LGBTQ Rights and Right-wing Gay Bashing

[LFC]

Another "Don't Say Gay" law, this time in Missouri. They really do hate gay people.

K-12 public school teachers and counselors would be largely outlawed from talking about LGBTQ people under a Missouri proposal more restrictive than what critics call Florida’s “ Don’t Say Gay ” law.

Republican state Sen. Mike Moon’s bill, which received a Tuesday committee hearing in the GOP-led Missouri state Senate, is among several filed across the nation this year that are similar to Florida’s new law.

The Missouri proposal goes farther than the Florida law, which bars instruction on sexual orientation, gender identity and other lessons deemed not age appropriate in kindergarten through third grade.

Missouri’s bill would only allow licensed mental health care providers to talk to students about gender identity and LGBTQ issues in K-12 public schools, and only if guardians first give permission.

“The bill follows the lead of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill but does so with broader impact and implications than any bill being considered in the nation,” said Katy Erker-Lynch, executive director of the LGBTQ state advocacy group Promo.

They aren't the only ones in meltdown over their innocent, well-armed children learning about icky gay people.

North Carolina senators are expected to vote Tuesday on legislation to prohibit instruction about sexuality and gender identity in K-4 public school classes. The proposal would require schools in most circumstances to alert parents prior to a change in the name or pronoun used for their child.

In Kansas, top Republican legislators are focusing on helping conservative parents remove their children from public schools over what’s taught about gender and sexuality. The effort has become their alternative to pursuing a version of the Florida law.

[goldenvalley]

Feb 8, 2023 16:50:06 GMT LFC said:

Another "Don't Say Gay" law, this time in Missouri. They really do hate gay people.

K-12 public school teachers and counselors would be largely outlawed from talking about LGBTQ people under a Missouri proposal more restrictive than what critics call Florida’s “ Don’t Say Gay ” law.

Republican state Sen. Mike Moon’s bill, which received a Tuesday committee hearing in the GOP-led Missouri state Senate, is among several filed across the nation this year that are similar to Florida’s new law.

The Missouri proposal goes farther than the Florida law, which bars instruction on sexual orientation, gender identity and other lessons deemed not age appropriate in kindergarten through third grade.

Missouri’s bill would only allow licensed mental health care providers to talk to students about gender identity and LGBTQ issues in K-12 public schools, and only if guardians first give permission.

“The bill follows the lead of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill but does so with broader impact and implications than any bill being considered in the nation,” said Katy Erker-Lynch, executive director of the LGBTQ state advocacy group Promo.

They aren't the only ones in meltdown over their innocent, well-armed children learning about icky gay people.

North Carolina senators are expected to vote Tuesday on legislation to prohibit instruction about sexuality and gender identity in K-4 public school classes. The proposal would require schools in most circumstances to alert parents prior to a change in the name or pronoun used for their child.

In Kansas, top Republican legislators are focusing on helping conservative parents remove their children from public schools over what’s taught about gender and sexuality. The effort has become their alternative to pursuing a version of the Florida law.

These legislators can't introduce anti Black bills anymore and don't need to because so much is already built into the system so they're picking on gay people.

[LFC]

Nikki Haley, having personal ambitions coupled with no moral compass, is now trying to out gay-bash Ron DeSatanist.

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is calling out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law... for doing too little. Haley, who recently announced her bid for the Republican nomination in 2024, said at an event in New Hampshire that the law banning teachers from talking about gender and sexual orientation before fourth grade doesn’t go “far enough.” “We should not be talking to kids in elementary school about gender, period,” Haley said in an interview with Fox News after the event. DeSantis, who is widely expected to announce his own presidential campaign, has received significant backlash for the law, which critics say limits’ teachers’ freedom of expression in the classroom and stigmatizes the LGBT community. Haley added that conversations about gender are a “decision for parents to make,” echoing rhetoric that Republicans have used to justify attempts to limit classroom discussion on race, gender, and sexuality, and to ban library books that conservatives deem inappropriate.

[LFC]

The hatred continues. Remember when Dreher said this battle of the culture war was won and those on the side of gay rights (not how he put it, of course) should be gracious to those with different religious beliefs? My view was "F*** YOU!" then and it's even more "F*** YOU!" now. I predicted then that if these sick, twisted zealots were given a chance they'd do anything they could get away with to hurt LGBTQ people for fun and political gain. Score one for me, unfortunately.

Some Republican lawmakers want to change the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

House Joint Resolution 8 was introduced in the Iowa House on Tuesday.

The bill has eight sponsors: Brad Sherman, Luana Stoltenberg, Mark Cisneros, Helena Hayes, Zach Dieken, Skyler Wheeler, Mark Thompson and Thomas Gerhold.

The resolution wants to add the following amendment to the state's constitution:

"Marriage. In accordance with the laws of nature and nature's God, the state of Iowa recognizes the definition of marriage to be the solemnized union between one human biological male and one human biological female."

If the resolution is adopted, it would be published and referred to the next general assembly for adoption. If adopted, voters would then vote on the amendment.

And once again the people who call upon the authority of "the laws of nature" actually have no idea what's going on in nature.

[AnBr]

What if my different religious belief is that these bigots have no right to continue to live?

[goldenvalley]

Mar 2, 2023 1:55:07 GMT AnBr said:

What if my different religious belief is that these bigots have no right to continue to live?

You mean your Satanic belief, right?  If it doesn't agree with the bigots belief then it doesn't count.

[LFC]

Welcome to Florida where if you're a gay student even a school board member will gladly mock you.

Will Larkins☮️
@proudtwinkie

Member of the Florida Department of Education and a Florida highschool senior…

[goldenvalley]

Mar 3, 2023 15:27:49 GMT LFC said:

Welcome to Florida where if you're a gay student even a school board member will gladly mock you.

So juvenile! Everything is a pissing match.  A bunch of bratty 13 year olds have taken over politics.  If there is some sincere conviction in this mess beyond "I will dominate you and everyone else" it is very completely hidden.

[andydp]

The GOP: where every accusation is an admission of guilt.  According to the article, he admitted it was him

Photo of Tennessee Gov. in Drag Surfaces As He Promises to Sign Anti-Drag Bill



www.them.us/story/bill-lee-drag-photo-tennessee

[goldenvalley]

Mar 3, 2023 17:57:06 GMT andydp said:

The GOP: where every accusation is an admission of guilt.  According to the article, he admitted it was him

Photo of Tennessee Gov. in Drag Surfaces As He Promises to Sign Anti-Drag Bill



www.them.us/story/bill-lee-drag-photo-tennessee

Aww yeah, but that's not like real drag.  I get the hypocrisy angle but really it is probably just one photo or a one time thing.  It's fun to laugh about it a little, but it won't change a thing.  It might re-enforce his position as he turns it around to talk about how persecuted he is over this childish prank and all the right wing will agree with him and resolve to re-elect him.

[LFC]

Democrats are decent human beings and Republicans simply are not. Yes, that's a broad brush but the GOPers are earning their reputation with one hate filled statement or bill after another.

The Michigan Senate took the first major step in expanding the state's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act on Wednesday, passing a provision to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill will have to pass through the Michigan House of Representatives before it can be signed into law.

The chamber passed Senate Bill 4 23-15 Wednesday, marking the first time a bill to include sexual orientation and gender identity as classes protected from discrimination in Michigan had passed in either chamber of the Legislature. Republican state Sens. Ruth Johnson, R-Holly, Michael Webber, R-Rochester Hills, and Joseph Bellino, R-Monroe, joined Democrats in voting to pass the bill.

Specifically, the bill would bar firing someone, evicting them or otherwise discriminating against them because they are a member of the LGBTQ community.

State Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, presided over the vote. Moss is the lead sponsor of SB 4 and the only openly gay member of the Senate.

Advocates for ELCRA's expansion say adding protections for the LGBTQ community is not only a victory for civil rights in Michigan, but also a boon for businesses' ability to attract and retain talent for their workforces.

"Bigotry is bad for business," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said during her State of the State address in January, advocating for the expansion. Moss echoed Whitmer's comments during a committee hearing on the bill Feb. 9. At that same hearing, Detroit Regional Chamber Vice President of Government Relations Brad Williams told lawmakers including protections for LGBTQ individuals was “critical to our competitiveness."

Should the bill pass through the House and be signed into law, which is expected, given Democrats' control of the chamber and Whitmer's support of the bill, it would codify a Michigan Supreme Court opinion from last year which stated ELCRA bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

This is the opposite of partisan hack SCOTUS which believes that playing the correct religion card opts you out of all sorts of things and allows you to violate others' rights.

The chamber declined to adopt an amendment introduced by state Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, that would have amended the bill to include protections for religious orientation. Runestad said otherwise the expansion could lead to religious discrimination.

“If we pass SB4 without clear protections for those practicing their faith … SB4’s new protections may be used as a sword, rather than a shield," he said. Some faith groups in Michigan had supported Runestad's amendment, but other faith leaders had testified in support of the bill unamended during committee hearings.

[LFC]

Things that make you go, "Hmmmmm."

[LFC]

Fascists need an enemy and they always seem to be able to manufacture one or more. At CPAC, the largest gathering of fascists in the nation, they are now all in on hating trans people.

Sebastian Gorka, an alleged member of a Nazi-collaborating political order in Hungary who served as an advisor to former President Donald Trump, kicked off proceedings Friday morning from the main stage inside the Gaylord Convention Center. Democrats, he warned the crowd, are “mutilating boys and girls” and “sacrificing them on the altar of their transgender insanity.”

A short time later, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — a featured speaker at a white supremacist conference last year, where her fellow speakers praised Adolf Hitler and cheered on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — took to the stage to make a big announcement.

“So last Congress, I did something radical and extreme because remember Marjorie Taylor Greene, ‘she’s so extreme,’” she joked. “I introduced a bill called the Protect Children’s Innocence Act. And let me tell you my great news this morning, ladies and gentlemen: It couldn’t pass last Congress because Nancy Pelosi was the speaker of the House. She doesn’t believe in gender at all, but we have a new speaker in our Republican majority… and I’m going to be re-introducing my bill… that will make it a felony to perform anything to do with gender!”

The crowd roared. Greene’s cruel piece of legislation — based on a multitude of lies — would prohibit transgender Americans under 18 years old from receiving crucial health services that have long been endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Endocrine Society, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association.

Such endorsements were of little concern at CPAC, where politicians and right-wing influencers fine-tuned the anti-trans messaging that will likely be a staple of next year’s presidential campaign news cycle — the Republican Party clearly having decided that trans kids are worthy enough of a wedge issue to win back the White House.

But it also became clear at CPAC that the Republican campaign against trans kids isn’t just a mere ploy to energize its base — it could also be the beginning of an insurgent fascist campaign to erase trans people from public life altogether.

Michael Knowles, the host of ”The Michael Knowles Show” on The Daily Wire, gave a speech at CPAC that, at moments, sounded genocidal. “The problem with transgenderism is not that it’s inappropriate for children under the age of 9,” he said. “The problem with transgenderism is that it isn’t true.”

There are an estimated 1.6 million trans people in the United States. Knowles told the CPAC crowd that these people should not have a right to exist.

“If [transgenderism] is false, then for the good of society... transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely,” he said.

Eradicated. The crowd roared again.

[LFC]

I don't know if this best fits in here or in the fascism thread. Floriduh Republicans are going down the path of the Nazis, with trans children being nothing more than a political tool. I'm not easily shocked by things the GOP is willing to do but this is horrifying to any decent human being.

Florida Republicans are under fire for a slate of bills targeting transgender youth, including a proposal to allow courts to take custody over trans kids that’s been called “fascist” by its critics.

On Friday, GOP lawmakers submitted SB254, which allows the state to seize custody of children when they “at risk” or “being subjected” to gender-affirming medical care, including from families where the child at question may reside outside of Florida.

Critics argued the bill was a legislative attempt to erase trans people.

“I can’t believe I’m writing this,” Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former House lawmaker, and the state’s first Latino LGTBQ representative, wrote on Twitter on Friday, “This is fascist.”

Alejandra Caraballo, a former staff attorney at the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, argued on Twitter that SB254 would empower anti-trans family members to seize children from potentially more supportive environments and find safe haven in Florida.

[LFC]

Just like abortion rights, this is how American conservatives fascists attack one thing after another they decided that they don't like.

In June 2020, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that workplace discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity was illegal, Alaska quickly moved to follow suit.

It published new guidelines in 2021 saying Alaska’s LGBTQ protections now extended beyond the workplace to housing, government practices, finance and “public accommodation.” It updated the website of the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights to explicitly say it was illegal to discriminate against someone because of that person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The executive director for the state commission co-wrote an essay describing the ruling as a “sea change under Alaska law for LGBTQ+ individuals’ rights to be free from discrimination.”

But a year later, the commission quietly reversed that position. It deleted language from the state website promising equal protections for transgender and gay Alaskans against most categories of discrimination, and it began refusing to investigate complaints. Only employment-related complaints would now be accepted, and investigators dropped any non-employment LGBTQ civil rights cases they had been working on.

An investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found the decision had been requested by a conservative Christian group and was made the week of the Republican primary for governor, in which Gov. Mike Dunleavy was criticized for not being conservative enough. The commission made the change on the advice of Attorney General Treg Taylor and announced it publicly via its Twitter feed — which currently has 31 followers — on Election Day.

The LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit Identity Alaska called the reversal “state-sponsored discrimination.”

[LFC]

Good question. I know that I haven't been for a long time now.

Why are we so tolerant of churchy bigotry?

[LFC]

Iowa has decent people as well as Republicans.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Iowa State Capitol on Sunday to take part in the ‘Rally to Resist’.

Iowans protested bills that would restrict LGBTQ community members. The bills include banning gender affirmation treatment for minors, requiring school kids to use the restroom according to their sex at birth, restricting education on gender identity and sexual orientation in certain grade levels, etc.

The rally featured several speakers that included city leaders, lawmakers, educators and medical professionals. Speakers led chants and shared words of encouragement to those looking on. The event lasted just over an hour.

Those bills mentioned survived the first funnel week in the statehouse and can still be signed into law this session.

[LFC]

The hatred continues as Tennessee demands that religion trumps law.

The Tennessee House of Representatives has passed a bill that would allow people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it.

According to the bill, which passed Monday night, “a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.”

The bill, which now moves to the state Senate, is the latest in an onslaught of measures that the Tennessee legislature has passed attacking LGBTQ rights. This bill could also apply to couples where at least one partner is transgender, or to mixed race couples.

[pnwguy]

Mar 9, 2023 18:36:10 GMT LFC said:

The hatred continues as Tennessee demands that religion trumps law.

The Tennessee House of Representatives has passed a bill that would allow people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it.

According to the bill, which passed Monday night, “a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.”

The bill, which now moves to the state Senate, is the latest in an onslaught of measures that the Tennessee legislature has passed attacking LGBTQ rights. This bill could also apply to couples where at least one partner is transgender, or to mixed race couples.

Why stop there?  Interracial marriage is legal too.  Renting a hotel room to an unmarried couple?  Driving a livestock truck with pigs?  

[LFC]

[LFC]

Damn right!

[LFC]

Over in the linked article in the post about Dreher being booted from TAC, I saw this gem. What we have here is supervisors at a "Christian" school willing to repeatedly bear false witness to attack and eventually expel a student they believe is gay. These people are sick.

The parties in a 2020 lawsuit from two parents who claimed Whitefield Academy, a private Christian school in Louisville, expelled their daughter for celebrating her birthday with a rainbow-themed cake recently reached a settlement agreement to close the case.

Attorneys from each side either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to share the settlement amount along with other specifics about the conclusion of the case, which garnered some national attention after it came to light in 2020. Jefferson Circuit Judge Annie O’Connell dismissed the case via an order entered Sept. 2 into online court records.

Kimberly Alford and Mark Kenney filed the suit in January 2020 against Whitefield Academy, located at 7711 Fegenbush Lane, claiming the school did not follow its disciplinary procedures before it expelled their then-15-year-old daughter and outed her as gay.

Here's some but it goes on. Basically they wanted the queer out and that was that.

The lawsuit came after Alford told The Courier Journal and several other local news outlets that her daughter had been a freshman at Whitefield Academy, a prekindergarten-12th grade school affiliated with Highview Baptist Church, until Jan. 6, 2020, when the mother received an email from Jacobson saying her daughter was being expelled "immediately due to a post on social media."

A screenshot of the Facebook post, which Alford had uploaded to her Facebook page, was included in Jacobson’s email.

The post featured a photo Alford had taken of her daughter celebrating her birthday in late December 2019 at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. In the photo, the girl was wearing a sweater featuring a rainbow design and was sitting by a rainbow-themed cake.

The rainbow flag is often used as a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer pride and support for LGBTQ rights.

But the lawsuit said the receipt for the cake listed it as having "assorted colors" and included nothing about it being an LGBTQ "pride" cake. The girl's shirt also did not include the word "gay" or any abbreviations related to the LGBTQ movement, the lawsuit said.

Alford said an unknown person later shared the photo with officials at Whitefield Academy.

Jacobson wrote in his email to Alford that the picture "demonstrates a posture of morality and cultural acceptance contrary to that of Whitefield Academy’s beliefs” and, alluding to allegations of bad behavior in school on the part of her daughter, said it followed two years of "lifestyle violations."

Jacobson declined at the time to provide additional details on the violations or whether the photo featuring the rainbow cake led to the girl's expulsion but said students' families "know that they have expectations" to follow.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 11, 2023 19:07:30 GMT LFC said:

Over in the linked article in the post about Dreher being booted from TAC, I saw this gem. What we have here is supervisors at a "Christian" school willing to repeatedly bear false witness to attack and eventually expel a student they believe is gay. These people are sick.

The parties in a 2020 lawsuit from two parents who claimed Whitefield Academy, a private Christian school in Louisville, expelled their daughter for celebrating her birthday with a rainbow-themed cake recently reached a settlement agreement to close the case.

Attorneys from each side either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to share the settlement amount along with other specifics about the conclusion of the case, which garnered some national attention after it came to light in 2020. Jefferson Circuit Judge Annie O’Connell dismissed the case via an order entered Sept. 2 into online court records.

Kimberly Alford and Mark Kenney filed the suit in January 2020 against Whitefield Academy, located at 7711 Fegenbush Lane, claiming the school did not follow its disciplinary procedures before it expelled their then-15-year-old daughter and outed her as gay.

Here's some but it goes on. Basically they wanted the queer out and that was that.

The lawsuit came after Alford told The Courier Journal and several other local news outlets that her daughter had been a freshman at Whitefield Academy, a prekindergarten-12th grade school affiliated with Highview Baptist Church, until Jan. 6, 2020, when the mother received an email from Jacobson saying her daughter was being expelled "immediately due to a post on social media."

A preK-12 school?  It's interesting that this girl's parents decided to sue the school over the expulsion given that they probably understood the point of the school.  I'm assuming that the point of this school is to have the students there for their entire schooling with minimal contact with people and children that aren't part of the church or school so they won't get any bad ideas.

[LFC]

Mike Pence, the "man" who calls his wife "mother" (insert creeped out shudder here), is keepin' it classy.

The White House rebuked the Republican former vice-president Mike Pence on Monday, for making jokes about US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, maternity leave and postpartum depression that it said were homophobic and offensive to women.

“He should apologise to women and LGBTQ+ people,” said Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.

He and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, have twins. In October 2021, as the US faced supply chain problems and familiar issues with rail and air delays and safety, the two babies were hospitalised.

At the time, Pete Buttigieg described “a terrifying few days” for the family.

He also responded to rightwing criticism and homophobic remarks from the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, calling criticism of his parenting and use of parental leave “strange”, from “a side of the aisle that used to claim the mantle of being pro-family”.

Pence, an evangelical Christian who was a congressman and governor of Indiana before becoming Donald Trump’s vice-president, is now considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination.

He spoke on Saturday at the Gridiron dinner, a bipartisan Washington event featuring light-hearted speeches. Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, spoke for Democrats and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spoke for the Biden administration.

Saying the secretary had taken “maternity leave” from his job, Pence added: “Thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, and airplanes nearly collided on our runways.

“Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression.”

Pete's husband stuffed it right up Mike "Family Values" Pence's nose.

Chasten Buttigieg posted to Twitter a picture of his husband in hospital, holding one of the twins, and said he had “an honest question” for Pence.

“If your grandchild was born prematurely and placed on a ventilator at two months old – their tiny fingers wrapped around yours as the monitors beep in the background – where would you be?”

Pence did not immediately comment.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 13, 2023 23:14:03 GMT LFC said:

Mike Pence, the "man" who calls his wife "mother" (insert creeped out shudder here), is keepin' it classy.

The White House rebuked the Republican former vice-president Mike Pence on Monday, for making jokes about US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, maternity leave and postpartum depression that it said were homophobic and offensive to women.

“He should apologise to women and LGBTQ+ people,” said Joe Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.

He and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, have twins. In October 2021, as the US faced supply chain problems and familiar issues with rail and air delays and safety, the two babies were hospitalised.

At the time, Pete Buttigieg described “a terrifying few days” for the family.

He also responded to rightwing criticism and homophobic remarks from the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, calling criticism of his parenting and use of parental leave “strange”, from “a side of the aisle that used to claim the mantle of being pro-family”.

Pence, an evangelical Christian who was a congressman and governor of Indiana before becoming Donald Trump’s vice-president, is now considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination.

He spoke on Saturday at the Gridiron dinner, a bipartisan Washington event featuring light-hearted speeches. Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey, spoke for Democrats and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spoke for the Biden administration.

Saying the secretary had taken “maternity leave” from his job, Pence added: “Thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, and airplanes nearly collided on our runways.

“Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression.”

Pence is an ass. Even if he was referring to a hetero-couple it is not funny.