I Have Said…

…That human rights should not be subject to a popular vote.

Anchorage voters to decide on anti-transgender "bathroom" law pushed by far-right extremists
Voters in Anchorage, Alaska are deciding the fate of an anti-transgender “bathroom” initiative in the city’s first vote-by-mail election (ballots are due by Election Day, Tuesday, April 3).
SPLC
By Brendan Joel Kelley
March 21, 2018

Proposition 1, on the ballot due to the signature-gathering efforts of the far-right anti-LGBT Alaska Family Council (AFC), would overturn some protections enshrined by the Anchorage Assembly’s (the city’s legislative body) 2015 nondiscrimination law, and require city-owned changing facilities and restrooms to be designated for persons of the same sex listed on their birth certificate. The current nondiscrimination law being targeted by the Alaska Family Council and its allies entitles people to use bathrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms that are “consistent with their gender identity.”

Anchorage, which last year elected the state’s first two openly gay politicians, Christopher Constant and Felix Rivera, to the municipal assembly, has a long history with anti-LGBT culture wars, and the Alaska Family Council, led by its director Jim Minnery, has been the tip of the spear in attempts to deny LGBT equality over the last decade.

Minnery and the Alaska Family Council, with support from the national anti-LGBT hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (of which Minnery’s cousin Tom was once chairman), led the campaign against Anchorage’s Proposition 5 in 2012, which would have added sexual orientation and transgender identity to the city’s civil rights code. The initiative failed after an ugly campaign against it that included anti-transgender cartoon ads former Governor Tony Knowles described as “intentionally stigmatizing” and “dehumanizing.”
[…]
Much like in the 2012 campaign, Minnery and the Alaska Family Council are relying on scare tactics like the debunked “bathroom predator” myth to convince Anchorage residents to vote yes on the initiative.

What gets me is that these so called “Family” organizations don’t even blink an eye to lying, creating hate and fear. I don’t know about you but these are not family values, family values are love and acceptance.

Let us hope that love wins out over hate.

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This morning I am up at the Legislative Office Building at an “Action” to support the nomination to Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.

When Justice McDonald was appointed to the Supreme Court his vote in Senate and House was almost unanimous now it is split right down party lines.

The question is what has changed?

The Republicans claim it was his vote about the death penalty* but other judges who ruled the same as Justice McDonald were not grilled on their ruling.

The Republicans claim that he looked researched the law on issues that were not brought up before the court during the trail but the Republicans never questioned any other of the justices during their re-nominating hearings. So why was it an issue with McDonald?

The Republicans claim it is because of a proposed bill he introduced to add more oversite of church funds but that was not an issue when he was voted to the Supreme Court, why is it an issue now?

Is it because he is a personal friend of the governor?

Is it because he is gay?

Is it because conservative money is pouring into the state?

*Back when the legislature voted to repeal the death penalty, the convicts on death row sued saying it was unfair that those convicted before the legislation passed the law still faced the death sentence. Four out of the seven justices agreed.