This is the goal of the fundamentalist right wing maga Christians racists bigots. It is not about protecting kids. It is about returning to a 1950s social public morality and enforced gender roles. It is about rolling back all social advances gained since the civil rights era. It is entirely about wiping minority rights away and pushing the LGBTQ+ back into the closet while making them afraid to come out openly into society. It is about returning to a time of white straight Christian superiority and automatic assumed authority, with subservient women to do their bidding. So now that this very vocal aggressive arrogant violent minority that feels laws and polite society norms don’t apply to them feels as they have the right to make the entire population follow their religiously driven views from a book written 2,500 years ago. Hugs
“Matt [Walsh] made this point, he articulated it directly, but this has been the point that has been building for months now, which is we need to make that symbol toxic, the pride flag symbol, we need to make that toxic.
“We need to have companies think twice about it. Everyone was talking about the Dylan Mulvaney incident as being harmful to the Bud Light brand. That’s true.
“But more importantly, it was harmful to the Dylan Mulvaney brand. Now, other companies are going to think twice before sponsoring Dylan Mulvaney because they don’t want to lose $6 billion in market cap in two days. That’s what we got to do.
“And then once we make these things culturally toxic or as we’re making these symbols culturally toxic, we’ve got to bring in the cavalry, we’ve got to come back in with more political force to ban some of this stuff and to say no.” – Daily Wire host Michael Knowles.
Knowles appeared here last week when he declared that millennials should not have the right to vote.
Last month Knowles appeared here when he declared that the bible instructs us to burn books. Knowles, who has called for televising executions, previously declared that banning drag shows and burning books is “very American.”
Earlier this year Knowles declared from the CPAC stage that “transgenderism must be eradicated.”
Knowles performed in a gay sex scene for a college film.
I just found an old short film that Michael Knowles acted in.
The current headliner of conservative homophobia and transphobia played a gay twink. So much for restoring "traditional masculinity" 💀 pic.twitter.com/sC8fcoQ3HC
That’s exactly where this is going. Does anyone think that a company that caves to homophobic and transphobic terrorists won’t do the same when it’s antisemites calling in bomb threats?
Can’t stop thinking about the highway construction blinky sign in Florida with KILL ALL GAYS flashing away. I’m looking forward to my death because I’m so fucking tired of having to live with people like that on this earth.
It’s amazing how people fail to realize how quickly a tolerant society can become an oppressive one when you have a disciplined and determined far-right movement that will stop at nothing to win.
Pride parades need to change. They need to be more political and less celebratory. We are in the middle of a right wing assault on our very existence. We need to make pride more like the silence=death activity in the ’80s and ’90s.
It’s not enough that they’re trying to ban drag and trans healthcare – now they’re going after corporations that support LGBT people to try and bully them into turning their backs on us. Today, it’s Bud Light hiring a trans spokesperson and Target selling Pride gear. Tomorrow, it’s any company that says or does anything to support us or offers benefits for same-sex spouses of employees.
Something tells me that sooner rather than later, all those people who complain about Pride becoming too corporate are going to miss the days before corporations stopped having floats at Pride for fear of terrorism and boycotts.
…and how many of those who complain about corporations, etc .. actually work for corporations?
A lot of the corporate donations / flags / pride months came *because* the corportate suite realized how many lgbtq’s etc they employed when those employees became vocal — started lgbt work groups, awareness campaigns, etc … it comes from within, and from without, too ..
A transgender high school student in Mississippi missed her graduation ceremony after a federal judge denied her request to wear a dress and heels. The student, who has not been identified, had been planning to wear a dress and heels under her graduation gown in accordance with the school’s dress code for female students. However, the school’s principal told her that she would not be allowed to wear the dress and heels, citing the school’s dress code policy.
The student’s family filed a lawsuit against the school, arguing that the dress code policy was discriminatory. However, a federal judge denied the family’s request for an injunction, allowing the school to enforce its dress code policy. As a result, the student missed her graduation ceremony.
The student’s case has drawn attention to the issue of transgender rights in schools. Transgender students are often subjected to discrimination in schools, including being denied the right to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. The student’s case is a reminder that transgender students still face significant challenges in schools, and that more needs to be done to protect their rights.
Republicans claimed that drag shows should be off limits to kids because of sexual content and it’s sexualizing the children. Protect the children, they cried. Even though there was no sexual content at family friendly drag shows. None! Now they are outlawing drag queen story hours, which is mostly men dressed up in flamboyant costumes including dresses or “female” clothing. Have you seen the pictures? I have, I have posted some, there is nothing sexual about them. They are in public places with the parents / other adults present. But the goal as I have long said is to outlaw men dressing in female clothing so they can outlaw trans women. Recently a cis woman was not allowed to walk on stage during her graduation because she was wearing pants, the people in charge demanded she put on a dress to be part of the graduation. It was OK for boys to wear pants, so why not the girls? Because it doesn’t fit with their strict 1950s gender roles that these fundamentalist Christian conservatives are trying hard to force the nation back to. Look at the other bills mentioned, like legally making sex mean male or female in state law. Kansas and Tennessee have similar laws set to take effect on July 1 that LGBTQ+ allies argue will deny legal recognition to nonbinary and transgender people and prevent them from changing the sex on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses. Montana’s law would take effect on Oct. 1. That is what they are demanding, to be the US moral police Christian Taliban. To roll back all the social progress and acceptance of civil rights since the 1950s.
Unlike some of his older peers in the Montana House, Mitchell comes from a hard-right youth movement. In 2018, he organized pro-gun marches in opposition to some of his classmates’ “March for Our Lives” demonstrations. He joined Turning Point USA, a well-funded student club, and went on to become an ambassador for the group.
After Donald Trump disputed his 2020 election loss, Mitchell used Twitter to amplify a call for members of Congress to reject electors “from disputed states.”
He also tweeted a picture and video of the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys at the pro-Trump “Million MAGA March,” a Nov. 14 demonstration. During Mitchell’s campaign, screenshots circulated of him allegedly tweeting an anti-gay slur.
ByAmy Beth Hansonyesterday
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Scenes from a drag show at the state capitol held in protest to a slate of bills aimed at how trans Montanans live on Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Helena, Mont. Montana has become the first state to specifically ban people dressed in drag from reading books to children at public schools and libraries. The law took effect immediately after Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill on Monday, May 22, 2023. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP)
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana has become the first state to specifically ban people dressed in drag from reading books to children at public schools and libraries, part of a host of legislation aimed at the rights the LGBTQ+ community in Montana and other states.
Bills in Florida and Tennessee also appear to try to ban drag reading events, but both require the performances to be sexual in nature, which could be up for interpretation. Both bills also face legal challenges.
Montana’s law is unique because — while it defines such an event as one hosted by a drag king or drag queen who reads children’s books to minor children — it does not require a sexual element to be banned.
That makes Montana’s law the first to specifically ban drag reading events, said Sasha Buchert, an attorney with Lambda Legal, a national organization that seeks to protect the civil rights of the LGBTQ+ community and those diagnosed with HIV and AIDS.
“It’s just constitutionally suspect on all levels,” Buchert said Tuesday, arguing the bill limits free speech and seeks to chill an effort that helps transgender youth know they are not alone.
The bill, which was co-sponsored by more than half of the Republican-controlled legislature, took immediate effect after Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed it on Monday.
Gianforte signed the bill because he “believes it’s wildly inappropriate for little kids, especially preschoolers and kids in elementary school, to be exposed to sexualized content,” spokesperson Kaitlin Price said in a statement.
The bill initially sought to ban minors from attending drag performances, which were defined as shows that tended to “excite lustful thoughts.” The legislation was later amended to ban minors from attending sexually oriented or obscene performances on public property.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Braxton Mitchell, said he sponsored the bill “because drag shows in recent years have been specifically aimed at children,” and spoke of online videos that show children at drag shows.
“In my humble opinion, there’s no such thing as a family-friendly drag show,” Mitchell said in April.
Drag performers who opposed the legislation said they have separate drag performances for children compared to those intended for adults.
It’s not clear how often such drag reading events have been held at public schools or libraries in Montana. Drag reading events were held in 2022 at ZooMontana in Billings and at a bookstore in downtown Helena. Both events drew protests, but neither would be banned under the new law. Another event held at a Bozeman bookstore last weekend also drew protesters.
A Montana drag performer with The Mister Sisters in Great Falls, whose stage name is Julie Yard, helps organize drag reading events and says she has never been asked to coordinate one in any school — public or otherwise. Between 6 to 10 events are scheduled throughout the state in the coming months.
“Usually the requests for drag story hours happen a lot through the summer,” Yard said. “They typically tend to coincide with Pride celebrations.”
Planning such events in the current political climate also involves developing a safety plan and working with local law enforcement in case protesters show up.
The drag reading events will continue despite the protests, which Yard says helps prove that they are needed.
“For us, it’s again just doubling down and making sure that we are sending a message out there to anyone, but especially kids who are vulnerable, that there is a place for them, there is a community for them, and that there are folks out there who are interested in making sure that they are accepted and feel safe.”
Tennessee’s bill to restrict drag performances in public spaces or in the presence of children was temporarily blocked in March by a federal judge who sided with a group that filed a lawsuit claiming the statute violates their First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker said the state failed to make a compelling argument as to why Tennessee needed the law, and agreed that it was likely vague and overly broad.
A drag show restaurant has filed a challenge against Florida’s ban, saying the law deprives the restaurant of its First Amendment rights to free expression. The restaurant had held “family friendly” drag shows on Sundays, but the law required them to ban children from the shows. Gov. Ron DeSantis also signed bills this week to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors and restrict the discussion of personal pronouns in school.
Gianforte signed a bill this year to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors in Montana during a legislative session in which transgender lawmaker Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr was expelled from the House floor following a protest against Republican lawmakers who had silenced her over her opposition to the care bill.
Last week, he signed a bill to define the word “sex” in state law to mean only male or female. Kansas and Tennessee have similar laws set to take effect on July 1 that LGBTQ+ allies argue will deny legal recognition to nonbinary and transgender people and prevent them from changing the sex on their birth certificates and driver’s licenses. Montana’s law would take effect on Oct. 1.
A controversial six-week abortion ban bill is headed to South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk to be signed into law after the measure cleared the state Senate Tuesday. The state Senate approved a House-amended version of the bill by a vote of 27-19, after that chamber passed it last week.
A bipartisan group of five women lawmakers in the state Senate banded together to try to stop the bill from passing Tuesday. Republican state Sen. Katrina Shealy, before she voted no, attempted to push through an amendment to change the limit on abortions to 12 weeks, and 20 weeks for victims of rape and incest.
“Men are 100% responsible for pregnancies,” said Shealy, as she introduced her amendment. “Men are fertile 100% of the time. So, it is time for men in this chamber and the ones across that hall and all across the state of South Carolina to take some ejaculation responsibility.”
“It’s time for men in this chamber and the ones across that hall and all across the state of South Carolina, to take some ejaculation responsibility,” South Carolina Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, says in her remarks. pic.twitter.com/5o0x4CZFAS
— Maayan Schechter (@MaayanSchechter) May 23, 2023
The bill passed despite protest from the Senate's five women. “We in the South Carolina Legislature are not God. We do not know what’s going on in somebody else’s life. We do not have the right to make decisions for someone else," Sen. Katrina Shealy said.https://t.co/GnOxZpnLBW
If you’re a man, who isn’t a physician, you likely know diddly about women’s reproductive system. Women have ALWAYS carried the total responsibility of contraception, pregnancy and all that goes with it, yet it is primarily men making these arbitrary laws governing what women can and cannot do with our bodies, while they accept zero responsibility for the circumstance. All I have to say is, straight men better pray to their Jesus that women never rule because when it happens vasectomy, at the request of the woman, will become LAW. SNIP, SNIP mother Fuckers. Sorry boys, no ill will towards y’all. 😂
If they are going to pass laws prohibiting abortion, I have no problems with a law that requires vasectomy for all men over the age of 16. You can reverse it only upon proof of marriage, and a signed statement from your wife that you are ready and able to raise children. You will have to prove you have the income or assets to provide for your children, and the mental stability etc just like people have to prove for adoption. This will have the added benefit insuring that children have real parents.
Men never understand how difficult and dangerous contraceptive medications are for women. The pills are difficult to manage and are not 100% effective. They also pose risks of breast and uterine cancer and the devices pose risks of infection, sterilization and tubal pregnancy. Women’s choices for contraception all carry significant risks, including invasive surgical procedures. For men a vasectomy is a fast, in office procedure, with minimal risk and usually reversible. But, men don’t want to be bothered or have their potency jeopardized, it’s preferable to let women take 100% of the risk.
I’m reminded of how many forced birthers apparently believe women get pregnant all by themselves.
And as a side note, I still remember the forced birther people who lambast women for having sex at all eagerly kissing Roy Moore’s ass and claimed his creepy predator behavior was biblical and shit.
Well she definitely has addressed the unmentionable other half of the problem We always point the finger and point AT the pregnancy but never HOW the pregnancy began Oh no the male is always a silent champ
I’m imagining abortion bans leading to a new trend of paternity lawsuits, child support judgments and pissed off dudes. And maybe that’s the only path back to sanity.
Great dogs that love gravy. This is purely pushing their Christian religion and they admit it by refusing to prohibit proselytizing to vulnerable kids. Think if you were a parent of a different faith or no faith? Ask why it is only Christian chaplains allowed in the bill? Why do the religious leaders need no qualifications, but everyone else does? This is simply the end run of the Christian nationalist to make every school a Christian school, forcing their faith on every child possible with the backing of the force of law. You know that Christians wouldn’t tolerate it if a different faith was allowed to do this. You know this is because they can not stand secular proven fact driven studies in schools, which they have been trying to overthrow since evolution began to be taught. This is outright religious indoctrination and attempting to force themselves on to every family that has a child in PUBLIC schools. Again this is not about religious schools, but public schools where kids of families of different faiths and no faith go. As I am preparing this post I am listening to a video of a trans girl who went to school all her Jr / Sr high school years as a girl accepted by all the students. She was prevented from going to her graduation unless she dressed like a boy. She refused, and a trump appointed judge backed up the school. So this girl missed her graduation and another cis girl was told to change out of pants and wear a dress or she couldn’t walk on stage during graduation to get her diploma. Think on that people, the second girl couldn’t wear pants. 1950s stereotypes here we come. Hugs.
Speaking to state lawmakers last month, Rocky Malloy argued that putting unlicensed religious chaplains in schools could prevent youth violence, teen suicide and teacher burnout. And he rejected concerns that school chaplains might use their access to recruit kids to Christ.
Chaplains “are not working to convert people to religion,” Malloy, the head of the National School Chaplain Association, told the Senate Committee on Education. “Chaplains have no other agenda other than to be present in relationships, care for individuals and to make sure everybody on campus is seen and heard.”
What Malloy didn’t mention was that, for decades, he has led another group that promotes school chaplains as a tool for evangelism. Malloy is the founder of Mission Generation, which had been open about its desire to proselytize in schools.
The Texas Legislature has passed a bill that would allow schools to employ chaplains in addition to school counselors, with Republicans overriding objections by Democrats to send the proposal to the governor’s desk.
The bill will permit school districts to hire chaplains who, unlike school counselors, are not required to be certified by the State Board for Educator Certification. A version of the bill already sailed through the state Senate last month.
“I worry that this bill will lead to Christian nationalists infiltrating our public schools and indoctrinating our students,” Democratic Rep. James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, told Religion News Service. The chief sponsor of the bill in the House, Rep. Cole Hefner, refused to amend the bill to bar proselytizing,
A key supporter of a push to allow unlicensed chaplains to be placed in schools has rejected concerns that they might use their access to recruit kids to Christ.
But for decades he’s led a group that promotes school chaplains as a tool for evangelism.https://t.co/9Yd6WF3qn9
Recruiting children to their brand of snake oil — grooming, if you will — is the whole bleeding point of this law. Republicans would not be pushing it if they could not use it to indoctrinate kids.
“…chaplains who, unlike school counselors, are not required to be certified by the State Board for Educator Certification”
I’m guessing these “chaplains” also get to sneak into the schools without a criminal records check? And given this is happening in a neo-confederate red state, I’m guessing that, if not now then certainly later on, they will be empowered to take disciplinary action against LGBT+ kids without regard for the school’s regular processes?
They don’t give AF about keeping kids safe. The ONLY reason they want chaplains in schools is so they can be groomed and indoctrinated into their KKKristian cult.
I originally posted this from The Washington Post but I understand many couldn’t read it. I will add the original post here because Frank had a great comment on it. But I want everyone to realize the heartbreak of this family, the expenses they were forced to incur, and the risk to the woman’s life who had a child already who could have lost his mother, all due to some republicans on the right demanding to make the medical decisions for this woman and her family. They were forced to give birth to a child who couldn’t live risking the woman’s life, give that child a name, and then under law bury that child with all the emotions / exspeces that goes along with all of that. I cried reading this the first time, and I cried hard reading it the second time. I wonder if the radical fundmentlist religous right that forces this cry at all when they read it? Out of respect I wont color any of it as all of it is serious and important Hugs.
Frances Stead Sellers,Thomas Simonetti and Maggie Penman, (c) 2023, The Washington Post
·9 min read
Nobody expected Baby Milo to live for long.
He arrived in the world with no kidneys, underdeveloped lungs and a life expectancy of between 20 minutes and a couple of hours.
He lived for 99 minutes.
Milo Evan Dorbert drew his first and last breath on the evening of March 3. The unusual complications in his mother’s pregnancy tested the interpretation of Florida’s new abortion law.
Deborah Dorbert discovered she was pregnant in August. Her early appointments suggested the baby was thriving, and she looked forward to welcoming a fourth member to the family. It didn’t occur to her that fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a half-century constitutional right to abortion would affect them.
A routine ultrasound halfway through her pregnancy changed all that.
Deborah and her husband, Lee, learned in late November that their baby had Potter syndrome, a rare and lethal condition that plunged them into an unsettled legal landscape.
The state’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks of gestation has an exception for fatal fetal abnormalities. But as long as their baby’s heart kept beating, the Dorberts say, doctors would not honor their request to terminate the pregnancy. The doctors would not say how they reached their decision, but the new law carries severe penalties, including prison time, for medical practitioners who run afoul of it. The hospital system declined to discuss the case.
Instead, the Dorberts would have to wait for labor to be induced at 37 weeks.
For the next three months, the Dorberts did their best to prepare for their second son’s short life. They consulted with palliative care experts and decided against trying to prolong his life with high-tech interventions.
“The most important thing for us was to let him know he was loved,” Deborah said.
The day before Milo was born, the Dorberts sat down with their son Kaiden to explain that the baby’s body had stopped working and that he would not come home. Instead, some day, they told Kaiden, they would all meet as angels. The 4-year-old burst into tears, telling them that he did not want to be an angel.
Without functioning kidneys, a fetus with Potter syndrome cannot produce the amniotic fluid that allows the lungs to expand and that cushions the growing body. The babies who survive until birth typically have contracted limbs, club feet and flattened features from being compressed against the uterus wall.
But after Deborah’s 12-hour labor, Milo turned out to be 4 pounds and 12 ounces of perfection, with tiny, flawlessly formed hands and feet and a head of brown hair.
– – –
“When he came out you could hear him gasping for air. He was really trying to breathe. … He didn’t cry when he was born and he didn’t open his eyes at all. But I mean, he struggled.” – Deborah Dorbert
– – –
“I thought I had my miracle,” said Peter Rogell, the baby’s grandfather, who attended the delivery. He allowed himself a moment of hope until the obstetrician cut the umbilical cord that for 37 weeks had performed the functions Milo’s underdeveloped lungs and missing kidneys would now take over.
– – –
“When they pulled the baby out I thought my miracle happened. ‘Cause he looked perfect to me.” – Peter Rogell
– – –
Milo remained blue, swaddled in a blanket hand-knit by his great grandmother.
He never cried or tried to nurse or even opened his eyes, investing every ounce of energy in intermittent gasps for air.
“That was the beginning of the end,” Rogell said, recalling the persistent gulps that he thought at first were hiccups but turned out to be his grandson’s labored efforts to inhale.
Lee read a book to his dying son – “I’ll Love You Forever,” a family favorite that the Dorberts had given Kaiden for Valentine’s Day – and sang Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”
For 99 minutes that lasted a lifetime, they cuddled and comforted their newborn.
– – –
“The baby just went to my chest, and we just cuddled with him. … My parents held him for a little bit. And we kinda just gave him all the loving until he passed.” – Deborah Dorbert
– – –
At 11:13 p.m., a doctor declared Milo dead.
The nurses took some photos, clipped a few pieces of Milo’s dark brown hair and made imprints of his hands and feet on the inside cover of Kaiden’s book before taking the infant down to the morgue. Milo’s organs were either missing or too damaged to be donated; his body was so small that even his heart valve could not be used to save another baby.
Milo would be cremated, with some of his ashes embedded in a pendant for Kaiden and two spherical glass ornaments.
Deborah feared that mementos would serve as reminders of her pain.
But gradually, she realized she might want something to hold onto, or as a teaching tool for Kaiden.
“Down the road he might have questions,” she said, imagining how she might pull out an object to help explain “what I went through, how the laws dictated this.”
Two weeks later, about 40 of the Dorberts’ friends and family members gathered at Lakeland Funeral Home and Memorial Gardens for a service.
A three-inch-tall silver urn – delivered by Amazon the previous day after other child-sized urns turned out to be too big – sat on a memorial table with two vases of flowers, carefully picked out at a nearby Publix supermarket, and a photo of Milo, wrapped in the hand-knit blanket and held by his parents in the hospital bed.
Deborah and Lee sat rock still and silent in the front row as Milo’s aunts and uncles and several cousins walked in and took their seats. Her usually free-flowing hair was pulled back from her face and held in a bun.
The service, which mixed Christian gospels and the Lord’s Prayer with “Three Little Birds,” lasted about 45 minutes – half as long as Milo’s life.
The pastor from a local Lutheran church had a message for the congregation. “Not everything happens for a reason,” she said, echoing Deborah’s own rejection that the manner of Milo’s birth and death carried some special spiritual significance.
– – –
“Milo. Milo. For such a little love, he leaves a giant hole in our soul and in our hearts. And nobody – nothing else – can completely fill that hole.” – The Rev. Pamela Smith
– – –
Deborah occasionally stifled sobs or turned to quiet Kaiden, until she could contain her feelings no longer, and Lee reached over to embrace her slender shaking frame.
Rogell lingered at the funeral home after others left, staring at the urn that contained his 16th grandchild’s ashes and trying to reconcile his own misgivings about elective abortion with the months of suffering he watched his daughter and her family endure.
Now, he was haunted by the sound of Milo gasping for air and the sight of his body struggling to ward off a death that had been inevitable for three long months.
“To me it’s just pure torture,” Rogell said. “The law has created torture.”
In many ways, the routines of daily life returned swiftly after Milo died.
Deborah shuttles Kaiden back and forth to preschool. The Dorberts take occasional outings to the aquarium or hike the trails near their house. They visit family.
Deborah held her brother’s baby girl, born a few days after Milo – the products of pregnancies that had followed parallel paths until Thanksgiving.
“I’m happy for my brother. He has a precious baby girl that brings so much happiness to his family, and that makes me happy,” she said. “Is it hard to see her because my son’s not here? Absolutely.”
Deborah says she is wrestling with anxiety and depression. She hasn’t returned to her part-time job filling Instacart orders. And she still hasn’t figured out how to respond to Kaiden, when he asks whether he can see his baby brother.
“We tell him he’s something he feels, like the wind. Or we point up to the stars and say he’s an angel with the stars,” she said. “We’re still kind of navigating that question, for him to understand.”
Kaiden brought a card home from preschool for Mother’s Day. It showed a family of four purple stick figures with bulging torsos – Mommy, Daddy, Kaiden and Baby Milo.
Deborah said her grief is complicated by ongoing anger that her decision to terminate her pregnancy early was thwarted by politicians she has never met and who are not experts about obstetrics.
The mail brings reminders of the Dorberts’ new financial burdens, invoices for all the things they wish had never happened: $12,320 so far in medical costs – not including induction and delivery, $7,000 for Milo’s cremation and funeral, and $500 for the keepsakes in memory of their son.
The bills keep coming. Deborah estimates that Lee’s health insurance will pick up about half of the medical costs, some of which will be offset by a GoFundMe appeal that one of her sisters set up.
The Dorberts have no idea how their grief will evolve, or if they will ever come to terms with losing control over the most painful decision of their lives.
“It’s really becoming our reality now,” Deborah said. “We don’t know what six months is going to look like. We don’t know what a year looks like. We’re just kind of taking it one day at a time. Because that’s all we really can handle, is just taking it one day at a time.”
– – –
“If people want to really know how I’m doing, I’m not doing okay.” – Deborah Dorbert
– – –
In the midst of that uncertainty, Deborah has endeavored to find some purpose in Milo’s short life, sharing the story of her pregnancy as broadly as she can, even as she has watched Florida legislators move to restrict state laws around abortion even further.
It surprises family members to see Deborah take such a public stance.
“I always thought of her as my shy child,” Rogell said.
But Deborah wants other people to know what happened, how politicians intervened in decisions about medical care with a law that made doctors fearful of terminating even hopeless pregnancies.
“If it helps another family or a mom, then good came of it because we’re all here to help one another,” Deborah said. “It’s not something easy to go through alone. You need all the support you can get.”
I want to point out that DeathSantis like all republicans when it comes to social medical matters lies about it. At one point, he claims that:
DeSantis said the push for the care was by an “ideologically charged small group of folks” and this is why he was signing Florida Senate Bill 254 into law to grant courts temporary emergency jurisdiction to intervene in some procedures.
“That is not based on science; that is not based on evidence,” DeSantis said …”
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association support gender-affirming care, which includes the surgical procedures and prescriptions for blockers or hormone antagonists that DeSantis and Florida Republican legislators are standing against.
DeathSantis also said this about being polite enough to call people by what makes them happy instead of being an asshole to others. DeSantis said the new law makes sure that Florida students and teachers will never “be forced” to declare pronouns in schools or “be forced” to use pronouns “not based on biological sex” as part of an “indoctrination” effort known as transgender ideology and gender theory. “We never did this through all of human history until like what two weeks ago, now this is something? They are having third-graders declare pronouns. We are not doing the pronouns Olympics in Florida,” DeSantis said.
The idea that kids, even little kids, do not understand pronouns is stupid. Teacher Miss or teacher Mrs / Mr clearly establishes gender. Boys bathroom, girls PE, when they are read a story they hear he, she, they, them. He ran, she jumped, they carried, someone spoke to them. See it is all around us, kids see and hear pronouns / gender identifiers all the time. Just as most kids know their sexual orientation and who they’re attracted to. To deny that gay kids exist and that gay / same sex married teachers are not a thing is harmful. It deprives these kids of seeing people like themselves, who have their feelings, just so the Christian conservatives can push being gay is shameful and bad. It isn’t as we know now, and gay kids shouldn’t be traumatized by being made to feel they are wrong and broken. We have lived through that, we have progressed social beyond that, and medical science has shown that people are born gay / trans.
As for the bans on drag shows, remember there are already laws against taking minors to sex shows, adult entertainment, strip shows. These laws are about keeping kids from seeing men dressed as women and women dressed as men. That is what it is about. That is why they are singling out drag shows which are not sexual, especially the family friendly or drag queens story hours. See it is hard for conservatives to enforce gender stereotype norms from the 1950s. The old men were men trope. Hugs
LOL the USPS certainly has a terrific sense of irony, I just wonder how long it will take DeSantis to try TRY to outlaw these for “indoctrinating children”. Love it! Buy’em up! Mail Ronny boy a letter with these!
DeSantis signs 5 new laws, including expansion of law critics know as ‘Don’t Say Gay’
Gov. Ron DeSantis visits a Christian school on Wednesday morning in Tampa. (Copyright 2023 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.)
TAMPA, Fla. – During his Wednesday morning speech, Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized gender-affirming care, a medical intervention when an individual’s gender identity is different than the one assigned at birth.
While at a non-denominational Christian private school in Tampa, DeSantis stood on a stage behind a “Let Kids Be Kids” sign to say that a “rogue element of the medical establishment” was engaging in “basically the mutilation of minors.”
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DeSantis said the push for the care was by an “ideologically charged small group of folks” and this is why he was signing Florida Senate Bill 254 into law to grant courts temporary emergency jurisdiction to intervene in some procedures.
“That is not based on science; that is not based on evidence,” DeSantis said during his visit to the Cambridge Christian School, a college preparatory school accredited by Christian Schools of Florida.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association support gender-affirming care, which includes the surgical procedures and prescriptions for blockers or hormone antagonists that DeSantis and Florida Republican legislators are standing against.
“This is going to create a way to recover damages for injury or death resulting from mutilating surgeries or these experimental puberty blockers that are given to a minor,” DeSantis said adding, “They go through this, then they get older and this is a huge problem. They should be able to sue the physician who hurt them.”
DeSantis also signed a bill into law that he described as an extension of the Parental Rights in Education bill, which critics nationwide have consistently referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” and an attack on the LGBTQ community.
DeSantis said the new law makes sure that Florida students and teachers will never “be forced” to declare pronouns in schools or “be forced” to use pronouns “not based on biological sex” as part of an “indoctrination” effort known as transgender ideology and gender theory.
“We never did this through all of human history until like what two weeks ago, now this is something? They are having third graders declare pronouns. We are not doing the pronouns Olympics in Florida,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also said it was “sad” that he had to also sign Senate Bill 1438: Protection of Children into law. The American Civil Liberties Union referred to it as “The Anti-Drag Show” bill. DeSantis said it was necessary because it was “inappropriate” to have minors at drag shows, which he described as “sexually explicit” and “adult entertainment.”
“We passed two years ago the Fairness In Women’s Sports Act to say we are going to make sure our girls and our women athletes are able to compete with integrity. And you can’t be competing on the men’s team for three years, switch to the women’s, and what, all of a sudden you are the champion? That is not right,” DeSantis said adding the new law “imposes oversight” over the Florida High School Athletic Association.
Activist Luka Hein, who has been traveling around the country to oppose trans care, was among the speakers DeSantis introduced at the school. Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr., and the Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida were also at the school at 6101 N. Habana Ave.
“While I am not from Florida, I am someone who went through the gender-affirming care industry as a minor,” Hein said adding this resulted in “health issues,” so the limits are not “about hate.”
DeSantis also recently signed bills against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion educational programs, as part of the Republican legislature’s fight against “wokeness” in schools. For that signing event, DeSantis introduced Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist from California who has been traveling around the country to oppose “divisive” critical race theory and DEI in education.
The governor just signed SB 254 the gender procedures for minors act, HB 1521 the safety in private spaces act, SB 1438, the protecting children from adult entertainment act, and HB 1069, the parental rights and education part 2 bill all this morning. pic.twitter.com/6hZwejyPOr
— Florida Family Policy Council (@FLPolicyInsider) May 17, 2023
The new laws include an expansion of "don't say gay," a ban on gender-affirming care, restrictions on trans people's bathroom use, and restrictions on drag shows. https://t.co/AUDD0OzFkg
Governor DeSantis signed 4 anti-LGBTQ+ bills into law. That includes gender affirming care ban, bathroom ban, restrictions on drag shows and the expansion of Don’t Say LGBTQ. He also signed a bill that impacts the Florida High School Athletic Association. Below is our statement. pic.twitter.com/an35QZBPA0
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) May 17, 2023
I don’t have the background nor the education to evaluate these claims. They make sense to me as I read the argument. I would be interested in those that come to my playtime that do engage more in the Christian religion or have studied the bible. Hugs
Let’s explore what the Bible says about transgender people, its general perspective on gender and identity, and common misinterpretations.
Many people wonder, “What does the Bible say about transgender people?” — from conservative Christians who want to point to “Biblical truths” about gender identity, biological sex, and men and women to LGBTQ+ and ally Christians who want to support diverse identities. But even though trans people have existed throughout history, the Bible doesn’t directly mention trans people because the term “transgender” wasn’t coined until the 1960s.
Despite this, the Bible does examine some issues having to do with gender identity, biological sex, and also men and women. Queer and progressive theologians spoke with LGBTQ Nation about some commonly misinterpreted Bible verses, verses that seem to affirm trans people, and different ways of understanding Christianity’s message to transgender people.
Trans people have been kings and queens, fought in wars, and led the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, thriving despite widespread social oppression.
Understanding gender in the Bible
British theologian Rev. Jonathan Tallon says that some people point to Bible verses as proof that God created only two distinct genders and, because “God doesn’t make mistakes,” changing gender is “against God and God’s plan.”
But these empty slogans ignore the existence of transgender people as well as intersex individuals, those born “with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.”
Two such verses illustrate the narrow way that some Christians misinterpret the Bible and how history and modern perspectives can provide new insights into the ancient text.
Genesis 1:27 – So God is a man?… and he only created two genders?
“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Some people point to this verse, the first mention of gender in the Bible, as “proof” that God only created two genders — man and woman — and nothing in between. But this is a misinterpretation that ignores that most things in the world exist on a spectrum, says Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis, Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics and Social Transformation at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.
Dr. Sabia-Tanis tells LGBTQ Nation, “In the original Hebrew, the verbs used for God are both feminine and masculine; God is shown here as embracing more than one gender, so we know more complex things are happening with gender here.”
He also points out that, before creating humans, God created the day and night as well as water and land.
“Day transitions to the night at dusk; night becomes day at dawn — it’s not an on/off switch but a continual process,” Sabia-Tanis writes. “And then, in a similar way, the sky and the waters, and then the waters and the land, are separated. We know, however, there are many places in which both water and land mingle — wetlands, estuaries, beaches. And places where sky and water are one — clouds, the cycle of evaporation. The sky and the water, the water and the land has never been a binary system, but a cyclical, dynamic one.”
Deuteronomy 22:5 – Is God super-judgy about personal fashion choices?
“A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.”
This verse is the only one that directly references gender-based notions of clothing.
While the Bible honors many women of faith who act bravely, there are also many verses that dictate what men and women should do: how women should behave, how husbands and wives should treat each other, and how children should honor their mothers or fathers.
The Bible’s Old Testament contains 613 commandments known as Old Testament Law, ancient Biblical law, or Mosaic Law. These laws were created around 1393 to 1273 BC and were issued to regulate almost every aspect of Jewish life at a time when the Jewish people were still a group of ex-slaves struggling to survive in the desert. In fact, Biblical scholars have theorized that this specific law about clothing may have been established as a way to differentiate Jews from other religious cultures or as a way to ensure that the Jews’ gender-segregated society stayed truly segregated.
“This would prevent things like men and women engaging in various forms of forbidden sexual contact, women from entering the temple, men evading military service, women signing up for military service, and other behaviors perceived as contrary to the boundaries between the distinct parts of God’s created order,” three queer theologians told the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
Mosaic Law also contains prohibitions against wearing garments of linen and wool together; burning incense; eating pork, rabbit, and shellfish; charging interest on loans; and working on Saturdays. In fact, the Old Testament refers to each of these things as “abominations” and states that the latter two items should be punished by death. Other parts of the Old Testament say it’s okay to kill women who have pre-marital sex, to smear animal feces on the faces of lazy priests, and that it’s okay to own and beat slaves.
Of course, most contemporary Christians don’t follow these ancient Biblical laws because they don’t make any sense in modern-day life. As such, people who point to Deuteronomy 22:5 to demonize trans people and other “gender-nonconformists” should question why they’re willing to uphold this particular Biblical law while ignoring all the rest — it’s likely because they want a religious-based reason to punish people they disapprove of.
However, another verse in the Bible, Hebrews 8:13, explicitly states that people no longer need to follow ancient Biblical laws now that Jesus Christ established a new covenant between man and God. The verse states, “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one (Mosaic Law) obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.”
Perspectives on Being Transgender in Christianity
Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch (1877)
While the Bible literally says nothing about transgender people, biological sex, or gender dysphoria, there are still a handful of verses that show how the earliest Christians embraced marginalized people as well as eunuchs, people whose bodily changes subjected them to widespread oppression.
Galatians 3:28 – All are equal in the love of Christ
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
This verse appears in the apostle Paul’s letters to early Christian churches. In his letter, he angrily begins, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” He then asks church leaders who taught them to judge other Christians by their physical bodies and how well they follow laws rather than by their spirit or faith.
Paul says that ancient Biblical law was only put in place to help guide and protect people until Jesus arrived. But after Jesus arrived, one’s faith mattered more than one’s adherence to old laws.
Queer theologians told the HRC that when Paul says “there is neither male nor female,” that doesn’t mean that individual differences shouldn’t matter. Indeed, Paul’s other letters reveal that he considered personal differences important within the church. But Paul’s letter says that if we are all children of God, then that should be the basis for building a community together rather than discriminating against others based on nationality, race, social standing, class, or gender.
This sentiment is echoed in 2 Corinthians 4:7, a verse that compares the light of God inside of humans to “treasure in jars of clay.” Reflecting on this verse, queer-affirming Rev. Tallon asked LGBTQ Nation, “Which is more important: the clay jar or the treasure?”
“Yes, we need to take our physical bodies seriously – we follow an incarnate Christ. Our bodies are real. But so is what is going on inside us. Our minds are real too.” Rev. Tallon continues. “Your gender identity is how you think of (and feel about) yourself … Is making a commitment to Christ real, or just a feeling? Is having an identity in Christ real, or just psychology? To reduce biology to being the only reality is sub-Christian.”
Matthew 25:40 – We honor God by loving trans people
“And the King answering shall say to them, Verily, I say to you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me.”
This verse comes from a parable Jesus tells about God returning to the Earth as a messianic king who separates righteous people from the wicked. The king knows the righteous because they are the ones who fed, sheltered, clothed, and healed the poor, sick, and imprisoned. When the wicked people protest that the poor, sick, and imprisoned have nothing to do with their king, God essentially says, “But that which you did to the lowest of people, you also did to me.”
Put another way, Jesus says that a person’s relationship with the most marginalized people in society reflects their relationship with God — people honor God by honoring oppressed people. When people ignore or abuse trans folks, they ignore and abuse God as well as God’s commandment to love the most oppressed people in society.
“Here Jesus brings a notion of the least: those marginalized and scapegoated [and] the persons or groups targeted for exclusion and violence,” priest and theologian author Robert E. Goss tells LGBTQ Nation. “What I love about Jesus is that he consistently teaches us that compassion is justice. When we stand in solidarity with those who are marginalized we stand for [Jesus Christ].”
Psalms 139:13-16 – God’s gift of life blesses trans people and their bodies
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
These verses appear in the middle of a hymn that praises God for being ever-present and all-knowing of everyone’s innermost thoughts and beings. Some people point to this verse as proof that God purposefully created each person’s soul and body before birth, and thus changing one’s body goes against God’s creation.
But queer-affirming theologians see no textual basis in the Bible to think that God’s creation of bodies and souls should exclude any person’s gender identity or gender expression. Indeed, cisgender people regularly undergo medical and non-medical “gender-affirming care” — including styling their hair, wearing certain fashions, taking medications, having surgeries, and otherwise altering their appearance — in ways that affirm their God-given bodies while fitting the self-image they hold in their hearts and minds.
“[Many trans people who undergo physical transformations are] acting on the conviction that being ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ means that peace and wholeness is actually what God wants for us and for the world, whatever that journey looks like to each person,” several theologians wrote.
The Eunuchs: proto-transgender people in the Bible
The Baptism of Queen Candace’s Eunuch (c. 1625–30, attributed to Hendrick van Balen and Jan Brueghel the Younger)
The Bible doesn’t explicitly mention trans people, but it does contain several references to “eunuchs.” Eunuchs weren’t exactly transgender — they were people who were either intersex or who were assigned male at birth and had their external genitals removed before puberty. A Biblical law from Deuteronomy 23:1 forbids eunuchs from participating in Israelite society. As such, eunuchs in ancient Isreal experienced discrimination and oppression similar to what some trans people face today.
“Eunuchs have been proto-transgender individuals in the ancient world and even in the modern world as Hijras, religious eunuchs in Hinduism,” priest and theologian author Robert E. Goss tells LGBTQ Nation. “The eunuch was not religiously acceptable in the ancient world as transgender folks are not acceptable to many conservative Christians today.”
Dr. Sabia-Tanis tells LGBTQ Nation, “I think the value of looking at the eunuchs is not that we (trans people) share persecution with them, but that we embody similar variations in human society and physiology. I’m not sure if this helps address religiously-based transphobia, simply because I’m not sure how much it helps change those who have already firmly made up their minds to exclude and reject trans people. But, these points do, I think, provide information and comfort to those who are open to hearing it.”
Matthew 19:12 – Loving trans people is a divinely radical act
“For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
Jesus says these words when speaking to Judeans asking whether divorce should be legal. Numerous verses command married people to treat their spouses with love and respect, and Jesus tells the Judeans that it’s actually better for people not to marry in the first place rather than to get divorced later on.
Understanding that some Judeans may reject his radical opposition to divorce, Jesus then mentions that there are many types of eunuchs and that people should accept them as well, even though some may find that too radical.
Isaiah 56:5 – Trans people (and their names) are included in God’s many blessings
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”
In this section, the prophet Isaiah conveys the voice of God, urging the people of Israel to keep their covenant with God by observing the Sabbath, a religious day when one isn’t supposed to work. “Blessed is the one who does this,” God is quoted as saying in book of Isaiah.
God then states that this commandment includes foreigners and eunuchs, even those who think that they fall outside of God’s blessing. Put another way, God says that no one is excluded from God’s blessings, even outcasts who were traditionally excluded from the socio-cultural life of ancient Isreal.
Dr. Sabia-Tanis tells LGBTQ Nation, “In fact, [God’s] promises are directed precisely towards those who have been treated unjustly and excluded from society. God never reserves privileges for those who follow societal norms or behaves ‘properly’ in human terms — God’s call is to be just and faithful according to God’s commandments, which include how we treat the poor and outcast.”
Sabia-Tanis also points out that God’s reward of an everlasting name makes Isaiah 56:5 a particularly beautiful verse for nonbinary and trans people who may change their names. “It affirms the promise of an authentic name that is everlasting and blessed by God,” he said.
Acts 8:26-36 – God wants Christians to welcome trans people with open arms
While traveling, Phillip, an evangelist who cares for poor Christians in Jerusalem, meets an Ethiopian on a chariot who is also a eunuch. The Ethiopian, who is reading a scroll of Isaiah, asks Philip to explain a Bible verse to him, and Philip does. When the two later encounter a body of water, the eunuch asks, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” Finding that there is nothing that should prevent, exclude, or deny the eunuch, Philip baptizes him, and the Ethiopian leaves rejoicing.
Dr. Sabia-Tanis told LGBTQ Nation that this Biblical story about a eunuch isn’t about discrimination or dehumanization. Instead, the Ethiopian “is treated as a person, who has riches (which we know because of his position in the queen’s court, his chariot, and his scroll), and is included.”
“While there are earlier baptisms in the book of Acts, this is the first really detailed account in which we get to know a bit about a person who desires to join the emerging Christian faith,” Dr. Sabia-Tanis adds. “The author chose this [story in partcular], I believe, to illustrate the inclusion of all kinds of people into the Jesus movement. It would have been easy to tell the story of an upstanding male pillar of the Jewish community being baptized — no controversies about Gentiles or women or eunuchs — but instead, the story was told about an outsider. That’s important.”
“This is a Biblical model about how to respond to nonbinary and transgender people — and one that the church should follow,” Dr. Sabia-Tanis continues. “There is no litmus test or exclusions because of who the person is, what their ethnicity or gender, or nationality is, or any other category. Just inclusion.”
Goss tells LGBTQ Nation, “The post-Easter Jesus movement reflected Jesus’ radical inclusive practices of inviting outsiders and marginalized into his table fellowship. If God in the Isaiah scripture, Jesus in the eunuch statement in Matthew, and Luke in Acts on the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch [all welcome eunuchs] into the body of Christ, then we can stand [with trans people] in solidarity.”
A complex topic for Christianity
The topic of transgender individuals and their place in Christianity is intricate and layered. While the Bible may not explicitly refer to transgender individuals, it does offer insight into the larger concepts of gender and identity.
It’s worth noting that the way different denominations and individuals approach this issue varies widely – some condemning, while others accepting and showing love.
Ultimately, it’s important to approach all interactions with individuals, regardless of their gender identity or how they choose to express themselves, with love and empathy as a guide.
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