Notice one trans boy tried to commit suicide blaming the current hate stirred up by Governor abbot and the republicans. Notice that Gender-affirming care is endorsed by all the major medical associations as the proper treatment for gender dysphoria, which is the distress someone can feel when their assigned sex doesn’t align with their gender identity. Treatment blocked by these laws. The state is making doctor advised accepted medical treatments illegal for political purposes. These asshole republican office holders think they know more than medical providers do. They did the same thing with Covid treatments, vaccines, Ivermectin, and fish tank cleaner. Does going to medical school mean anything to these people?
The ACLU and Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of three families currently under investigation, as well as more than 600 Texas-based members of PFLAG, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ families.
Ashley (middle) chants, “God made trans kids! God loves trans kids!” with her children during a protest at the Texas Capitol on March 1, 2022. Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune
For LGBTQ mental health support, call the Trevor Project’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 866-488-7386. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 800-273-8255 or texting 741741.
A new lawsuit filed Wednesday is challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal on behalf of three families, including the Briggle family, who have long been advocates for trans rights, including hosting Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for dinner with their transgender son.
The lawsuit also seeks to block the state from investigating any families that belong to PFLAG, an advocacy group for parents and family members of LGBTQ+ people.
The state is currently blocked from investigating one family that brought a prior legal challenge. This lawsuit seeks to widen the number of people who cannot be investigated under the directive; according to the filing, PFLAG’s 17 chapters in Texas have over 600 members combined.
At least nine families are currently under investigation for potential child abuse by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services for providing gender-affirming care to their transgender children.
Gender-affirming care is endorsed by all the major medical associations as the proper treatment for gender dysphoria, which is the distress someone can feel when their assigned sex doesn’t align with their gender identity. While many young people focus on social transition — dressing differently or using different pronouns — some are prescribed puberty blockers, which are reversible, or hormone therapy.
In February, Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion equating gender-affirming medical care with child abuse. Days later, Abbott followed that opinion with a directive telling DFPS to investigate these cases. The agency said in a statement at the time that it would “follow Texas law … in accordance with Governor Abbott’s directive.”
The ACLU and Lambda Legal sued Abbott and DFPS on behalf of a family under investigation, seeking a court order stopping these investigations more broadly. The Texas Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the court could temporarily stop the investigation into the family that brought the suit, but would not shield all parents of transgender children.
Now, the ACLU and Lambda Legal have brought this new suit on behalf of three specific families and PFLAG, arguing that “every one of PFLAG’s Texas members with a transgender child, or those with children still learning who they are, is at substantial risk of harm.”
“For nearly 50 years, PFLAG parents have united against government efforts to harm their LGBTQ+ kids,” said Brian K. Bond, executive director of PFLAG National. “By going after trans kids and their families, Gov. Abbott has picked a fight with thousands of families in Texas and across the country who are united as members of PFLAG National.”
According to the lawsuit, a 16-year-old transgender boy tried to kill himself the same day that Abbott issued the child abuse directive.
“[He] said that the political environment, including Abbott’s Letter, and being misgendered at school, led him to take these actions,” the lawsuit said.
He survived the attempt and was admitted to an outpatient psychiatric facility, where staff learned that he was undergoing hormone therapy. A week after he was discharged, an investigator from DFPS visited the family’s home and, according to the lawsuit, said that the psychiatric facility had reported the family for child abuse. The family remains under investigation.
This is complete bullshit. Investigating families for child abuse because they are following proscribed medical treatment advocated for by the majority of medical organizations. It is harassment. Imagine doing this for families that allow boys to pierce their ears, or any child to get other piercings. Imagine doing this for allowing your kids to color their hair. It could be anything the republican rabid right dislikes. They no longer care about medical science or harming kids and families. This is entirely punitive by republicans in charge, do what we say and as we like people to do or we ruin you, destroy your family, smear you, maybe cost you your job. Next they will go after families that do not force their gay children to stay in the closet or go to conversion therapy. This is the Christian Taliban in the US. Hugs
You don’t get to pretend that you’re pro-life if you use your power to attack, demean, and endanger the lives of the most vulnerable among us. https://t.co/zAFRiLQSED
While the gun control debate has been at the center of political discourse for almost a month now, some right-wingers aren’t letting Pride Month pass by without sharing their bigoted views towards the LGBTQ+ community. Former child actor Ricky Schroder is convinced demons and the devil are to blame for the gay community and Texas’ Republican state Rep. Bryan Slaton is opting to shelve gun control measures to propose a bill that would outlaw children from attending drag shows. Cenk Uygur discusses on The Young Turks.
“Two weeks after a gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition massacred 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a Republican state lawmaker announced that he is taking action—against drag shows. State Rep. Bryan Slaton said Monday he intends to file legislation “protecting kids from drag shows and other inappropriate displays” when the next legislative session begins.
While Republicans in the state and in Washington, D.C. have not been driven to make AR-15s and other semiautomatic weapons inaccessible to Americans after any of the more than 300 school shootings that have taken place since the Columbine High School attack in 1999—or other high-profile mass shootings in other settings—Slaton claimed to be so disturbed by photos of a child at a drag show in Dallas over the weekend that he saw no choice but to act.
“This is disgusting and dangerous. It can’t be allowed to continue,” Slaton tweeted. “My Republican colleagues and I will protect kids from these sickos.””
Well let’s see, the Republicans have blamed mass shootings on porn, lack of praying (Really, I bet those 10 year old kids were praying harder than they ever did to a god who did not intervene) too many doors, liberals, CRT, transgender / transexuals / the entire LGBTQ+, Democrats, BLM, and now it is smartphones. Anything / everything but guns and bullets. Also can you imagine if classroom doors locked each time they were closed? How do all the kids get into the classroom, does someone have to sit at the door to let them in? What about kids that go to the bathroom how do they get back in? These assholes have no idea of what happens in school, did they not go to school, or is it they are paid to be this stupid. They want schools to become prisons. What next strip searches in entry or exit? A officer to lock kids in classrooms or walk the stray kids to the bathroom? Yes it would reduce school shootings but how will kids learn, and what will they learn? All so some people can stroke their unrestricted freedom while people die. He asks what changed in the last 50 years, well for one these guns did not exist that long ago and the idea that everyone could have unrestricted gun ownership also was not a thing back then. Hugs
The congressman made the comments following the emotional testimonies of multiple gun violence survivors and their families.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) speaks during the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing with victims’ family members and survivors of the Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas massacres on June 8, 2022 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Pool/Getty Images
U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) is rejecting calls to pass stricter gun laws and is instead blaming the use of smartphones for a rise in mass shootings. During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on gun violence Wednesday, Fallon told members of Congress that guns were around long before mass shootings became disturbingly commonplace in the U.S.
“The truth is that guns have always been readily available in this country,” Fallon said. “But mass shootings and in particular mass shootings of schools are nonexistent or at least extremely rare until they became a grisly recent phenomenon. So what’s changed in the last 50 years?”
The Republican congressman then proceeded to give his own theory. “There’s been a noticeable breakdown of the family. There’s been an erosion of faith and there’s been a seismic drop in social interactions in large measure due to the overuse of these dang smartphones, and the proliferation of social media, which is probably better described as anti-social media,” Fallon said while holding up his own phone.
Fallon claimed passing gun laws doesn’t work and listed out what he called “real solutions.”
“We must harden our schools with controlled access and single point-of-entry with a tiered entry procedure,” he said. “The main office should be located directly by the front door, which is single-access entry. Classroom doors should automatically shut and lock like hotel rooms do.”
The congressman also called for school teachers and volunteers to be trained and armed through school marshal programs, increasing the number of school resource officers on campuses, adding more cameras to schools, and training rapid response teams to address threats.
“Our goal should be to protect our children,” Fallon said. “No parent, educators, citizen legislature or nation has a higher calling. Let’s look at real and effective solutions and shelve the divisive rhetoric because American children deserve nothing less.”
Fallon’s comments followed the emotional testimony of survivors of gun violence and their families, including 11-year-old Uvalde, Texas school shooting survivor Miah Cerrillo who told Congress she covered herself in the blood of her friend to play dead as the gunman shot her classmates and teacher. Other witnesses included Kimberly and Felix Rubio, the parents of fourth grade Uvalde victim Alexandra “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio, who demanded the passage of stricter gun measures during their testimony.
My phone was a rescue, so it was gun-neutered before I even got it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve lost it or left it unattended, so it’s good to know no one was ever at risk.
Well, your right wing social media disinformation and incitement ain’t helping, Congressman, but you Republicans are the one pushing hatred, despair, and a wounded sense of entitlement over the things. Also as a matter of fact all these guns *weren’t* around like this back in the ‘days before,’ …despite them being all over entertainment media.
Belief that the 2020 election was stolen is now so common among Republican politicians that they’re asked about it in primary debates. Here are some of the candidates in the June 7 primaries who support the Big Lie.
The problem here is the word "even". Otherwise, the point is worth making. We've seen repeatedly how much more Democrats and their allies can get away with, versus Republicans- and EVEN ordinary Trump/GOP supporters.
If you don’t want to listen to the discussion please listen to the first few minutes as she lists the shootings that happened in just the last few days. Hugs
As we just completed the first weekend of June, 12 people have been killed and another 38 were injured due to mass shootings, compared to the long Memorial Day weekend that left nine dead and 60 injured. If that wasn’t depressing enough, almost 45% of Republican voters believe mass shootings are “inevitable” when living in our ‘free’ society, a stark contrast from 85% of Democrats and 73% of Independents who said mass shootings are preventable responding to the same poll.
“The first weekend of June had a greater number of mass shooting deaths in the United States than the previous three-day weekend, which ended with Memorial Day.
The tally for weekend violence through Sunday night was at least 12 killed and at least 38 injured in mass shootings, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which “four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.”
“More than 4 in 10 Republicans think mass shootings are inevitable in a “free society,” according to a new poll by CBS News and YouGov.
The survey results came on the heels of a string of mass shootings across the country that have prompted Congress to once again consider legislation on gun control.
One of the questions in the poll asked respondents if they feel that mass shootings are “unfortunately something we have to accept as part of a free society” or “something we can prevent and stop if we really tried.”
In response, 44% of Republicans said mass shootings are inevitable “as part of a free society.” Meanwhile, 85% of Democrats and 73% of Independents said mass shootings are preventable “if we really tried.””
Florida Sheriff Bob Johnson encourages residents of Santa Rosa Country to shoot first, ask questions later. Johnson says doing so would save taxpayers money. David Shuster breaks it down on Rebel HQ.
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Scottie's Playtime 