I have been reporting on this for years now as the article says “…describes the current political landscape as a “war against LGBTQ people in America and their very right and ability to openly exist.” These laws have nothing to do with protecting children as they claim but instead are attempts to force regressive religious morality on the entire country by a minority who don’t feel comfortable with “those people” and want them removed from public view / discussion. With every push to return the country to the society of 100 years ago which rolls back every advancement in civil rights that have been achieved, these people are emboldened to push harder to oppress more people into living the way that maga Christian minority insists they have a right to force everyone else to live as. It is not enough for them to live as they wish, they insist you live the way they do also, that you believe as they do, that you follow the moral dictates written 2,500 years ago for a culture long gone. But it is not enough for these people and never will be until they are in charge of and get to rule over every aspect of your life. Allies of the LGBTQ+ we need to you stand up and add your voice to protect the rights of minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+. Hugs
Today’s heart rate readings have seen an improvement. The lowest it has been is 95 the highest sustained was 136 with the average so far of 126 bpm. So I am getting better. Still no call from the heart doctor’s office so Monday I will call them. This has been going on for too long and too dangerous, not to mention causing me to struggle to function. Hugs
Trans-rights activists protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma State Capitol on Feb. 6, 2023. (SUE OGROCKI/AP)
From bills in legislatures to restrictions in schools and health care, growing rhetoric throughout the US is part of a “full-out attack” against LGBTQ+ people, advocates say.
The volume and speed of anti-LGBTQ+ bills advancing through state legislatures has already defined 2023 as a historically challenging and frightening year, advocates say.
In a new report, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which tracks LGBTQ+ policy, describes the current political landscape as a “war against LGBTQ people in America and their very right and ability to openly exist.” It is a culmination of efforts: gender-affirming care bans for trans youth becoming law in states where such bills were previously blocked, growing efforts to restrict how students learn about LGBTQ+ subjects in schools, an increase in dehumanizing rhetoric that could lead to harassment or violence.
“I’ve been working in the movement for 15 years,” said Naomi Goldberg, deputy director and LGBTQ program director at MAP. “To me, this is a different moment. … It is hard to see this as anything but a full-out attack and full-out war on LGBTQ+ people when you look at all of the areas of life, at all of the parts of our communities that are being attacked.”
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the country’s largest LGBTQ+ organization, sounded similar alarm bells earlier in the week. The organization has so far tracked 340 introduced anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including the most anti-transgender bills ever filed that the group has seen.
Those bills include ones that would prohibit students from playing school sports that match their gender identity and bills that would restrict gender-affirming medical care for minors. Over 90 bills targeting medical care for trans youth have been filed so far, according to the HRC’s count. South Dakota and Utah have already signed such bills into law, while states like Tennessee and Mississippi are quickly moving similar bans through their legislatures. Other proposed bills direct school employees to effectively misgender students, mandating that students are referred to with pronouns that match their sex assigned at birth unless a parent intervenes.
“This situation is terrifying. It’s scary and it’s harmful. We know last year was bad. … we anticipate this year being historically bad,” Kelley Robinson, the president of HRC, said on a Tuesday press call with reporters.
Within the past three years, “firsts” in anti-LGBTQ+ bills have piled up, MAP’s analysis finds: the first legislative ban on trans youth playing sports that match their gender identity in Idaho, the first legislative ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans youth in Arkansas, the first state ban on the use of X as a gender marker on identity documents in Oklahoma, and the first “Don’t Say Gay” law passed in 20 years in Florida.
Efforts outside statehouses are another part of what make the current moment unique, per the report — including child abuse investigations ordered by the state of Texas against families seeking gender-affirming care and Florida’s board of medicine moving to restrict such care for trans youth.
Some LGBTQ+ advocates are concerned about the potential for new anti-trans bills to restrict whether families can seek gender-affirming care in other states if their own state bans the care. In Oklahoma, one bill prohibits doctors from making a referral to “any physician or health care professional for gender transition procedures” for patients under 18. The consequences of such a referral would be meted out by the state, which would have jurisdiction over its own doctors. However, since any referrals would have to be for out-of-state care, it still has the potential to limit interstate travel for gender-affirming care, said Logan Casey, senior policy researcher and adviser for MAP, over email.
More bathroom bills, which aim to restrict how trans people are able to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity, are filed this year than in previous years, per the Human Rights Campaign’s count — and fewer bills targeting how trans students can participate in sports are being introduced.
Even when the legislation doesn’t become law, it still causes harm, Olivia Hunt, policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, stressed during the call. Hunt pointed to a recent poll that found 86 percent of surveyed trans and nonbinary youth said that debates around state laws restricting LGBTQ+ rights for young people negatively impacted their mental health.
“Trans youth are making their way through an already difficult world, where they’re trying to understand who they are … and on that journey, they’re vulnerable, and they deserve the love, respect and support of their communities. Instead, they’re portrayed as someone to be feared, controlled or erased,” Hunt said.
The Biden administration has vocally supported LGBTQ+ rights, directing federal agencies to roll back Trump-era policies that advocates denounced as discriminatory and prioritizing data collection on LGBTQ+ experiences. Goldberg said she wants to see enforcement of federal protections from the Biden administration. Those include the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed rule to restore protections for gender identity and sexual orientation under the Affordable Care Act, and Title IX protections proposed by the administration that would apply to trans students. Following Biden’s State of the Union address, HRC called on the administration to finalize both of those rules.
“I think it would be great to have more leadership,” Goldberg said.
Has the us population been taken hostage and subjugated by the police yet? The police and their unions have threated any elected official that dares indicate any oversite of police brutality or even make police officers liable for their actions just like any other person. The police in large cities are gangs, infiltrated by white supremacists, and right-wing political operatives that enforce a repressive conservative fascist ideology against the public who want to move to a more accepting progressive society. Hugs.
New York City has agreed to pay more than $20,000 each to hundreds of individuals who were trapped by police and attacked with batons and pepper spray during a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx.
According to documents filed in federal court on Tuesday evening, the city and the NYPD reached a proposed settlement to compensate anyone who was corralled by police during the infamous June 4 crackdown, which took place at the height of the protests against the police killing of George Floyd.
The settlement, which still must be approved by a judge, is believed to be the largest-ever per-person payout for a class action lawsuit arising from a mass arrest, according to Alison Frick, an attorney for the named plaintiffs who brought the class action lawsuit.
“It’s highly unusual,” said Martin Stolar, a civil rights attorney who is not involved in the case. “It shows me that the city is making an admission that there was substantial wrongdoing on the part of the department, and rather than going to trial where they risk judgment of a higher amount, they agreed to a settlement.”
Roughly 300 protesters were marching along 136th Street and Brook Avenue when they were blocked on both sides by walls of heavily-armored NYPD officers, a tactic known as kettling. Officers proceeded to attack the group with batons and pepper spray, before arresting an estimated 278 people. Among those trapped were medics, legal observers and journalists, including those reporting for Gothamist and WNYC who may be eligible for compensation.
A subsequent report from Human Rights Watch found cops acted “unprovoked and without warning, whaling their batons, beating people from car tops, shoving them down to the ground, and firing pepper spray in their faces.” The group accused the NYPD of “serious violations of international human rights law.” They described the police response, which was overseen by high-ranking department officials and primarily carried out by the NYPD’s controversial Strategic Response Group, as a “serious violation of international human rights law.”
Under the terms of the settlement, anyone who was present for the kettling will be eligible to receive $21,500. An additional $2,500 will be awarded to each person who was arrested. The city is expected to pay an estimated $6 million to participants in the Mott Haven protest, in addition to attorney’s fees arising from the case.
Frick said the settlement is expected to be finalized by a judge in October, with victims likely receiving compensation before the end of the year.
“It was a pre-planned and premeditated assault,” Frick told Gothamist. “This is a historic settlement and we feel very confident the court will approve it.”
Emily Janakiram, a protester arrested in Mott Haven, described her reaction to the settlement as “shock and awe.” She recalled spending hours in a jail cell, surrounded by other protesters who were bloodied and bruised, wondering why they had been arrested for a peaceful demonstration..
“I’m glad to see there’s some kind of accountability being handed out,” she said. “But it’s bothersome that it’s being paid for by the taxpayer and it’s not coming out of the NYPD’s budget, which is what we were trying to draw attention to at the time.”
In an unattributed statement on Wednesday, the NYPD said the protest came during a “challenging moment for the department,” as officers attempted to balance demonstrators’ first amendment rights with what the agency referred to as “wide-scale rioting” and destruction.
The settlement does not include an admission of wrongdoing by the NYPD, whose leadership under former Mayor Bill de Blasio vigorously defended police actions on the night of the protest. On the day after the protest, former NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said the police response was “executed nearly flawlessly,” describing the protest leaders – including well-known Bronx community organizers – as “outside agitators.”
On Wednesday, though, the agency said it had “re-envisioned” its policies and training procedures around large-scale demonstrations after receiving recommendations from several outside agencies.
De Blasio and Shea did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Samantha Max contributed reporting.
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
What is woke, and the woke ideology. It is the new term for what the right use to call PC or politically correct. What is that? It is being nice, being tolerant of those that are different from them, being civil in discussions and in public. One definition from dictionary.com is;
adjective : having or marked by an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those involving the treatment of ethnic, racial, or sexual minorities.
What is wrong with that? Being aware that there are people being treated unfairly. Unless you are a racist bigot who wants to be rude, hurtful / harmful, and demeaning to others in public without suffering the consequences of those actions. It is a small group of people demanding the country allow them to target people they hate and dislike. They want the society of the 1950s where white people were the controlling authority in society always assumed to be in charge and above people of color. They want a society that allowed men to demean and boss women around because men were unquestioningly in charge and women have no authority. They want a time when there was little or no public recognition of any LGBTQ+ people and those in that community were openly targeted for harm / abuse. That is what these maga want. This is the goal of the anti-gay, anti-trans, and anti-social progress.
I was once called a snowflake on Ark’s blog because I championed fixing social injustice. I did not know what the term meant, and I said I was happy to be a snowflake as I thought it meant an individual. Guess what I wear the title of social justice warrior proudly. Helping those that are being unfairly attacked or targeted for abuse just for being a person of color or a member of the LGBTQ+ community is something to be proud of. As I once mentioned safe spaces started in cities to let kids who were being abused at home or on their way to or from school by bullies / drug dealers / gang members know where they could go for help, where they could go to be safe. I remember the advertisements on TV showing kids running from danger seeing the sign on fire stations or other businesses and dashing inside in relief. I thought conservatives wanted to protect kids, but they mocked and derided safe spaces as a horrible thing. Hugs
Critics of “woke” policies are usually pretty skeptical about snowflakes calling for safe spaces—but Marjorie Taylor Greene is suddenly all for the idea. The Georgia lawmaker even went so far as to claim that MAGA Republicans “deserve” one of their own. “We’re fed up with Democrat policies, we’re fed up with the woke ideology being shoved down our throat, and we’re tired of our children being brainwashed into these same ideas,” Greene told Sean Hannity on Fox News on Tuesday. “We want our own safe space and we deserve it,” Greene added while discussing her recent advocacy for a “national divorce” between red and blue states. Commenting on Greene’s remarks, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) tweeted: “Republicans ridiculed ‘safe spaces’ and called people ‘snowflakes’, this coming from one of their leaders is literally hilarious.”
Hannity defends Marjorie Taylor Greene's "national divorce" proposal, saying it is merely "a plan to decentralize the federal government"
Marjorie Taylor Greene claims a man yelled "F you!" at her in a restaurant
"We want our own safe space, and we deserve it" — Marjorie Taylor Greene
The woman who has openly committed adultery, switched religious lifestyle from mainstream Christianity to a fringe sect and tried to overthrow the government is complaining about another ideology being crammed down her throat. Irony RIP.
It’s never about the surface argument with conservatives. It’s always about them maintaining authority, all for fun, fame, and profit. It’s never really about anything else.
What MTG wants for her personal safe space– a large portion of the United States free of large women, small men, hijabs, lesbians, Blacks, drag queens, liberals, Mexicans, Jews, Catholics, and everybody who doesn’t think exactly like her.
“We’re fed up with Democratic policies that help average Americans, we’re fed up with enlightened ideology being shoved down our throat, and we’re tired of our children being educated”
You already have a “safe space”. Go to Truth Social, which is explicitly intended to be a space where MAGA bigots like you can hang out with like minded morons. That was built from the ground up to be your safe space.
Oh, I’m sorry. Is Truth Social a toxic shit-stain that nobody really wants to be on?
We’re tired of MAGA being shoved down our throats, tired of Republicans taking away our freedom to make choices about our bodies, freedom to express ourselves, to teach our children what we want to, tired of their racism and bigotry. It’s a two-way street, honey, get a grip.
Ms. Greene, may I introduce you to News Corp.? The universe of lies created by Rupert Murdoch sure seems to fit the bill, Marge. You have your own media empire that amplifies every treasonous brainfart you produce, bitch.
Come back tomorrow with more self-pitying bullshit. We’ll be waiting.
“We’re tired of our children being brainwashed into these same ideas”
Those would be her three adult children, all in their 20s, who might have opinions about her finalized divorce, the divorce she failed to carry through on a dozen years ago, and the tensions within her marriage that led to them.
“In God We Trust” is a motto, not a part of America’s origin story. Mondale Robinson breaks down the historical basis for the separation of church and state on Rebel HQ.
“A Republican state lawmaker in Alaska stunned his colleagues this week by making the case for the potential economic benefits of fatal cases of child abuse. State Rep. David Eastman’s comments went viral after he spoke at a hearing concerning traumatic childhood experiences and how they affect the child over the course of their lives.”*
Scottie's Playtime 