and biblical truth followed by moderated discussion.
No registration required. pic.twitter.com/yJmQyLXarT
— Exodus Church (@exodus_ict) February 8, 2024
