Category: LGBTQ+ / Gay / Trans / Gender

Whew-Breathe Again, For A Bit

Democrats Successfully Strip All Anti-Trans Riders From Final Appropriations Bills

The HHS and Education bills once contained the most sweeping anti-trans provisions in congressional history. Now they contain none.

Erin Reed Jan 20, 2026

Early Tuesday morning, final appropriations bills for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education—and related agencies—were released, marking the last major funding measures to be negotiated in the aftermath of the record-breaking government shutdown fight in 2025. That standoff featured multiple appropriations bills loaded with anti-transgender riders and poison pills for Democrats, ultimately ending in a short-term continuing resolution that punted many of those provisions to the end of January. While other “minibus” packages funding individual agencies moved forward, the Education and HHS bills were conspicuously absent, as they contained some of the most sweeping and consequential anti-trans riders ever proposed in Congress. Now, with the final bills released, it is clear that no anti-transgender riders were included—meaning transgender people will largely be spared new congressional attacks through most of 2026 should they pass as-is.

As the government shut down on Oct. 1, the state of appropriations bills needed to reopen the federal government for any extended period was extraordinarily dire for transgender people. Dozens of anti-transgender riders were embedded across House appropriations bills, even as those provisions were largely absent from the Senate’s versions. The riders appeared throughout nearly every funding measure, from Commerce, Justice, and Science to Financial Services and General Government. The most extreme provisions, however, were concentrated in the House HHS and Education bills, including language barring “any federal funds” from supporting gender-affirming care at any age and threatening funding for schools that support transgender students. Taken together, those measures would have posed a sweeping threat to transgender people’s access to education and health care nationwide.

Those fears eased somewhat when the government reopened under a short-term continuing resolution funding operations through the end of January. In the months that followed, Democrats notched a series of incremental victories for transgender people, advancing multiple appropriations “minibus” packages that stripped out anti-trans riders as the government was funded piece by piece. As amendment after amendment fell away, those wins grew more substantial, including the removal of a proposed ban on gender-affirming medical care from the NDAA—even after it had passed both the House and Senate. Still, the most consequential question remained unresolved: what would ultimately happen to the high-impact anti-trans provisions embedded in the HHS and Education bills.

Now, the package has been released—and for the moment, transgender people can breathe again. The final HHS and Education bills contain no anti-transgender provisions: no ban on hospitals providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth, no threats to strip funding from schools that support transgender students or allow them to use the bathroom, and no mandate forcing colleges to exclude transgender students from sports or activities like chess or esports. The bills are strikingly clean. As such, they avert yet another protracted shutdown fight in which transgender people are once again turned into political bargaining chips—and, at least for now, remove Congress as the immediate vehicle for new federal attacks, should they pass as-is.

When asked about the successful stripping of anti-trans provisions, a staffer for Representative Sarah McBride tells Erin In The Morning, “Rep. McBride works closely with her colleagues every day to defend the rights of all her constituents, including LGBTQ people across Delaware. In the face of efforts by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress to roll back health care and civil rights, she was proud to work relentlessly with her colleagues in ensuring these funding bills did not include anti-LGBTQ provisions. It takes strong allies in leadership and on committees to rein in the worst excesses of this Republican trifecta, Rep. McBride remains grateful to Ranking Members DeLauro, Murray, and Democratic leadership for prioritizing the removal of these harmful riders.”

This does not mean that transgender people will not be targeted with policies and rules that affect them in all areas of life. The Trump administration has acted without regard to law in forcing bans on sports, pulling funding from schools and hospitals, and banning passport gender marker updates. The Supreme Court has been increasingly willing to let the office of the presidency under Trump do whatever it would like to transgender people. However, the lack of passage of bills targeting transgender people means that these attacks will only last for as long as we have Trump in the White House, and a future president should hopefully be easily able to reverse the attacks.

https://open.substack.com/pub/erininthemorn/p/democrats-successfully-strip-all?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Sorry, GOP. There’s no Christian revival

Just like maga a small very vocal group of people are demanding the entire country roll back all progress made since the 1950s by minorities.  Any new discovery by science no matter the field because it clashes with their holy book which they misread to form their warped view of reality.  They do not care to let other others live their lives as they get to live theirs in peace and freedom.  No they demand that everyone follow and live by their church doctrines because that way their god will favor them, come back sooner to give them rewards while killing the rest of us.   Think of it, these people are OK with creating a situation where the majority die horribly to please his god as long as they get rewarded.  Seems selfish to me not Christian.  Also another important point is the constant repeating of the Christian surge of republican voters despite it being a lie is to shore up the idea that there was voter fraud that stole the midterms from the republicans.  Think of it tRump people used a normal occurrence of vote totals shift as mail in votes are counted as evidence of fraud leading to the Jan 6th insurrection.  Below I will post a quote from the article that will be used by republicans to show the democrats stole the midterms.   Hugs.  

Even as GOP leaders who can read a poll know that the upcoming elections are not looking good for their party, this fantasy of a Christianizing America is leading the everyday MAGA faithful to believe otherwise. A September poll from September shows that 89% of Republicans think their party will win the midterm elections, which is up seven points from April. In fact, the party is forecast to lose seats as its support continues to erode under Trump’s chaotic mismanagement.

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/07/sorry-gop-theres-no-christian-revival/

Republicans are betting the midterms on mass conversions that aren’t happening

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
A United States and Christian flag are sandwiched together (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
A United States and Christian flag are sandwiched together (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Turning Point USA ended 2025 with AmericaFest, a blowout conference for the MAGA powerhouse organization started in 2012 by the now-deceased Charlie Kirk. As described by Teresa Wiltz at POLITICO, “the vibe felt less like a political panel than an evangelical revival.” Watching the speeches from this fireworks-laden shindig, Wiltz’s observation felt like an understatement. Many speeches from the event’s main stage were simply sermons extolling a fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity as the one true faith.

“We’re here for one name, and that’s Jesus,” declared Bryce Crawford, a 22-year-old who makes videos of himself accosting strangers, including mentally ill homeless people, under the guise of “winning souls” for Christ. He went on declare that “we’re in the last days” and that every person who doesn’t believe in his version of the gospels will soon “be cast into hell.”

“We’re all on our knees, shoulder to shoulder, under the blood of Christ,” proclaimed the British comedian Russell Brand, who is facing seven charges of sexual assault, including three rape charges, in the United Kingdom. He included Ben Shapiro, by name, in his list of believers, even though Shapiro is Jewish. He then proceeded to insist that Christianity is the key to resolving the conflict between Israel and Gaza, which have primarily Jewish and Muslim populations.

Even rapper Nicki Minaj, newly out as MAGA, understood the primary assignment was talking up Christianity, claiming that she has had “the kind of faith that you think a person is crazy” since she was a little girl.

AmericaFest, as its name implies, is supposed to be a political event, not a church service. By including speakers like Shapiro and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is Hindu, TPUSA’s organizers were even nodding to the idea that the GOP is supposed to believe in religious freedom and diversity. Or, as Vice President JD Vance put it, “We’re all part of the same American family.” Yet he quickly undercut that message by proclaiming that “By the grace of God, we will always be a Christian nation.” While Vance may claim that you don’t have to be a Christian to be an American, implicit in his words is the idea that only Christians are truly Americans, and everyone else is, at best, second class.

The blunt reality is that AmericaFest wasn’t just overtly religious — it was steeped in Christian nationalism. They equated being an American with being a Christian. But being a Republican, as Crawford suggested in his speech, is synonymous with being an evangelical Christian whose main duty is to convert non-believers. The political message of the event was inseparable from a religious one: that the purpose of the GOP and the MAGA movement is to usher in a religious revival and turn a decadent, secular country into one devoted to a narrow, right-wing version of Christianity.

For decades now, the Christian right has been the most powerful and influential force in the GOP, and yet even by their standards, this marked a dramatic shift toward the theocratic impulse. From a purely rational perspective, this is bad politics. Only 23% of Americans identify as evangelicals. Trump was able to win in 2024 only by convincing large numbers of people outside of evangelical Christianity that he has a secular worldview. This was aided by the fact that he quite clearly doesn’t believe all the Christian language, both coded and overt, his aides coax him to say.

The hype at AmericaFest suggests they are pinning their hopes on this imaginary religious awakening to deliver big wins to the Republicans in November’s elections.

But none of that seems to register with MAGA leadership right now. They’ve convinced themselves — or at least are trying to persuade their donors and followers — that the U.S. is undergoing a massive religious revival. Right-wing media has been pushing the view that huge numbers of Americans, especially young Americans, are converting to fundamentalist Christianity. The hype at AmericaFest suggests they are pinning their hopes on this imaginary religious awakening to deliver big wins to the Republicans in November’s elections.

As my colleague Russell Payne and I reported on in November for Salon’s “Standing Room Only,” Fox News in particular has been running a number of stories claiming a “Charlie Kirk effect” — that the MAGA influencer’s killing in September led to a tidal wave of Americans, especially young Americans, discovering or returning to Christianity.

Since then, there’s been a constant drumbeat of similar claims from right-wing media. “Gen Z embracing faith as more young people return to religion,” Fox News declared again on Dec. 21. NewsNation ran a new year segment that reported a “religious revival” was taking place among the young. This follows many similar segments from both channels dating back months, all swearing to their largely elderly audience that the Zoomers are flooding church services, despite what they may be seeing at their own local congregation. Conservative ministers keep insisting on social media that waves of young people are converting, even as no such numbers show up in surveys with more rigorous research methods.

Much of AmericaFest was also devoted to propping up the narrative that young adults are giving up sex and secularism for Christian nationalism in record numbers. Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, 25, spoke about how Christianity calls on women to “Get married, have babies, have as many as you can and as early in your married life as you can.” Pastor Keenan Clark, 30, preached, “If you have not submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ, though you were a conservative, you will find yourself in the bowels of a devil’s hell.” Angela Halili, 29, and Arielle Reitsma, 36, hosts of the “Girls Gone Bible” podcast, preached about saving sex for marriage because “sexual immorality is the only sin that you commit against your own body.”

The presence of Halili and Reitsma is a big clue that this Christian hype may be rooted in something other than an outpouring of faith. As I reported last year, there’s overwhelming evidence that the two podcast hosts were working as poker girls — women who make money at underground poker games by offering flirting and often much more to male players — while launching a Christian channel devoted to preaching the virtues of chastity to young women. Whatever they personally believe, their entire endeavor is rooted in dishonesty, a sin the Bible tends to have more to say about than sexual “immorality.”

There is no evidence-based reason to believe there’s a religious revival among the young that is about to create massive election windfalls for Republicans. On the contrary, a December report from Pew Research found that, “On average, young adults remain much less religious than older Americans. Today’s young adults also are less religious than young people were a decade ago.”

But there’s little doubt that the kind of people who write massive checks to organizations like TPUSA — wealthy, older Republicans — are very interested in hearing that there’s a religious revival in the U.S. It’s worth remembering that TPUSA began as a secular organization, but in 2020, Kirk started to shift to the Christian nationalist cause, arguing there should be no separation between church and state. With this newly religious agenda, money started to pour into TPUSA. Better yet, Kirk nabbed the support of extremely rich Republicans, with half of TPUSA’s $55 million haul in 2020 coming from 10 anonymous donors. In contrast, the organization raised only $8 million in 2016. 

TPUSA and right-wing media aren’t the only groups that have a strong interest in creating the illusion of a mass revival swelling among America’s young. Conservative Christian audiences are notoriously gullible, so there’s a big market out there for attention-seekers and outright grifters to cash in using social media. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are awash in young people claiming they have access to Biblical prophecy or know how to perform exorcisms, or who, like the hosts of “Girls Gone Bible,” pair glamorous packaging with claims that young people are embracing an especially sex-free and fundamentalist Christian faith.

There are various degrees of sincerity in these influencers, yet one thing is undeniable: They are exploiting huge audiences of conservative Christians who want desperately to believe in a religious revival and would rather give their time and money to people who are telling them it’s real than to look at the statistics that show that it’s not. 

Between groups like TPUSA, right-wing media outlets and social media influencers, there’s now an entire machinery propping up this false narrative that young people are stampeding into the pews. Even as GOP leaders who can read a poll know that the upcoming elections are not looking good for their party, this fantasy of a Christianizing America is leading the everyday MAGA faithful to believe otherwise. A September poll from September shows that 89% of Republicans think their party will win the midterm elections, which is up seven points from April. In fact, the party is forecast to lose seats as its support continues to erode under Trump’s chaotic mismanagement. But none of that matters: TPUSA is here to take Republicans’ money and sell them a story about how all the kids are coming to Jesus — and to the GOP.

 ——————————————————————————————————————-

By Amanda Marcotte

Amanda Marcotte is a senior politics writer at Salon and the author of “Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself.” Follow her on Bluesky @AmandaMarcotte and sign up for her biweekly politics newsletter, Standing Room Only.

 

New video analysis sheds light on Minneapolis ICE shooting

I just posted a video from Hasan Piker on the same topic.  However some people prefer verified news sources instead of podcasters, so here is another discussion of the NYT frame by frame breakdown of the videos by the reporter and Anderson Cooper.   Again showing that Ross’s torso is several feet from the car and he was in no danger until he murdered Renee Good.   Hugs

NEW EVIDENCE SHOWS WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW…

This is a playing of the New York Times breakdown of the videos of the Renee Good murder by Jonathan Ross.  In a frame by frame slow down the video that the right claims shows that Ross was struck by Good’s car instead clearly shows that his torso was several feet away from her bumper.  He was not struck by the car.   He was not in danger.   As he was not in danger why did he shoot.   He was angry and out of control because a lesbian insulted him and another lesbian made his life harder so knowing he would face no consequence for his actions and had no restraint on what he could do he acted on his anger.   This has happened many times with ICE already and will continue until these people face consequences for their actions.   

The border patrol guidelines had to be changed because so many officers were shooting people in frustration using the excuse they were in danger after they deliberately moved in front of cars.   Ross knew this, he used the same excuse that they had to make a rule against doing because he was so angry and frustrated.  He shouldn’t have been on duty or be allowed to carry a weapon!   Hugs

 

ICE’s Violent Terror Campaign Is Worse Than You Thought…

ICE is not following any police procedures or laws.  They are disregarding all civil right granted by law or the constitution.  ICE white supremacist gang thugs believe they have no restraint or can be held accountable in any way.  I see their criminal actions in almost every clip and the way they use their weapons is horribly wrong.  I was trained in pepper spray and can tell you that we had to be sprayed to be certified.  I can bet none of them did.  Because they wouldn’t do it at point-blank range as then it is no longer nonlethal but very lethal.  In this clip a woman describes being picked up by ICE and harmed, harassed, taunted, threatened, and she is a citizen.  She said ICE had no qualms about detaining her nor harming her.  Plus ICE is proudly damaging people’s cars and phones and there is no one to go to for repairment.  So the citizen must pay the costs for the ICE thug’s temper tantrums.  Land of the free much?   Hugs

 

You Are A Domestic Terrorist Now | Ken Klippenstein TMR

This is about the post Ali sent me the link to and I then posted.   This is where I first heard it.  I love when Sam shares the news.  He says that being terrorism as anyone who holds anti-Christian, anti traditional family values (read LGBTQ+), anti capitalism, anti ICE, anti American exceptionalism sediments.  If you have any of those ideas or feeling you are a terrorist according to Stephen Miller and Russell Vought.  Hugs

Vermont Bill Would Create State Trust Fund For Private Trans Youth Care Clinics As Trump Threatens Hospital Funding

I love Erin’s posts and reporting.  The attack on trans rights and health was planned and coordinated by religious conservatives who felt they lost the culture war on gay acceptance and same sex marriage so they decided to jump quickly on the trans issue with lots of money.  Their first attempt failed because they went after the idea of trans people itself.  So then they changed to the old “protect the children” play book with the entire focus on protecting little cis girls but they never mention the trans boys that cis boys need to be protected from.  See how patristical it is?  It is all about males needing to protect the little womans.  They don’t care about trans kids, they don’t care about female sports.   It is about not letting trans kids transition with puberty blockers and the correct hormones as then the kids will grow up as they are fitting the societal view of what men and women look like.   That scares the straight cis male religious guys because they are terrified they will be attracted to a trans woman.   Imagine the horror if trans people moved freely in society not raising any question of their gender because they conformed to how society sees each gender.   That sounds like a grand thing to me, but it terrifies these fanatical religious grifters that want to control how everyone lives to please their god.   They make up untrue and scary what ifs, what if a man uses the letting trans people use the bathroom of their gender ID to go into a girls … notice they phrase it girls not womans because that make people more protective from the start, and they harm a little girl, your little girl?  Well nothing stops a man from doing that now!  Predators don’t need permission and won’t wait for it.  And that has happened where a straight cis male dragged a little girl into the male bathroom and raped her while his friend watched.   There was a famous court case on it.   Look it up if you want.   Want to know what has not happened, a trans woman going into the female’s bathroom and assaulting a female.  Sorry.  The right has tried hard to make one happen, but each claim of a trans person in a  locker room or bathroom acting inappropriate has been debunked and disproven.   This is all a made up scandal and crisis by people who can not accept the society progressing beyond the old traditional binary they grew up with and they think their holy books claim must be as their god insists on it.   Weird how it is always how their god insists on what they already believe or promote.  Handy that.  So many people can not move past the idea that if it dangles you MUST be a boy regardless of how you feel and if it is an inny you must be a girl regardless of anything else idea.  They can not seem to grasp personal feelings, needs, or medial science.  Hugs

 

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/vermont-bill-would-create-state-trust?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3nse02&triedRedirect=true

The bill would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund, administered by the State Treasurer, to support clinics and providers outside the reach of federal funding threats.

Erin Reed
Jan 07, 2026
 

Vermont Bill Would Create State Trust Fund For Private Trans Youth Care Clinics As Trump Threatens Hospital Funding

The bill would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund, administered by the State Treasurer, to support clinics and providers outside the reach of federal funding threats.

Erin Reed
Jan 07, 2026

Vermont Statehouse, Adam Fagen, Creative Commons
 

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Across the United States, gender-affirming care has come under sustained attack in Republican-led states and from the Trump administration. For transgender youth, those attacks have been especially severe, with roughly half of U.S. states now banning such care outright. At the federal level, the administration has waged an intense pressure campaign against hospitals, threatening funding and prompting many systems to drop their care programs altogether. That campaign has now escalated further, with the federal government moving to threaten hospitals’ entire Medicaid and Medicare funding if they continue providing transgender youth care. In response, some states and cities are beginning to fight back by establishing their own funding mechanisms for trans healthcare. The latest example comes from Vermont, where lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a trust fund for gender-affirming care designed to be entirely insulated from federal funding threats.

H.576, introduced by Representatives Daisy Berbeco, Tiffany Bluemle, and Troy Headrick, would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund. Administered by the State Treasurer, the fund would provide direct monetary support to healthcare providers and nonprofits offering gender-affirming care in Vermont. It would cover costs for patients who would otherwise go without treatment, fund the establishment of Vermont-based clinics, and pay for malpractice and liability insurance for clinicians who continue offering care. The bill is part of an increasing movement towards private clinics as a mechanism to survive federal threats.

The bill also includes provisions designed to protect patient information from both federal pressure and out-of-state threats, going further than the recent “refuge” or “shield” laws passed in several blue states to protect transgender youth care. It explicitly bars the board and other state actors from disclosing patient-identifiable data, the identities of providers, or the identities of award recipients to the federal government. This is a significant protection given the wave of abusive legislation and attempts to subpoena transgender healthcare records nationwide. While federal preemption may ultimately be litigated, these provisions give clinics a stronger legal footing to resist such demands—particularly as similar subpoenas have been repeatedly quashed in recent court cases.

The bill comes as families scramble to locate alternatives to hospital systems that are abandoning them. With more than 20 hospitals closing their doors to transgender youth care out of fear and preemptive compliance with the Trump administration, many families have been forced to seek alternatives. Just this week, major hospital systems across Colorado, for example, have stopped providing care. Groups like the Trans Youth Emergency Project say they have the capacity to refer displaced patients to private clinics, and in many places those clinics do exist and are absorbing demand. But as hospital-based programs continue to shut down and demand rises, those private providers will need sustained support—and more clinics will need to be created. Bills like this are a targeted way to do exactly that.

If this bill passes, Vermont would be the latest state to protect care in this way—but it would not be the only one. Massachusetts passed a similar measure last year, allocating $1 million toward transgender youth care clinics, though that funding has already come under criticism as insufficient to meet statewide need in the wake of major clinic closures. In New York City, newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged $65 million for transgender healthcare. If that funding is realized, it would position New York City as a major hub for private clinics capable of absorbing demand created by hospital closures across the country. This strategy could prove to be a critical backstop for private providers that are already emerging—and that are likely to come under increasing strain in the years ahead.

The bill allows funding from state appropriations, private donations, grants, and—importantly—federal funds under a future administration that is protective of transgender healthcare. It would take effect immediately upon passage, with the board required to convene by August 1, 2026. There are still hurdles ahead: the bill must advance through committee, pass both chambers, and ultimately receive meaningful funding to function as intended. But its introduction alone signals something important. At a moment when hospitals are retreating and families are being forced into crisis planning, Vermont lawmakers are putting forward a concrete framework to protect access to care rather than surrender it. For Vermonters who want to see their state take a clear stand, residents can find and contact their legislators through the Vermont General Assembly website to make clear where they stand on protecting transgender healthcare.

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Taking Joy In Ourselves

21 Inspiring Quotes from Transgender Activists

Supporting and learning from trans people is essential in fostering an inclusive and compassionate world. Members and allies of the trans community recognize the unique struggles and challenges that trans individuals currently face: discrimination, marginalization, and dangerous legislation.

By actively supporting and learning from trans activists and leaders, we can better understand these challenges and work together to create an environment where everyone is treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their gender identity.

We’ve compiled a list of impactful quotes from trans activists to foster understanding and appreciation for the trans community.

Please share and utilize these quotes to promote support for trans people and create a more inclusive, respectful, and supportive environment for everyone.

‍

Explore inspirational transgender quotes and captions — to help celebrate trans liberation & fight for trans rights

“I’ve never been interested in being invisible and erased.”
— Laverne Cox

“Trans people are extraordinary, strong, intelligent, persistent and resilient. We have to be. And we will not stand for the picking and choosing of rights. We still have hope.”
— Grace Dolan-Sandrino

“Despite the constant hatred we face as the LGBTQ+ community, we must stand united and strong in spreading our message of love.”
— Jazz Jennings, in a tweet

“I think trans women, and trans people in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms.
A lot of what feminism is about is moving outside of roles and moving outside of expectations of who and what you’re supposed to be to live a more authentic life.”
— Laverne Cox

“They can try to ban us. They can try to get rid of our health care. They can try to deny us housing, credit, and public accommodations. They can try to shame us. They can try all they want to erase us, but at some point, they will realize the trans community is never going away.
Trans people are everywhere.
Every country, every race, every ethnicity, every religion, every socioeconomic level, every period of human history — we are everywhere. We are natural. You can’t rid of what’s natural. I think they know that, and it terrifies them.”
— Charlotte Clymer

“I want to make a difference in the world by speaking out and spreading hopeful messages. I want to send the message of “you are not alone and you are safe” to other transgender kids.”
— Rebekah Bruesehoff

“I don’t know what I am if I’m not a woman.”
— Marsha P. Johnson

“We have to be visible. We are not ashamed of who we are.”
— Sylvia Rivera

“Being transgender is not just a medical transition. … [It’s about] discovering who you are, living your life authentically, loving yourself, and spreading that love towards other people and accepting one another.”
— Jazz Jennings

“We have to remain visible. They have to see us, they have to know that we’re not going [nowhere], that we’ve been here ever since God made man and woman, and they have to get over it.
I don’t need their permission to exist; I exist in spite of them. I want you to train and teach and love on and create families within my community and gender non-conforming people, so that we can understand that we have a culture, we have a history, we have a reason to be here.
We have a purpose.
We’re entitled to be loved, and seek happiness, and share that with the people that we care about.”
— Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Snip-There are a few more, and some graphics with the quotes that we can snag and share, too.

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/transgender-quotes

Some Words & Some Art For Today’s Shtuff

The Naked Pastor’s art has been posted here more than once. I receive newsletters since he got off Substack, (I think that’s how it happened? Or someone on Substack linked him.) Anyway, today’s newsletter is really nice to post with today’s news. I don’t have a link for the newsletter, so I’ll copy-paste it below. This is the link to his About page on his site. His site where all the art is!💖

Now here comes the letter. Many of the links go to his art pages, or authors’s Amazon pages, and he does sell his art to sustain his work (his work is not on Amazon, to be clear.) It doesn’t hurt to windowshop, but it’s perfectly fine to not click the links (except his About page!) I wanted to say something just in case going to a page might put someone off that this is all about advertising; it’s not. Again, here’s the newsletter! (And Bless The Badass is a fine piece of art!)

=====

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how deep some of our cultural assumptions run, especially the ones that have shaped how women are treated. Some of these ideas are so old, so embedded, we don’t even notice them. But they are still here, quietly shaping how we build our systems, our theology, our science, and even our car seats. Let me show you what I mean. 
Cartoon: Bless The Badass! 🙋‍♀️
Dad Joke: ‘Jod’ 😅
Quote: Violence against women 🚫
Original: All I Need is a Sliver of Light 🌙
Merch of the Week: Question Everything T ⁉️
 Cartoon of the Week
Bless the Badass! 
I bless the badass that you are! I am so inspired by so many women to be a badass myself! (BTW… several people have commissioned me to draw “Badass” for a loved one to make the person look like them.) 

Dad Joke
What if God just came down one day and said, “It’s pronounced ‘Jod’! and then left? 

Quote
From an expert criminologist on violence against women: “Statistically, we know now that once the hands are on the neck, the very next step is homicide… They don’t go backwards!” – Kate Manne, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. This next one is a fascinating book because it exposes just how thoroughly embedded is the patriarchy in our thoughts, attitudes, and treatment of women. “… if a woman became pregnant following her rape, it meant she had ultimately enjoyed herself.” – Eleanor Janega, The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society. 

Women Suffer
The above quote about a woman getting pregnant from her rape meant that she enjoyed it is based on the “two seed theory”. This theory, which lasted more than 2,000 years, taught that the man and the woman each contributed a seed when they both orgasmed, that these two seeds mixed, and that the dominant one determined the formation of the child. The only way a woman could get pregnant then was if she orgasmed. How condemning! I believe the residue of that bad theology and science is still deeply embedded in the patriarchal psyche. Janega’s research also reveals that whenever women began to succeed, men would attempt to put an end to it. For example, it was believed that embroidery was a woman’s task. But when women began to build successful businesses by embroidering clothing for the wealthy… that is developing a fashion industry… the men took over the businesses, and put the women to work as labourers. There are so many stories like that. Interestingly, though, all of this patriarchal maneuvering is rooted in philosophy, theology, and even science. It wasn’t just the ancient philosophers who proposed and espoused the two-seed theory, but theologians like Tertullian and Augustine, and scientists like Hippocrates. The assumption was that man was the gold standard of what it meant to be a person, and women were a spin-off of that ideal and therefore second-rate. This, of course, is rooted in the creation story of Adam and Eve. But once this assumption of supremacy is embedded in our thinking, then it determines every other thought that follows. I have a personal story. Lisa and I finally got a new car… something we’ve needed for a long time. It’s a Toyota Rav4. We need a reliable All Wheel Drive because Lisa often drives to work as a nurse before the plows clear the roads of snow. I want her to be safe and secure. We love it. Or, I should say, I love it, and Lisa isn’t so sure anymore. Why? Because she can’t get the driver’s seat comfortable. I was talking to a neighbour about her work car, also a Rav4, and she said she wouldn’t get one. Why? Because she can’t get the driver’s seat comfortable. I’ve heard of a few other women with the same complaint. I googled it, and it is a thing. This reminded me of another book I read by Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed For Men. As the title suggests, the book is filled with data illustrating how the world is designed by men for men. It’s not necessarily malicious. But when a car seat used to be designed, manufactured, and tested by men, women inevitably suffered. (Is this still going on?) This included seatbelts, especially for pregnant women. As well as little things like lower temperature settings in offices where men warmly wear suits or at least sleeves, while women are expected to bare their arms, upper chests, and legs. Like I said, it’s not necessarily malicious, but women suffer as a result. Just like science believed that women could only get pregnant if they orgasmed. It wasn’t necessarily malicious, but women suffered for centuries. This is why I think it is so important to question everything, including our most cherished assumptions, and to consider the consequences these assumptions have on those around us.

So my friend, if we want to build a more just, compassionate world, we have to be willing to ask hard questions about where our ideas come from and who they are leaving out. It is not just about our personal beliefs. It is about recognizing the ripple effects those beliefs have on others. Sometimes the harm was not intentional. But it is harmful nonetheless. I say, let’s ask more questions!!!

With love,

David

https://nakedpastor.com/pages/about

I’ve Come Out to my Alaskan Military Dad Seven Times. He Still Hasn’t Met My Husband

This is an important story of growth and rejection of your core identity.  The fact that those closest to you can not accept you and that which makes up who you are.  I have not changed the text of the story in any way as I want the voice of the author and his agony of his childhood to shine clearly.   This is the way the right wing Christian Nationalist bigots want every family member to be and all children raised.  Remember this was only the 1990s.  In the 30 years since great progress was made in acceptance, tolerance and education of  / about LGBTQ+ kids and how to raise them in loving acceptance of how they feel inside themselves.  The Christian hate groups that make their living trying to return the country to a much more regressive hateful time rolling back all rights gained by minorities.  And in a very short time they have had a huge effect on how LGBTQ+ people especially LGBTQ+ kids are treated.  They stated their goal of driving these kids back into hiding terrified of being outed for fear of being beaten, harassed, and ostracized.    That is what they want.   Several Christian lawmakers who are trying to make being an out LGBTQ+ kid illegal along with showing any media that represents the LGBTQ+ community have said that when they were kids in school they used to gang up and beat the shit out of LGBTQ+ kids.   I know in the 1970s I was not out but targeted as a “faggot” and constantly harassed and attacked.  How any adult would want to return to such a time, to having any kid or adult be treated that way is horrendous.  Especially from those trying hard to force the country to follow their idea of a Christian lifestyle.  Hugs

 

https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/ive-come-out-to-my-alaskan-military

At 30, I’m finally living as myself. But the man whose acceptance I wanted most still can’t say the word gay.

Jan 10, 2026

Content warning: This story includes mentions of homophobia, childhood trauma and suicidal ideation.

By CorBen Williams

The seventh time I came out to my father wasn’t dramatic. It didn’t happen at a kitchen table or in a parking lot or after he’d found one of my journals. It happened casually, slipped into a conversation like it was nothing:

“As a gay man—” I began.

“You’re not gay,” he interrupted.

“Dad,” I replied. “We’ve done this too many times before.”

Even now, at 30 years old, married to the man I love, fully myself in ways I once thought impossible, my dad still can’t say who I am out loud. It hangs there, suspended between us, as though acknowledging my homosexuality would unravel something he’s built his entire life around.

I’m not sure what exactly. Control? Image? Masculinity? Maybe he simply doesn’t have the language.

Photo courtesy of CorBen Williams.

I grew up in North Pole, Alaska, in a red-sided house at the end of a gravel turnaround. It was the kind of home where the winter light never quite reached the living room and silence carried through the walls like a second language.

North Pole felt like its own universe. A 2,500 person military town where there’s snow on the ground for up to 187 days a year and the Christmas lights never come down. About 70% of the town is white and roughly 30% of the voters are registered Republican, with almost half listed as “undeclared,” which in Alaska is usually just Republican without saying it out loud.

Most families were tied to the church or the base, so you learned fast what was considered normal and what was not. People knew your parents and your business.

Growing up Black and queer made me stand out without trying and forced me to learn early how to tuck parts of myself away.

My parents had both served in the military, and even though my mother had the warmth and softness to move past it, my father emulated parental rejection. Dad demanded respect and expected excellence in the way a man shaped by the military does: loud and without room for negotiation.

You could feel his energy before you heard his footsteps because there was always a tension that entered the room with him. He yelled more than he spoke, and as a kid I was told to listen to what he was saying, not how he was saying it, even when he was screaming in my face.