The politicians love the money that the LGBTQI+ represents but don’t want to be seen as treating us equally. I hate the idea that far too many people don’t understand what it is like to have your civil rights be voted on. Should we treat gay people as we treat everyone else, vote now bullshit. How about we change that to should we treat red haired people as we treat everyone else? It makes as much sense. Also the hate religious groups that raise most of their money from stoking fear and anger about marriage equality are seeing their source of income disappear, just like it did when they got their way with abortion and are fighting to the last second to fund raise off stopping the respect for marriage bill. I am not posting their rants at this point because every one of them is a money beg. But understand as the stigma decreases more people will feel free to live their lives openly as they really are. I decided to live openly when it was dangerous and costly to do so, I don’t want our country to go back to that, but Florida is. The kids growing up in Florida have suddenly been transported to the bigotry of the 1970s / 1980s and the republicans want to drive them all the way back to 1950. Hugs
Story at a glance
There were 1.2 million same-sex households in 2021, up from about 500,000 in 2008
The states with the highest number of same-sex households are Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Delaware, Oregon, California, Florida and New York
Congress is poised to pass legislation extending federal protection of the right to same-sex marriage
The number of same-sex households in the U.S. surpassed 1 million for the first time, according to new census data.
There were about 1.2 million same-sex households in 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. About 710,000 of those households were married, while 500,000 were unmarried.
The percent of same-sex households included in the American household population as a whole increased to nearly 1 percent across the country.
Over the years, the number of same-sex households in the U.S. has steadily increased, with about 540,000 reported in 2008. And in 2019, the last year the Census reported data, there were about 980,000 same-sex households in the country.
The results are taken from the annual American Community Survey, a leading resource for detailed population and household estimates from the Census Bureau.
States with the highest number of same-sex households include Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Delaware, Oregon, California, Florida and New York, all of which include more than 1 percent of same-sex households in the total household population.
Washington, D.C., reported about 2.5 percent of its population as living in a same-sex household, while California has the most same-sex households at 163,964.
There were about 631,900 female same-sex households and 577,600 male same-sex households, while the average age for both was 46 years old.
A majority in the survey identified as white, while 12 percent identified as two or more races and 8 percent as Black.
The news comes as Congress is poised to protect the right to same-sex marriage for the first time.
The Senate passed a bipartisan bill this week codifying protections afforded in the 2015 Supreme Court ruling Obergefell v. Hodges, which some feared was in danger after the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade this summer.
The Respect for Marriage Act now heads to the House, which the lower chamber is expected to pass next week to send the legislation to President Biden’s desk.
What the dogs that love gravy is going on in Florida. This Sheriff is saying kids are not being beaten enough and don’t fear adults hitting them enough these days. Last week I posted of the 80 year old elected to the school board that wanted more spankings / corporal punishment used on disabled kids. Is this the return to spare the rod spoil the child Christian way of teaching? Notice the school board went hard right in the last election. But notice the district has not written the policy yet and this new strict discipline was announced by law enforcement from a jail, not from the school system. Why does it take an emergency meeting to draft new policy? Does the school to prison pipeline need more slaves? Is the school about to be overrun with liberal students demanding their rights? Hugs
With Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey at his side, school board Chairman Matt Susin announced plans for a new school disciplinary policy outside the Brevard County Jail Monday. (Brevard County Sheriff’s Office)
Days after the Brevard County School Board ousted the superintendent, plans are underway for a new school disciplinary policy in Brevard Public Schools.
Flanked by Sheriff Wayne Ivey and State Attorney Phil Archer, School Board Chairman Matt Susin went on camera Monday in front of the Brevard County Jail in Sharpes to announce plans to impose the “most prolific school discipline policy this district has ever had,” Local 10 News partner WKMG in Orlando reports.
“It’s a new day,” Ivey repeatedly said throughout the announcement.
Susin did not say what this policy would include. He said he was calling an emergency meeting for next week to draft the policy with input from Archer’s office, Ivey, and the teachers and school staff unions.
Members of the media were not invited to ask questions about what the district plans to do.
The current student code of conduct was approved by the Brevard County School Board, including Susin himself, in February 2022.
Ivey said the new disciplinary policy was necessary because teachers and administration were handcuffed by the current student code of conduct from dealing with students.
“They know nothing is going to happen to them,” Ivey said. “They know they’re not going to be given after-school detention, they’re not going to be suspended, they’re not going to be expelled, or like in the old days, they’re not going to have the cheeks of their a– torn off for not doing right in class.”
Ivey said the school discipline situation is so bad that the district is losing teachers.
A representative from the union for school bus drivers and other school employees said staff members were being hurt by students.
“The instructional assistants that are in the classrooms are choked, they’re bitten, they’re scratched. It’s an everyday occurrence,” said Delores Varney with IUPAD Local 1010. “And they’re so discouraged because nothing is ever done with the students, or at least it appears there is nothing being done. If it is, it’s taking way too long to remove these bad students from the classrooms.”
According to the most recently released student discipline data from the Florida Department of Education, Brevard Public Schools reported few student expulsions in the 2020-2021 school year — fewer than 10. However, there were 2,518 in-school suspensions, 4,457 out-of-school suspensions, 435 students placed in an alternative educational setting and 139 students who were physically restrained.
News 6 in Orlando has asked why members of the media were not invited to the announcement Monday. We are also asking the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office why it spearheaded the announcement rather than the school board, and held it at the jail.
This is the latest major change since voters approved new school board members in August and November. Within weeks, the school board entered separation negotiations with Superintendent Mark Mullins, who had been an employee with Brevard Public Schools for nearly 30 years, saying the district needed new leadership.
Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey held press conference with new right-wing school board chair to call for more severe discipline of students, saying they need to fear “like in the old days” that they’re going to “have the cheeks of their ass torn off for not doing right in class.” pic.twitter.com/ld3ToG34mT
The Florida sheriff also says this new severe discipline policy will somehow make Brevard schools safer from active shooters, intruders and “clowns“ who disrupt classrooms. He also blames the shooting in Parkland on not having severe enough punishment protocols. #flapolpic.twitter.com/dJUAE1nCpS
No media questions were allowed at the press conference held outside a Florida jail. The school board chair says he'll call "an emergency meeting" next week to draft the new discipline policy with input from the sheriff, teachers and school staff unions. https://t.co/jQhAbrGRnj
I’m sure that beating kids is not the reason that school shootings are less common in Canada or Australia or other places where mass shootings are rare.
This is a case where ad hoc conclusions are manufactured to fit a political agenda, not based on science.
They truly believe prayer and beatings are needed to reduce gun violence because it has increased from the last 50 years or so, when guns were less available and then they blame the rise of libruhl politics, especially gay rights and feminism for the rise of incels andof unstable families.
The Recount’s Steve Morris compiled the reactions from multiple CNN correspondents and anchors covering the impending rail workers strike. The coverage focused almost entirely on how expensive it might be for consumers and businesses if the rail workers end up striking, how disruptive it’ll be for the economy, and how it could upend Christmas shopping just a month before the holidays.
The drive for Christain nationalism in Florida is in full drive mode. Stuff relating to Christians is allowed, Jewish and Black holidays are not allowed. To justifying denying the presentation of what Hanukkah is the superintendent said that they would have to teach Kwanza and Diwali.” This is added to the anything positive about the LGBTQI+ is banned but right wing fascism is good for teaching. Hugs
A spokesperson for the district said officials a ‘trying to be careful’ in light of the new Parents’ Bill of Rights.
Pasco County Schools says it has reversed its decision to deny a mother’s request to give a Hanukkah presentation to her son’s fifth grade class after reporters contacted the district for an explanation.
A district spokesperson said the mother would have to first meet with school staff to set up guidelines, but that the presentation has been otherwise approved.
Rachel Long has visited each of her children’s classes yearly to explain Hanukkah — the Jewish “Festival of Lights” that takes place around the same time as Christmas and similarly involves gift giving — since her eldest son was in preschool. He’s now in 10th grade.
Her short presentation includes no mention of God or religion, Long said. Instead, it consists of her reading from a book explaining Hanukkah (also written as “Chanukah”), sharing traditional food, displaying a menorah, and giving toy tops (dreidels) to each child for an in-class game.
Not counting the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the schools Long’s children attended welcomed her into the classroom every year without issue. That was until last week when she reached out to her youngest child’s fifth-grade teacher at his elementary school in New Port Richey to ask when she could come in this year.
Initially, the teacher seemed open to the idea. She told Long she would confer with school higher-ups “to determine what day and time would be best.”
A few days later, however, the teacher said that after speaking with school staff and district administrators, they recommended she deny Long’s request, citing Florida’s relatively new Parents’ Bill of Rights.
“As per discussions with the team and Admin, the new Parent Bill of Rights (sic) obligates us to follow the 5th Grade Standards as written,” the teacher said by text. “At this time, a Chanukah presentation is not in our standards.”
Long asked: “Then, I assume, no Christmas activities will be done?”
The teacher did not immediately reply.
Screenshots of the text exchange between parent Rachel Long and her son’s fifth grade teacher. Image via Rachel Long.
The Parents’ Bill of Rights, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed on June 30, 2021, provides that parents can object to — and opt their child out of — instructional materials based on their beliefs about morality, sex and religion.
The only mention of holidays and cultural traditions in the Pasco School curriculum guide for fifth grade says students will read stories from “different cultures” and encourages parents to discuss the meaning of various holidays with their children.
CPALMS, the Florida Department of Education’s official source for education standards, includes approved lessons on holidays in world language, history, and civics classes and hundreds of allowances for multicultural education.
Long contacted the school’s principal and got a similar answer. The principal, she said, claimed to have spoken with an Assistant Superintendent from the district. The Assistant Superintendent assigned to the school is Kimberly Poe, according to Pasco Schools Director of Employee Relations Kathy Scalise.
Long said the principal told her: “Due to the Parent Bill of Rights (sic), the school could not celebrate any holidays.”
Apparently, that doesn’t apply to Christmas, Long contended, noting Christmas-themed décor throughout a “holiday shop” in the school and a host of related activities.
“(The) kids are watching the musical, ‘Elf Jr.,’ during school, the school is completely decorated for Christmas, and there is a ‘Santa night’ planned,” Long told Florida Politics. “(The principal) explained these things by saying they are holiday-themed, not Christmas, and parents are able to opt their students out. Teachers are allowed to have Christmas trees in their rooms but are not allowed to do Elf on The Shelf.
“If students can participate in all these activities or be opted out, I suggested that students could be opted out of my Chanukah presentation.”
The elementary school’s “holiday shop” has no shortage of Christmas-themed decorations. Image via Rachel Long.
Long stressed that she isn’t trying to push her religion on anyone.
“I am just trying to expose my child’s classmates to different traditions,” she said. Long said the principal agreed to raise the issue again with Poe before rendering a final decision Thursday but suggested that if the school allowed a presentation on Hanukkah, “they would have to teach Kwanza and Diwali.”
“I think that would be awesome,” Long said. “I told her that if it is me coming in that is an issue; I would be happy to send the materials in for the teacher to use. I explained to her that if I am not able to do my presentation or that the teacher doesn’t do it, I will raise hell if I see one Christmas paper come home or I see one Christmas tree in the school.”
Florida Politics contacted principal Poe, Pasco Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning, and Deputy Superintendent Ray Gadd. None responded by press time.
But the issue appeared to have been resolved by Wednesday afternoon. Pasco Schools Public Information Officer Stephen Hegarty told Florida Politics that Long could indeed do her Hanukkah presentation once she meets with the teacher and other relevant faculty.
Hegarty confirmed a local TV reporter had also learned of the issue and was seeking answers. He said the district was being cautious when it expressed reticence at Long’s request.
“The Parents’ Bill of Rights is new, and even though it does not affect a lot of things, it affects some things, and everybody wants to make sure they’re doing the right thing,” he said. “They’re trying to be careful.”
He added, “My understanding is the teacher sought clarification from her principal, her principal sought clarification, and that’s where we are right now, which is that she’s going to work through it, make sure it’s all done appropriately, and I expect she’s going to go into the classroom and make a fine presentation. My understanding is she’s done a great job in the past.”
When they talk about Christian nationalism, believe them.
It’s like being gay. MAGAts are worried that one exposure or mention ‘legitimizing’ it will proselytize their kid away from magic Jebus Even Christian bibles mention Judaism.I bet it’ll blow the kiddies’ minds if someone teaches them about atheism.
Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar speaks with CNN’s Bianna Golodryga about lawmakers passing a strict anti-LGBTQ law that would ban all Russians from promoting or “praising” homosexual relationships or publicly suggesting that they are “normal.”
This article is about the Covid mask controversy DeathSantis stirred up and pushed. He was trying hard to keep tourism up and working poor parents at their jobs by making sure their kids had a place to go while the parents worked. In places like Florida too many see school as a place to park their kids while they work, when the schools went to remote learning workers had to stay home. Rather than make large spaces available like wealthy areas did to have the kids go to and be spread out leaving the parents free to work, poor people had to have one parent stay home. DeathSantis felt the pain of the employers and business overlords and did everything he could to force schools to stay open with in person classroom learning with no Covid precautions. That would have cost the state money besides DeathSantis and the wealthy parents send their kids to private schools who do use the precautions so what do they care if your kids get sick, your elderly poor get sick and die. So this is the first nail in following science in Florida schools. What will die in Florida schools next? Biology? Chemistry? History most certainly, along with social studies. But enforced right wing Christian ideology will flourish. Hugs
New board members in two GOP-leaning counties essentially sacked their school superintendents over the span of one week.
Conservative school board candidates are in office — and are purging some educational leaders who enforced Covid-19 mandates.| Lynne Sladky/AP Photo
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis put his weight behind dozens of conservative school board candidates across Florida during the midterms. Now they’re in office — and are purging some educational leaders who enforced Covid-19 mandates.
New board members in two GOP-leaning counties essentially sacked their school superintendents over the span of one week. The ousters were spurred by how the superintendents carried out local policies like efforts to support the rights of parents, an issue inflamed by schools imposing student mask mandates last fall in defiance of DeSantis.
And while not tied to the 2022 election, the school board in Broward County earlier this month fired its superintendent through an effort led by five members appointed by DeSantis. All combined, school boards with ties to DeSantis pushed out three superintendents in November alone — and each of them served over districts that implemented student mask mandates.
“We had a wave in school districts that spit in parents’ faces,” said state Rep. Randy Fine (R-Palm Bay), who earlier this year sought to punish schools with mask mandates. “And now the people who did that are gone.”
In Brevard and Sarasota counties, embattled school leaders have faced immediate pressure from newly-installed board members and offered to leave voluntarily rather than risk a vote on their terminations.
The boards in both counties now have conservative majorities who sought a change in leadership immediately after the midterms. Although school boards are nonpartisan posts, lines between Democratic and Republican candidates were drawn in many counties through endorsements from each party as well as outside groups. The newly-elected board members in these cases support parental rights while opposing critical race theory and teaching gender orientation in schools.
DeSantis in particular used his clout to endorse more than two dozen school board candidates during the 2022 election cycle, a rare move for a Florida governor that came with $1,000 cash contributions from DeSantis and other GOP lawmakers. Most of the candidates DeSantis endorsed won their elections and are now transforming the make-up of school district leadership and will have huge influence over policies affecting hundreds of thousands of students in the state.
Both Sarasota and Brevard’s school boards put the superintendents on the chopping block the same day that new members endorsed by DeSantis and conservative organizations like Moms for Liberty were sworn into office.
Sarasota board members called Superintendent Brennan Asplen’s job into question at a meeting Tuesday night specially called to discuss his contract. After fielding about four hours of public comment, mostly in support of the superintendent, board members vented criticisms over student performance in reading, how he handled masking students and a perceived lack of transparency from Asplen.
Understanding he may not have a job much longer, Asplen offered up his resignation on Monday night — the day before the board met to weigh his ouster. But the superintendent also fought at the meeting to keep his job by attempting to punch holes in the critiques from board members.
“I have a feeling I’m going to be fired after tonight because I just can’t hold this back,” Asplentold the board from as a preface.
Asplensaid that some of the board’s comments were “ridiculous” given that he had been at the school since 2020, a timeframe that included the Covid-19 pandemic. And yet despite the coronavirus uprooting education, Sarasota earned “A” grades from the state both years. The superintendent also claimed he was being shut out by board members since the election and noted that he enacted a mandatory student masking policy for only three weeks, and that was due to Sarasota’s board voting 3-2 in favor of the mandate.
“You have to get the politics out of this school district,” Asplentold the board. “This school district could be No. 1, but we shoot ourselves in the foot every single time. We are getting in our own way all the time.”
It was clear after Asplenaddressed the board that a separation would be imminent. Board members said they felt the relationship with the schools chief was “adversarial” and beyond repair. Many of the claims by Asplenwere “not accurate,” according to new board chair Bridget Ziegler.
“I am very concerned,” said Zeigler, who was endorsed by DeSantis and co-founded Moms for Liberty. “I don’t know how respectfully we build a relationship where we are functioning together for the right reasons with mutual respect.”
One Sarasota board member, Thomas Edwards, noted the similarity between the pushes to remove school leaders in Florida and elsewhere in the country, including in Berkley County, South Carolina, where a newly-elected school board fired a superintendent. Edwards suggested a possible political motive behind the move and lobbied for Asplen to be granted a chance to fix issues spelled out by the board.
“Whatever rationales I’m going to hear tonight, I really have to throw out the window. Because we just have to — all of as a community — look at the tealeaves,” Edwards said.
But Edwards fell short of reaching the majority of the board, including the members endorsed by DeSantis and other conservatives, who voted 4-1 to move forward with negotiating a separation agreement with the schools chief.
The local teachers union in Sarasota planned a rally in support of Asplen ahead of the meeting Tuesday and dozens lined up to speak on his behalf. But local organizers in Brevard County didn’t demonstrate when its superintendent, Mark Mullins, was pushed out last week.
Instead, the Brevard Federation of Teachers contented that Mullins’ ouster could lead to positive changes within local schools. Union leaders claim that district officials did too little to quell student discipline issues and lingering teacher vacancies facing the county.
“Students verbally and physically abuse teachers and staff, and there will be no end in sight unless meaningful systemic changes are made,” union leaders wrote in a statement Monday on social media.
Similar to Sarasota, the leadership shift in Brevard was aided by new board members. Discussions to split with Mullins came at the suggestion of Megan Wright, who was backed in her race by DeSantis and installed on the board and elected vice chair about four hours before triggering the change.
Elsewhere in Florida, new board members endorsed by DeSantis are also scoring leadership roles. In Lee County, for example, new board members Armor Persons and Sam Fisher, both endorsed by DeSantis, were elected as chair and vice chair of the school board, as reported by the Fort Myers News-Press.
With at least three superintendent jobs opening in Florida, these new-look school boards are now facing the critical task of finding new leaders.
Teachers union leaders are staying optimistic that these board members will be focused on supporting educators and staff in local schools, said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. And in choosing a new superintendent, they hope board members will pick candidates who are aligned with the community and not only DeSantis.
“Firing is the easy part,” Spar said. “The hard part is finding the right person.”
The NHS is consulting on a new service specification for trans youth healthcare. (Getty)
Under new proposals from NHS commissioners, trans children could face impossible barriers to healthcare.
The NHS is replacing its sole dedicated gender clinic for young people, GIDS (Gender Identity Development Service), with two new regional pilot services as part of an ongoing process to reduce the spiralling wait times.
Although the LGBTQ+ community welcomes plans to expand services, recently released proposals have introduced gatekeeping measures that could make gender identity services harder to access for many young people, and which have been compared to conversion practices. The service seems to have been designed to reduce the number of young people transitioning as much as possible.
The Trans Learning Partnership together with Gendered Intelligence has produced an explanation of how we got here – and how you can help the trans community today.
How did we get here?
As pressure from the media and the government has fuelled anti-trans movements over the last few years, access to transition-related healthcare for children and adolescents has become a battleground.
Misinformation and fearmongering about gender identity services is rife, with the mainstream press claiming that gender-affirming care is too quick or too easy, or that young people have instant access to puberty delaying treatments and hormone therapies.
The Telegraph has published a number of scaremongering articles around puberty blockers. (The Telegraph/Getty)
This is a fantasy. It takes at least three years to get a first appointment at GIDS, and many more to receive further care. Young people who enter the services in their teens age out without a single appointment and are thrown straight back on a waiting list – for how long, no one knows. The reality is that gender identity services in the UK, particularly for young people, have been in freefall for years.
After GIDS came under fire for inadequate care, the NHS commissioned the Cass review. This independent review led by Dr Hilary Cass published an interim report in February 2022, which found a number of challenges to GIDS’ ability to deliver good care.
The NHS has since decided to close GIDS and replace it with two new regional hubs. In theory, these regional hubs should allow for more patients to be seen, and to be seen closer to home.
However, the proposals as written could end up hurting hundreds of trans children and their families.
What are the proposals?
There are a number of changes that the NHS is proposing. Some of these could be positive. For instance, expanding the teams that work with children and young people and improving integration with local services could provide more extensive support for service users.
But many of the changes point towards gatekeeping. The list of professionals who can make referrals to the service is being cut down. New referrals will require an assessment just to be put on the waiting list, extending wait times even further.
The proposals even go so far as to encourage doctors to intervene in social transition.
Protestors defending trans rights. (UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty/ Michael Siluk)
Under the new service, doctors could discourage prepubescent children from socially transitioning, or restrict adolescents from transition unless they meet certain criteria.
Social transition is not a medical intervention; it involves the social expression of gender such as changing name, pronouns, haircuts, and clothing choices, making intervention by doctors absurd and unenforceable in practice. Are doctors expected to police the clothing, haircuts, and behaviour of their young patients?
This approach runs counter to all the evidence and best practice recommendations by global experts. Supporting children to socially transition leads to depression and anxiety levels that are the same as their cis peers as teenagers – this is really significant, as trans teenagers often have elevated levels of depression and anxiety compared to their peers.
The evidence doesn’t lie, trans children who are supported in social transition continue to hold their identity, and are much happier and healthier for it. There is no evidence that social transition is harmful.
Restricting social transition could arguably amount to a form of conversion practices.
Trans youth have often found their lives reduced to a culture war by politicians. (Belinda Jlao/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
While the UK government continues to delay bringing forward a ban on conversion practices, over 25 health, counselling, and psychotherapy organisations have created a Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy, providing a definition of conversion practices in the UK.
This definition recognises that conversion practices are “any model… [which] seeks to suppress an individual’s expression of sexual orientation or gender identity” on the basis that one orientation or identity is preferable to others.
Restricting social transition would be tantamount to suppressing an individual’s gender identity and expression, and suggesting that a cisgender identity is preferable.
Puberty blockers
Under the proposals, puberty blockers will only be accessible via the NHS with mandatory enrolment onto long-term research programmes. This would require children and young people to be part of a clinical trial to access essential care that is clinically indicated for them (and is not in line with ethical standards for healthcare research).
There are also serious concerns for those who access puberty blockers or hormones from sources other than the NHS. The proposals state that anyone accessing the service who is using medications “from unregulated sources or from on-line providers that are not regulated by UK regulatory bodies” will be discouraged from doing so, the NHS will not enter into any shared care agreements, and “will advise the GP to initiate local safeguarding protocols”.
The NHS has a duty to reduce avoidable harm. Like many medications, taking unmanaged puberty delaying or hormonal drugs can be unsafe, and regular blood tests are needed to monitor health and adjust doses as needed. In refusing to do this, the NHS is putting children and young people at risk of avoidable harm, when instead they could ensure that these children and young people are being properly prescribed and monitored.
The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic at Tavistock and Portman is set to close after the Cass review criticised wait times. (Getty)
In fact, if the NHS refuses to take over a young person’s care, and at the same time advises them to stop taking medications, they could forcibly detransition vulnerable young people, causing serious psychological harm and leaving them without medical support.
The proposals conflate three sources that they imply are all dangerous to receive medications from: unregulated sources online such as pharmacies and distributors, private practitioners and overseas care are all treated as “unregulated”. These range so much that they cannot reasonably all be treated as unsafe. In fact, gender specialists working in NHS clinics often have their own private practices too.
Threatening desperate families with unnecessary interventions from social services, just for supporting their own children, is not going to make anyone safe. No explanation has been given for these safeguarding concerns.
Not only does this punish families for turning to alternative services to meet their children’s needs, it also risks an influx of unnecessary safeguarding reports that will overwhelm the already-stretched social care sector. This will take time away from families who are in genuine need of support.
We aren’t alone in these worries. This weekend, the Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) released a damning statement, highlighting that in their advised approach – which the NHS is not taking – the benefits outweigh the risks, “when transgender and cisgender people are correctly regarded as equal”. It is clear from this statement that the NHS commissioners are travelling in the opposite direction to the global best practice on trans healthcare.
Click here to read Gendered Intelligence’s full guide to the NHS consultation and to find more about how you can respond.
During the public comment period for Maricopa County, Arizona’s certification of the 2022 election results, Kari Lake’s conspiratorial supporters showed up to voice outrage because the county’s Republican officials won’t break the law and refuse to certify the results.
As Sam and Emma say the Matt Walsh types do not want gays and trans to be accepted and act like high priests to tell everyone it not only is wrong but to remove it from society. Their goal with their hate is to return to a time when the LGBTQ+ and other minorities were not in the public square, were not seen. Hugs
