Counter Intelligence

Like all political movements you need to track your opposition. You need to see how they are framing your movement, you need to see how they are targeting your supporters.

Case in point, the “family” organization here in Connecticut is opposed to the governor’s appointment to be the Chief Justice of the CT Supreme Court,

Oppose Appointment of Andrew McDonald to Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court

Andrew McDonald, a former state legislator who led a blatantly unconstitutional attack on the Catholic Church in 2009, has been nominated to be Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. _ _ _ Action is asking all of our members to contact their state senator and state representative and ask them to vote NO on his confirmation.

Justice McDonald and his supporters have placed a heavy emphasis on the fact that McDonald is gay, implying that his nomination is only opposed because of prejudice. These are shameful tactics. As even the New London Day's liberal columnist has written, the Judiciary Committee should decide "without predetermination or broad-brush strokes of bigotry" and "critics should be free to challenge McDonald's qualifications without being called hateful."

So now we know that they are energizing their base to oppose the nominee and how they are going to frame their campaign.

An attack on school non-discrimination policy is being waged by Alliance Defending Freedom.

Alliance Defending Freedom continues to attack transgender students in its drive to undermine nondiscrimination protections
SPLC
By Erin Fitzgerald
January 22, 2018

A school district in Palatine, Illinois — District 211 — is back in the national spotlight as a contentious legal battle over transgender-inclusive accommodation policies continues to make its way through the court system.

A lawsuit was filed in 2017 on behalf of a transgender student who alleged the district, which she alleged was restricting her from equitable access to changing facilities. Oral arguments for the case were scheduled to take place in the Daley Center in Chicago on Friday January 19. The arguments come three weeks after a federal judge rejected a request for a preliminary injunction to suspend the current trans-inclusive guidelines in place in the school district.

The request was submitted by the group “Students and Parents for Privacy” which is represented by anti-LGBT hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) along with the Thomas More Society. The most recent decision stated that transgender students should be permitted to continue using the restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. The judge added that the policy had been in place for three years without incident which undermined the “plaintiffs’ claim of irreparable harm.” Through the ruling does not impact the ultimate outcome of the civil case filed on behalf of the group, it does suggest that the judge “ doesn't believe the claim at the heart of the lawsuit — that the transgender policy infringes on the privacy rights of other students — has merit.”

Framing the opposition is important and making it stick is also important and it helps to have the media behind you.

We saw this in Massachusetts where the Republicans were able to frame the trans inclusive non-discrimination bill as the dreaded “the bathroom bill” and the media ran with it causing public accommodation to be deleted from the original bill. While in Connecticut when we were passing our trans inclusive non-discrimination bill that same year we successfully blocked the opposition’s attempt to label our bill “the bathroom bill.”

Here is a different take on strategy…

Transgender Rights Align with Conservative Values
The Fox News crowd needs to realize trans equality is actually part of its agenda.
The Advocate
By Jillian Weiss
January 16, 2018

The current administration has made it a priority to roll back the few advances that transgender people have made in civil rights, as if transgender rights are somehow a threat to conservative values. The most recent attack was a directive late last year to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prohibit even mere mention of the word “transgender” when preparing its budget. The other banned words are reportedly: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

The CDC news came on the heels of Attorney General Jeff Sessions's back-to-back memos in the previous months that threaten the freedom of hardworking citizens who deserve the same opportunity to hold a steady job, earn a living for themselves and their families, and live the American dream. First, Sessions announced that he would reverse the Department od [sic] Justices’s previous interpretation that the federal Civil Rights Act protects transgender people from sex discrimination. One day later, he issued a memo that approved discrimination against transgender Americans under the guise of “religious liberty.”

Now here is where the article says those values align with ours…

These discriminatory maneuvers are an affront to conservative values because they take away opportunities for transgender Americans to live freely and advance the achievements of our nation by adding their unique talents and contributions. To truly “Make America Great” as President Trump keeps saying, we must show all people the freedom and liberty to be who they are in service to our nation. Denying transgender people the same chance to get ahead and succeed diminishes who we are as a people. It guts the core conservative belief, set out in our U.S. Constitution, that all people deserve equal treatment under the law.

Republicans and moderates of all stripes are beginning to voice concerns about laws that target transgender people and the LGBTQ community as a whole. Fair-minded people see that allowing discrimination to flourish and making bias a cause celebre will harm the businesses that we rely on to run our economy. Encouraging employees to exclude transgender people from service will only bring about divisions, protests and boycotts.

Um… I just don’t see this.

I think she is right about our values “It guts the core conservative belief, set out in our U.S. Constitution, that all people deserve equal treatment under the law.” but I don’t think those are the core values of conservatives; I think their core values are “status quo” they want to live in their dream world of the 1950s where everyone knew their place and father knows best. Where blacks knew their place as servants to white folks, where gays and lesbians hid in the closet and we weren’t anywhere to be found.

She ends with,

And as voters in Virginia, Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Georgia, and Connecticut showed us —  in recently electing transgender candidates Danica Roem, Andrea Jenkins, Phillipe Cunningham, Lisa Middleton, Tyler Titus, Gerri Cannon, Stephe Koontz, and Raven Matherne —  good-hearted individuals are opening up and embracing the contributions of our transgender communities. It is time for the Trump administration to stop infringing on the freedom of trans Americans. Doing so will demonstrate a true commitment to conservative ideals.

I don’t think it was because all of sudden the conservatives voted for trans people out of some feeling of injustice but rather I think that their wins were because of hard work and sticking to local issues but also to the fact that independents voted for the best candidates and didn’t let the fact that they are trans enter into their thinking. I think that the conservatives still hate our guts.

One last comment, activism like it root word "action" means being involved and taking part, it means more than just posting blogs, it means more that re-posting memes on Facebook.

It means calling your legislators, writing letters-to-the-editor, it means getting out to rallies, it means publicly standing up and being counted.

One caveat, be safe. Being a marginalized community something it is not possible to publicly stand-up, so to those I say that there are ways to stay anonymous. Before I was out publically and I testified before the state legislature committee hearing I used an alias and I stated that it wasn’t my real name but I didn’t want to use my real name for fear of reprisals.