This is from corporate mainstream media. Let’s hope it ends the myth the anti-trans haters have been pushing, which has long been debunked. Maybe now they will stop spreading lies and learn that they have been wrong, stop hating trans people, and accept them. Oh well, I know, some people just can not accept change and new information / understanding. For those wanting to watch the video and better see the graph please go to the link. Best wishes. Hugs. Scottie
Most people are satisfied with life after transition. More than 9 in 10 respondents were at least a little more satisfied with their life after transitioning.
The National Center for Transgender Equality released early insights from its 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest survey of trans people in U.S. history.
A survey of more than 90,000 transgender people in the U.S. — the largest nationwide survey of the community ever — found that trans people continue to experience workplace and medical discrimination. However, the overwhelming majority of them still report more life satisfaction after having transitioned.
The National Center for Transgender Equality, or NCTE, one of the country’s largest trans rights organizations, released its 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey Early Insights report Wednesday after a yearslong delay due, in part, to the pandemic. The survey, the most comprehensive look to date at life for transgender people in the U.S., comes as hundreds of bills in the last three years have attempted to roll back trans rights, most often by restricting trans people’s access to transition-related health care and trans students’ abilities to play school sports.
“There’s still a drought of information available to lawmakers, the media and advocates regarding our experiences and our needs,” NCTE Executive Director Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen said at a news conference Tuesday. “At best, we’re working in a vacuum of information. At worst, we’re combating dangerous misinformation being spread by anti-trans extremists. Without question, the misinformation and lack of understanding is underpinning these escalating legislative attacks against our community.”
A woman attends a rally in support of trans youth in schools on June 26, 2023, outside the Fayette County Public Schools central office in Lexington, Ky.Ryan C. Hermens / Lexington Herald-Leader via Getty Images file
The organization’s 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey had been the largest survey of trans people in the country, with nearly 28,000 respondents 18 and older, and it has been widely cited, including by Congress and the Supreme Court. Josie Caballero, the director of the survey, said the 2022 iteration more than tripled the number of respondents — with a total of 92,329 from every state and many U.S. territories — and was improved in a number of other ways. For example, it included 605 possible questions (though no respondent received all possible questions), up from 324 in the 2015 survey, and it included more than 8,000 respondents who were 16 and 17. However, study authors note that respondents who participated in the online survey were not drawn from a random sample and that though the sample is large, the findings might not be representative of all trans people.
Of the 84,170 adult respondents, 38% identified as nonbinary, 35% identified as transgender women, 25% identified as transgender men and 2% identified as cross-dressers.
Continued discrimination and mistreatment
Among the key findings released Wednesday, the survey found that trans people continue to report experiencing discrimination and mistreatment because of their gender identities and/or expressions.
More than one-third of adult respondents, or 34%, were experiencing poverty at the time of the survey, and 18% were unemployed. More than 1 in 10, or 11%, of respondents who had ever held jobs said they had been fired or forced to resign or had lost jobs or been laid off because of their gender identities or expressions. And, in line with previous survey findings, 30% of respondents had experienced homelessness in their lifetimes.
Of adult respondents who saw health care providers in the previous 12 months, 48% reported having had at least one negative experience because they were transgender, including being refused health care, having staff members use the incorrect pronouns for them or having providers use abusive language or be physically rough or abusive while treating them. Fear of mistreatment prevented 24% of respondents from seeing doctors when they needed it in the 12 months before the survey.
Many respondents also reported past mistreatment in school. Of adult respondents, 80% who were out or perceived as trans in K-12 experienced one or more forms of mistreatment, including verbal harassment, physical attacks, online bullying or being denied use of the restrooms or locker rooms that matched their gender identities. Of the 8,159 respondents who were 16 and 17, 60% reported such mistreatment.
Higher life satisfaction after transition
Despite those negative experiences, the vast majority of adult respondents, 79%, who lived at least some of the time in different genders from the ones they were assigned at birth reported that they were “a lot more satisfied” with their lives. An additional 15% reported they were “a little more satisfied.”
——————————————————————————————
Please see the chart at the link above. The written version I have included below.
Most people are satisfied with life after transition
More than 9 in 10 respondents were at least a little more satisfied with their life after transitioning.
This bar chart shows how respondents who had transitioned genders described their satisfaction with life after transitioning. 79% were a lot more satisfied, 15% a little more, 3% neither more or less, 1% a little less and 2% a lot less satisfied.
A lot more satisfied. 79%
A little more satisfied. 15%
Neither more or less satisfied. 3%
A little less satisfied. 1%
A lot less satisfied. 2%
Respondents who received transition-related medical care reported similarly high rates of satisfaction. Of respondents who were currently receiving hormone treatment, 84% said receiving such treatment for their gender identities/transitions made them “a lot more satisfied” with their lives, and 14% said it made them “a little more satisfied.” Just 1% said hormone treatment made them neither more nor less satisfied, and less than 1% said hormone treatment made them a lot less satisfied.
Of respondents who underwent at least one form of gender-affirming surgery, 88% said it made them “a lot more satisfied,” and 9% said it made them a little more satisfied. Less than 2% total said surgery made them a little less or a lot less satisfied.
“That might seem obvious to some of us that of course if you’re transgender and you need transition-related health care, of course your life is better off when you get that health care,” Heng-Lehtinen said Tuesday. “But it’s really important to have actually asked people and found out objectively what is their experience, because transition-related health care is otherwise so under attack in state legislatures around the country.”
Effects of anti-trans legislation
In the last three years, 23 states have restricted gender-affirming health care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries — for minors and, in a few cases, adults, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Half of states have banned trans student-athletes from playing school sports on the teams that align with their gender identities rather than their assigned sexes at birth, while 10 states have passed laws restricting what bathrooms trans people can use in schools, colleges and/or government-owned buildings.
Nearly half of respondents to the latest U.S. Transgender Survey said they had thought about moving to other states because their state governments considered or passed such laws that target transgender people, and 5% — about 4,600 people — said they had actually moved to other states because of such legislation.
The top 10 states where trans respondents most often reported moving from were, in alphabetical order, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The state of trans rights across the country does not necessarily reflect what trans people are experiencing at home with their families. Of adult respondents, 67% reported that their immediate families were either supportive or very supportive, while 22% reported they were neither supportive nor unsupportive and 12% reported they were either unsupportive or very unsupportive.
Of 16- and 17-year-old respondents, 44% reported that their families were either supportive or very supportive, while 28% reported that they were neither supportive nor unsupportive and 29% reported they were unsupportive or very unsupportive.
“It’s important to see that many trans people do have supportive families, since we often hear and see otherwise,” Sandy James, one of the report’s authors, said at Tuesday’s news conference.
Heng-Lehtinen said the new data will revolutionize the field of transgender advocacy.
“I am confident that the results of the 2022 survey will not only serve as a crucial tool for education, research and policy, but it will catalyze a paradigm shift for the movement for transgender advocacy by empowering advocates with robust and current data regarding our needs and experiences,” he said.
Let’s understand what this really is about. White straight cis people (men) being in charge without having to allow non-white people in to those upper level positions. White straight cis have good easy management jobs, brown and black people do labor. The LGBTQIA simply go back to being in the closet not seen or heard, women stay home. It is white supremacy Nazi bullshit. It is an attempt to roll back the gains of those not white, not straight, not cis since the 1960s. That is what this is. It is pushed nationally by Stephen Miller, a well known white supremacist thug even though he weirdly is Jewish, who thinks that he passes as white in the eyes of the whites. He once complained in college for being required to put his own trash in the trash can rather than leave it where he was done or throw it on the ground. That was the job for the … janitors he said. We do know what he really meant. He and DeathSantis, the people of this mind set, love to punch down. They are also terrified of any changes to their privilege, and that is what they really want, white straight cis privilege over everyone else. It won’t last this last grasp to return to the past, Florida schools are already struggling to keep students and attract decent staff. Enrollment is down. People paying for an education want a real education they can use in the real world, not a fake maga paradise. See if you can count the lies, misinformation, and desperate attempt to deny the truth of what is happening in the quote below. Hugs. Scottie
“The University of Florida is – and will always be – unwavering in our commitment to universal human dignity. As we educate students by thoughtfully engaging a wide range of ideas and views, we will continue to foster a community of trust and respect for every member of the Gator Nation. The University of Florida is an elite institution because of our incredible faculty who are committed to teaching, discovering, and serving,” the memo stated.
Published: Mar. 1, 2024 at 1:52 PM EST|Updated: Mar. 1, 2024 at 6:07 PM EST
The University of Florida is firing all employees in positions related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) according to a memo sent on Friday. It follows the passage of a state law in 2023 targeting college funds spent on DEI.
UF officials say they have closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, eliminated DEI positions and administrative appointments, and halted DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors. Officials say 13 positions were eliminated and 15 administrative appointments were ended for faculty.
The decision was made to comply with the Florida Board of Governor’s regulation 9.016 on prohibited expenditures. Approximately $5 million previously allocated to DEI initiatives will be reallocated into a faculty recruitment fund.
Eliminated employees will receive 12 weeks of standard pay and are encouraged to apply before April 19 to other positions in the university.
Ahead of the fall semester, Florida’s public universities are working to figure out what they need to do to comply with state law
UF’s Chief Diversity Officer’s website describes the office’s mission as charting the “inclusive excellence strategy for the University of Florida.” The site notes “Inclusion is one of UF’s six core values.”
The listed staff of the department are Marsha Mcgriff, senior advisor to the president, Farrah Harvey, assistant director of diversity analytics, and Wilma Rogers, executive assistant
State Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, a Democrat from Gainesville, shared her opposition to the move hours after the memo’s release.
“I am stunned but not surprised at the elimination of DEI staff at the University of Florida, my Alma Mater,” stated Hinson. “The culture wars engaged in the Republican-dominated Florida House of Representatives will continue until Floridians have had enough and develop the will and determination to flip the majority in the Florida House.”
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Christopher Rufo, a conservative education activist and New College of Florida Board of Trustees member, announced the news of the firings and posted, “The conservative counter-revolution has begun.”
The UF memo ended with the following statement:
“The University of Florida is – and will always be – unwavering in our commitment to universal human dignity. As we educate students by thoughtfully engaging a wide range of ideas and views, we will continue to foster a community of trust and respect for every member of the Gator Nation. The University of Florida is an elite institution because of our incredible faculty who are committed to teaching, discovering, and serving,” the memo stated.
CORRECTION: A prior version of the article incorrectly stated that 15 administrative positions for faculty were ended. Administrative “appointments” were ended. The appointments are roles/duties that faculty members accept in addition to their regular duties as a faculty member.
If DeSantis and many other Republicans are opposed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, what they’re really saying is that they’re in favor of White Homogeneity, Inequity, and Exclusion.
If I were a black football player, Florida would be the last state I’d go to to play. Oh, who am I kidding, I’m white and in my 60s, and I wouldn’t go to Florida for anything.
That’s part of the problem. Minority students must learn that they are not wanted, and refuse to accept athletic “scholarships” to Florida schools.
Not to tout my alma-mater’s record on anything, but one item to its credit was that MSU was one of the first major universities to recruit African American football players, back in the 60s. It was an early DEI initiative that helped integrate college sports.
Southern universities were among the last bastions of white athletics. How quickly we forget our past.
MSU’s President, John Hannah, also took a global view of the mission of one of America’s first land grant universities, which included helping Africa. He was not afraid to work with black people. https://www.canr.msu.edu/ne…
Christian Nationalists standing behind a “FREEDOM FROM INDOCTRINATION” sign is the funniest thing I’ve seen from them this hour. What a bunch of hypocrites.
Here’s the kicker…if Christians were actually being discriminated against on college campuses, then these “Christians” would be for DEI programs as they would protect them.
I was flitting through the songs from Les Miserables on youtube. Some of my favorite songs, and I’ve always been amazed at the dramatic presentations these actors could impart. Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne, Anne Hathaway have all put out such impactful songs as to bring ache to my heart, but never did I hear one that brought me tears until this one.
I remember when I was young I asked my grandmother how Hitler was allowed to do what he did. She was so hurt by the question. She just looked at me, ache in her eyes. “Randy, we didn’t know. We didn’t believe it could be real, we didn’t think someone could do that.” To my sorrow, I will be forced to answer similarly when someone asks me about Sandy Hook, Uvalde and oh so many more. I am going to have to look someone in the eye and tell them that somehow having the freedom to buy guns was worth more than the lives of our greatest treasures. I’ll have to tell them that I had no idea how to stop it.
When November comes, please remember the lives lost and the politicians who put guns before kids.
As you start this video, please scroll down to the pictures below.
This surgeon general is totally unqualified for his position. He was picked for his political stance and willingness to lie and edit official studies to shore up DeathSatnis’s political positions. When DeathSantis tried to force the state University to make give him a position and a high salary, the school refused saying he was totally unqualified. For those that don’t know, measles is extremely dangerous, leading to lifelong illnesses and medical issues such as losing your ability to hear, along with death. Measles also kills your immune system so you lose all prior immunities and can make it so your system struggles to gain the immunity to other diseases. Below I listed some of the things that can happen. Measles are not a joke, you do not want your child exposed to the real thing, get them vaccinated. Hugs. Scottie
Long-term effects of measles
For every 10,000 children infected with measles, 2,000 will be hospitalized; 1,000 will develop ear infections with the potential for permanent hearing loss; 500 will develop pneumonia; and 10 to 30 will die, said Hotez, who is also dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Measles often leaves patients vulnerable to secondary bacterial infections, such as pneumonia, one of the most common causes of death in measles patients, said Patricia Stinchfield, president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Measles also causes “immune amnesia,” in which the immune system loses its ability to fight infections that a patient was previously immune to, Cherry said. The virus wipes out 11% to 73% of a person’s antibodies — both those acquired through infection and vaccination — which can leave patients at increased risk from viruses such as the flu and bacteria that cause pneumonia and skin infections. A devastating long-term complication of measles called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, which is more common in countries where the virus remains endemic. The fatal condition can cause memory loss, irritability, disturbances in movement, seizures and blindness, and can develop six to eight years after a child has apparently recovered from measles. Although anti-seizure drugs can sometimes ease symptoms, they don’t cure the disease. Encephalitis. About 1 child out of every 1,000 who get measles will develop encephalitis (swelling of the brain) that can lead to convulsions and can leave the child deaf or with intellectual disability. Death. Nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz held a press conference on school safety measures Tuesday and called for the replacement of Florida’s surgeon general — as the measles outbreak in South Florida continues to expand.
She called for the termination of Dr. Joseph Ladapo and for Governor DeSantis to replace him with a public health expert, following the surgeon general’s controversial handling of the outbreak.
Ladapo told parents of unvaccinated children that it is their choice whether their students attend class — a contravention of federal guidelines calling for their mandatory exclusion. “Surgeon General Ladapo is a misinformation super-spreader,” Rep. Wasserman Schultz said during the press conference.
The measles outbreak has made its way to Central Florida. Over the weekend, the Florida Department of Health confirmed a tenth case out of Polk County.
The case is travel-related, and the patient is between 20 and 24 years old, making them the first Florida adult to be infected with the virus this year.
It comes after nine children and teens were infected with measles in Broward County. Measles is extremely contagious. Unvaccinated people have about a 90% chance of being infected if exposed.
I’m hosting a press conference alongside @FIU's Dr. Mary Jo Trepka and PTA leader Latha Krishnaiyer to share measles vaccination safety measures. I will also call for new leadership in Florida’s top health position. Join us: https://t.co/B3zQfhUBdz
if kids go deaf, or they die, or are sick for a month, it’s a small price to pay for freedom from an overreaching dictatorship of democratically elected government.
As Surgeon-General, Ladapo would be the one to sign off on any revocations. He is not going to quit this sweet gig that pays well and gives his quackery a veneer of legitimacy.
The reality is the majority of FL voters have made clear they’re okay with having this quack and the party that enables him in charge. Until that changes, he won’t be going anywhere.
Remember the goal is to remove anything positive about gays / trans kids, to remove any anti-bullying programs, with the goal of wiping out LGBTQIA visibility in society. That will lead back to the horrible abuse of kids who are different as in the past. We have to find a way to stop this. Remember this is the same school that had the fundamentalist religious person on the board sneak a religious film crew in to take video and interview students. Please look at the actions the board / school districts have taken against LGBTQIA students. The effort was described below by one person interviewed, but to put it in my own words, they want to roll back all advances in acceptance, tolerance, and equality of anyone who is not straight and cis. To remove all protections for kids who are different, who might be LGBTQIA, or not straight or not cis. It is to enshrine church views / doctrines into rules and laws. Return society to what as allowed in the 1950s, which these people feel makes go happy because it makes them feel happy, good, and important. Hugs. Scottie
“What I see driving it now is an ugly push to deny LGBTQ rights and identity that, in some states, is being enshrined in law,” he said.
The Keller ISD school board recently passed policies decried as discriminatory to LGBTQ students.
Timber Creek High School parents received an email Friday night saying that students would no longer perform the show this spring.(NBC5)
A Keller high school production of The Laramie Project — a play about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of a gay student in Wyoming — was canceled.
Timber Creek High School parents received an email Friday night saying that students would no longer perform the show this spring. The email did not provide an explanation.
Community members are now rallying to reinstate the production, launching an online petition that has received more than 1,300 signatures so far.
“This play is a poignant depiction of queer history,” the petition reads. “By banning this play, we are not only suppressing an important piece of history but also denying our students a chance to understand and empathize with the struggles faced by the LGBTQ+ community. … It’s essential that our education system works towards creating awareness about these issues rather than shying away from them.”
In the brief email to families, school leaders said they are “working on developing an alternative production opportunity for our students.”
“We understand that it is unusual for a production change like this to take place. Students will still have an opportunity to read, discuss, and analyze the play during the school day,” they wrote.
District spokesman Bryce Nieman said in a statement that the decision was “made by many stakeholders.”
“The decision to move forward with another production at Timber Creek High School was based on the desire to provide a performance similar to the ones that have created much excitement from the community, like this year’s Keller ISD musical productions of Mary Poppins and White Christmas,” Nieman wrote in an email.
Mary Anne Weatherred, whose son was supposed to perform in The Laramie Project, said she’s concerned about a pattern of anti-LGBTQ decisions in Keller.
If people don’t agree with the message of the show, she said, then they shouldn’t come watch it.
“But they don’t need to take it away from the kids,” she said.
The Laramie Project, which is often performed in high schools across the country, explores the community’s reaction to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who was attacked, tied to a fence in a field and left to die.
His brutal death became a symbol of anti-LGBTQ violence and helped fuel the fight for expanded hate crime legislation.
Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother and president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, said she’s seen a spike in attempts to cancel productions of the show in recent years.
“My heart is broken when people still refuse to see how important this work is,” she said.
Shepard said the play can hold particular resonance for high schoolers, who are only a few years younger than her son was when he died.
“It might scare some kids. And it might wake some kids up. And it might make kids want to make change — all of those things. And they have the power to do it,” she added.
Roughly 25 years since his murder, many lawmakers and local school boards are targeting the rights of LBGTQ students.
Keller school trustees voted last year to establish rules stating that district employees “shall not promote, encourage, or require the use of pronouns that are inconsistent with a student’s or other person’s biological sex.” This means someone could intentionally use the wrong pronouns when referring to a transgender or nonbinary child.
Before that, the school board approved a policy prohibiting library books across all grade levels that include the discussion of gender fluidity.
A Keller ISD trustee resigned earlier this month after parental outcry over a film crew that was brought into a school without families’ knowledge or consent. Parents were enraged when they saw the crew was part of an evangelical network from the Netherlands.
The Matthew Shepard Foundation’s goal is to “create an environment where people are afforded an opportunity to discuss the play and its messages, the hate they encounter in their own lives, and how they can work collectively to build a more understanding and compassionate community.”
“We know educators are worried about the current wave of legislation mandating what they can and can’t teach,” the association’s director, Jennifer Katona, said in a statement. “What’s concerning about these results is the potential impact of self-censorship. School theatre should be a way for students to explore diverse perspectives, which helps them develop empathy and critical thinking.”
A different North Texas district recently triggered national outrage when a transgender teenager was removed from his part in the school musical. The community rallied to get him reinstated in his leading male role.
Howard Sherman, managing director of the performing arts center at Baruch College in Manhattan, is an arts advocate who tracks and fights against instances of theater censorship in schools.
“What I see driving it now is an ugly push to deny LGBTQ rights and identity that, in some states, is being enshrined in law,” he said.
Hearing that Keller ISD wanted to instead put on a show more like Mary Poppins or White Christmas, Sherman said those are great shows that have a place on the high school stage.
“But they shouldn’t be the only kinds of shows because that is not preparing students for college, for the real world,” Sherman said. “Students shouldn’t be relegated to escapism or assumed to not be capable of handling mature themes.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
Earlier this month this same school district was infiltrated by an evangelical group who filmed students without their permission. A school board member who reportedly helped sneak in the film crew later resigned.
Texas high school production of The Laramie Project – a play about the aftermath of the 1998 murder of a gay student in Wyoming – was canceled, without explanation. School board has recently passed other policies that discriminate against LGBTQ students https://t.co/OFfyLKsQ3H
More than 25 years after the murder of Matthew Shepard, young people still face hate and death due to their LGBTQ+ identities. @KellerISD should be ashamed for cancelling "The Laramie Project," which shows how hate poisons communities. https://t.co/MVP9JCwlCq
Well, you can’t let good ChristStain children learn that the hate their parents are spewing lead to the brutal death of an innocent young man whose only crime was being born the way he was born.
One of the reasons for Theatre to be a part of our lives is that it causes people to think. Mary Poppins is not about thinking. White Christmas is not about thinking.
The Laramie project is intended to get people to think. For that reason alone, it would be anathema in Texas .
Meanwhile, the 2nd grade rendition of “Showgirls” (featuring pageant winners Marabelle and Lindsey!) will continue to be performed at the Timber Creek Saloon.
I still remember all those years ago when we had a memorial for Matthew Shepard. We were handed out stickers(which I still have) that read “We’re all Matthew Shepard” It’s the truth these days.
In the seventies, of the six plays we did each year, one was required to be a classic. After casting, but before rehearsal, Lysistrata had to be replaced with The Trojan Women due to one Harper Valley hypocrite.
What are the odds that they will “chose” Godspell or some other Christian-infused pablum? Not Jesus Christ Superstar, that is too “rock,” and not the Jesus-Is-My-Rock type, either.
This trash thinks he is both a Christian and worth to be a legislator. There is no Christian state! The US by the constitution can not have a state / national religion, and children who are not following their strict church doctrines are not filth. A 16 year old was beaten in a bathroom for being different! In the US. And this clown is proud of it. Is that what we want the US to be, to look like? I saw this and I was stunned at the absolute inhumanity of what he is saying. Hugs. Scottie
“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state — we are a moral state. We want to lower taxes and let people be able to live and work and go to the faith they choose.
“We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.” GOP Oklahoma state Sen. Tom Woods, when asked about the death of nonbinary teen student Nex Benedict.
Listen to the applause below.
After a non-binary teen’s death, GOP lawmakers were asked why they obsessed over the lives of LGBTQ people.
State Sen. Tom Woods gave the worst possible answer: he wanted to “keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state.”https://t.co/HrIOkhRVXA
There’s a lot to be disgusted by here, but do not overlook the fact that Christian nationalist language is being used to justify the death of a non-binary student — with absolute authority & confidence. ———
That “filth” was A CHILD !! To use one of their own parlances, “That was one of God’s children” of whose demise this cruel, evil, self-righteous & souless creature glories in.
White Nationalists absolutely believe that. I remember having a step dad who was a licensed Pastor who was one of them. Blacks and Jews were also singled out as Satan’s spawn and therefore hating and even killing them was seen as righteous.
Dehumanizing people makes it easy to be cruel to them.
So my take away here is in your/Oklahoma’s definition of”filth “ is non binary children . The sooner they commit suicide or die off the better Oklahoma will be. It’s so damming Christian of you . You heartless cold bigoted snot . How the fuck can you even look at yourself in a mirror. No I guess you type cast no image
Well, they already passed a law here in Oklahoma to take away the option for non binary people to change their birth certificate and they proposed a bill this legislative session to do the same for the rest of us.
Please understand I read this article, but I can not go back through and colorize it. I have nothing to say I have not screamed already. Please do notice this is being driven by Christian hate and bigotry. The groups pushing this are proud of it, that they are Christians. Are they? Read about Vinny Langworthy, a trans boy followed into bathrooms with people trying to take pictures of him under the bathroom stall doors. Tell me again who are the real sex perverts? I thought Christians leaders were for keeping families together, but here they have broken up families as one parent needs to take a trans child out of state leaving the other parent behind. Sorry people there is a lot in this article, and I have reached over load. I am trying desperately not to cry, I have been up all night not able to sleep and I seriously I just want all the hate to stop. Please, just for a few hours at least. Maybe I will watch more of the Picard series Ron got me, but then … See I had almost cleared two weeks of old tabs tonight, I rushed through others blogs I saved, I answered comments, I was going good. But the last few stories of hate and bigotry have finally broken me. Hugs. Scottie
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Nex Benedict died on February 8, one day after a fight in a Owasso High School bathroom in which they were beaten. (COURTESY OF THE BENEDICT FAMILY)
LGBTQ+ community members in the state are vowing resilience with a message that “we’re not going anywhere” after the 16-year-old nonbinary student’s death.
As news broke this week about the death of 16-year-old nonbinary student Nex Benedict, who died after a fight in a school bathroom, crisis calls to an Oklahoma LGBTQ+ support organization more than quadrupled — with 69 percent of callers referencing Benedict.
As parents, youth and the larger community grapple with the news, Lance Preston, the executive director of the Rainbow Youth Project, said he wants queer youth to know they are well-supported in the state.
“We have an entire army that is standing beside them,” Preston said. “People are not going to ignore them.”
Benedict died on February 8, one day after a fight in a Owasso High School bathroom in which they were beaten. It is unclear if the incident was hate motivated due to Benedict’s gender, but the youth had reported increasing anti-transgender bullying throughout the school year after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law a bill requiring students to use a bathroom that aligned with their sex assigned at birth.
Owasso Public Schools said in a statement that school officials responded appropriately to the fight and have cooperated with the Owasso Police Department’s investigation into Benedict’s death. The district said that all of the students involved walked on their own to the assistant principal’s office and were medically evaluated, per school policy, by a nurse.
“While it was determined that ambulance service was not required, out of an abundance of caution, it was recommended to one parent that their student visit a medical facility for further examination,” the district said in its statement.
Owasso Police said Wednesday that a preliminary autopsy indicates Benedict didn’t die of trauma and that officials are waiting for the results of a toxicology report, which could take months.
The district declined to provide details about the disciplinary measures taken against students involved in the fight due to federal privacy laws. Benedict’s mother told The Independent that Owasso High School officials told her that her child would be suspended for two weeks for the physical altercation. She added that Benedict explained that the fight now linked to their death involved them and a transgender classmate against three girls, all older.
Preston said he has seen a shift in the parents of trans kids.
“It’s kind of been an awakening moment for them,” he said. “Whether they were supportive before, now they’ve kind of gone into that hyper-supportive mode to make sure that they’re doing everything right.”
One mom called Preston on Tuesday crying.
“She had misused a pronoun [with her transgender child] and corrected it immediately but was worried to death that that was going to be enough to harm her child.”
We send our children out into this world every day in fear of something like this happening.
Chelsea Richardson
Chelsea Richardson, whose transgender son Vinny Langworthy survived his own bathroom harassment in high school, made the decision to stay in Oklahoma and provide safe places for kids like her son by opening a bookstore.
Richardson was at her store, getting ready for her grand opening, when the alert about Benedict hit her phone. She felt her heart hit her stomach.
“We send our children out into this world every day in fear of something like this happening,” she said.
Langworthy was out as transgender for his entire time at Harding Charter Preparatory, about two hours southwest of Owasso. He socially and medically transitioned as he got older, and other students started to read him as male. One day, another student took a photo of his feet and legs from under a bathroom stall and posted it to Snapchat, he said. The photo was captioned with an anti-trans slur.
“It was definitely just a hard situation to navigate or always feel like you’re being watched,” Langworthy said.
No longer safe to use student bathrooms, Langworthy used the teachers’ bathrooms, a change that made him late for class or prevented him from using a bathroom at all. He started coming home with urinary tract infections.
Queer kids here are not safe in schools.
Vinny Langworthy
He graduated without a solution. Now 18, he said the news of Benedict and the alleged bullying they faced infuriated him.
“Students should be protected and taken care of no matter their gender identity,” he said. “Queer kids here are not safe in schools.”
Eridian Dempsey of Stand with Trans, which supports transgender youth and their families, said that bullied LGBTQ+ are often disciplined by schools rather than supported by them.
“That happens all the time,” said Dempsey, who is an intern with Stand with Trans, part of the organization’s Youth Advisory Board and its Therapy Assistance Program coordinator. “It’s essentially scapegoating the trans child even though they didn’t necessarily do anything and they were defending themselves if they even fought back. If they didn’t, why are they being blamed in the first place?”
It’s not clear if Benedict and their transgender classmate were in the bathroom together to offer protection to each other, but Dempsey recommends that trans students and their supporters take part in an effort called I’ll Go With You in which allies accompany trans youth into restrooms and other spaces where they may be concerned about their safety.
“They have buttons that people will wear to show that they’re willing to go to the bathroom to help keep trans individuals safe,” Dempsey said.
Although these efforts help, they don’t address why trans youth are targets of bullying and abuse in the first place. Dempsey said that state and local policies contribute to the problem.
“One hundred percent there’s no doubt about it that when the state says we are not OK with trans people living as who they are, then that tells the kids in the schools, ‘If you don’t feel OK with trans people, good for you,’” Dempsey said.
Benedict’s mother learned about the bullying the teen reportedly endured in early 2023, months after the governor signed a bill that mandated students to use only school bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth.
The bullying Benedict endured reportedly started in early 2023, shortly after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that mandated students to use only school bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth. (COURTESY OF THE BENEDICT FAMILY)
Rachel Laser, CEO and president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement that Stitt and Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters have contributed to the hostile climate against LGBTQ+ youth in the state through their efforts to integrate anti-trans laws and fundamentalist Christianity into public schools.
“Oklahoma approved the nation’s first religious public school, which will discriminate against LGBTQ+ students, and Walters appointed Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok, unqualified internet bully, to ban books and oversee school safety,” Laser said. “The hostile, Christian Nationalist environment Walters and Stitt have nurtured in Oklahoma public schools has created a permission structure for anti-LGBTQ+ persecution, and it’s no surprise that teens noticed.”
Cait Smith, director of LGBTQI+ policy at liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, said that when young trans people hear that lawmakers are debating their very existence in state governments, it is extremely harmful. They pointed out that last year more than 60 percent of anti-LBGTQ+ bills introduced into states nationwide specifically targeted youth.
“When we have anti-LGBT bills talking about what schools should and shouldn’t do, it takes away the ability of school staff and families to make those decisions among themselves, among the experts and folks that are closest to the schools and students,” Smith said. “Really, this should be up to families. It should be up to students in schools to be able to foster and find the right policies to foster safe and affirming environments at school.”
Nicole Pointdexter and her son said they were not in a position to stay and fight. The two fled the state for Colorado after Stitt signed a gender-affirming care ban for youth last May.
“They broke up my family,” she said. “I have two boys that still live in Oklahoma.”
Pointdexter and her ex-husband amicably co-parent their three children. In Oklahoma, Poindexter and her ex lived a five-minute walk from each other, and the kids traveled between houses. All of the adults, including the parents’ new partners, enjoyed family meals together. But the gender-affirming care ban made it impossible for Pointdexter’s trans son to stay in Oklahoma. Her ex-husband couldn’t leave his job. Her twin boys didn’t want to give up their spots on their baseball team.
“It was incredibly difficult to make that decision,” she said.
According to research from The Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, 90 percent of LGBTQ+ youth in Oklahoma say that recent politics have negatively impacted their well-being sometimes or frequently. Forty-seven percent reported that they’ve been physically threatened or harmed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Only 31 percent agreed that their school was an LGBTQ+-affirming space.
“Young people deserve to go to school without fearing for their safety, regardless of their identity,” said Janson Wu, senior director of state advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project. “We hope that leaders in Oklahoma and across the U.S. wake up to the reality that targeting trans and nonbinary youth has real and dire consequences.”
When trans youth and their families hear about tragedies like Benedict’s death, it escalates their anxiety by reinforcing the message that it’s not OK to be trans, Dempsey said. Parents worry that they can’t keep their trans children safe in hostile schools with a hostile political climate to match. Parents with bullied trans children need to document each incident carefully, including which school personnel they asked to intervene and the outcomes of their meetings with those officials, Dempsey recommended.
I want those people who are going to school today who might be scared to know that there are people fighting for them.
Chelsea Richardson
They also said that parents should try to openly communicate with their children on an ongoing basis because children may not bring up that they’re being bullied in a conversation unprompted.
Smith wants trans students who feel scared in the wake of Benedict’s death to know that they’re not alone.
“It is scary to see this happen to a member of your community,” they said. “We are going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep pushing back against harmful policies. In the meantime, I want those people who are going to school today who might be scared to know that there are people fighting for them.”
Richardson wants them to know that, too. She has already received threats because she plans on opening a welcoming book store. She isn’t scared.
“I’ve never liked a bully, and I’ve never backed down from a bully,” she said. “So I’m kind of like … let’s do this. We’re not going anywhere. You’re not gonna bully us out of this state.”
I want to thank Ali for the link to a news site I had not seen. I found several important news article to read up on. Like this one.
First are we really going to do the hair length think in 2023? I remember the forced near baldness buzz cut I was forced to wear with the adoptive parents fought with the male hell spawn about their hair length, which they were allowed to wear long as the youth style was at the time. Native First People boys were forced to cut their long hair by white administrators at schools or care homes. It is crazy that something like hair length is still an issue. Short hair on boys and men is simply a way to enforce hegemony and the wish of some on the right to return to the 1950s. I really can not see how this is not discrimination? If girls can only have long hair, then it is discrimination against the boys. If it is only long dreadlocks that are singled out, then it is racial. But no matter, why does the length of hair matter to learning, to education? Does short hair mean your brain takes in knowledge better? I find the treatment the boy was put through to be inhumane and cruel. It seemed designed to break the boy and make him bow down to the authorities. But the article makes clear this is racial, this is against dreadlocks, and to enforce a near military hairstyle favored by right wing republican ideology. Hugs. Scottie
Darryl George speaks during a press conference before a hearing regarding George’s punishment for violating school dress code policy because of his hair style on February 22, 2024, in Anahuac, Texas.(KIRK SIDES/HOUSTON CHRONICLE/AP)
After a short trial, a Texas judge ruled that Barbers Hill school officials are not violating a new state law prohibiting hair discrimination.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated throughout.
A Texas judge on Thursday said the Barbers Hill Independent School District can punish a Black student who wears his hair in long locs without violating Texas’ new CROWN Act, which is meant to prevent hairstyle discrimination in schools and workplaces.
The decision came after a months long dispute between the district and Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School who has been sent to in-school suspension since August for wearing his hair in long locs. Legislators last year passed a law called the Texas CROWN Act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of hair texture or protective styles associated with race. Protective styles include locs, braids and twists.
But the Barbers Hill school district successfully argued it can still enforce its policy that prohibits males from wearing hair that extends beyond eyebrows, earlobes or collars even if it’s gathered on top of the student’s head.
Judge Chap B. Cain III issued the ruling after a short trial in which lawyers for opposing sides argued over the legislative intent behind the CROWN Act. Lawyers for Barbers Hill said lawmakers would have included explicit language about hair length had they intended the law to cover it. Allie Booker, representing Darryl George and his mother Darresha George, said protective styles are only possible with long hair.
“You need significant length to perform the style,” Booker said. “You can’t make braids with a crew cut. You can’t lock anything that isn’t long.”
George exited the courtroom in tears, walking alongside his mother and several lawmakers who co-authored the CROWN Act.
“As I was walking down with Ms. George and Darryl, you could sense the anger, you could sense the confusion,” said Candice Matthews, the statewide chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats. “Darryl told me, with tears in his eyes: ‘All this because of my hair?’”
Greg Poole, superintendent of the Barbers Hill school district, declined an interview after the decision came down. In a statement sent through the district’s spokesperson, Poole applauded the decision.
“The Texas legal system has validated our position that the district’s dress code does not violate the CROWN Act and that the CROWN Act does not give students unlimited self-expression,” Poole said.
Poole also suggested that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on college admissions will have ramifications on Texas’ new CROWN Act.
“The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that affirmative action is a violation of the 14th Amendment, and we believe the same reasoning will eventually be applied to the CROWN Act,” Poole said.
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 40 years of legal precedent and rejected race-conscious admissions in higher education at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The majority found that the universities’ admissions policies, which use race as one of several factors in college admissions, violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which mandates that people are treated equally under the law. The majority of justices found that the race-based policies do not pass “strict scrutiny,” meaning the policies are not justified by a compelling state interest.
It’s unclear how the debate about the CROWN Act is analogous to that SCOTUS ruling. Unlike the college admissions case, Barbers Hill officials have not contested the legality of the CROWN Act itself. They have simply rejected a particular interpretation of the law. The Texas Tribune reached out to Poole to clarify his comments, but he did not immediately respond.
Booker said after the Texas ruling Thursday that she intends to appeal the decision. She also said she will file an injunction in a pending federal lawsuit filed by Darresha and Darryl George against the school district as well as state leaders.
During the trial, Booker called upon two witnesses: Darresha George and Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, who co-authored the CROWN Act and chairs the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. Attorneys asked George’s mother few questions, only asking her to identify her son and define his hairstyle.
Reynolds, however, was questioned at length as the two sides argued over the intent behind the law. Reynolds said he co-authored the bill because he was disturbed by Barbers Hill’s treatment of DeAndre Arnold, a Black student who was told he couldn’t attend his graduation ceremony at Barbers Hill High School unless he cut his locs. A judge issued a preliminary injunction in that case, blocking the school district from enforcing its policy in that particular case. Litigation is ongoing in the case.
“I felt compelled to file legislation to protect students who were similarly situated,” Reynolds said from the witness stand.
Attorneys for Barbers Hill repeatedly objected — with mixed success — to Booker’s line of questioning. They interrupted nearly every one of her questions to say they were irrelevant or that the intent behind the law was plain within the law itself.
“It would be an error to consider Rep. Reynolds’ comments as indicative of legislative intent,” Barbers Hill attorney Sara Leon said in her closing argument to the judge. “You do have evidence of legislative intent, which is the language of the statute, which does not mention length.”
Judge Cain ultimately sided with Barbers Hill, saying that the CROWN Act could have been written to say that individuals with braids, locs or twists are exempt from any hair length policy. He encouraged lawmakers to go back to the Legislature and file a new version of the CROWN Act that includes specific language about length.
The judge did not comment on the constitutionality of Barbers Hill’s policy, which Bookers had called into question during her opening and closing arguments. She said that the district’s grooming policy violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution because it is only applied to one gender. And she further argued that because the CROWN Act names a specific “protected class” of individuals with a particular hairstyle associated with race, the burden must be on the school district to prove that their grooming policy is the only way to achieve a “compelling state interest.”
“The district has not proven that the policy is tailored to serve those interests,” Booker said, citing an affidavit from Superintendent Poole that articulated the purpose of the dress code is to “teach grooming and hygiene, instill discipline, maintain a positive and safe learning environment, prevent disruption, avoid safety hazards, and teach respect for authority.”
In light of the ruling, George will remain assigned to in-school suspension, where he is allegedly denied instructional materials and hot food.
Before the trial, George said the experience has been isolating and damaging to his mental health.
“It feels lonely,” George said. “When you’re only stuck in one room for a whole semester it makes you feel some type of way. You see everyone else walking around talking and laughing and you can’t do that.”
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Scottie's Playtime 