Saturday, April 30, 2022

Saturday 9: As Time Goes By

Saturday 9: As Time Goes By (1958)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…


Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This song begins with, "You must remember this." Do you often write things down to help you remember?

Well my problem is that I can’t remember it long enough to write it down. By the time I find paper and something to write with I forgotten what it was or I got side track.

2) The lyrics tell us that moonlight and love songs are never out of date. Tell us about something else that seems timeless.

Paying bills… it is never ending.

3) Originally written in 1931, "As Time Goes By" is best known as the love theme from the 1942 film, Casablanca. According to the American Film Institute, there's only one song from a movie soundtrack that's more expressly identified with the film: "Over the Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz. What song reminds you of your favorite movie?

Hmm… first I have to figured out my favorite movie.

How about this song from Paint Your Wagon… Lee Marvin croaking “Wand'rin' Star” 


4) This version is from The George Sanders Touch, an LP recorded by an Oscar-winning character actor. There is scant evidence that it sold well. Tell us about something you thought was a good idea at the time, but looking back, would have done differently.

I drew a blank on this one... maybe I shouldn't do this at three in the morning.

5) This album was really something of a consolation prize for George. He worked with a vocal coach, hoping to win the romantic lead in the film version of South Pacific, but alas, the role went to a younger man. He had fun making this record instead. Have you recently taken lemons and made lemonade? 

Yes and I also made fresh squeezed orange juice.

6) He usually played suave but unsympathetic characters. That's why he gave his autobiography the self-aware title, Memoirs of a Professional Cad. What would you call your life story?

Journey in to the unknown.

7) The night he won his Oscar, George Sanders accepted the statuette, bowed deeply and then, safely behind the curtain and away from cameras, surprised onlookers by crying. Have you ever cried tears of joy?

Yes. And then a couple minutes later cried sadness, followed by joy. It was a yo-yo.

8) George Sanders wed perennial talk show guest and occasional actress Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1949. Sixteen years after their divorce, he married Zsa Zsa's less famous but also glamorous sister, Magda. After a month, George and Magda thought better of it and had the union annulled. Sam thinks this is one of the oddest romantic tales she's ever stumbled upon while researching Saturday 9. Have you ever known anyone who divorced one sibling and then married another? (Hallmark movies don't count.)

Nope.

9) Random question: You're in a line of 25 people at the post office. How many of those other 24 are more patient at waiting than you are?

None.

Yesterday I went to a fast restaurant and the drive-thru line was almost back to the street so I parked walked inside and right up to the counter. There was no line and the kid behind the counter, reach behind him grab a sandwich and I walked back to my car. The line of cars hadn’t moved all. 

Friday, April 29, 2022

The Balkanization of Education.

[RANT]

Parental Rights… we hear this mantra coming from the right over what schools can teach, what does it mean?

Right now the biggest flap that the far-right is pushing what they claim is being taught in schools, all around the country there is a cultural war going to bring our educations systems to its knees.

Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was trying to destroy public education and was shifting funding from public schools to private schools during her term in office. Most of the funding under her administration according to US News & World Reports…

A Path to Destruction
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos #39 budget cuts would harm vulnerable kids and families.
By Randi Weingarten
April 18, 2017


Education Secretary Betsy DeVos spent two decades defunding and destabilizing public schools in Michigan, and now she wants to spread that same agenda to every town and city in America. How else do you explain the cruel and craven cuts she and President Donald Trump have proposed to funding for after-school and summer programs, child nutrition programs, class-size reduction, community schools and the supports kids need and parents rely on? How else can you rationalize the White House budget director claiming that there's no evidence that feeding hungry children helps them do better in school? These are programs essential to meeting the social, emotional and academic needs of children. We can't go back and undo what DeVos did in Michigan, but we can and must stand up and stop her from pushing this anti-public school agenda across the country.

Now we see another attack by the right to fracture public education by the catchphrase Parental Rights to bring education down to its lowest denominator. We see vague words used like “critical race theory,” “grooming,” pornographic books” and “sex education.”

Here’s the Long List of Topics Republicans Want Banned From the Classroom
Education Week
By Sarah Schwartz & Eesha Pendharkar
February 2, 2022


Republicans this year have drastically broadened their legislative efforts to censor what’s taught in the classroom, according to an Education Week analysis of active state bills.

What started in early 2021 as a conservative effort to prohibit teachers from talking about diversity and inequality in so-called “divisive” ways or taking sides on “controversial” issues has now expanded to include proposed restrictions on teaching that the United States is a racist country, that certain economic or political systems are racist, or that multiple gender identities exist, according to an Education Week analysis of 61 new bills and other state-level actions.

In Florida, a bill would ban teachers from saying “racial colorblindness” is racist. In South Carolina, a bill would ban teaching that “equity is a concept that is superior to or supplants the concept of equality.” In New Hampshire, “promoting a negative account or representation of the founding and history of the United States of America” could become illegal, if a bill were to pass.

In at least 10 states, legislators have proposed bills that would require administrators to list every book, reading, and activity that teachers use in their lessons, a process that educators argue would be cumbersome and expensive. Some of these bills also require districts to give parents prior right of review for new curriculum adoptions or library additions.

Is this the future of education going to look like?

I want my child to attend the following classes:

__ Reading & writing classes
__ Reading (but only the classic) & writing classes
__ Reading (but only the Bible) & writing classes
__ English classes
__ Math classes
__ Math (but not algebra) classes
__ Math (but not algebra or calculus) classes
__ Science classes
__ Sciences (but only evolution and that we are not related to monkeys) classes
__ Earth science classes
__ Earth science (but only a flat earth) classes
__ Earth science (but only that the earth is only 3000 years old) classes
__ Human sexuality classes
__ Human sexuality (but only if they do not cover; homosexuals, transsexuals, intersex, and sex) classes

Is this what the future of public education going to look like?

To me it seems like that the Republicans want to get back to public education that only taught the 3R’s,  reading, writing and arithmetic. They don’t want to teach critical thinking, critical thinking makes children question authority,  critical thinking makes children ask questions,  critical thinking makes children think. Critical thinking makes gives conservatives a headache.

You have to ask yourself, why are the Republicans creating a cultural war over education? Besides votes what are their ultimate goals? But then asking those questions is critical thinking.

Education is needed for a democracy, while a lack of education is needed for authoritarian form of governments.

[/RANT]

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Tears For Us.

A couple of weeks ago the White House press secretary shed tears for us when questioned by a reporter about the Republican attack on trans children. Let us convert those tears to action.

Jen Psaki in tears during interview on Republican anti-LGBTQ ‘cruelty’
The Guardian
By Richard Luscombe
April 19, 2022


The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, broke down in tears during an interview in which she condemned the “cruelty” of a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation sweeping Republican states.

Known for her toughness at the briefing room podium, Psaki showed a more emotional side during the discussion with Jessica Yellin, host of the News Not Noise podcast, in an interview released on Tuesday.

“They’re doing that in a way that is harsh and cruel to a community of kids, especially,” Psaki said, in tears, after Yellin asked her to “make sense” of the Republican push for legislation that marginalises the LBGTQ+ community.

“I’m going to get emotional about this issue because it’s horrible. But it’s kids who are bullied, and all these leaders are taking steps to hurt them, and hurt their lives and hurt their families.

“And you look at some of these laws in these states and who’s going after parents, who are in loving relationships, who have kids. It’s completely outrageous. Sorry, this is an issue that makes me completely crazy.”

Polls show that the people are supporting us. In a post from last month I wrote about that support people have for us. An article in The Hill said,

More than 70 percent of adults believe transgender people should have equal rights and be protected from violence and discrimination, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

The people know what the Republicans are doing and don’t like it, in another Guardian article…

Republicans are dusting off a tried and true election strategy: hatemongering
Male voters have been drifting right in record numbers – and Republicans are taking a viciously homophobic and sexist tack to appeal to them
By Moira Donegan
April 15, 2022


[...]

Despite the large degree of analytical attention that has focused on the voting habits of suburban white women, it seems that it’s men who are changing their voting habits most dramatically. The NBC News polling shows that men with college degrees have moved dramatically to the right, lurching towards Republicans by 26 points since just 2018. Men on the whole have moved towards Republicans by 20 points.

The Republican party’s exploding support among men comes as the organs of rightwing media and many Republican politicians have embraced a vitriolic language of gender grievance. For months now, the conservative media has been hammering a message of gender and sexual disorder, seeking to stoke the fears, bigotry and resentment of its audience against the social and legal gains that have been made by women and LGBT groups over the past decades. This message has been enthusiastically taken up by Republican politicians, and issues of sexual anxiety have come to preoccupy every level of American government, from local school board meetings to the recent confirmation hearings of a new supreme court justice.

And all that hate is focused at us in the trans community.

In an article in Education Week looks at what is driving this anti-LGBTQ+ legislation,

What’s Driving the Push to Restrict Schools on LGBTQ Issues?
By Stephen Sawchuk
April 19, 2022


A raft of legislation in the statehouses taking aim at LGBTQ students this year draws from the newly ascendent discourse about parents’ rights, curriculum transparency, and schools purportedly indoctrinating students via critical race theory and other ideas.

[…]

1. Lawmakers introducing these bills echo older fears about LGBTQ people.

Since March, the political discourse has been dominated by outrage over Florida’s vaguely written bill prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3, which Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in March. But Education Week found many other proposals in the statehouses that would affect LGBTQ students.

About 30 pieces of legislation would variously circumscribe LGBTQ representation in the curriculum, the pronouns that students and teachers can use, and put limits on school clubs, among other things. Those are on top of other proposals seeking to criminalize medical professionals who provide gender-affirming care, or to limit which sports teams transgender players can participate on.

I would like to point out that many, many times schools have banned, in the case West Side Community Schools v. Mergens the Supreme Court ruled that schools could not ban after school religious clubs if they allow other clubs.

2. The parents-rights framing has a long history.

Parents’ rights recently became a rallying cry again following a widely publicized gaffe in late 2021 by Virginia gubernatorial Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe, who when asked about opting students out of lessons on books parents objected to said he didn’t think parents “should be telling schools what they should teach.” Republicans seized on the opening, claiming the banner of the “party of parents” and championing new parents’-rights and curriculum-transparency bills.

The push for “parent’s rights” in schools also has a long history, and variations on this go back to the 1980s and 1990s, when it was a key part of a campaign to legalize home schooling across the states. And it has periodically resurged: in 2009, Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully sought to make it a wedge issue, Politico reported at the time.

Legislative templates on parents’ rights have thus been floating around legislatures for decades. They have been sponsored in federal legislation and as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

[…]

3. The issues may be old, but the political tools are new.

For some observers, the new wave of legislation represents a particularly cynical brand of politics—a way of riding the coattails of the nation’s current frenzy about school indoctrination to pass policies about LGBTQ people, some of which might be unpopular on their own.

[...]

“These are movements that have been around for a while,” said Young of PEN of the proposals. “The critical race theory frame and curriculum-transparency frame are new, and have been wildly successful, in part because they’re smart framing and smart politics. And in part it’s because there’s an incredible amount of national money going to support them, and from their proponents’ view, a degree of success at the ballot box.”

[…]

5. Bills about transgender students are being coupled with aggressive new rhetoric—and are heightening advocates’ concerns.

From bathroom bills in 2017 to the more recent focus on transgender students in sports and gender-affirming care, the issue has shot to the top of cable news coverage and think-tank agendas. Groups like the conservative Heritage Foundation have recently accused schools of promoting “a radical gender ideology;” far-right news sites have picked up and amplified similar language.

The focus on students’ pronouns and who can select them, how schools should interact with trans students, and increasingly on gender-affirming care seems to have boomed following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling establishing the right of gay people to marry, said Murib.

“It’s another way to assert what’s really [white evangelicals’] core set of values—men and women make up the nuclear family that is reproductive,” they said.

But what’s at stake is not merely political rhetoric, but an existential threat to transgender people, Murib said.

6. Emergent nonprofit groups are fueling the flames.

Increasingly, the discourse about LGBTQ issues in schools is being echoed and promoted by newly emergent parent-advocacy networks, like Parents Defending Public Education, No Left Turn in Education, and Moms For Liberty.

This is the beginnings of a new Lavender Scare and Anita Bryant Save Our Children of the fifties and sixties all over again.

We won then and we can win again.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

The Screws Are Tightening.

All around the world anti-LGBTQ+ people are under attack and the latest blow came from Russia.

Russian court dissolves country’s main LGBTQ rights organization
The government claimed the St. Petersburg-based Russian LGBT Network illegally “carried out political activities” under the guise of a charity.
NBC Out
By Tat Bellamy-Walker
April 26, 2022


A Russian court has effectively shut down the country’s largest LGBTQ rights organization after a failed attempt by the government to liquidate the Russian LGBT Network and its parent organization, the Charitable Sphere Foundation, in February. 

A court in St. Petersburg issued the decision Thursday in support of Russia’s Justice Ministry. A representative of the ministry had claimed the Charitable Sphere Foundation illegally “carried out political activities using foreign property” under the guise of a charity and said its activities are aimed at changing legislation, including the Russian Constitution. In its lawsuit, the Russian government also accused the group of spreading “LGBT views” and engaging in activities that go against “traditional values.”

The foundation’s founder, Igor Kochetkov, a former director of the Russian LGBT Network, slammed the court’s decision and the government’s claim that the charity did not comply with “basic traditional family values established in the Constitution.”

”It should be clear that the ministry and the court made this decision not on legal, but on ideological basis,” he wrote on social media, according to an automated Facebook translation. “No Russian law prohibits the activity of organizations that ‘do not correspond’ to any values. There is simply no such basis in the law for the liquidation of NGOs. In this sense, the decision of the court is iconic — mandatory state ideology has returned. It is now official.”

Sound familiar?

Gee, the Russia court sounds a lot like the Republican party.

Take a look at the bill Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert wants to pass!

Lauren Boebert pushes bill to stop airport security from implementing transgender-friendly screening procedures
Business Insider
By Madison Hall
April 26, 2022


Republican legislators introduced a bill in recent weeks attempting to stymie the Department of Homeland Security's attempt to make air travel easier for transgender travelers.

The bill, which was introduced by Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, is titled the "Securing Americans from Transportation Insanity Act." The bill was first introduced on April 21, about three weeks after the Department of Homeland Security announced its plans on "Transgender Day of Visibility" to revamp airport security screenings.

[…]

But the measures were a step too far for Boebert and some of her Republican colleagues. She accused the Biden Administration of "inviting terrorists" to take advantage of US airport security.

"If you doubt the Biden regime is on a woke crusade to remake America in its own image, then look no further than the TSA's new trans screening policies," Boebert said in a statement to Insider. "Decreasing pat-downs and identity validation measures for people identifying as transgender might validate delusional leftists, but it does nothing for passenger safety. In fact, they are practically inviting terrorists to take advantage of our weak and woke security systems. The TSA literally has one job—and this isn't it."

Why?

Why are they doing this to us? 

Why do they hate us so much?

We just want to live.

Anti-Trans Laws Aren’t Symbolic. They Seek to Erase Us From Public Life
Even if we beat every anti-trans bill in the nation tomorrow, too many trans young people would still be fighting to survive.
Them
By Jules Gill-Peterson
April 18, 2022


These attacks will have a measurable and devastating impact on trans people’s quality of life from childhood. One recent study found that more than a third of trans youth in the U.S. are at risk of losing access to transition-related medical care if current bills become law. That access itself is already a practical impossibility for many trans children, who lack the parental support and financial resources this care requires. 

In the face of such dire circumstances, it’s stunning that some of the most visible criticisms of these laws have reduced them to the realm of the purely symbolic.

[…]

While many queer and trans kids, or kids with LGBTQ+ parents, will find themselves targets of censorship, one of the bill’s more Machiavellian functions is to force school districts to live in fear of endless litigation and the financial costs that come with it. Just “saying gay” in response to this threat is an empty and virtually meaningless gesture.

What we need are allies, we need people to stand up to the Republicans and say “Enough!”

Allyship doesn’t rely on evaluating trans people as morally deserving, but rather on recognizing everyone’s right to the resources and public goods that raise our quality of life. Being an ally is about the common struggle for better living conditions. The trans politics of Black and brown women have been about mutual aid and abolition since the 1970s for a reason. They have proven to be the only people unafraid to consistently care for and love trans kids without using them as moral props.

If you vote Republican you are an enabler and give approval to their hate.

We need to get people to say enough to all the hate crimes, we need people to stand up against all the verbal attacks, and we need people tell the Republicans stop the hate.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Their Legislators Are Now Going After Adults

First it was the children and now it is young adults they are attacking.

Missouri lawmakers consider extending proposed ban on gender-affirming care to adults
Lawmakers this week suggested that gender-affirming care be off-limits to individuals younger than 25 years old.
The Hill
By Brooke Migdon
April 22, 2022


Missouri lawmakers this week while debating a bill seeking to restrict access to gender-affirming care for minors suggested access to medical interventions like hormones be withheld from transgender and nonbinary individuals until at least their 25th birthday.

During a public hearing Thursday for Missouri’s House Bill 2649, Laurie Haynes, a psychologist, testified that she believes young adults under the age of 25 are unable to fully comprehend the “dramatic and drastic and irreparable” changes their bodies will undergo if they receive gender-affirming medical treatments like puberty blockers or hormone therapies.

Haynes on Thursday also said she supported conversion therapy.

Medical research has suggested that the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain responsible for executive functions like decision making – is not fully developed until roughly the age of 25.

WTF are they talking about, it is total BS!

At eighteen you can sign contracts, join the military, drink alcohol, and vote and now they are trying to say we are too young to make an informed consent!

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that receiving gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormones, between the ages of 13 and 20 was associated with 60 percent lower odds of moderate or severe depression and 73 percent lower odds of suicidality.

Another study, published late last year by researchers at The Trevor Project, found that, among transgender or nonbinary minors, hormone therapy was associated with nearly 40 percent lower odds of recent depression or a suicide attempt over the last year.

There is only one reason they want to do this it to kill us off.

The legislators have heard testimony by medical associations and healthcare providers telling them that suicide rates go up but they don’t care if we die because they can go back to their evangelical born agains that they are ridding the planet of us, oh… by the way pass the plate and remember to vote for us.

They know that this will be overturned by the courts but even that works in their favor because they will call the courts “activist courts” and that will also rally their base.

Monday, April 25, 2022

Words.

Words are really powerful with one word it could end a life. With a word you could start or end a war. With a word you can pull the rug out from under someone. Words kills a lot about people.

Two dads were riding on a train with their two sons when they were accosted verbally.

Gay couple, their children verbally assaulted by Amtrak passenger during ride to Bay Area
The couple says the passenger came up to their family and began screaming at their kids, referring to them as "pedophiles"
ABC KGO Channel 7 News
By Tim Johns
April 18, 2022


What was supposed to be a fun family trip, turned into a nightmare Tuesday afternoon for Robbie Pierce, his husband Neal and their children.

The couple was hours into an Amtrak train journey from Los Angeles to the Bay Area, when suddenly another passenger came up to the couple and began screaming at their children.

"The first thing he said was, 'Remember what I told you. Marriage is between a man and a woman, and these people stole you. They're not your parents, they're pedophiles,"' Pierce said.

The couple says they were both shocked and horrified.

[…]

The couple says while this isn't the first time they've experienced discrimination in public, this instance was the most extreme.

"These children have already had so much trauma. Like they've been through the foster system," Pierce said.

Words hurt.

The man was not arrested. Since it was a verbal attack and not a physical violence… he is protected by the First Amendment. Sadly the courts have ruled that as long as there is no threats or violence then what they say is protected First Amendment but… you always know that there is a “but” if they start to follow you around while yelling at you it could be labeled harassment but crossing that line is vague defined by the courts.

~~~~~~~~

Take a look at the words that the Republican use tells you a lot about how they think. Words like “grooming,” “recruiting,” and “lifestyle” shows that the conservatives do not believe that we are born being LGBTQ+ that we are trans, or lesbian, or gay because we choose to be. That is what the conservatives believe that for whatever reason it is ingrained in their thinking that we like being LGBTQ+ that it is should how like a great big “cult.”

~~~~~~~~

Verbal attacks on minorities are increasing around the world hate is becoming common place, people are being embolden to spew their hate.

Victim of hateful verbal attack wants others to speak out when they witness racism
Shafira Vidyamaharani recorded a man making racist, threatening and hateful remarks to her on Friday
CBC News
June 13, 2021


Vancouver police are investigating after a 22-year-old Vancouver woman says she was left shaken by a man who allegedly made racist, threatening and hateful comments to her at a bus stop on Friday.

Shafira Vidyamaharani, who is Muslim and wears a hijab, wants the encounter to empower people to speak out about racism when they see it happening.

"I wished I had that support when the incident happened, while I was being threatened, while I was being harassed," she said Sunday.

Vidyamaharani recorded part of the hateful encounter, which she said lasted 10 minutes, on her phone. 

[…]

'I was pretty shaken'

After the man had gone, other people at the bus stop asked her if she was OK, which she appreciated, but said she would have preferred someone to engage with her while the abuse was happening.

[…]

She doesn't want people to put themselves in unsafe situations when they see racism happening, but says someone could have spoken with her during the encounter to take attention away from the man and his comments.

"Just even deflecting the tension away," she said.

I have a friend who says “If you hear mean, intervene!”

Allies can do a lot to end hate. When no one speaks out in our defense hate gets embolden, when they crawl out from under the rocks to attack us and no one speaks out more haters joins them.

Hillary Clinton was right “It takes a village” to end hate.

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Erosion

We are seeing our rights slowly being stripped away by a Supreme Court that was handpicked to do it by the conservatives. Judges were picked by Trump and the far-right not because of their jurisprudence but rather for their ideology.

‘Hard for it to be a bigger deal’: The future of American rights
The Christian Science Monitor
By Peter Grier
April 13, 2022


The Voting Rights Act. Title IX sex discrimination legislation. The Americans with Disabilities Act. Supreme Court rulings overturning state bans on contraception and interracial marriage, and legalizing abortion and gay marriage.

In general, over the past 60 years Americans have experienced a sweeping expansion of federally guaranteed personal rights. During this “rights revolution” era, the United States government established a foundation of laws that apply to every state in the land.

But that era now appears to be over. If anything, the tide may be running in the other direction, as conservative justices and Republican-controlled states look to roll back aspects of this revolution that they believe constitute legal overreach.

This is a two prong attack on our rights by the Republicans, the first the attack on our rights is coming from the Republican states anti-abortion laws and anti-LGBTQ laws (Make no bones about it, it is on not only us but also the whole LGBTQ community. In Florida the “Don’t Say Gay” law, and in Tennessee the bill to circumvent marriage equality.) 

The bottom line: The long-standing common American approach to many personal rights may be fracturing. The rights you enjoy may soon depend on where you live, with blue and red states diverging on abortion, marriage, gender, and other contentious issues.

“This is a big deal,” says Donald Kettl, a professor emeritus and former dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. “In the context of American democracy, it would be hard for it to be a bigger deal.

People are always talking about the “Bill of Rights” the first ten amendments to the Constitution and almost always talk about the First and Second Amendments but there were ten amendments and the Ninth Amendment is very interesting (It is very short and sweet and to the point.)…

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

That’s it.

Not very long is it but it is very powerful!

Accord to Cornell Law School it was meant to,

The Ninth Amendment was James Madison’s attempt to ensure that the Bill of Rights was not seen as granting to the people of the United States only the specific rights it addressed. In recent years, some have interpreted it as affirming the existence of such “unenumerated” rights outside those expressly protected by the Bill of Rights.

WOW!

So when you hear justices like Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Barrett (The Holy Trinity because they were appointed because of their religious beliefs and not because of their legal erudition.) talk about expanded our rights beyond those right enumerated in the Constitution they keep forgetting the 9th Amendment.

And it is not just abortion and LGBTQ+ rights that are in their crosshairs but…

Depending on how the Supreme Court rules, the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson could also reverberate beyond the issue of abortion. The 1973 Roe decision was famously based on a “right to privacy” that the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 protected a pregnant woman’s right to choose. And it’s not just abortion – other big high court rulings have invoked a privacy right as well. 

The right to privacy is an unenumerated right that the Supreme Court first made explicit in a 1965 ruling, Griswold v. Connecticut. In that case the high court held that a Connecticut law banning the sale of contraceptives, even to married couples, was unconstitutional. 

[...]

Many conservatives have long opposed the logic behind the right to privacy. They see it as judge-made policy that is based nowhere in the Constitution’s actual language.

[…]

A final aspect of the widening rights gulf between red and blue states is the privatization of legal enforcement – a phenomenon that Jon Michaels of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and David Noll of Rutgers Law School have dubbed “vigilante federalism.”

This refers to laws that empower private citizens to sue to enforce compliance. For instance, SB 8, the Texas law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, gives private actors the right to file civil lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets the performance of an abortion ... or intends to do so.”

This court is going to affect how deeply the government can dictate how far the government can control your personal life.

Ask yourself what is the ultimate goal of the Republican party.


Most of the damage being done now is coming from the Red states (Hmm… maybe I am starting to see why they are are called “Red.”).

Anti-LGBTQ Proposals Are Flooding U.S. State Legislatures at a Record Pace
First came bathroom bills, then “Don’t Say Gay.” But state lawmakers may just be getting started.
Bloomberg
ByKelsey Butler
April 8, 2022


This year is heating up to be another record-breaking one for anti-LGBTQ legislation in U.S. state legislatures.

In an attempt to fire-up a conservative base ahead of mid-term elections, Republican legislators have proposed at least 325 bills so far, with about 130 targeting transgender rights specifically. That’s already ahead of the 268 introduced last year, a previous record. A total of 27 made it into law in 2021, for the worst year in recent history for anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group. This year, so far seven have become laws.

“We are seeing an uptick in the frequency and extremism of these bills as time goes on,” said Sam Ames, director of advocacy and government affairs at the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that focuses on suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth.

[…]

The latest groundswell in anti-LGBTQ legislation comes in the wake of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which allowed same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states. The following year North Carolina passed its infamous bathroom bill, which spurred a boycott and ultimate rescinding of the law.

“It didn’t matter that we had overwhelmingly good popular opinion on marriage equality, state legislators were in a different mental and emotional space, and they spent their year spinning their wheels trying to find anything that they could do to claw back equality,” said Cathryn Oakley, state legislative director and senior counsel for the Human Rights Campaign. 

Here in Connecticut we are fighting the spread of denying our human rights to determine control over our bodies.

HB 5414 AN ACT CONCERNING PROTECTIONS FOR PERSONS RECEIVING AND PROVIDING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE SERVICES IN THE STATE.

What this bill does it prevents states with strict criminal anti-abortion laws prevents a patient, or healthcare provider from being extradited to another state for providing an abortion here in Connecticut.

When I read that I quickly sent off an email to the Chair of the legislative LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network which I am on and suggested “to get the bill amended or an amendment to another bill to include transgender children and doctors from being tried in a state that makes it illegal to treat transgender patients?”

It is on the agenda for our meeting this week.

Saturday, April 23, 2022

Dancing in the Moonlight

Saturday 9: Dancing in the Moonlight (1972)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…


Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) The lyrics tell us the moon is big and bright. Do you often take the time to watch the sun set or look at the moon?

Yes.

I am sure most of you have seen my sunset photographs.

2) The lead singer of King Harvest, Dave "Doc" Robinson, tells us that everyone feels "warm and right." How would you describe your mood as you answer these 9 questions?

Tired.

3) He sings that his friends don't bark or bite. What about you? Is your bark worse than your bite?

I don’t bark or bite, it takes too much energy to get mad.

4) He believes you be unhappy when you dance. Do you agree?

Since I don’t dance I have to say no, dancing takes to much energy.

5) King Harvest was not the only name the band used. They once performed as E. Rodney Jones and the Prairie Dogs. If you ever played in a band, tell us what it was called. If you haven't, make up a band name.

The “String Breakers” I would probably be breaking guitar string all the car.

6) Even though this was a major hit, King Harvest's record label, Perception, went bankrupt in 1974. This decade has been hard on many businesses -- especially restaurants -- and many closed their doors due to COVID. Tell us about a shop or restaurant that closed recently, and that you miss.

Actually all the restaurants in town made it through the plague, but I heard that one restaurant just changed its name from the Russian Lady to the Ukraine Lady .

7) This very upbeat song came from pain. While vacationing in St. Croix, songwriter Sherman Kelly was the victim of vicious gang attack and was left for dead. He wrote this song during his long recuperation and it helped him envision joy. Is there a song that reliably lifts your mood? (Yes, you can say this song. Mr. Kelly is right, it IS joyful!)

Bubbly


8) In 1972, when this song topped the charts, Wrangler jeans were America's best-selling blue jeans. Do you often wear denim?

Just about every day.

9) Random question: Which of these is completely, 100% UNTRUE of you: Greedy, lazy, or jealous?

Greedy and jealousy. Just not in may nature.


Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

Friday, April 22, 2022

Two! I Say Two Top All Time Winners!

Two LGBTQ+ winners in Jeopardy top ten all time winners are LGBTQ+!

Lesbian Jeopardy! Champ Mattea Roach Extends Her Winning Streak
The 12-day winner has earned more than $270,000 in prize money so far.
The Advocate
By Rachel Shatto
April 21, 2022


Mattea Roach, a self-described “lesbian, Nova Scotian, 12x [Jeopardy!] champ,” extended her impressive winning streak again last night, bringing her winning total to more than $270,000.

The 23-year-old Canadian clinched her latest win with a question about the online education subscription platform MasterClass, although she was the only contestant to make it into the Final Jeopardy round as both of her competitors failed to qualify. The victory added $26,400 to her winnings, bringing them to a grand total of $271,282.

She also became a part of Jeopardy! lore, as this win put her in the top 10 for the most consecutives game won in show history. “That’s a momentous milestone that’s been rarely achieved since we lifted the five-game limit back in 2003,” said co-host Ken Jennings. Roach has won 12 consecutive games. It also qualified her for a spot on the next Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.

On the Jeopardy website they write,

Canadian 12-day champion Mattea Roach is making her own unique mark in the Jeopardy! history books.

Over the course of 12 games, the Toronto-based tutor has secured a spot in the upcoming Tournament of Champions, found herself tied for 9th on the consecutive games won list, and amassed $271,282 in winnings.

“I’m only 23. So, this is like so much more money than I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Mattea said. “It’s really amazing. I’m so grateful.”

Mattea is the fourth contestant this season to embark on a double-digit streak, following in the footsteps of super-champs Amy Schneider, Jonathan Fisher, and Matt Amodio.  

I like how she smiles by putting her hand over her mouth

My dream “Tournament of Champions” finalist are Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider, and Mattea Roach. The conservative Republicans will have a hissy fit!

WPATH Responce To Florida Guideines

This is a statement by World Professional for Transgender Health (WPATH) to Florida's new guidelines for treating trans children.

April 21, 2022

WPATH/USPATH Denounce Florida

Department of Health for Harmful Guidelines

Targeting Trans Youth

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH) denounce guidance from the Florida Department of Health aimed at stopping medically necessary health care for transgender youth. The Florida guidelines were issued in response to a fact sheet on gender-affirming care put forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Florida’s Health Department should be looking out for the interests of trans youth instead of misrepresenting the science on how to care for them. This so-called guidance is dangerous and will contribute to putting Florida’s trans youth population, their families, and their care providers in harm’s way. It is shameful to see yet another attack from a state that is laser focused on targeting trans and LGBQ people for political gain.”

##


Visit https://www.wpath.org/policies to view our public documents.

Visit https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wijt20 to view the International Journal

of Transgender Health with open access to our editorials.

What are your thoughts on this? 

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Missouri & Michigan...

 Missouri passed a law banning trans athletes and the legislative debate was highlighted by a passionate speech by a gay legislator.


 
Openly gay Missouri state Rep. Ian Mackey gave an impassioned speech against a proposal to ban trans girls from playing on female sports teams.
NBC News
By Jay Valle
April 20, 2022

An impromptu speech by an openly gay Missouri state lawmaker is going viral on social media. 

In response to a colleague who proposed a measure that would ban transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams, Democratic state Rep. Ian Mackey shared his own experience of growing up in Hickory County, Missouri. 

“I was afraid of people like you growing up,” he said Monday. “For 18 years, I walked around with nice people like you, who took me to ballgames, who told me how smart I was and then went to the ballot to vote for crap like this. I couldn’t wait to get out.”

His speech is being viewed worldwide, with more than 5 million views on Twitter and 1.5 million views on Tiktok in less than a week.
~~~~~~~

Then in Michigan another senator speaks out against comments by a Republican senator,


But sadly hate is wining out.



Update 5:00PM

The Trans Advocate just out with this… “Singal’s Florida: You’re Very Wrong About Trans Kids

I Wish That I Could Sing A Different Tune

But state legislatures keep passing hate legislation and I feel that their lies needs to be brought to light, Florida did it again!

Florida health department issues new, controversial guidance on care for transgender children
WPLG Ch10
By Glenna Milberg
April 20, 2022


Florida’s Department of Health issued controversial guidelines on Wednesday when it comes to the care of transgender children.

It defies federal guidance and LGBTQ+ youth say the state has it all wrong.

The page of guidance from Florida’s health department has links and citations.

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo refutes and opposes the recent federal guidelines about gender-affirming care for young people, like social affirmations of physical changes and hormone therapies, for what he and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration calls “political ideology.”

Those working for transgender equality accuse Florida’s health department of the same.

“Science isn’t just providing data but providing interpretation of data,” said D Ojeda with the National Center for Transgender Equality. “There’s a lot of biases that comes with designing research projects.”

This latest clash in health policy comes over gender dysphoria, which is defined as clinically significant distress that a person may feel when sex or gender assigned at birth is not the same as their identity.

So what did Florida’s Department of Health release? Here it is in full.

Treatment of Gender Dysphoria for Children and Adolescents

April 20, 2022

The Florida Department of Health wants to clarify evidence recently cited on a fact sheet released by the US Department of Health and Human Services and provide guidance on treating gender dysphoria for children and adolescents.

Systematic reviews on hormonal treatment for young people show a trend of low-quality evidence, small sample sizes, and medium to high risk of bias. A paper published in the International Review of Psychiatry states that 80% of those seeking clinical care will lose their desire to identify with the nonbirth sex. One review concludes that "hormonal treatments for transgender adolescents can achieve their intended physical effects, but evidence regarding their psychosocial and cognitive impact is generally lacking."

According to the Merck Manual, “gender dysphoria is characterized by a strong, persistent crossgender identification associated with anxiety, depression, irritability, and often a wish to live as a gender different from the one associated with the sex assigned at birth.”

Due to the lack of conclusive evidence, and the potential for long-term, irreversible effects, the Department's guidelines are as follows:

  • Social gender transition should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents.
  • Anyone under 18 should not be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.
  • Gender reassignment surgery should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents.
    • Based on the currently available evidence, "encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones which are out of line with the genetic make-up of the child, or puberty blockers, are all clinical practices which run an unacceptably high risk of doing harm."
  • Children and adolescents should be provided social support by peers and family and seek counseling from a licensed provider.

These guidelines do not apply to procedures or treatments for children or adolescents born with a genetically or biochemically verifiable disorder of sex development (DSD). These disorders include, but are not limited to, 46, XX DSD; 46, XY DSD; sex chromosome DSDs; XX or XY sex reversal; and ovotesticular disorder.

The Department’s guidelines are consistent with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services age requirement for surgical and non-surgical treatment. These guidelines are also in line with the guidance, reviews, and recommendations from Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, and France.

Parents are encouraged to reach out to their child’s health care provider for more information.

How does the saying go? "Figures don't lie, but liars figure" well politicians do lie and have no problems about lying.

This is a politician hatchet job on us disguised as medical facts. This is an article debunking the research that Florida’s Department of Health cited.

A critical commentary on follow-up studies and “desistance” theories about transgender and gender-nonconforming children
International Journal of Transgenderism, Volume 19, Issue 2 (2018
By Julia Temple Newhook,Jake Pyne,Kelley Winters,Stephen Feder,Cindy Holmes,Jemma Tosh,Mari-Lynne Sinnott,Ally Jamieson &Sarah Pickett


Background: It has been widely suggested that over 80% of transgender children will come to identify as cisgender (i.e., desist) as they mature, with the assumption that for this 80%, the trans identity was a temporary “phase.” This statistic is used as the scientific rationale for discouraging social transition for pre-pubertal children. This article is a critical commentary on the limitations of this research and a caution against using these studies to develop care recommendations for gender-nonconforming children.

[…]

Conclusion: The tethering of childhood gender diversity to the framework of “desistance” or “persistence” has stifled advancements in our understanding of children's gender in all its complexity. These follow-up studies fall short in helping us understand what children need. As work begins on the 8th version of the Standards of Care by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, we call for a more inclusive conceptual framework that takes children's voices seriously. Listening to children's experiences will enable a more comprehensive understanding of the needs of gender-nonconforming children and provide guidance to scientific and lay communities.

The politicians and Florida health office conveniently ignored that the 80% figure has been debunked in the very research paper that they quote. The research paper said that those children who dropped of the study was counted toward those who detransitioned and also many them in the study were not diagnosed with gender dysphoria and met the clinical criteria for gender dysphoria.

And notice what the Department of Health said about intersex children, the Republicans do not have any qualms allowing a couple days old baby to have surgery to “correct” their private parts without their consent instead of waiting until they are old enough to make an informed consent. I know an intersex woman who had an operation when she was days old and as an adult she needed multiple operation to correct the butcher job that they did just after her birth.


Did the governor of Florida lie?

Did Florida’s governor embellish story about transgender student?
WFLX Ch 29
By Dave Bohman
April 18, 2022


Critics of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he’s trying to justify his Parental Rights In Education law by repeating a parent’s story that may be full of holes.

After signing the Parental Rights In Education bill into law the critics call the "Don't Say Gay" bill, DeSantis has been asked about it at several news conferences, including one in Palm Beach County nearly three weeks ago.

That’s when DeSantis repeated the story of mother in the Tallahassee area, whose 13-year-old child was born female, but identifies as male, and she is now suing the school board.

"Some of the people at school decided that her daughter was really a boy and wanted to identify as a boy. So they changed her name. They changed her quote, pronouns," DeSantis said. "They did these things without telling the mother, much less getting the mother's consent."

The key words: getting their mother’s consent.

That mother, January Littlejohn, claims Leon County schools secretly created a transgender support plan for the 13-year-old child without telling her details.

But WFLX Contact 5 obtained emails from Littlejohn to a teacher that places some of the decisions on how to handle this gender issue with teachers, and even her child as she writes, “whatever you think is best for [the child]. She can handle it herself.”

It certainly seems like that the governor took liberties with the truth.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

So You Don’t Think It Can Happen Here

Sometimes we tend to take the Blue state for granted but we also have swamp creatures here in Connecticut, as the Trump Republicans try to bring politics to Connecticut the creatures and their slime  is starting to spread.

A reputed white supremacist group is making forays into Connecticut with demonstrations and flyers
Hartford Courant
By Jesse Leavenworth
April 18, 2022


A reputed white supremacist group rooted in the Boston area has allegedly reached into Connecticut with a recent flash demonstration in Hartford and flyers distributed in East Hartford and Southington.

One leaflet from the New England Nationalist Social Club declared a stand “for the security and prosperity of white New Englanders,” and on Market Street in Hartford Saturday, people representing to be group members wearing black jackets, ball caps and face masks unfurled banners that said “White Lives Matter,” “Defend New England” and “Defend White Lives.”

[…]

But the group’s foray into Connecticut, including the diverse suburb of East Hartford, also is worrisome, she said. Flyers also were distributed in Southington last week.

And here you thought that we were exempt from the hate, but there are enclaves of hate in the northeast corner of the state. Don’t forget what happened here in 1968 when the Minutemen had a battle with the state police and the FBI, as Connecticut Explored* wrote...

Despite its remoteness, Voluntown found itself at the center of a national news story 50 years ago. The August 26, 1968, edition of the Las Vegas Sunreported: “State police maintained an armed guard yesterday at a Pacifist camp [in Voluntown]where a dozen [sic] heavily armed members of the . . . Minutemen staged a pre-dawn raid earlier this weekend. A force of 50 state police, warned by the FBI of the planned raid, arrested all six Minutemen early Saturday after a gun battle in which four Minutemen, a trooper and a woman resident of the camp were wounded.”

We think that we are safe here in the Blue state but Hartford Courant article goes on to say…

UConn sociology Professor Matthew Hughey, a specialist in hate groups, said the Nationalist Social Club’s membership is tough to tally, but likely ranges from 50 to 200. Many members split from other neo-Nazi groups after internal divisions, Hughey said.

New England is often viewed as a bastion of liberalism and socialism, but the NSC hopes to find fertile ground for an opposing ideology, or at the least a place where its message of white solidarity will resonate, Hughey said.

Don’t take our Blue state for granted Trump’s conservative PAC are setting their sights on us, they feel that a couple of Congressional seats are up for grabs and Senator Blumenthal is up for reelection this year.

*I was there back in 2007 for a three day workshop at the Volutonwn Peace Trust on facilitating meetings (You can read about here.) and you could still see the bullet holes from the battle.

Magic Words

Did you know that saying certain words have a lot of power?

Just by saying those words allow you to not obey laws.

Just by saying those words can get you vasts sums of money.

The words are… now get ready… they are just six words…  The words are “It is against my religious beliefs.”

University to Pay $400,000 to Professor Punished for Refusing to Use Student’s Preferred Pronouns
National Review via Yahoo News
By Brittany Bernstein
April 17, 2022


Shawnee State University in Ohio has reached a settlement with a professor whom it punished for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns, according to a new report.

The university will pay philosophy professor Nick Meriwether $400,000 in damages and attorney fees and will rescind a written warning it issued to Meriwether in June 2018 in response to a biological male student’s complaint that the professor refused to use female pronouns for the student, Fox News reported.

Now here they come get ready…

The professor argued that obliging the student’s requests would violate his own convictions as a Christian. When the professor declined to use female pronouns, the student became belligerent and told Meriwether he would be fired, according to court documents cited by Fox News.

Did you see them?

… violate his own convictions as a Christian.

Boom!

That got him out of having to obey the non-discrimination laws and got him $400,000 to boot.

It used to be that if a law was religious neutral you could claim that but that has been changing with the Republicans packing the court.

The law started out innocently enough, it was passed as a result of some indigenous peoples being arrested for taking peyote as part of their religious ceremony. So Congress passed a law allowing for religious practices exemptions and the far-right saw a giant loophole and have been exploiting it ever since.

Meriwether then sued the university, arguing that it violated his “right to free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.”

The settlement comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of the lawsuit in March 2021, allowing the professor’s lawsuit to move forward.

And so the school settled the case out of court and the courts are opening up a giant can of worms. The courts are creating two groups of people, one that has to obey the laws and another that can flaunt the laws with immunity. 

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Pushback On The Pushback

Last week I wrote about Disney World in Florida protested the “Don’t Say Gay” law and one of the Disney heir that can out as trans or non-binary well the far-right came out to protest Disney’s support of the LGBTQ+ population and Gov. Ron DeSantis threatening to revoke a 1967 law that gives the company the authority to govern itself.

Disneyland Swarmed By “Anti-Groomer” Protesters Amid “Don’t Say Gay” Debacle
Inside the Magic
By Luke Dammann
April 14, 2022


Recently, crowds showed up at Disneyland to protest the company’s stance on Florida’s newest and most controversial piece of legislation.

At the moment, The Walt Disney Company could not find itself in more controversy if they tried. From claims of cultural appropriation to an incredibly offensive cheer performance on Main Street, U.S.A., Disney, and especially the Disney Parks is in the midst of multiple struggles.

The biggest one by far is how the company handled Florida’s new piece of legislation, which many are calling explicitly anti-LGBTQ+. Known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill”, this piece of legislation is as simple as the title. As stated by NPR, “The legislation prohibits any instruction about sexuality or gender between kindergarten and third grade, or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.

Now, we are seeing Disney face the repercussions of its decision from Guests and others who may not agree with the company’s stance. Images of an “anti-grooming” protest just outside Disneyland were shared yesterday by NBC Reporter Ben Collins (@oneunderscore_)…

[…]

As you can see [The article showed Twitter posts.], there were many signs with the claim that Disney is “pro-grooming” as well as complicit in a huge sex-trafficking scheme.

[…]

From pride parades to big changes to rides and attractions, the Disney Parks have and still are taking big steps toward better and more accurate representation. The company has faced an intense amount of backlash however after publicly denouncing the bill (which they initially supported through donations).

Okay so how many people showed up to protest Disney, well it looked like that there were more Trump flags than protesters. Some reports said that there were about a hundred people protesting in Orlando and a small crowd gathered in Anaheim to protest. The protests seemed to be organized by by Moms for America by a Christian group "Hold the Line." The protesters used language like “Grooming,” “sex-trafficking,” and “pedophilia” about their support of LGBTQ+ children.

Disney, Built on Fairy Tales and Fantasy, Confronts the Real World
The entertainment behemoth spent decades avoiding even the whiff of controversy. But it has increasingly been drawn into the partisan political fray.
New York Times
By Brooks Barnes
April 17, 2022


Since its founding in 1923, Disney has stood alone in Hollywood in one fundamental way: Its family-friendly movies, television shows and theme park rides, at least in theory, have always been aimed at everybody, with potential political and cultural pitfalls zealously avoided.

The Disney brand is about wishing on stars and finding true love and living happily ever after. In case the fairy tale castles are too subtle, Disney theme parks outright promise an escape from reality with

welcome signs that read, “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”

Lately, however, real world ugliness has been creeping into the Magic Kingdom. In this hyperpartisan moment, both sides of the political divide have been pounding on Disney, endangering one of the world’s best-known brands — one that, for many, symbolizes America itself — as it tries to navigate a rapidly changing entertainment industry.

At a shareholder meeting last month…

Last month, when Disney held its most recent shareholder meeting, Mr. Chapek was put on the spot by shareholders from the political left and right.

When you are tiptoeing you end up displeasing both sides.

In response, Mr. Chapek noted the contrasting shareholder concerns. “I think all the participants on today’s call can see how difficult it is to try to thread the needle between the extreme polarization of political viewpoints,” he said.

Monday, April 18, 2022

Don’t Force Your Religious Beliefs On Me!

The evangelical zeolites want to control what your children read. They want you to conform to their religious beliefs.

Conservatives are removing 'pornographic' books from schools. Many feature LGBTQ+ characters.
USA Today via Yahoo News
April 16, 2022


Last November, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to the state’s school board association asking it to remove from districts any materials deemed “pornographic” or “obscene.”

Both descriptors have come up frequently amid an extraordinary uptick in efforts to remove certain books from libraries and classrooms – not only in the Lone Star State but across the United States.

[…]

This commonality is evocative of age-old tendencies to conflate sexual or gender nonconformity with sexual obscenity, said Jonathan Friedman of PEN America, a literary and free-speech organization.

That the country is undergoing an unprecedented wave of book-banning is well-documented. The American Library Association counted more than 700 book challenges last year – the most since the organization began tracking such efforts two decades ago.

Do not think that this is just a Republican state issue, it is the whole of the U.S.

CT libraries see more book removal requests, but few get pulled from shelves
The Hour
By Abigail Brone
July 25, 2021


Requests from Connecticut residents to remove books from their public libraries are low, but on the rise, according to library officials.

With Norwalk Public Library recently considering a request from a resident to remove a book depicting one of the Sikh religion’s leaders in illustration, the case is an outlier, Connecticut Library Consortium Executive Director Jennifer Keohane said.

“It’s not uncommon, it varies depending on what’s going on in that community,” Keohane said. “Libraries are continually being challenged to uphold our core values of maintaining materials that reflect all points of view and values. The intention is always to have a very rigorous review policy that is open and fair and documented.”

So far it hasn’t come up in the gubernatorial election, my guess is that they want to hide their position on book banning because most of Connecticut voters would be against banning books.

The far right is starting to use gorilla tactics, checking out books and not returning them or maxing out copies of e-book borrowed.

Permanent book borrowing plot backfires
Patron checks out ‘inappropriate’ books, refuses to return them
Boston 25 News
By Jim Morelli
March 22, 2022


Call it the library’s “Universal Understanding”: what you borrow, you return.

But that is a concept apparently lost on an unidentified patron of the Millbury Public Library -- who took out four books last fall.

“They were checked out on her library card back in October,” said Ann Dallair, Millbury Library Director.

As a member of the CWMARS (Central and Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing) library consortium, Millbury automatically renews borrowed items, such that they can be checked out for a total of six weeks.

But when that six week mark arrived, the four books never came back -- which prompted CWMARS to send out a request for the books -- or enough money (about $70) to cover them.

At that point, the patron sent an email back.

“She clearly stated that she had no intention of returning these items,” Dallair said. “As she doesn’t believe that these items belong, as she would quote, unquote say, in a children’s library.”

The four books all deal with LGBT issues -- and none were shelved in the children’s section of the Millbury Library. In fact, all were shelved in the young adult section -- physically distant from the children’s area.

But the libraries are fighting back there is pushback to these censorship attempts, New York Public Library started to,

New York Public Library makes banned books available for free
NPR
By Deepa Shivaram
April 15, 2022


In response to the more than 1,500 books challenged to be removed from libraries in the last year, the New York Public Library launched an effort to make some banned books available for everyone — for free.

The initiative is called Books for All and allows any reader aged 13 and older to access commonly banned books through the library's app until the end of May. There are no wait times to access the books and no fines, the library said. Typically, access to books at the New York Public Library are only available to New Yorkers with a library card.

"The recent instances of both attempted and successful book banning —primarily on titles that explore race, LGBTQ+ issues, religion, and history — are extremely disturbing and amount to an all-out attack on the very foundation of our democracy," said Tony Marx, president of the New York Public Library.

As the NPR article states, it is not just us that they are attacking but also books about non-Christian religions and books about Black history. As one person said that the white mommies don’t want their children to learn mommy is a bigot. Time said,

All this is no accident. Conservative advocacy groups, legal organizations and state legislatures have mounted a campaign to weaponize the teaching of critical race theory, driven by a belief that fighting it will be a winning electoral message. It’s hard to predict the issue’s potency at the ballot box. But a June Economist/YouGov poll showed that although only about a third of respondents had a good idea of what CRT was, most people who knew about it had an unfavorable opinion.

This is for votes and donations from the far right Christian religions who are against anybody, anything that are different from them.



Strangely the Republicans madness also carries over to math books!
State Department of Education says books referenced critical race theory, common core, social emotional learning
Click on Orlando
By Amanda Castro
April 16, 2022

Dozens of math textbooks were rejected by the Florida Department of Education after officials said their publishers were attempting to indoctrinate students.
According to an FDOE news release Friday, the department did not initially include 54 of the 132 submitted textbooks on the state’s adopted list.
The department states 41% of the submitted textbooks included references to critical race theory, common core and social emotional learning. The state said grades K-5 had the most materials rejected.
[…]
Orange County Classroom Teachers Association President Wendy Doromal said she was baffled after learning about the rejected textbooks.
“I’d really love to see some of these rejected books and see what they highlighted and found disturbing in those books,” Doromal said. “Certainly in a math book, I can’t imagine what he’s talking about.”
Sadly Florida is not alone in banning textbooks.
This comes as PEN America, an advocacy group for writing professionals, found Florida is third in the nation for the most incidents of school book ban incidents.
It is madness!

The governor has turned the classrooms into political battlefields and this is just the beginning, he is a Trump wannabe as he runs for the presidency.



Let’s face it the conservatives do not like us, many of them see us as predators of their children.
“To trans people everywhere — especially trans kids, never forget that you are seen, you are loved, and you matter” — Gov. Kate Brown in a March 31 tweet 
The Register-Guard
By Ty Warren
April 17, 2022

On March 31, National Trans Day of Visibility, Gov. Kate Brown issued a statement supporting the transgender community. Her simple and kind words, greatly appreciated within my household, appeared on social media and garnered some attention. The comments in these forums were largely positive and supportive of the trans community, but many people reacted negatively, some vehemently so. 
 
Strewn among the latter comments was this cringeworthy groaner: “ok groomer.” 

[…]

I should know better than to read the comments, but anti-trans, anti-gay sentiment exists in more potent circles than the comments section. Usage of the word “groomer,” ugly and fallacious, has risen in conservative news circles that support anti-LGBTQ legislation. This word marks its target as an enabler of the most perverse forms of child abuse. Lobbing it at someone basely accuses them of being a pedophile. 

“Groomer” has a pernicious and ignoble history of being weaponized against the queer community. Opponents of LGBTQ rights have long attempted to portray the gay and trans communities as predators of children. It is a false but powerful fear-invoking trope that works, so the re-emergence of “groomer” as a contemporary political tactic comes as no surprise.   

Supporters of HB 1557 (the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill), which passed recently in Florida, fervently use such language. Florida Press Secretary Christina Pushaw wrote in a now-deleted tweet: “If you are against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer, or… don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children.”

Under the pretense of protecting innocent children from inappropriate content, this law rekindles repugnant falsehoods about the LGBTQ community. To supporters of such legislation, the mere representation of gay and trans people implies “grooming” children. Currently, there are hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S.
We thought that our Anita Bryant days were over but it was only simmering in the background and Trump stirred up all the hate that was hiding in the swamp and it has come gussying out.
Language matters. Using words like “groomer” to attack the support systems and allies of gay and trans kids — the most marginalized and at-risk group of youth in the U.S. — strategically invokes false narratives and irrational fears. By intention, such language dehumanizes the LGBTQ population and its allies, but also reflects poorly on the author. Use of the word “groomer” to justify anti-LGBTQ legislation highlights ignorance, fear and cynical politics; real kids get tossed under the proverbial bus under the guise of protecting them from “groomers.” 
Just how do you thing this is affecting LGBTQ+ children who are in still in the closet?

Just how do you think this is affecting LGBTQ+ children who are out?

And just how do you think this is affecting children of LGBTQ+ parents?

We have seen this before and in has it hatred has resurfaced again. They us because we upset their little orderly world, they do not like people who are different and they fear change. They want a world of “Father Knows Best” where the Blacks knew their place and the “gays” were in the closet. They want to bring back Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joe McCarthy and his “Lavender Scare” again.
 “Do you identify as a homosexual or have you ever had same-sex sexual relations?”

 The Lavender Scare not only broke up and quieted the cities’ queer communities who were afraid of federal employment discrimination and potential hate crime, but it also resulted in a largely conservative, homogenous culture within the government. While most federal organizations overturned their policies on LGBT discrimination, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Security Alliance (NSA)’s bans on homosexuals lasted into the 1990s, until they were officially overturned by President Bill Clinton in 1995. Later, as recent as 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry apologized to the LGBT community on behalf of the federal government’s Lavender Scare interrogations, stating: “I apologize to those who were impacted by the practices of the past and reaffirm the department’s steadfast commitment to diversity and inclusion for all our employees, including members of the LGBTI community.”

And now we are once again living a Lavender Scare history is repeating itself.

If you vote for Republicans or refuse to vote because they don’t see a difference in the parties you are enabling them in passing anti-LGBTQ+ laws.










Sunday, April 17, 2022

Happy Easter!

To all of you who celibate Happy Easter!

In this difficult time, I hope that all of you who celebrate Easter are with the ones your love. However, for many of us we will be separated still because of the virus so keep them in your thoughts. The virus has made holidays that were stressful for our community even more stressful. Reach out and touch someone, let them know that you're thinking of them.

I leave you with some Easter humor, some old favorites and some new...
















The Far Side