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.
I have not been well. I have heart rates in the high 140’s. Twice I have gone into serious atrial fibrillation territory. Yes heart attack or heart shut down. The doctors are changing my medications to get my heart rate, my pain, my other issues under control. I get very few hours right now on the computer to read what I think is worth reading and even less to share it. Now I am hearing that because I have not been able to get to comments due to my health and thinking the people who come here would be science based reasonable people who would understand the majority of the medical community agrees with trans affirmative care I could rest while my doctors find ways to help me.
Turns out I was wrong. Decent people would have understood the situation I am under, how some days I struggle to breathe with my heart rate so high, how sitting in my desk chair causes me to feel ever building pain and yet I don’t have the money to buy / build the things I need to keep doing what I did.
Turns out the anti- trans trolls who I already fully debunked moved in in my absence and tried to full spread their lies, their myths. In the process they have sucked in normally reasonable people. All because I was not feeling up to getting to the comments something I have been struggling with for the last year.
I thank those that contacted me with the situation. I do my blog to counter the misinformation and hate put out by the regressive religious right. My side is backed up by science and peer reviewed studies, something the other side cannot claim. They want to hold on to tradition, to the way it always was in their lifetime, not realizing before that it was different also. I am done and angry.
Let me say that again. I am pissed off and angry. For now until I can go back threw all the comments and correct the misinformation and hate I am shutting comment off on things I post, if I manage to find time to post anything at all.
Last night I went to bed about 7 PM, my pulse was racing, my pain high and due to my medications and my supper I was very tired. I had a good blood sugar before supper of only 104, but I knew to cover more than that with my insulin. I had more tabs open and things I wanted to get to on both computers than I can describe. I would love to share that news with everyone, but the regressive haters seem not to want that. OK then if it is a constant fight on FACTS you want to have I guess I have to divert what energy I have to that.
The truth is on the progressive accepting side! The regressive traditional side is wrong. Just as it has always been for all of history! The earth is not flat, the sun doesn’t rotate around the earth! Black people are not less than whites, Jews are not evil as a group. Grow the fuck up all you people who say that it was not that way before. Yes I am angry. I don’t feel well and I must now deal with people that think the Florida administration that claims vaccines are bad and dangerous to your health has the right take on teaching. Dogs that love gravy do you people ever get out of your bubbles and look around the world. The rest of the world is leaving the US behind on how to treat people, education, healthcare including child / mother death during childhood. The last bastion of resistance in a capitalist society is centered in the US while the rest of the developed nations soar above us in how they treat their people. But you in the US just keep worrying about who uses the bathroom and be suspicious if they don’t look how you think they should. Oh crap those undeserving people might get enough government assistance to eat a full meal today. Keep watching so the corporations can steal everything you have with the government supporting them!
So to those that sent me messages of the mess my comment sections have become I thank you. To those assholes who wanted to abuse my faith in humanity I am going to deal with you. And I am angry! Hugs
“A Florida school district voted this week to ban a book on penguins—yes, penguins—from its libraries, claiming the book’s “sexual innuendo” was inappropriate for elementary students.
In a 3-2 vote on Monday, the Escambia County School Board, near Pensacola, deemed And Tango Makes Three unsuitable for students, overriding the recommendation of a district-mandated review committee made up of administrators, teachers, parents, and community members.
“The fascination is still on that it’s two male penguins raising a chick,” board member David Williams said ahead of the vote. “So, I’ll be voting to remove the book from our libraries.”
Public dress codes separated due to gender assigned at birth. Soon don’t you women dare wear pants, men make sure you have your beard and regulation hat when you leave the house. This is the US Taliban. No miniskirts you women, be respectful with skirts at knee length and dresses covering your ankles. Plus as JMG says let’s protect kids by making dress up illegal but allow teenagers to carry guns. The republicans are a minority party that has to gerrymander and suppress the right to vote to insure they stay in power, but they rule like they have a landslide majority. I really think this comes down to a religious motive. Men shall not dress as women, women shall not dress as men or men might start sleeping sexy with men dressed as women. Oh no! Hugs
Tennessee House Republicans on Thursday moved to prohibit “adult-oriented” entertainment from public property and restrict it to age-restricted venues in legislation filed after a flurry of controversies over drag shows across the state.
The bill classifies “male and female impersonators” as adult cabaret performers and bans “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors,” as defined in Tennessee’s obscenity law.
Bill sponsor Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, filed the legislation after he fought a public Pride drag show in Jackson, Tennessee. Todd at the time called the drag show “child abuse,” though he said he wasn’t aware of the actual content the show would contain.
House Bill 9 and Senate Bill 3 would ban those performances from public property or in a location where they could be viewed by minors. The bill addresses performances like “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest.”
The bill passed as amended with 74 in favor and 19 against. News Channel 11 reached out to the office of Governor Bill Lee regarding the bill. A spokesperson for Lee said he intended to sign it when it came to his desk.
The bill now returns to the state senate for a procedural concurrence vote before heading to the governor’s desk, possibly as soon as tomorrow.
Rep. Chris Todd first appeared on JMG in April 2022 when he authored a successful bill allowing 18 year-olds to carry handguns. Because he so wants to protect young people. Last year he forced a local Pride organization to cancel drag performances in a public park.
The Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill prohibiting the hosting of drag shows in public venues or anywhere minors might be present. | @ariblaffhttps://t.co/ngOlJgyK2R
This is step one. Once they get away with this they will go to the next steps. Eventually, being publicly or openly gay will be a reason for being arrested.
I still frequently see comments that try to hit back at these things using logic or accusations of hypocrisy. And I’ll keep saying: These bigots don’t give a shit that their laws make no sense or are hypocritical. They just want to lock us up and kill us.
Thank you! I’m 67 years old at went to school at a time when we learned about how this encroachment begins. We’re in for some hard times. And I’m not being Chicken Little about this. Trump’s Supreme Court has already been unleashing their terror on women.
The only solution is civil disobedience and acts of malicious compliance. Defy the law, stage your performance and let the cops pull you out in handcuffs. This isn’t 1962, there’s camera everywhere. Let America see.
And maliciously comply. Put together your drag bunch, market it as a drag brunches but have a group of of cis women do the performance in modern drag style costumes and makeup. Confuse the shit out law enforcement when they come to make the arrest.
It’s also not 1962 in that there’s an entire media industry created by the right that exists just to deny sympathy when the police start cracking skulls.
Also most evangelical christmas and Easter shows feature men in dresses. Report that shit to the cops, organize call trees and place hundreds of calls for each performance.
Also add Jesus, a man clearly in drag, to each drag show…doesn’t have to be reverent, just have Jesus. He could serve wine.
Yes, I have been saying that for a while. Get some straight ally women to dress up in drag-style and host a drag brunch. Confuse and frustrate the police.
Also, the law says “…male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest”. I can’t think of anything less prurient than someone dressed in a full-length gown reading to kids.
Unfortunately, it’s going to take some arrests and lawsuits to get this shit over with. But we know that drag queens have some of the biggest balls out there to do it.
Please, these bills have nothing to do with “protecting minors.” Just like anti-abortion bills have nothing to do with “protecting the unborn.” These bills are all rooted in the desire to suppress female sexuality.
To the MAGAts, drag queens are a form of “female liberation.” The right to express, the joy of expressing, “female-ness.”
To those same morons, abortion rights threaten the right of men to control female bodies. The right to suppress female bodily autonomy.
Interesting that “Mrs. Doubtfire” the musical is coming to TPAC (Tennessee Performing Arts Center) in Nashville this coming season. I hope that the whole season gets pulled.
The coup d’ etat continues unabated. Get ready because if you live in a red state this and so much more is coming to you. Soon the bills to not recognize same sex marriage will start coming out. Pride marches will be banned. Then people will see why cops had no business being in those parades because now those same cops gonna be splitting your skull if you get out of line
LGBTQ+ children in the community have been attacked and are now afraid to go to school or be around other kids. Attacks against adults have risen. But the preacher pushing the hate says it is not a bad thing, he is just telling the truth that "accused the LGBTQ community of "grooming children" and acting in "perverted" sexual behavior." The article linked paints the community now split as some follow local pastor Ronald Gayin oppressing the targets of his hate and the rest trying to be allies to a frightened group under attack. What a godly leader of the people he is. Hugs
PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Jeff Landry blocks flood damage funding for New Orleans over the city’s position on abortion rights. Landry advises parents on how to evade COVID protocols instituted by public schools. Landry wins court battle to block workplace protections for LGBTQ state employees. The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds Landry’s win against LGBTQ state employees. Hate group leader Tony Perkins praises “courageous” Landry for his attacks on LGBTQ protections. State Rep. Jeff Landry tries to end LGBTQ studies minor at his alma mater, the University of Lafayette.
And in the above we see the move by the rabid right, by the maga, by the majority of republican office holders to move the country from democracy and freedom from religion enforced in laws to instead install a theocracy where their brand of Christianity is forced on the people regardless of their religious views. This is no longer a minority in the minority party, these people have worked hard and spent an untold amount of money to get their religious believers in to places of power to enforce their religious doctrines as the US Taliban. Hugs
From the linked article: “I see this at the very least as a threat to my academic freedom. PBA is a Christian university. It has a deserved reputation as a politically conservative university. I could somewhat understand if the university had requested a meeting to review my material. I say ‘somewhat’ because, as a full professor with over 20 years of experience at the university, one would think they would trust me,” he wrote. “Indeed, the university has shown me little respect throughout this ordeal. But instead, without giving me due process, they brought their concern over my racial-justice unit with a threat of termination. I also believe that things like this do not happen in a vacuum. There is a reason why PBA is threatening me now rather than five years ago or 10 years ago. PBA is conforming to a toxic political culture, and they are playing a role that is a part of that culture’s script: a role that says, ‘We do not like to have uncomfortable conversations about race.’ There is no place for a role like that at an institution that calls itself a university, let alone a Christian university.” Notice what the Christian teacher is saying. In 20 years of teaching of the racism and need for racial justice in the US he is facing loss of his job because of the stance of the governor DeathSantis who claims that teaching the truth of US racist history and the ongoing injustice minorities face is illegal ideology. It doesn’t fit his white nationalist views and his attempt to install a regressive 1950s white automatic rule / superiority back into society via the schools. It is true that people that get an advanced education often get their eyes open to the bigotry and narrow mindedness of the limited education they received which causes them to move to a more tolerant and open view of reality / society. Hugs
Gustav2 Joe in NM3 hours ago edited It is an attempt to control all education in the US. From cradle to college. There has been complaining in all the churches about how the kids don’t come back to church after college. It didn’t matter before because few conservative RCC and Protestant White Fundies went to college, now both have made it to the suburbs, college is expected. With few marriages preformed in church (only 20%), the churches have lost another connection with the next generation and they are less likely to return with their own children. The push for only religious marriages are real marriages and the restructuring of education have one thing in common. The steady decline in church membership. Even the largest denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is not replacing the Olds that are dying off with Youngs.
Too bad it is against a teachers morals to be nice and use a name or pronoun that a person asks them. I don’t see how it is a moral dilemma or even a religious one. If Robert wishes to be called Bobbie the religious teacher is happy with it, but what if Robert wishes to be called Bohdana or Bonita orBonawhich are all girls names in different languages. I just learned that in German the name Boby is a girl’s name. In the US the name Bobby is both male and female as all names should be. If the teacher doesn’t know a names gender association and they use it without malice are they committing a sin? I don’t get this fake outrage at something that is just being nice and respectful. Hugs
Again it is not about sex, pornography, or protecting children from sexualization. It is about denying same sex couples, gay people / kids, or that people can have a gender different for their assigned sex from public and society. It is about erasing an entire group of people from society. One of the ways the LGBTQ+ gained acceptance was people knew others that were LGBTQ+. They were family members, they were school peers, they were their friends / doctors / auto mechanics / and so much more that people realized they were not the monsters the haters claimed. There was no sex in the book about penguins but it gave the impression that same sex couples were OK, it gave kids the idea that same sex couples could be parents, all things that the Christian right maga cannot tolerate. They won’t allow society to progress past the 1950s as they are not comfortable with people living their lives in freedom or happiness because they demand to force people to live as makes the haters / Christian right live their lives. Also the military is not happy with these red state hate rules against the gays and trans people along with abortion bans. It interferes with military readiness as there are many same sex couples, gay people, trans people, trans / gay dependents, and females who want the right to control their own reproductive health. The military is under attack from the right because they give three weeks no questions asked leave for pregnant people needing to leave state for an abortion. I wouldn’t recommend a red state try to interfere with the travel of a military person. The military is going to cut back facilites and tranning in these red states. Hugs
The Escambia County school board voted Monday night to remove three challenged books from school libraries. The removed books below all contain LGBTQ+ characters. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” is a novel about a boy growing up Black and queer in America. It was available in all high schools.
“And Tango Makes Three” is a real story about two male penguins who raised a chick together at the Central Park zoo. “When Aidan Became A Brother” is a children’s picture book about a transgender boy becoming a big brother.
Dozens of people addressed the board Monday night both in support and against keeping these books in schools. “I am currently embarrassed to be an Escambia County student tonight,” one high school student said.
Escambia County borders Alabama and is home to Pensacola and a major military aviation training facility.
The Escambia County (FL) school board banned a children’s book that tells the true story of two male penguins who started a family together in the Central Park Zoo. The book contains no sexual content. The board accuses the book of “trying to indoctrinate kids through penguins.” pic.twitter.com/kFjIJz05se
I agree. I am old, fat, and have some physical issues now. I am not as spry as I used to be but, I can still shoot and fight if I have to. Sto-vo-kor awaits.
In Wisconsin, in leading up to the 2004 anti gay marriage amendment, during debates, Julian appalling said: “I think we have been very good to the gays. We let them live where they want to.” The reply in newspapers and online was: “Think of the money you save in barbed wire.”
There are a good many on the right and Christianity who want us in camps and dead.
Ever notice how if someone on the left says something, the press asks every democrat if they agree. Republicans framed the left with Vietnam war protestors and the press helped associate all democrats. Ever notice the press never asks the right if they agree with things like putting us in camps?
As far as Trans kids (and if they get their way here in Oklahoma up to the age of 26) they would rather force them to live in misery and despair and hopefully do themselves in.
If a book about two male penguins raising a young one can influence someones sexuality then they certainly are questioning their own sexuality and should seek therapy
I know several men who are proud of the fact they don’t read anything. If it’s longer than a sentence or two they are done with it. According to them, its not “manly” to read…….
(my adoptive father felt this way. His ability to read was very limited and he felt boys and men should play hard outside and work hard, then watch sports. Reading was left only for the stats on the sports page. The issue was a cause of much misery for me growing up. Hugs, Scottie)
What can we do… we can protest, we can march, we can sign petitions, we can elect democrats but the red states are not going to stop and as long as they frame it being about parental rights the SCOTUS is going to give them everything they want.
People are going to have to lose a lot before they pay attention and start voting in numbers to make a real difference. 80 million could not be bothered to even show up in 2020
Scottie's Playtime 