I recently had the WPATH files thrown at me as a gotcha by a couple anti-trans people. Even though I pointed out that The Guardian say “Despite its grand title, WPATH is neither solely a professional body – a significant proportion of its membership are activists – nor does it represent the “world” view on how to care for this group of people.” If you want the truth of this “disturbing leak of trans kids being abused and medically mistreated” read this article. Please consider following Erin’s substack for more trans information and the laws attacking the LGBTQ+. Hugs. Scottie.
On Monday, anti-trans groups released a set of highly editorialized and decontextualized leaks dubbed the “WPATH Files.” A fact check reveals 216 errors, misrepresentations, and faulty citations.
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On Monday evening, prominent right-wing activist Michael Shellenberger, known for pushing anti-scientific views, released what he dubbed “the WPATH files.” In this highly editorialized document, select decontextualized images of forum posts from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health were made public. The document, replete with 37,569 words of editorial commentary before even presenting the so-called leaks, leans heavily into opinion and pseudoscience, urging readers to view it as a “groundbreaking scandal.” However, a closer inspection of the actual messages, achievable only after wading through the equivalent of a novella’s worth of editorial content, reveals rather mundane and often almost dull exchanges between doctors, psychologists, and therapists. These professionals are seen asking about edge cases and seeking advice from colleagues on patient circumstances. Despite attempts to cast the messages in a negative light, the report significantly misses the mark. In a thorough fact-check of the document, I have uncovered 216 instances of factual inaccuracies, erroneous citations, misinterpretations of what is “leaked,” and purposeful omissions contradicting the authors central editorialized claims.
The files were quickly shared by nearly every major anti-trans organization and journalists aligned with them. Genspect described it as “one of the worst medical scandals in history.” Riley Gaines claimed it unveiled “one of the most profitable yet destructive social experiments in history.” The Alliance Defending Freedom termed it a “deep-rooted medical scandal.” Given the rapid pace at which news stories emerged from these and other organizations, it likely was the result of a coordinated and organized embargo campaign, leaving those in support of care with scant time to review the voluminous documents and respond. In anticipation of such a response, the right-wing, Edelman-funded anti-trans organization FAIR in Medicine even published a fake screenshot of their own analysis of the report, labeling it “true” in a “fact check” with a big red bar—a direct nod to the fact checks presented in my own reports.
The factual inaccuracies, incorrect citations, and misrepresentations of both the literature and the “leaks” in the report are pervasive, affecting every section. In many instances, the authors reference their “leaks,” which are not searchable without optical character recognition (OCR) processing, presumably banking on the assumption that readers will not verify the context, thus missing the misrepresentations. The editorial section serves as a prime example of a “Gish gallop”—a tactic where numerous errors are thrown at once to overwhelm those attempting to critically respond, a strategy first attributed to creationist debater Duane Gish. Given the sheer volume of errors, it is impractical for a single fact-check to address each one comprehensively. Instead, this fact-check will highlight clear examples of each type of error to illustrate the wide chasm between the documented evidence and the report’s exaggerated claims.
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Misrepresented Citations
The editorialized report relies heavily on citations that are misrepresented, either in terms of what the citations actually claim, their quality, or whether the arguments in the citations support the point being made by the author. For example, one section claims that the WPATH Standards of Care 8th revision “sent shockwaves through the medical profession,” and “provided the catalyst for the Beyond WPATH declaration, now signed by over 2,000 concerned individuals, many of whom are clinicians working with gender diverse young people.” A closer examination of the “Beyond WPATH” letter itself reveals signatories such as “John Howard – DJ” and “Collin Wynter, yoga instructor.” A majority of the signatories appear to be from non-relevant categories, and a significant chunk are not medical providers at all, such as “concerned grandparent” or “parent.” While the report presents the “declaration” as a document of primarily medical professionals, it omits that it is essentially a freely available online petition form.
When addressing supposedly “scientific” citations, the report’s performance is equally lacking. For example, in the editorialized section, the report asserts that transgender individuals who undergo gender reassignment surgery “do not show positive outcomes,” citing four references to support its claim. These citations include a 2004 article from The Guardian, an article from a conservative site called “The New Atlantis,”which self-describes not as an academic journal but as a “public journal of ideas,” the frequently misquoted “Swedish Study” whose author has expressly corrected misinterpretations by anti-trans organizations, and a quality of life study that is 15 years old, evaluating surgeries performed 30 years ago, when social discrimination likely significantly influenced the outcomes. This contrasts sharply with muchnewerresearch from peer-reviewed articles that demonstrate a substantial improvement in the quality of life for transgender individuals.
Another claim was that a study supported a “2% fatality rate” for gender affirming surgery for those who have a sigmoid vaginoplasty, of which the report states “This one death represents an almost 2% fatality rate. In any other field of medicine, such a high fatality rate would result in the experiment instantly being halted and carefully studied to investigate what went wrong.”A review of the citation reveals a single case report of a death which occurred from a wound infection, a potential complication for any surgery. What the report leaves out, however, are that there are many recent studies designed to look at surgical complication rates, including a much newer study with a sample size of 366 patients and only 2 who experienced “major complications,” with no deaths.
All of these and many more misrepresented citations are then used to frame various portions of the “leaks” as scandalous or negative. For instance, they follow the incorrect claim that citations “do not show positiveoutcomes” with a discussion between WPATH members centering best practices on the ability transgender people to orgasm after puberty blockers, presumably to highlight the aforementioned “no positive outcomes.” To ensure factual accuracy, studies have shown that those who took puberty blockers are capable of orgasm and are satisfied with their sex lives, with 84% reporting orgasm capability and 12% not trying, similar to cisgender rates of anorgasmia. (Update: some critical responses have only read the sentence stating “female sexual function scores are low.” The FSF questionnaire measures include things like “lubrication” and the study is critical of the use of FSF in measuring transgender women’s sexual health. The study argues that instead of relying on FSF, other measures should be used. The study notes high satisfaction and indicates the vast majority of trans women can orgasm after surgery even with puberty suppression).
Errors About Trans Care
In numerous cases, the report not only misrepresents citations but also commits outright factual errors about trans care. For instance, it incorrectly conflates gender identity and sexuality, claiming that gender-affirming care is “a new form of conversion therapy” that “sterilizes lesbians and gays.” Gender identity and sexuality are fundamentally distinct. Regarding the claim of transition being a form of “conversion therapy,” evidence indicates that the vast majority of transgender individuals do not identify as straight after transitioning. Therefore, if transition were meant to serve as “conversion therapy,” it is notably ineffective in such an endeavor.
Similarly, the report claims that “the majority of gender dysphoric children would naturally desist and reconcile with their birth sex after puberty” if “not affirmed.” The studies cited all point to the same two sources continually used to make this claim – Kenneth Zucker’s research from the 1990s, which uses outdated diagnostic criteria for “gender identity disorder” that misclassified feminine gay men as “disordered,” and Steensma’s studies from 2011/2013, known for similar methodological shortcomings. They utilize old criteria which did not require a “desire or insistence to be the other sex,” and purposefully included in the disorder feminine boys who parents wished were more masculine. Modern studies show desistance rates of only 2.5%, with 97.5% of patients continuing to identify as transgender after social transition. The report claims that social transition prevents this “natural” desistance, a hypothesis that has not been validated, and instead seemingly advocates that trans youth should be disallowed social transition, which consists haircuts, clothing, pronouns, and names.
The report also states that “hormone therapy places an enormous medical burden on the body and impairs sexual function.” This is a claim made in multiple instances in the article, implying that sexual functionality is low and poor. In some sections, the authors lament that sexual function will be so poor, “the ability to form long-term sexual relationships is drastically compromised.”Research shows, however, that 65% of post op transgender women see an improvementin sexual satisfaction, with the majority rating their experiences with their body parts as “satisfying” or “very satisfying.” One review concluded, “We find that the most well-established changes associated with [hormone therapy] are initial changes to libido and increased sexual satisfaction.” Low sexual satisfaction is not supported by research.
These factual errors would be enough by themselves to discredit a report like this. In this report, however, it is compounded by using it to make innocuous and important discussions between clinicians seem nefarious. For example, the report uses the claims of low sexual satisfaction to then paint a discussion between clinicians about teenagers understanding trans care as harmful and evidence of wrongdoing, even though the claim is both incorrect and completely decontextualized from the actual discussion.
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Misrepresentations of “Leaked Material”
One of the most prevalent tactics used by the document is the misrepresentation of “leaked material,” frequently obscuring the actual statements (which are relegated to the end of the document) with an editorialized interpretation. For instance, an editorialized description of an exchange in the WPATH forums suggests that “a patient was leaking prostate secretions through the urethra after vaginoplasty and found it bothersome.” However, upon examining the actual exchange, it is revealed that the patient was actually “noticing an ejaculate with orgasm through her urethra,” which significantly alters the context – directly contradicting the editorialized assertions made earlier that transgender individuals are often incapable of orgasm.
Editorialized claim states that “prostate fluids leak after vaginoplasty.” Actual “leak” shows this is due to orgasm.
Another misrepresentation of the leaked material states, “There is talk about detransition being just another step in a patient’s “gender journey.” The document mentions detransition 54 times, suggesting it is a frequent occurrence among transgender individuals. However, a closer examination of the actual WPATH leak reveals that it was not a clinician but the detransitioner themselves who described their experience as part of a “gender journey,” specifically noting they were detransitioning without regret – something that harms the editorialized report’s portrayal of regret among trans people.Additionally, it is disclosed that one doctor has encountered only four detransition cases in their practice across 25 years and 600 patients. This information is not directly presented in the editorialized report but is instead interpreted in a way that precludes readers from forming their own conclusions, which would contradict the report’s assertions.
Editorialized claim stating that providers treat detransition as a “gender journey.” The actual leak reveals this was language used by the patient to indicate no regret.
Another portion of the editorialized assertions includes a patient discovering “two liver masses” identified as hepatic adenomas, with doctors suggesting “the likely offending agents are the hormones.” However, this claim omits the fact that the patient was also taking “oral contraceptives,” and it fails to mention that hepatic adenomas are benign. These tumors are more commonly observed in individuals who use birth control pills and are described as “rare but benign epithelial tumors of the liver frequently associated with oral contraceptive pill use.” This omission likely explains why the phrase “and/or oral contraceptives” was excluded from the editorialized claim. Furthermore, this information, alongside a solitary post about a transgender individual developing cancer, has been inaccurately used to assert that WPATH privately considers hormone therapy a cause of cancer.
The editorialized claim mentions hepatic adenomas without mentioning they are benign and associated with birth control. The actual leak reveals “and/or oral contraceptives,” a phrase left out of the editorialized claim.
Conclusion
It is evident that numerous anti-trans organizations contributed to the creation of the report, laden with misinformation. According to one post, Stella O’Malley from Genspect, an organization which has previously teased a young trans girl testifying in front of a school board, played a role in its development. Similarly, Carrie Mendoza of FAIR In Medicine, which has received significant funding from anti-trans billionaire Joseph Edelman to combat trans healthcare, appears to have been involved as well. The report, editorialized to transform relatively innocuous discussions among clinicians about best practices and specific cases into a purported major medical scandal, relies on factually incorrect assertions and misrepresentations to build its case. This approach, however, is unconvincing upon closer scrutiny.Instead of uncovering wrongdoing, the report inadvertently highlights the actions of an organization engaging in what is a standard procedure for medical entities: remaining engaged with ethical care discussions and seeking collaborative advice for emerging questions.
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Updates: I previously included a quality of life study whose limitations make the results non-generalizable in similar ways to the criticized QOL studies of the author, and so I have removed it. I have replaced it with another one, as there are many to draw from.
This is government by gang thuggery, or to call it what it is, terrorism. And driven by religion. This was again pushed as evil and child abuse by Libs of TikTok who as I recently have posted she is very proud of the violence she promotes. She also is a rather stupid person who is overjoyed at the all the notoriety and attention she receives for stirring up hate and fear. This is the attempt by the religious minority to take over the country, force the majority to live by their biblical doctrines / views, and rolling back all the civil rights gained by women, black people, and the LGBTQ+. The US has never been and shouldn’t ever be a theocracy. This country must not let bigotry and hate causing fear and targeting people for harm become a legitimate way to govern. But again the haters win because the show was canceled denying the kids and parents who wanted it to lose out. The haters are denying the freedom of others to enjoy themselves freely to enforce a religious view of morality on everyone. We have to stop letting these events be canceled and the haters win. If there was a bomb let the haters get blamed then found, charged, go to court, and … Hugs. Scottie
A scheduled “Drag Queen Story Hour” at a Pennsylvania library that had drawn opposition was canceled Saturday after a suspicious package was found in the building and two blocks were evacuated after threats were reported, authorities said.
Police evacuated the Lancaster Public Library after the package was found. A state police bomb squad later cleared the library, but police said “additional reported threats” were still being investigated. Residents of the block and another block nearby were told to evacuate, an order lifted several hours later.
A city spokesperson later said that a dog had alerted on the package and that the contents were later found to be “benign” but “subsequently, we received additional written threats via email.”
Lissa Holland, the library’s executive director, said she felt “really sad, very disappointed and angry, that leaders of this county turned this into saving the children from the library and we are having to cancel this event because of safety threats.”
Though the library did not make the decision to cancel Saturday’s event, Holland said it was the right call during a brief interview under the overhang outside the Starbucks at 101 N. Queen St..
“Absolutely. It’s safety first, for everybody involved, For our storyteller, for the staff — and most important for the children that were going to be here and the families. I am saddened to the core” that the event had to be canceled, Holland said.
Police just pushed media an additional block pack after clearing the apparent suspicious package at the library. They say there are “additional reported threats” to the already cancelled drag story event. https://t.co/SNeLejHKdPpic.twitter.com/wKJJbwF323
In addition to the protests that received permits locally, this particular drag queen story event received considerable attention on Twitter in the leadup to today’s incidents. https://t.co/enBb9S10Fl
Right now: Protesters opposed to the drag event cancelled over an apparent series of incidents including a “suspicious package” and multiple “threats” according to Lancaster Police continue to demonstrate outside the police perimeter. pic.twitter.com/owRnPUbvtT
Earlier: A street preacher calling the drag story hour reader a "drag whore" was confronted.
"You are hateful," an individual said after tossing their mango dragonfruit lemonade on him. "This is not a Christian nation!" pic.twitter.com/lqdSEdP9mP
"I'm not saying anything about the bombs, but I'm saying praise God it was cancelled," the street preacher remarked when asked about the event being cancelled.
"I didn't even know it was cancelled, so hallelujah, it was canceled!"
This is what those terrorists are demonizing. I don’t why we didn’t start protesting at churches every time a pedo was found, lost opportunity to show where the real threat to children was coming from.
I figure it’s a play on “People of Walmart” and other similar things – the pictures and profiles being posted are of the people the profile is against, not something they identify with.
Makato is right. Her account started as something else and her career basically shifted because of the attention that was focused on her. There are several of these accounts on Twitter and what they do is collect other peoples posts from any social media–Reddit, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, et cetera–and post it in their timeline. They have names like Whatever Posting Ls or something similar. LisbonTikTok (I like that typo and I’m keeping it) started posting stuff from TikTok.
Do you hate some group but don’t want to be bothered searching the Internet for things to hate and laugh at? Do you want reinforcement of your own biases? They’ve got you covered.
That, then. How is this not a domestic terror threat? She got our leading childrens’ hospital shut down with her terrorism. Kids missed pedi chemo treatments.
She would claim this is a free speech thing and point out that she never actually tells people to do the terrible things they do. It’s a cop out of course because she gets her viewers enraged over BS. It would be like me saying, “Mr X is a terrible danger to society and someone should do something about him” and then when said person gets attacked and blames me I can say “I didn’t tell anyone to attack you!”
Enough, enough, enough! This is no way to maintain a society, permitting the sickest among us to call the shots by threats of violence. There must be stronger penalties for those bullies, those who terrify others with their threats, those who shut down the normal activities of society, those who cost thousands-to-millions of dollars for law enforcement and lost business. We must not allow them to make us all live in fear.
It is what the laws were meant to do, stop the teaching of tolerance and acceptance and vilify LGBTQ+ kids with the goal of trying to return to when LGBTQ+ kids were scared to be found out so were invisible. These laws have to go, it is a horrible attempt to install a fundamentalist religious view on everyone else and their children. Hugs. Scottie
The data comes amid an ongoing explosion in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
According to a new report, anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in K-12 schools have quadrupled in U.S. states that have laws restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ students.
A Washington Post analysis of FBI data on anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes taking place in K-12 schools and on college campuses, published on March 12 found that anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes “serious enough to be reported to local police” more than doubled across the country in recent years. The Post found that while an average of 108 anti-LGBTQ+ school hate crimes were reported between 2015 and 2019, that average rose to 232 between 2021 and 2022. According to FBI data, the most common hate crimes reported at schools were intimidation, simple assault (assault where no weapon was used), and vandalism.
However, this rise in school hate crimes was more pronounced in the 28 states that have enacted policies restricting LGBTQ+ students’ self-expression and/or limiting how teachers can talk about gender and sexuality in school. In these states, reported anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes on K-12 and college campuses more than tripled from an average of 28 per year between 2015 and 2019 to an average of 90 between 2021 and 2022.
As the Post points out, this increase is even more staggering when you remove college campuses and look at the anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in K-12 schools only. In states that have enacted restrictive laws, there were more than four times the number of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes across elementary, middle, and high schools, per year, from 2021 to 2022, compared with the years 2015 to 2019.
Although it’s only March, the American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking a whopping 478 anti-LGBTQ+ bills across the U.S. this year, with 190 of those bills targeting student and educator rights.
Gerald Declan Radford, 65, initially claimed he shot Lay in self-defense. Prosecutors believe that Declan was the aggressor and was motivated by Lay’s sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, nonprofits that work with LGBTQ+ youth have reported an increase in crisis calls. According to the Post, The Trevor Project received over 500,000 crisis contacts during the fiscal year ending in July 2023 compared to the 230,000 the group received the previous year, while the Rainbow Youth Project received over 1,400 calls to its mental health crisis hotline per month in 2023 compared to 1,000 per month in 2022. According to the Rainbow Youth Project, calls from Oklahoma to the group’s hotline more than tripled after details about Nex Benedict, the trans Oklahoma teen of Choctaw ancestry who died the day after three older girls reportedly beat them in a school bathroom, became national news.
“Young people will say, ‘My government hates me,’ ‘My school hates me,’ ‘They don’t want me to exist,’” the Rainbow Youth Project’s founder and executive director, Lance Preston, told the Post. “That … is absolutely unacceptable. That is shocking.”
So this is the second time I am writing this as the first time I lost everything due to … A sudden loss of internet and a dropping out of my entire comment on the video, which was against the government. Ron asked me if I thought it was deliberate and I am not such a conspiracy theorist yet … but it was weird timing.
The point I was making is he is correct that all our data is already collected by every social media, every news sites … if I don’t want to give a news site permission to all data on my computer or every other website I visit they block me. It is why I don’t post from them. And the same with one of my favorite news sources for in depth information, they demand others to register or pay with them, so I have stopped sharing them. Any way I won’t retype all I wrote, my hands are sore and I have so much more to get to. The video is here. If you want to see through the political attempt to hold down the progressive youth vote watch the video. Time moves on and societies progress. Hugs. Scottie
I love this. The hate preachers in the US desperately need to hear this message. He says spreading hate and inciting attacks on others is not the message Jesus wanted his people to spread, that is not freedom of religion. It is so refreshing and wonderful to hear the message that this Rev. is talking about. Makes me remember the Jesus I was once told about as a child. Hugs. Scottie
This is what all the republican hate driven political crap causes. Simply put it is the same tactic Hitler used. Vilify the people that you want to harm, so that they are less human and your followers feel entitled or allowed to harm them. I have faced / felt this all my life. I thought that with the advancements and acceptance going forward with the modern age all that abuse could change. Then came tRump and his maga, which gave them permission to unleash their worst demons on the LBGTQ+ at any age, especially the most young in schools. It seems the republican maga fundamentalist right thinks it is ok to beat the LGBTQ+ out of any kid. But if they grow up into an adult still being that way … well we have the right to kill them. Can everyone see how disgusting that is? Sadly, some days I feel so frustrated screaming into the wind. Hugs. Scottie
Hillsborough County prosecutors charged a man with murder Friday, alleging that the fatal shooting of a gay man last month at the West Dog Park in Tampa was a hate crime.
Gerald Declan Radford faces a second-degree murder charge in the Feb. 2 death of John Walter Lay. Friends of both men told the Tampa Bay Times that Radford had been harassing Lay for months, hurling homophobic slurs and threatening him. Radford claimed the shooting was self-defense.
The office of Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez announced Friday that they plan to seek an enhanced sentence against Radford under the state’s hate crime statute.
Investigators said they first came in contact with Radford after he called 911 about the shooting. He claimed he shot Lay in self-defense, and with no witnesses to the crime or evidence to prove otherwise, Radford wasn’t arrested.
Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez said her office is now preparing for Radford to attempt to use the “Stand Your Ground” defense. Lay’s sister, Sabrena Hughes, told FOX 13 that the shooting followed two years of harassment and homophobic slurs directed at her brother by Radford.
Authorities also found a video on Lay’s phone. The video was taken like a selfie of the victim as he detailed a threat that was made to him by Radford, according to deputies. Lay claimed in the video that Radford told him, “You’re going to die.”
Colonel Frank Losat with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said the cell phone video on the victim’s phone and character witnesses provided evidence that the suspect did not act in self-defense. Lay had been complaining to his friends about harassment from Radford at West Dog Park for months.
“Some time prior to the shooting, we’re not positive on a timeframe at this point, the suspect and the victim have an altercation over the victim’s sexual orientation,” said Losat. Radford remains in the Hillsborough County Jail.
I normally included the comments because the comments often have many very relevant and important ideas. But I am sorry I no longer strong enough to do that. I have a dozen more posts I want to make, but I no longer have the ability to do it they way I once did. Love and hugs to all. Scottie
Mighty Christian of this first one. Good old republican Christian concern and caring. Hugs. Scottie
Florida’s Senate approves a bill that would ban cities and counties from adopting requirements for mandatory water breaks and other workplace protections against extreme heat. https://t.co/zGlFrAG8Kr
Read the full article. The bill’s author, state Sen. Jay Trumbull, previously appeared here for his successful bill allowing medical professionals to refuse to treat LGBTQ patients. Last year, he authored a bill allowing businesses to sue to block local LGBTQ rights ordinances and other regulations.
Of note, the lead attorney in the lawsuit is Roberta Kaplan, who is best known to most as E. Jean Carroll’s attorney. Kaplan was also Edith Windsor’s attorney in the landmark Supreme Court ruling on DOMA.
This is quite a story and as you’d expect a portion of their ideology centers against LGBTQ people.
OK with this first batch I am trying to reduce the 74 posts window I have open. I have to start shrinking these windows. That means I can not go deep in depth on each thing I think is important to share. So for a few days I am going to shotgun a bunch of older stuff out. Do I expect everyone to read all of them? NO! What I hope is people see story titles that interest them, open them, and follow the story which is what I do. So expect a few more of these as I clear out old tabs. Hugs. Scottie
This is why republicans are so desperate to end any talk or, protection of, or acceptance of LGBTQ+ in schools. The more people see it, the more people have friends and family that are LGBTQ+, the more open it is in society on social media, the more normal and tolerant people are. The more young people will come out and live as the person they are. Republicans are desperate to stop this. Hugs. Scottie
LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual. The current figure is up from 5.6% four years ago and 3.5% in 2012. Bisexual adults make up the largest proportion of the LGBTQ+ population — 4.4% of U.S. adults and 57.3% of LGBTQ+ adults say they are bisexual.
Slightly less than 1% of U.S. adults are transgender. Overall, each younger generation is about twice as likely as the generation that preceded it to identify as LGBTQ+. More than one in five Gen Z adults, ranging in age from 18 to 26 in 2023, identify as LGBTQ+, as do nearly one in 10 millennials (aged 27 to 42). The percentage drops to less than 5% of Generation X, 2% of baby boomers and 1% of the Silent Generation.
LGBTQ+ identification in the U.S. continues to grow, with 7.6% of U.S. adults now identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual. The current figure is up from 5.6% four… pic.twitter.com/iweJ76PS1w
I came out in March, 1983, six months after the CDC coined the name Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome and about a month after HIV was first identified as the likely cause. I was 15. By the time I could legally enter a bar, I had been to more funerals that most people will ever see in six lifetimes. And all while Republicans laughed and openly pondered how they could speed up the deaths.
There is a reason why so many of us survivors have CPTSD.
Don’t ever stop. There is so much more that needs to be done within the black community. As usual the disparities between communities of color and whites persist in spite of all of our efforts. Every young man you educate is part of your legacy.
Kinsey found that, among the men he surveyed, 37% had had sex with another man to orgasm.
That figure has been vigorously disputed by researchers who couldn’t accept his figures – and their own surveys managed to reduce the number a lot by excluding same-sex sex between young men, claiming that those orgasms weren’t really same-sex sex because mumble mumble mumble, and some altered their results by doing their surveys insecurely, where the men surveyed couldn’t trust that they’d be anonymous.
Now, with changes in attitudes, men are being more honest and researchers are doing less data manipulation to obscure men’s actual sexual activity – and the numbers in modern surveys are steadily increasing. I think we’ll find that Kinsey was much closer to the actual numbers than any of his critics would ever admit.
I know that, as an out gay man in the corporate world for several decades, the coworkers who hit on me over the years weren’t the other gay men I worked with, it was married men with kids who called themselves straight – but who tried to persuade me to have sex with them although that was obviously not straight-man sex. Sometimes I said yes, sometimes I didn’t – when I did, I enjoyed their intensity and enthusiasm. Those “straight” men were so, so hungry for the body of another man. It’s always seemed to me that there’s a lot more man on man sex going on than most people will admit.
So everything is basically reset back to where it was before this law. The only difference is teachers and schools will have to deal with fundamentalist Christian maga parents and wing nuts who don’t even live in those schools claiming that teachers are teaching gender or sexual orientation for allowing a rainbow sticker, that the schools are violating the law because the library returned the books with and about LGBTQIA characters / plots in them, and it will tie all schools up in lawsuits the state won’t help them with. DeathSantis is really just admitting he was wrong without saying it. Kaplan said that she was sure that the law would be ruled unconstitutional if they continue with the appeal, but that it would take at least two years of kids being bullied and the books out of the library. Of course DeathSantis is claiming a total win when it completely rolls back his law. Gay teachers can let the kids know they are gay, those married can talk about their spouses and post pictures. Anti-gay bullying programs are allowed again. Plus maybe the best thing, the gay straight alliance clubs are allowed again. The real thing you see is DeathSantis only pushed this as long as he was running for office, and once he was no longer needing to suck up to the fundamentalist Christians he backed down, and did not fight for it. I think he knew all along it was an illegal bill. Hugs. Scottie
*** Personal note. Was not feeling well all weekend and this morning I woke up at 4 am needing to throw up. But all I could bring up was air. Then after half a cup of coffee, I started to throw up last night’s meal. All morning I keep feeling dizzy and nauseous every 20 minutes or so. I have spent a lot of yesterday and so far today, in bed. Hugs. Scottie1`
Opponents said the law had created confusion about whether teachers could identity themselves as LGBTQ or if they even could have rainbow stickers in classrooms.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Students and teachers will be able to speak freely about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms, provided it’s not part of instruction, under a settlement reached Monday between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys who had challenged a state law which critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
The settlement clarifies what is allowed in Florida classrooms following passage two years ago of the law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Opponents said the law had created confusion about whether teachers could identity themselves as LGBTQ or if they even could have rainbow stickers in classrooms.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attends the drivers meeting prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Feb. 19, 2024.Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images file
Other statesused the Florida law as a template to pass prohibitions on classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina are among the states with versions of the law.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education will send instructions to every school district saying the Florida law doesn’t prohibit discussing LGBTQ people, nor prevent anti-bullying rules on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or disallow Gay-Straight Alliance groups. The settlement also spells out that the law is neutral — meaning what applies to LGBTQ people also applies to heterosexual people — and that it doesn’t apply to library books not being used in the classroom.
“What this settlement does, is, it re-establishes the fundamental principal, that I hope all Americans agree with, which is every kid in this country is entitled to an education at a public school where they feel safe, their dignity is respected and where their families and parents are welcomed,” Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview. “This shouldn’t be a controversial thing.”
In a statement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office described the deal as a “major win” with the law remaining intact.
“Today’s mutually agreed settlement ensures that the law will remain in effect and it is expected that the case will be dismissed by the Court imminently,” the statement said.
The law, formally known as the Parental Rights in Education Act, has been championed by the Republican governor since before its passage in 2022 by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature. It barred instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, and it was expanded to all grades last year.
Republican lawmakers had argued that parents should broach these subjects with children and that the law protected children from being taught about inappropriate material.
But opponents of the law said it created a chilling effect in classrooms. Some teachers said they were unsure if they could mention or display a photo of their same-sex partner in the classroom. In some cases, books dealing with LGBTQ topics were removed from classrooms and lines mentioning sexual orientation were excised from school musicals. The Miami-Dade County School Board in 2022 decided not to adopt a resolution recognizing LGBTQ History Month, even though it had done so a year earlier.
The law also triggered the ongoing legal battles between DeSantis and Disney over control of the governing district for Walt Disney World in central Florida after DeSantis took control of the government in what the company described as retaliation for its opposition to the legislation. DeSantis touted the fight with Disney during his run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, which he ended earlier this year.
The civil rights attorneys sued Florida education officials on behalf of teachers, students and parents, claiming the law was unconstitutional, but the case was dismissed last year by a federal judge in Tallahassee who said they lacked standing to sue. The case was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kaplan said they believed the appellate court would have reversed the lower court’s decision, but continuing the lawsuit would have delayed any resolution for several more years.
“The last thing we wanted for the kids in Florida was more delay,” Kaplan said.
Of note, the lead attorney in the lawsuit is Roberta Kaplan, who is best known to most as E. Jean Carroll’s attorney. Kaplan was also Edith Windsor’s attorney in the landmark Supreme Court ruling on DOMA.
A settlement over Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law will allow students and teachers to speak about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, if it's not part of a lesson. https://t.co/FTg3TWJCyo
#Florida settles lawsuit over @GovRonDeSantis' controversial parental rights law & will clarify vague wording. Plaintiffs calling it the Don’t Say Gay law say the deal will stop school districts from “overreacting.” https://t.co/E4SQGjlUYQ via @JeffSolochek
Wow how clueless can some people be in following their god and right wing ideology? Seriously, does he realize that when women couldn’t vote, he was not covered by the civil rights laws and he wouldn’t be allowed to serve in such a high government position by the white people who think he shouldn’t be able to vote or speak up in public. Yes just as he looks down on women as inferior to him a man, the majority of whites then, and some now also, believe he as a black man is inferior to any white person. I don’t understand bigotry, no matter who it is against. See bigotry is counter to reason, it is irrational. Yet it is hard to use reason to combat it is difficult because bigotry is built on emotion. But this guy is out there as a bigot, hater, and just abusive to anyone who disagrees with him. Again how is this acceptable? What ever happened to decorum and civility from elected officials? Seriously what happened to being able to look up to elected federal and state legislators as the best of the public? Seriously when did being an internet troll be one of the qualifications for political office? When was being a vicious bully an admired trait? But this guy is both? Hugs. Scottie
“The only thing worse than a woman who doesn’t know her place, is a man who doesn’t know his,” he wrote on Facebook in December 2017.
In a newly unearthed video, North Carolina’s GOP nominee for governor says America was better then because Republicans “fought for real social change.”
On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson won the GOP primary to become his party’s nominee for North Carolina governor, presumably with the help of female voters.
But just four years ago, Robinson invoked a bizarre hypothetical in which he said he’d “absolutely” like to return to the days when the 19th Amendment didn’t exist ― when women didn’t have the right to vote.
“I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote,” Robinson said in a newly resurfaced video of his remarks at a March 2020 event hosted by the Republican Women of Pitt County.
During this event, Robinson, who was running for lieutenant governor at the time, recalled someone recently asking conservative activist Candace Owens to pick which version of America would make America “great again,” one where “Black people were swinging from cheap trees” or one where women weren’t allowed to vote.
Robinson said he would definitely return to the days in America when women were denied the right to vote “because in those days we had people who fought for real social change, and they were called Republicans.”
This room full of women was quiet as he spoke, though a faint “That’s right” could be heard when Robinson later said Republicans ended Jim Crow laws. (In fact, lawmakers in both parties in Congress and President Lyndon Johnson ended Jim Crow laws by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.)
You catch watch the full clip of Robinson’s remarks here:
Requests for comment from Robinson’s campaign and from his government office were not returned.
In still more Facebook posts, the GOP gubernatorial nominee strangely equated feminism with sexism and racism.
“If blacks should stand up against racism, and women should stand up against sexism….shouldn’t men stand up against feminism?” he posted on Sept. 20, 2016.
That same day, he also wrote, “I am REALLY sick of feminism and feminist. They are just as bad, if not worse, than racist.”
Robinson will go up against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in November. North Carolina is a crucial swing state in the 2024 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump won North Carolina in 2020, but barely ― and that was before he tried to steal the election, incited an insurrection and was facing 91 felony charges.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who endorsed one of Robinson’s challengers in the GOP primary, said Wednesday that it’s up to the voters in his state to decide in November if they want him to be the governor.
Asked if he agrees with Robinson’s inflammatory rhetoric, Tillis told HuffPost, “Not at all.”
“Now that we’re past the primary … he just needs to go to the people in North Carolina, explain that and get their vote,” he said.
Back when women were property, “colored” folk like you were not allowed to eat at restaurants with white folk, were segregated in public venues(sitting in the shitty section at theaters and such), schools, hospitals, and even the men weren’t allowed to vote even though they had the right. Go back a little further and all black people were owned by white people in the slave states with absolutely no rights at all. And you, sir, are a fucking idiot. Go slap yourself silly.
For Republican women all that matters apparently is the “R” after his name. Of course why any woman would suppport the Republican Party is the obvious next question.
A lot of Republican women have been beaten, raped and otherwise abused into submission by the men in their lives; fathers, husbands, pastors, etc. to the point where they are brainwashed to vote how the men in their lives tell them to. A while back, I read an article about some fundie douchebag pastor preaching to a group of men how they really shouldn’t allow their wives to vote, but if their wives insist on voting, their husbands should make sure that their wives vote “correctly,” so their votes do not “cancel out” the husbands’ votes.
That reminded me of a story an ex-Mormon friend told me, about how before she went in to vote for the first time as a college freshman in 1992, her father handed her and her mother a list of candidates (all Republican) and said “This is how I expect you to vote, I’ll be watching.” Her father stood in the voting booth next to her, giving her the side eye the entire time she was casting her ballot. Even though she wanted to vote for Clinton, she voted for George Bush I instead, because dad was also an abusive asshole, and she feared what he might do if she didn’t vote as she was told. If the poll workers saw what her Dad was doing, they didn’t do anything. It was probably quite common in the shitty Mormon town she was raised in. And I doubt things have changed.
Back when women were property, “colored” folk like you were not allowed to eat at restaurants with white folk, were segregated in public venues(sitting in the shitty section at theaters and such), schools, hospitals, and even the men weren’t allowed to vote even though they had the right. Go back a little further and all black people were owned by white people in the slave states with absolutely no rights at all. And you, sir, are a fucking idiot. Go slap yourself silly.
