Dumb, Dumb, Very Dumb.

The irrational fear trans women in homeless shelters will open a can-of-worms. Got a load what the Trump's crew wants to do.

A proposed anti-trans rule would let homeless shelters judge who’s a woman

The Housing and Urban Development proposal instructs shelters to try to spot trans women by height, facial hair, and Adam’s apples.

VOX

By Katelyn Burns

July 17, 2020,

A proposed Housing and Urban Development rule would allow federally funded homeless shelters to judge a person’s physical characteristics, such as height and facial hair, in determining whether they belong in a women’s or men’s shelter, according to a copy of the rule’s text obtained by Vox. Advocates say this ultimately targets both trans women and cisgender women with masculine features, which could force them into men’s shelters and put them at risk for harm.

The proposed rule, first announced by HUD in a press release issued on July 1, would essentially reverse the Obama-era rule that required homeless shelters to house trans people according to their gender identity. While the new rule would bar shelters from excluding people based on their transgender status, it would also allow shelters to ignore a person’s gender identity — and instead house them according to their assigned sex at birth or their legal sex. In other words, a trans woman can’t be turned away from a shelter for being trans, but she can be forced to go to a men’s shelter.

This is horrible, can you imagine a bunch of gender vigilantes attacking woman because they don’t look feminine enough.

The copy of the rule obtained by Vox has already passed congressional review, according to several sources familiar with the process, which is one of many steps needed before the text is released publicly. When asked about the text and status of the rule, HUD pointed Vox to their July 1 press release.

The rule’s language, according to the leaked text, states that single-sex shelter staff “may determine an individual’s sex based on a good faith belief that an individual seeking access to the temporary, emergency shelters is not of the sex, as defined in the single-sex facility’s policy, which the facility accommodates.”

Who did they pass it by in Congress? Only the Republicans? I can imagine any Democrats agreeing to this and surely didn’t get reviewed in the House.

And while the rule is likely to fall hardest on trans women, it also opens the door to targeting butch women with more masculine presentations, as has already happened with gendered bathroom policing.

Many lesbians are going to have problems with the gender police.

Even though it has yet to be released, the HUD rule has already received congressional pushback. In a letter to HUD Secretary Ben Carson dated June 29, Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) urged the agency to reconsider the release of the HUD rule because of the Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County on June 15, which held that discrimination against trans people is considered sex discrimination.

“The release of a potentially applicable Supreme Court decision during the period of our regulatory review is unique and raises concerns about the applicability and implementation of the proposed rule,” reads Wexton and Waters’s letter.

Bloomberg had this to say about the rule change.

With its June 15 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered an unambiguous message: Employers cannot discriminate against employees on the basis of gender or sexual orientation. Justice Neil Gorsuch’s sweeping opinion for the 6-3 majority affirms that gay, nonbinary, trans and other LGBTQ individuals enjoy the same federal protections against discrimination that apply to race, religion or sex.

Yet just two weeks later, the Trump administration announced a policy that appears to fly in the face of that decision. On July 1, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a new rule that would give homeless shelters the right to admit people on the basis of their biological sex, not their gender — a rule that could require transgender women to stay in men’s shelters. Advocates say this plan puts trans people’s lives in danger.

“On the legal side of things, it’s just blatantly unlawful,” says Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “It cannot be reconciled with what the Supreme Court held in Bostock.”

You are going to see many of these last minute attacks on us from the Trump administration as the election draws near. They are going to pass these draconian rules as Trump panders to his base of bigots and as they get scared of losing the election.

Coming so soon after the court’s decision in Bostock, the new proposed rule would seem to be dead on arrival. But timing is everything. The policy may be a “midnight rule” in the making — a regulation put forward just before a possible transition of power. By acting now, the Trump administration can pre-position the rule to make it that much harder to uproot, notwithstanding a firm Supreme Court decision, a virtual guarantee of legal challenges, or even a Trump loss in November.

So-called midnight rules refer to federal regulations issued between a presidential election and the next inauguration. An official in the George W. Bush administration once compared Clinton officials to “Cinderella leaving the ball,” saying that political appointees “hurried to issue last-minute ‘midnight’ regulations before they turned back into ordinary citizens at noon on January 20th.” In this light, Housing Secretary Ben Carson might be trying to eke out a rule on transgender people before he turns back into a pumpkin (should President Donald Trump lose the election).

Then of course in the make believe world of the White House press secretary…

Press Secretary Claims Trump Is Pro-LGBTQ+, Punts Trans Ban Question

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tried to gaslight her way out of a question about the president's ban on trans service members.

The Advocate

By Neal Broverman

July 13, 2020

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany deflected a question about Donald Trump's impromptu ban on transgender service members, quickly pivoting to a false claim that the president has a pro-LGBTQ+ record.

During Monday's daily press briefing, Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson mentioned the soon-to-arrive three-year anniversary of Trump's ban on trans people in the military, a decision he announced via tweet. Johnson asked if Trump is willing to reconsider the policy and mentioned that over 100 lawmakers urged the president to end the ban. Many have also questioned the legality of Trump's prohibition following the Supreme Court's recent ruling banning anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination. 

And she said, 

...He has a great record when it comes to the LGBT community. The Trump administration eased a ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men and he launched a plan to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030."

Isn’t that something out of George Orwell's book "1984" it is doublespeak. Banning LGBTQ people from donating blood will not end AIDS, that is the twisted Republican thinking.

We need to vote this November, we need to remember the lesson from 2016; the election isn’t over until the last vote is counted.