Category: LGBTQ+ / Gay / Trans / Gender

Utah GOP Bill: Ban Pride Flags, But Allow Nazi Flags

Utah GOP Bill: Ban Pride Flags, But Allow Nazi Flags

Sorry this is both old and I can’t remember if I already posted it.  But the GOP is not even trying to hide it anymore.   They are Nazi wannabees.  Hugs

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February 14, 2025 LGBT News, Republicans

 

The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

An ongoing fight in Utah to ban pride flags in schools entered new territory Thursday after Rep. Trevor Lee proposed new legislation to ban the flags not just in public schools, but in any government building or on any government property. The bill, HB0077, originally applied only to schools. But an update to the bill released ahead of Thursday’s House Education Committee hearing expands the ban to all government buildings or property.

Approved flags for display in government buildings and schools would include the Utah state and U.S. flags, military flags, flags for other countries, flags for Native American tribes and official flags for colleges and universities. The bill also allows for the flying of a “historic version of a flag … that is temporarily displayed for educational purposes,” which Lee, R-Layton, said would include the Confederate and Nazi flags.

Read the full article. In his floor speech, Lee said, “You may have a Nazi flag. You may have a Confederate flag, and so you are allowed to display those flags as part of the curriculum, and that is okay.” An attempt to ban Pride flags failed in 9-20 Utah Senate vote last year. As you’ll see in the video report below, Lee has a history. His X feed is mostly retweets of prominent cultists and extremists. He’s also attacking the “dumb” report linked above.

 

How do these people live with themselves

AGAIN: Massie Intros Bill To Abolish Dept Of Education

This is his third attempt. At this writing the bill has 33 cosponsors.

The party that claims to worship and act according to the constitution keep demanding they get to change it of things they don’t like!.  Hugs

Vaccine And STD Info Scrubbed From CDC, NIH Sites
Pentagon Ousts Mainstream Outlets From Press Office
https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/1885520289649348629
Musk Cronies Infiltrate Federal Technology Agency

NEW: Elon Musk's friends have infiltrated the GSA and they're looking for ways to use White House credentials to access agency tech, potentially allowing them to remote into laptops, read emails, and more, sources say.w/ @zoeschiffer.bsky.social http://www.wired.com/story/elon-m…

— makena kelly (@makenakelly.bsky.social) 2025-01-31T23:34:55.573Z
Trump Issues Order Blaming Biden Admin For Crash

It’s also the latest example of Trump trying to blame the Biden administration and Democrats on issues that arise during his term. Trump’s memo alleges that Biden’s administration “egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all agencies to implement dangerous ‘diversity equity and inclusion’ tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.”

Vance: Diversity “Puts Stresses” On Existing Employees
Park Service Axes “T” From Stonewall Monument Site

More clips from the Majority Report

Nearly One in 10 Americans Now Identify as LGBTQ+, Thanks to Bisexuals and Gen Z

https://www.them.us/story/gallup-lgbtq-population-nine-percent-increase-united-states

The percentage of U.S. adults who identify as LGBTQ+ has nearly doubled since 2020 alone.
By Mathew Rodriguez
Image may contain Adult Person Body Part Hand Holding Hands and Parade
Getty Images

Nearly one in 10 Americans now identify as LGBTQ+, according to Gallup — almost double the percentage recorded just four years ago.

 

In 2020, 5.6% percent of U.S. adults identified as LGBTQ+ on the Gallup survey, and today, 9.3% of adults in the U.S. identify as part of the community. That number represents a one-point bump from just a year ago, and a staggering increase from the 3.5% first registered in Gallup’s inaugural 2012 poll measuring the size of the LGBTQ+ community. The rise in Americans openly identifying as LGBTQ+ is largely due to an uptick in people who identify as bisexual, especially among Generation Z, according to Gallup’s breakdowns of the data.

More than one in five Gen Z adults (23.1%) now identify as LGBTQ+, per Gallup, followed by about 14% of millennials. Older generations, including Gen X, Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation, all identify as LGBTQ+ at rates of 5% or below, tapering off to only 1.8% for those born in or before 1945.

Of the 900 people surveyed who identified as LGBTQ+, more than half — 56% — indicated that they were bisexual. In fact, more than half of both Gen Z (59%) and millennial (52%) queer people identified as bisexual. These numbers are consistent with past polling that has shown that bisexual people are an “invisible majority” within the queer community.

 

The percentage of trans U.S. adults has also increased when compared with the survey’s 2024 results. In last year’s poll, fewer than one percent (0.9%) of American adults identified as trans, while this year, 1.3% of respondents self-identified as such. Likewise, last year, 11.8% of the LGBTQ+ population identified as trans, while this year that percentage was recorded at approximately 14%.

The poll notes that LGBTQ+ identification has a strong correlation with being a woman, being politically liberal, and living in an urban area. For example, 21% of liberals, compared to 3% of conservatives, identified as queer or trans, while, overall, 10% of women identify as part of the community compared to 6% of men.

Gallup based its results on interviews with more than 14,000 U.S. adults. Respondents were asked to identify as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or something else, and are allowed to indicate multiple identities when responding.

 

As the percentage of Americans who identify as LGBTQ+ rises, the statistic inches closer to a famous and controversial claim based on the work of human sexuality researcher Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s. Kinsey estimated that about one in 10 Americans were predominantly homosexual — a figure that was colloquially flattened over the years to become the oft-repeated claim that 10% of the population is gay. Kinsey, however, did not believe identity was easily fixed or categorized and often, instead, spoke about behaviors. For example, through surveys and interviews conducted with thousands ordinary Americans, Kinsey estimated that more than a third of men had a same-sex sexual experience in their lives, while at least one in five women had had the same.

The results of Gallup’s poll suggests a population increasingly likely to be at odds with the Trump administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies, which include a January executive order making it the official position of the U.S. government that there are only two genders defined at birth. That memo is part of a recent conservative efforts to deny and regulate the existence of trans people nationwide. In 2024, a record number of bills aimed at limiting trans freedoms, including access to gender-affirming health care, were introduced in state legislatures.

Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them’s weekly newsletter here.

 
 
Mathew Rodriguez is the former senior news editor at Them. In the past, he has been a senior culture editor at The Atlantic, as well as a staff writer at Out Magazine, INTO, and Mic. His writing has been featured in Slate, Teen Vogue, The Village Voice, MEL Magazine, and more. He … Read more
 

It Is Here.

(Also you are beautiful, and you should never stop existing. -A)

Hunter Schafer on why she spoke out about being issued a male passport

By  KRYSTA FAURIA Updated 7:34 PM CST, February 23, 2025

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Hunter Schafer says “it’s important to just keep track of where things are in our country,” a day after the “Euphoria” star posted a video in which she revealed her new passport had been issued with a male gender marker.

Speaking to The Associated Press on the red carpet at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, the 26-year-old actor, who is trans, said she felt “it was a good, necessary point” to share. Schafer, also a presenter at the award show, was nominated for best lead performance for “Cuckoo. ”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office instituting a new and narrow federal government definition of the sexes. As part of the order, the federal government defines sex as only male or female and says that must be reflected on official documents, like passports. The State Department, responsible for passports, is no longer issuing passports with the “X” marker that’s been available since 2021 and is not honoring requests to change gender markers between “M” and “F.”

In an 8 ½-minute video posted to TikTok on Friday, Schafer, who transitioned as a young teen, said the passport that was meant to carry her well into her 30s was stolen while she was filming in Spain. After receiving an emergency passport, she later had to apply for a new, permanent one in Los Angeles. Having had female gender markers on her license and passport since she was a teenager, Schafer marked “female” on her application — but received a passport that identified her as male, she said. In the video, she said she had not had her birth certificate amended.

Schafer acknowledged the executive order in her TikTok video: “Because our president, you know, is a lot of talk, I was like, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’ And, today, I saw it,” Schafer said, holding up her new passport page with the “M” marker. She said she was making the video not to “fearmonger or like create drama or receive consolation,” but to note the reality of the situation.

“I wasn’t even really looking for support, but I have an amazing community around me and it’s one of the greatest blessings of my life and so I felt very supported throughout, before and then now,” she told the AP on Saturday.

The State Department said in response to a request for comment that it was implementing Trump’s executive order but declined to comment on specific cases, citing privacy laws and restrictions.

“It doesn’t really change anything about me or my transness. However, it does make my life a little harder,” Schafer said in the video, saying she has to travel for the first time with the new passport next week.

“Trans people are beautiful. We are never going to stop existing. I’m never going to stop being trans. A letter and a passport can’t change that,” she concluded.

Associated Press journalist Andrew Dalton contributed reporting.

Some great clips, some long from the Majority Report.

Heh, heh!

More of this, Please

More Ugly News From Kansas

Kansas House embraces bill on religious, moral liberty within state’s foster care program

Snippet (it’s not too long to go read):

An amendment from Rep. Susan Ruiz, a Shawnee Democrat, to modify the bill’s language so best interests of a child in foster or adoptive care remained the top priority at DCF was rejected by the House. She said the amendment was necessary because the bill was drafted in a way that could force a subsection of children in Kansas to endure more trauma.

“You have to remember why children come into the system in the first place,” Ruiz said. “They come into the system because of abuse and neglect, and it comes in so many forms.”

Ruiz told House colleagues that Kansas youth were physically beaten and emotionally traumatized by parents and church leaders who wanted children to adhere to a certain sexual orientation or gender identity. Some kids were expected to “pray away the gay,” she said.

Others were compelled to undergo so-called conversion therapy, she said. It has little basis in science, but proposes to erase a person’s gender identity or sexuality — usually to conform to ideals of other people.

“This bill opens up the door to one of the most horrible forms of therapy that any human being can be exposed to,” Ruiz said. (Snip-MORE)

Americans aren’t happy with the country’s treatment of queer folks, says new survey

https://www.intomore.com/impact/politics/americans-arent-happy-with-the-countrys-treatment-of-queer-folks-says-new-survey/

It is nice to know that despite the religious right hate media which includes Fox Entertainment, that people are not buying the current demonization of the LGBTQ+ community.  But if we don’t get loud and vocal and our democratic leaders don’t develop a spine and support the LGBTQ+ community our acceptance levels will keep sinking.   Hugs

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By Jude Cramer

 

February 6, 2025

It’s no secret that queer rights are on a backslide in the United States — and American citizens aren’t happy.

In an annual survey by Gallup conducted just before Donald Trump took office, Americans were asked about their satisfaction with various aspects of the country’s culture and politics. That included “the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in the nation,” which only 51% of respondents said they were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with. That’s the lowest satisfaction rating in that area since 2013, and an 8 percentage point drop from 2017 at the start of Trump’s first term.

Respondents were also asked about their satisfaction with “the acceptance of transgender people in the nation.” To that, only 38% of respondents said they were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied.”

Notably, the satisfaction varied by political party. Republicans reported that they were largely satisfied with the country’s treatment of gays and lesbians (55%) while Democrats reported dissatisfaction (44%). Both parties expressed dissatisfaction with America’s treatment of transgender people (though potentially for different reasons), with only 42% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats satisfied.

Beyond queer issues, Americans’ overall satisfaction is sitting at 38%, a record low that’s been maintained since 2022. 

Meanwhile, Trump continues his crusade against queer people and specifically trans folks. That’s included signing executive orders banning trans women from sports, making gender-affirming care illegal for people under 19 years old, and erasing trans and nonbinary people from the government’s definition of sex.

 

Christian fundamentalist group storm Pride event in New Zealand

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/02/17/auckland-pride-event-disrupted-by-christian-group/

Ah no love like Christian love!  Every time these loving Christian gang thugs break the laws to stop legal expression they don’t agree with because they demand everyone follow their church doctrine.   The complete arrogance of these gang thugs who believe their religious views give them the right to disregard any laws they want while threatening families and terrorizing little kids.   Sure a good way to make Christian recruits and spread the love of god screaming at little kids who want a story from a person in a costume.  This is not protecting children nor evangelizing, their is terrorism and out of control hate.  If anyone has an update to theis story please share it with us. Best wishes or Hugs

The event, which was taking place as part of Auckland’s annual Pride festival, was cancelled after 50 protestors pushed their way through the library and refused to leave.

Around 30 toddlers, young children and adults were forced to barricade themselves inside the library as the protestors continued, according to local outlets.

During the commotion, a 16-year-old girl attending a sports event alleges she was assaulted by Destiny Church members, suffering a concussion.

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Members of Destiny Church in Auckland.

Members of Destiny Church in Auckland. (YouTube)

Police are investigating allegations of assault after anti-drag protestors stormed a family-friend drag event in Auckland, New Zealand.

Protestors linked to Christian fundamentalist group Destiny Church stormed the Te Atatū in Auckland on Saturday (15 February), where a storytime event for children hosted by a drag king was taking place.

The event, which was taking place as part of Auckland’s annual Pride festival, was cancelled after 50 protestors pushed their way through the library and refused to leave.

Around 30 toddlers, young children and adults were forced to barricade themselves inside the library as the protestors continued, according to local outlets.

During the commotion, a 16-year-old girl attending a sports event alleges she was assaulted by Destiny Church members, suffering a concussion.

Destiny Church members storming the library in Auckland.
Destiny Church members storming the library in Auckland. (YouTube)

Auckland Police said it is investigating allegations of assault over the protest, which it said “crossed a line.”

“The group’s actions caused considerable distress and concern among tamariki [children], library staff and visitors,” Inspector Simon Walker, acting Waitematā district commander, said. “nobody, especially children, should ever be made to feel unsafe.”

Walker encouraged anyone subjected to violent behaviour during the protest to make a report at their nearest Police station, or contact officials online at 105.police.govt.nz.

“Police and Auckland Council have worked closely around the pride celebrations, and this work will continue. We live in a diverse city in a diverse country, and that is worth celebrating.”

No arrests have been made at the time of reporting, though Walker added that enquiries are “in the early stages.”