LGBTQ Rights and Right-wing Gay Bashing

[LFC]

I stumbled onto a bit of Andrew Sullivan and oof, it's hard to read. Much like The American Conservative I see somebody who was once at least a reasonable voice for conservatism devolve into an odd mish-mash of grievances and fish-shaking at "woke" culture. Here's a recent tweet that can only be described as overwrought.

Here's another showing what is a Dreher-lite attack on the trans movement. He seems to be exactly like those he once criticized when it came to the social safety net. He attacked Paul Ryan as somebody who got where he was because of government aid and then wanted to "pull up the ladder" behind him. Now that same-sex marriage is legal and widely accepted he seems to be digging and clawing at ways to prevent the trans movement have their own moment of acceptance. This piece has a title and subtitle that show how emotionally overwhelmed he has become.

The Trans Movement Is Not About Rights Anymore
It's about a cultural revolution and the abolition of biological sex.

I'd say it's about taking the simplistic, inaccurate vision of biological sex and bringing actual science to it but maybe that's just me.

Looking back over his past year or so of writings he also seems to have abandoned any real worry about Republican fascism (two headlines) which I guess is as important as fighting CRT (also two headlines). One subtitle goes so far as to say "Glen Youngkin's mix of populist policy and moderate style is a breakthrough." Yep, he's now a culture warrior and every transgression of the leftiest of the left is more important than actual fascism and the currently executing plans to destroy American democracy. So much for useful conservatism.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 28, 2022 18:51:17 GMT LFC said:

I stumbled onto a bit of Andrew Sullivan and oof, it's hard to read. Much like The American Conservative I see somebody who was once at least a reasonable voice for conservatism devolve into an odd mish-mash of grievances and fish-shaking at "woke" culture. Here's a recent tweet that can only be described as overwrought.

Here's another showing what is a Dreher-lite attack on the trans movement. He seems to be exactly like those he once criticized when it came to the social safety net. He attacked Paul Ryan as somebody who got where he was because of government aid and then wanted to "pull up the ladder" behind him. Now that same-sex marriage is legal and widely accepted he seems to be digging and clawing at ways to prevent the trans movement have their own moment of acceptance. This piece has a title and subtitle that show how emotionally overwhelmed he has become.

The Trans Movement Is Not About Rights Anymore
It's about a cultural revolution and the abolition of biological sex.

I'd say it's about taking the simplistic, inaccurate vision of biological sex and bringing actual science to it but maybe that's just me.

Looking back over his past year or so of writings he also seems to have abandoned any real worry about Republican fascism (two headlines) which I guess is as important as fighting CRT (also two headlines). One subtitle goes so far as to say "Glen Youngkin's mix of populist policy and moderate style is a breakthrough." Yep, he's now a culture warrior and every transgression of the leftiest of the left is more important than actual fascism and the currently executing plans to destroy American democracy. So much for useful conservatism.

Sullivan got what he wanted...legalized single sex marriage.  He fails to recognize that many who strenuously opposed that claimed that legalization was abolition of biological sex.  Now he's a get off my lawn conservative.  It's sad really.  He was a good writer, seemed fairly clear sighted about the Romney campaign, and now has decided to remain relevant to whatever right wingers who don't know he's a gay married man want to believe.

[LFC]

Another sick, cruel, vicious Republican who simply wants the people she doesn't like to get bullied, even if it's a child.

GOP Candidate Outraged About Not Being Allowed To Let Trans Kids Get Bullied

Republican Texas House candidate Shelley Luther, an ex-school teacher who is “not comfortable with the transgenders,” complained during a campaign event on Saturday about a time when she had a transgender student in her classroom and was told that “I couldn’t have kids laugh at them.”

[goldenvalley]

Feb 10, 2022 22:30:45 GMT LFC said:

Another sick, cruel, vicious Republican who simply wants the people she doesn't like to get bullied, even if it's a child.

GOP Candidate Outraged About Not Being Allowed To Let Trans Kids Get Bullied

Republican Texas House candidate Shelley Luther, an ex-school teacher who is “not comfortable with the transgenders,” complained during a campaign event on Saturday about a time when she had a transgender student in her classroom and was told that “I couldn’t have kids laugh at them.

I call BS. How would she even know if a transgender student was transgender? And what teacher would ever encourage students to pick on each other?

[LFC]

Floriduh is desperately trying to push gays back in the closet.

Florida House Passes ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

The infamous Florida bill that would ban “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” passed the state’s Republican-controlled House on Thursday.

• It’s expected to become law. The GOP-controlled Senate is poised to pass the bill, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has publicly backed the legislation.

• The bill’s sponsor insists it’s about “parental rights,” a thing conservatives cherish deeply unless the parents in question have a trans kid.
      • Speaking of which, the five Texas district attorneys in the state’s largest counties announced yesterday that they have no interest in following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) directive to prosecute parents who allow their kids to get gender-affirming care.

[LFC]

On that last bullet, the cruelty is still the point.

District attorneys in five of the largest counties in Texas on Thursday announced that they will not comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) and state attorney general Ken Paxton’s (R) directive that state agencies begin investigating gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths.

The district attorneys of Dallas, Travis, Bexar, Nueces and Fort Bend counties condemned the directive in a statement issued Thursday. The group, which is comprised of five Democratic district attorneys, slammed Abbott and Paxton’s characterization of gender-affirming care for minors as “child abuse.” They declared Abbott and Paxton’s recent rhetoric is an “onslaught on personal freedoms” that is on its face “un-American.”

“We also want to be clear: we will enforce the Constitution and will not irrationally and unjustifiably interfere with medical decisions made between children, their parents, and their medical physicians,” the district attorneys wrote. “We trust the judgment of our state’s medical professionals, who dedicate themselves to providing the highest degree of care not only for our transgender youth, but for all youth in our communities.”

The group of district attorneys also assured parents that they are “safe” to continue seeking gender-affirming care for their children.

“We will not allow the Governor and Attorney General to disregard Texan children’s lives in order to score political points,” they wrote.

The statement by the group of district attorneys comes just after Abbott sent a letter to the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) directing the agency to investigate gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, with a specific focus on surgical care.

[LFC]

A spokesperson for DeSatanist called people against his gay bashing bill pedophiles because ... oh FFS, I have no idea why. These people are such nuckin' futs it's impossible to guess what's in their fevered little heads.

DeSantis Spokesperson Says Opponents Of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Are Pro-Pedophilia

Christina Pushaw, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) spokesperson, is trying to whitewash the bill that would ban classroom discussions on LGBTQ+ topics as an “Anti-Grooming” bill.

• Anyone who’s against the measure is “probably a groomer” or otherwise doesn’t “denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children,” Pushaw tweeted on Friday.

• Pushaw suggested without evidence on Sunday that an LGBTQ+ Florida lawmaker who had slammed her tweets about the bill was a groomer himself, saying that “A hit dog hollers.”

• The bill is slated to be put to a vote in the Florida Senate today, where it’s expected to pass and get sent over to DeSantis’ desk.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 7, 2022 21:27:57 GMT LFC said:

A spokesperson for DeSatanist called people against his gay bashing bill pedophiles because ... oh FFS, I have no idea why. These people are such nuckin' futs it's impossible to guess what's in their fevered little heads.

DeSantis Spokesperson Says Opponents Of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Are Pro-Pedophilia

Christina Pushaw, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) spokesperson, is trying to whitewash the bill that would ban classroom discussions on LGBTQ+ topics as an “Anti-Grooming” bill.

• Anyone who’s against the measure is “probably a groomer” or otherwise doesn’t “denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children,” Pushaw tweeted on Friday.

• Pushaw suggested without evidence on Sunday that an LGBTQ+ Florida lawmaker who had slammed her tweets about the bill was a groomer himself, saying that “A hit dog hollers.”

• The bill is slated to be put to a vote in the Florida Senate today, where it’s expected to pass and get sent over to DeSantis’ desk.

Old school homophobia...kids are recruited or groomed into being LGBTQ+.  The gay community is a community of pedophiles.

[LFC]

Florida Republicans continue their political gay bashing to make their base happy. I guess it's a lot easier than actual governance which requires hard work, compromise, and accomplishments.

Florida Just Passed The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill, Another Prong In Agenda-less Republicans’ Faux Outrage Machine

Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature just passed the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill, as dubbed by critics, after the state Senate approved the measure on Tuesday. The Florida House passed the bill in February.

The measure now heads over to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who, in his commitment to the right-wing grievance issues that have been fueling his reelection campaign (and his prospects of a potential 2024 presidential bid), has backed the bill.

Under the legislation, which is officially titled the Parental Rights in Education bill, classroom discussion about ”sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

It would take effect on July 1.

The LGBTQ+ community and its allies have widely condemned the legislation as an attempt to censor and stigmatize LGBTQ+ teachers and students.

President Joe Biden slammed the “hateful” bill on Twitter last month.

The sponsor of the bill, Florida state Rep. Joe Harding (R), has insisted that the measure wasn’t about shutting down discussions about LGBTQ+ issues; it “empowers parents” and “defines that there are certain instructions related to gender and sexual orientation that are just not appropriate at certain ages.”

However, critics point out that the bill’s vague language doesn’t make clear what those “certain instructions” are or when it’s ever been the case that schools were cramming inappropriate material about gender and sexual orientation down young kids’ throats. It’s a crucial point that touches on conservatives’ broader efforts to manufacture outrage over a non-existent issue at marginalized people’s expense.

And DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw’s tweets over the weekend defending the bill, which she whitewashed as an “Anti-Grooming” bill, further fueled fears that the legislation would perpetuate homophobic tropes about LGBTQ+ people being child molesters.

This is what the GOP is reduced to "accomplishing."

The Florida legislation runs parallel with Republicans’ fixation on “critical race theory,” an academic framework that they’ve distorted into a catch-all term for any learning material that discusses systemic racism for fear that it may cause “discomfort” for white students. Florida Republicans, with DeSantis’ support, are poised to pass a bill that prohibits not just schools from teaching anything that triggers that “discomfort,” but also bans workplaces from enforcing any type of diversity training that supposedly does the same thing.

The GOP’s war on “wokeness,” combined with the notion of parental rights as rallying cause for its far-right base, has become a vehicle in red states for other purportedly pro-parent choice endeavors, like purging school library books and learning material that conservatives find offensive, leading to attempted bans that target books about race and LGBTQ+ issues.

I'm sure Rod Dreher is touching himself over this but wouldn't dare admit it out loud because he doesn't want to be called recognized as a bigoted gay hater.

[andydp]

Looks like there's idiots everywhere !!

Indonesian Politician Claims Instant Noodles Can Make Babies Gay.


The mayor of Indonesia’s Tangerang city has reportedly claimed that babies can become gay by consuming instant noodles and milk formula.

“To create Indonesian children that are healthy smart and competitive, the most important thing is, from the beginning, to provide them adequate nutrition, especially breastfeeding,” Arief R Wismansyah said during a city-run pregnancy seminar on Tuesday, reported Coconuts Jakarta.

unitedhumanists.com/2016/03/07/indonesian-politician-claims-instant-noodles-can-make-babies-gay/?fbclid=IwAR3e4YdbpuQAb3_ZkCthJ-igu9zp4BZoDbcm4ucYoXm6pCDf-8S4VTD-ukk

[LFC]

The cruelty is, once again, the point.

I have several friends who are parents of trans kids. It’s rarely an easy road. Establishing gender dysphoria – the medical condition in which one’s deeply felt sense of gender is different from one’s assigned sex – is often a complicated process. Before it’s identified, many of my friends’ kids have struggled, and been diagnosed with a variety of other disorders before doctors and psychiatrists hone in on gender. Sometimes, kids speak up for themselves. Sometimes they’re listened to, sometimes not.

So to finally get that gender dysphoria diagnosis, for my friends anyway, has been an occasion for joy and relief. And when the interventions – hormones, hormone blockers, even (infrequently) surgical procedures – work, it’s almost like a miracle. No wonder studies show that receiving gender-affirming care reduces suicide and depression among teenagers. Trans kids are trans kids (and non-binary kids are non-binary kids, and so on), and, thank God, we now have ways to help them live as they are.

I wonder if any Republican legislators in Idaho, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and other states currently banning transgender healthcare have ever met anyone trans, or anyone whose kid is trans. I understand that the latest raft of horrifying anti-transgender laws and anti-gay laws are mostly meant as catnip for the self-styled religious conservatives who make up the Republican party’s largest base. I understand that they’re part of a national campaign, not some grassroots movement. And I understand that it’s an election year.

But if you know anyone transgender, these laws are just unspeakably cruel, even if the hate is just for show.

[Bact PhD]

Disney’s belated response to the all-but-signed-into-law is pissing off a number of its creative employees.

www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2022-03-10/disney-employees-hurt-and-angry-over-ceos-response-to-florida-lgbtq-bill

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Chapek on Wednesday tried to soothe outrage at the company’s muted response to Florida’s controversial bill restricting classroom instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity.

But his belated statement opposing the legislation, and outreach to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, did not satisfy critics, including queer Disney employees outraged by reports that the company had donated to politicians who backed the bill. The company is a huge Florida employer, with tens of thousands of workers at Walt Disney World Resort.

A group of employees at Disney-owned Pixar Animation Studios sent a statement to leadership, expressing their frustration with the company’s position.

“We are writing because we are disappointed, hurt, afraid, and angry,” said the statement, attributed to the LGBTQIA+ employees of Pixar and their allies. “In regards to Disney’s financial involvement with legislators behind the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, we hoped that our company would show up for us. But it didn’t.”

[LFC]

Georgia's going for a gay bashing law of their own to fire up their base. There's nothing that fires these people up more than being able to kick the crap out of those they don't like. Once again the cruelty is the point.

‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Pops Up In Georgia

Republican state senators in Georgia have introduced their own version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill that would make it illegal for teachers to “promote, compel, or encourage classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not appropriate for the age and developmental stage of the student.”

• The Georgia bill weirdly only targets private schools, unlike Florida’s. It’s titled the “Common Humanity in Private Education Act.”

• The measure is unlikely to pass given that it was introduced this late in the legislative session (right after Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature passed its bill on Tuesday, in fact), as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes. But that’s obviously not going to stop it from getting brought up again later down the road.

• The bill also takes aim at “critical theory” being taught in schools, an efficient way to make sure all the GOP’s “anti-wokeness” bases are covered in one strike (not clear why it’s not the full “critical race theory” though).

• Two of the bill’s 10 co-sponsors are running for higher office, including lieutenant governor.

[LFC]

Mar 11, 2022 15:59:27 GMT Bact PhD said:

Disney’s belated response to the all-but-signed-into-law is pissing off a number of its creative employees.

It gets worse. It turns out that not only has Disney given money to every politician who supported the bill but they acknowledge they would continue to do so.

It quickly came out that Disney had donated to every single politician who supported the bill, which was a shock to people who might have assumed the bigoted nature of the legislation, let alone its unjustifiable pretense, would run contra to the values of a company associated with stories about happily-ever-afters, embracing what makes you special, and the importance of acceptance within families.

How does one square what a company like Disney’s output has meant to them and their lives with its support of values that are completely at odds with what you believe in? It’s not a new conversation. (What’s up, J.K. Rowling?) But it’s still difficult each time we’re forced to confront it.

There was immediate outrage, not only from Disney consumers but from employees within the company. It prompted Disney CEO Bob Chapek to pledge his support for the LGBTQ+ community, but also maintain that the company was still going to continue to donate money to those politicians. The company also opted not to publicly condemn the measure because, as Chapek wrote in a memo to employees, corporate statements “do very little to change outcomes or minds” and instead are “often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame.”

[andydp]

“Don’t Say Gay” will be put on the ballot in Florida and wherever it’s been passed or considered.

Result ? This will have the effect of getting every “values voter” out to vote to insure that virtue and morality remain the foundation block of a Christian America.

[LFC]

Disney is weathering a shitstorm of their own making.

Employees of the Walt Disney Company staged a walkout on Tuesday over CEO Bob Chapek’s tepid response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which is set to ban lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation at elementary schools in one of the largest states in the country.

GOP Gov. Rick DeSantis has indicated he will soon sign the legislation—officially known as the Parental Rights in Education bill—into law. It’s a measure LGBTQ+ activists and allies and mental-health professionals have condemned as harmful to students, and represents just one part of a broader wave of anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives in right-wing states in recent months.

The bill would outright ban instruction on the key issues with students in kindergarten to third grade, and severely curtail them in other grades. It also invites lawsuits if and when parents believe teachers have violated the new rules. And while Disney’s corporate executives have indicated the company opposes the legislation, they have come under withering attack for failing to publicly resist it before it was too late.

Tuesday’s protest at multiple Disney locations across the country—and among different subsidiaries including Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm—followed a week of smaller-scale walkouts during 15-minute afternoon breaks.

Outside Disney headquarters in Burbank, California, a CNBC producer captured video of a few dozen employees marching and chanting, “Say gay! Say gay!”

It doesn't help that they have poured campaign contributions into the coffers of the gay bashers themselves.

On their website, walkout organizers are demanding Disney permanently stop campaign donations to politicians backing the bill—including DeSantis, who in recent days slammed Disney as a “woke corporation.” According to Newsweek, Disney and its companies have donated at least $250,000 to Republican state senators who voted to pass the legislation, but the company has also become a right-wing punching bag when it has pushed back on the measure.

[LFC]

Threatening school employees for thought crimes? How very constitutional. Bold mine.

In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart.

“I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said, according to a recording of the Jan. 10 meeting obtained and verified by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Glenn explained that Granbury, the largest city in a county where 81 percent of residents voted for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is “very, very conservative.”

He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, “You better hide it,” adding, “Here in this community, we’re going to be conservative.”

That’s why, he said, he needed to talk to them about some of the books available in the school district’s libraries.

The obsession with sex is rotting the right-wingers' brains.

Many of the titles targeted statewide have featured queer characters and storylines, but those calling for the books’ removal have repeatedly said they are concerned only with sex and vulgarity, not with suppressing the views of LGBTQ students and authors.

Glenn made a similar argument during his closed-door meeting with librarians in Granbury, which is about an hour’s drive southwest of Dallas.

“I don’t want a kid picking up a book, whether it’s about homosexuality or heterosexuality, and reading about how to hook up sexually in our libraries,” Glenn said.

He also made it clear that his concerns specifically included books with LGBTQ themes, even if they do not describe sex. Those comments, according to legal experts, raise concerns about possible violations of the First Amendment and federal civil rights laws that protect students from discrimination based on their gender and sexuality.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 24, 2022 17:36:15 GMT LFC said:

Threatening school employees for thought crimes? How very constitutional. Bold mine.

In early January, a day before students returned from winter break, Jeremy Glenn, the superintendent of the Granbury Independent School District in North Texas, told a group of librarians he’d summoned to a district meeting room that he needed to speak from his heart.

“I want to talk about our community,” Glenn said, according to a recording of the Jan. 10 meeting obtained and verified by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Glenn explained that Granbury, the largest city in a county where 81 percent of residents voted for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is “very, very conservative.”

He noted that members of Granbury’s school board — his bosses — were also very conservative. And to any school employees who might have different political beliefs, Glenn said, “You better hide it,” adding, “Here in this community, we’re going to be conservative.”

That’s why, he said, he needed to talk to them about some of the books available in the school district’s libraries.

The obsession with sex is rotting the right-wingers' brains.

Many of the titles targeted statewide have featured queer characters and storylines, but those calling for the books’ removal have repeatedly said they are concerned only with sex and vulgarity, not with suppressing the views of LGBTQ students and authors.

Glenn made a similar argument during his closed-door meeting with librarians in Granbury, which is about an hour’s drive southwest of Dallas.

“I don’t want a kid picking up a book, whether it’s about homosexuality or heterosexuality, and reading about how to hook up sexually in our libraries,” Glenn said.

He also made it clear that his concerns specifically included books with LGBTQ themes, even if they do not describe sex. Those comments, according to legal experts, raise concerns about possible violations of the First Amendment and federal civil rights laws that protect students from discrimination based on their gender and sexuality.

My theory is that these folks are feeling ok financially so they don't have any challenges to occupy their minds and emotions. They need a thrill in their otherwise humdrum lives.  What is better than sex to get that thrill? It combines the crusade aspect with the titillation aspect, especially if they're reviewing books for the bad material.

[LFC]

They are coming for the gays. They just can't leave them in peace and simply have to attack them to feel better about themselves. The American right, especially the Christianists, runs on pure hate and rage.

An upcoming Supreme Court decision cast a shadow across the hearing room where Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson sat for three days, fielding questions about her qualifications for the job: Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

That’s the case where nearly everyone, on both sides of the abortion debate, expects the Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The conservative justices weren’t particularly coy about their intent during oral arguments in the case, bracing Court watchers for a landmark ruling this summer.

For conservatives, it’s a decades-long battle nearly won. And some of them are accordingly turning their attention to the next theater of war.

Senate Judiciary Republicans clearly signaled where they want to steer their conservative supermajority Court next, largely not bothering to cloak the new target in vagueries or code. They’re gunning for Obergefell.

Obergefell vs. Hodges is the 2015 decision where the Court decided, in a 5-4 decision, that the 14th Amendment gives same-sex couples the right to marry.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), opening his line of questioning with references to famously wrongly-decided precedent, spent much of his time advocating for Obergefell’s fall.

“Isn’t it apparent that when the Supreme Court decides that something that is not even in the Constitution is a fundamental right, and no state can pass any law that conflicts with the Supreme Court’s edict particularly in an area where people have sincerely held religious beliefs, doesn’t that necessarily create conflict between what people may believe is a matter of their religious doctrine or faith and what the federal government says is the law of the land?” he asked.

“Well, senator, that is the nature of a right,” Jackson responded.

Cornyn went on to call it “judicial policymaking,” saying that the word “marriage” does not appear in the Constitution, but that “religious freedom” is mentioned explicitly.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) operated in much the same vein during his time with the mic.

[LFC]

The hate, sickness, and threats of violence continue to pour out of the right at LGBTQ people.

A former candidate for Mississippi governor tweeted last week that “groomers” and supporters of trans rights should be executed by firing squad.

His account has already been reinstated by Twitter.

On Thursday, Robert Foster suggested—apparently unprompted—that “those who want to groom our children and pretend men are women,” the latter a reference to supporters of transgender rights, should be “lined up against a wall before a firing squad and sent to an early judgment.”

Foster reiterated his call for the state-sanctioned murder of trans rights supporters in a message to the Mississippi Free Press. “The law should be changed so that anyone trying to sexually groom children and/or advocating to put men pretending to be women in locker rooms and bathrooms with young women should receive the death penalty by firing squad,” Foster told the website, declining an interview.

(Though “grooming” is a real term used to describe adults who build trust with children and their families in order to sexually abuse them, the American right has recently weaponized the term to portray supporters of LGBTQ+ youth as being driven by pedophilia.)

Foster, a former two-term state representative who received 18 percent of the Republican primary vote in 2019, was the principal author of a 2017 bill allowing Mississippi to execute death row prisoners by firing squad and gas chamber, according to the Mississippi Free Press.

Foster’s post was later removed for violating Twitter’s rules, but the ex-lawmaker continued to imply that trans rights supporters should be killed. In response to a tweet from former Mississippi GOP executive director Spencer Ritchie implying Foster was a fascist, Foster castigated Ritchie and other “spineless establishment RINOs” for “conced[ing] every fight with the Communists.”

“Now the Godless have power and they are destroying our country,” Foster tweeted at Ritchie. “Soon we will have to deal with this directly.”

That tweet was still up as of Tuesday morning, as was another where Foster said that a firing squad was a “civilized and efficient way of disposing of evil” and cheaper than it would be to “fly them all up high over the Gulf of Mexico and push them out of a helicopter.”

[/a][/quote]

[LFC]

Rod Dreher has reached "peak personality" and blown past it. For those who don't recognize the term somebody posted an article about it on the old TRS (apparently no longer available). The psychologists studying talked about how children with mental illnesses have trouble controlling them but often gain a level of control as they get older. As they age that control often begins to slip, often starting around their late 40s and early to mid 50s. Interestingly there seems to be different average ages for different conditions.

As Rod ages, and he is now 55 years old, his attempts to appear reasoning and reasonable continue to fall away. His supposed valid religious view on the sin of homosexuality has been turning into gay bashing for years. Today marks a new low with an outright hysterical interpretation of a Disney executive talking about having the freedom to add gay characters and references into a variety of productions. The title of his piece is "Disney Queers Children, Says Disney Exec", a mind boggling juxtaposition of what she actually did.

Disney has been trying to queer children for a long time. A senior Disney executive brags about that to her colleagues! Stop being gaslighted, mom and dad. Disney is the enemy of your family and your children.

To hell with woke capitalism! A Republican Party that is willing to fight Big Business on behalf of families and ordinary people could get somewhere in this country.

You watch: none of this will be reported by the mainstream media, whose position is, “Claims that Disney is queering America’s children are bigoted conservative dogwhistles — and it’s a good thing Disney is doing it!”

Apparently that wasn't far enough for him and he felt the need to add an update.

UPDATE: Groomers. They are all groomers. Why do some of the richest and most powerful people in America, executives of a company that has unparalleled access to the imaginations of America’s children, care so much about the sexuality of kids? It’s creepy. It’s demonic. This is happening right now in our country. You are foolish and cowardly if you minimize it for the sake of avoiding conflict.

The clips of the Disney executives that are presented as "evidence" show a massive entertainment company trying to be as inclusive as possible. They are telling children it's OK to be different. Apparently this is evil indoctrination, as compared to the gay bashing venom that he and his religious cohorts spew. He continued his meltdown.

Auron MacIntyre is right. This is where we are as a culture. They honest to God are going after our children, these progressives, these woke capitalists. I was thinking yesterday that maybe I went too far in my post from the weekend about “‘Woman,’ Man, and the Fight Against Evil”. Nope. When you have executives of the most powerful entity with access to the imaginations of children on planet Earth openly admitting, even bragging, about their work propagandizing and indoctrinating children into queerness and gender ideology, the evil is laid bare. Nobody has an excuse now not to know this. You moms and dads who let your kids watch the Disney Channel, and consume Disney products — what are you going to do? Look away? Don’t you dare look away. The responsibility is now yours. What are you going to do about it?

And it goes on. This is not a mentally stable human being. He needs serous, prolonged, professional help.

[LFC]

This is a great explanation of the complexity of "biological sex." Once again the right demands that what they want to believe in be boiled down to an elementary school level of complexity, even if that's not how things work. Of course when it comes to anything they blame the left for the conspiracies can and do getting incredibly complex.

Then there's this chart.

[LFC]

Oh, look! Another cowardly gay basher!

Ohio Republican State Representative Jean Schmidt, who just introduced a new, expansive, and purposefully vague "Don't Say Gay" bill refused to talk to reporters Tuesday as she ran away from them insisting she was in a big hurry to go to the Senate.

"I've got to go to the Senate, please don't harass me," Rep. Schmidt begged reporters.

When asked why she introduced the possibly unconstitutional legislation Rep. Schmidt refused to answer, ignoring the question. When another reporter asked why she didn't "want to talk about this bill," Schmidt continued her fast pace and again refused to answer.

HB 616, for which Schmidt is one of two original co-sponsors, is similar to Florida's possibly unconstitutional law but also bans other top GOP targets, including Critical Race Theory (CRT), The 1619 Project, "Inherited racial guilt," and "Diversity, equity, and inclusion learning outcomes."

It places those bans and ones on sexual orientation and gender identity into an umbrella category called "Divisive or inherently racist concepts."

And once again Republicans accuse others of what they are doing. The projection is strong with these people.

[LFC]

Chicago puts out the welcome mat to companies that don't like being in states that bash gay and trans people for political gain.

In the war for the hearts, minds and corporate relocations of businesses, Chicago has fired another shot across the bow at three Sun Belt rivals over recent legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community, such as the Florida education law critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”

World Business Chicago, the city’s public-private economic development arm, bought full-page ads Thursday in the Orlando Sentinel, Dallas Morning News and Phoenix Business Journal to launch a new marketing campaign and promote Chicago as a more inclusive business climate.

“In Chicago, We Believe,” takes on a lightning rod issue that has led a growing number of corporations, including Walt Disney Co., to condemn a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation enacted in Florida and other states. While Disney World is unlikely to pull up stakes anytime soon, the new ad includes a broader pitch that all businesses are “welcome in Chicago.”

“Chicago has values as a city, which makes it attractive for talent and corporations in the climate where other states drive legislation that is not respectful, inclusive of all the residents,” said Michael Fassnacht, president and CEO of World Business Chicago and the city’s chief marketing officer. “I think that diversity is our key competitive advantage.”

[pnwguy]

Apr 7, 2022 21:30:46 GMT LFC said:

Chicago puts out the welcome mat to companies that don't like being in states that bash gay and trans people for political gain.

In the war for the hearts, minds and corporate relocations of businesses, Chicago has fired another shot across the bow at three Sun Belt rivals over recent legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community, such as the Florida education law critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”

World Business Chicago, the city’s public-private economic development arm, bought full-page ads Thursday in the Orlando Sentinel, Dallas Morning News and Phoenix Business Journal to launch a new marketing campaign and promote Chicago as a more inclusive business climate.

“In Chicago, We Believe,” takes on a lightning rod issue that has led a growing number of corporations, including Walt Disney Co., to condemn a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation enacted in Florida and other states. While Disney World is unlikely to pull up stakes anytime soon, the new ad includes a broader pitch that all businesses are “welcome in Chicago.”

“Chicago has values as a city, which makes it attractive for talent and corporations in the climate where other states drive legislation that is not respectful, inclusive of all the residents,” said Michael Fassnacht, president and CEO of World Business Chicago and the city’s chief marketing officer. “I think that diversity is our key competitive advantage.”

"The Big Sort" has been going on for decades, but I suspect we'll see it accelerate, much like climate change.  We'll see educated people, especially more mobile people without children, migrate to ever-expensive urban areas where white collar jobs are.  And we'll see religious, less educated aggrieved whites continue moving to rural areas where they can numerically dominate (and physically intimidate) others.