They Can't Even Say Our Name

The conservatives here in the states don't even want to say our name. The governor of Arizona does not even want to acknowledge us.

Arizona governor won't say transgender people exist

Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed two bills limiting transgender rights on Tuesday.

AP

By Bob Christie

April 1, 2022

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey refused to say Thursday if transgender people actually exist, twice dodging direct questions on the subject just a day after he signed legislation limiting transgender rights.

The Republican worked instead to defend his signatures on bills that bar transgender girls and women from playing on girls high school and women’s college sports teams and barring gender affirming surgery for anyone under age 18.

When specifically asked if he believed that there “are really transgender people,” the governor paused for several seconds before answering.

“I’m going to ask you to read the legislation and to see that the legislation that we passed was in the spirit of fairness to protect girls sports in competitive situations,” Ducey said, referring to the new law that targets transgender girls who want to play on girls sports teams. “That’s what the legislation is intended to do, and that’s what it does.

Asked again if he believed there are “actual transgender people,” he again answered slowly and carefully.

“I ... am going to respect everyone, and I’m going to respect everyone’s rights. And I’m going to protect female sports. And that’s what the legislation does,” Ducey said.

This is how sick the Republicans are that they will not even acknowledge us!

Ducey’s response was “appalling,” according to the Arizona director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights group that advocates for equality for LGBTQ people. The organization worked to ensure families and transgender young people came to the Capitol to testify against the bills as the Republican-led House and Senate considered them this session.

“It’s quite shocking that he can’t even address trans people or even say that he thinks they exist,” Bridget Sharpe said.

The totalitarian governments of eastern Europe has passed similar laws, in Russia you can’t talk about LGBTQ issues… just like Florida.

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Meanwhile the new law in Florida that prevents anyone from saying anything about LGBTQ+ in school for young children would be committing a crime.

'I cannot teach in Florida': LGBTQ educators fear fallout from new school law

Following the enactment of what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” law, some LGBTQ teachers have quit the professional altogether.

NBC News

By Matt Lavietes

April 1, 2022

Last month, a group of parents in Orlando, Florida, demanded “consequences” against sixth grade science teacher Robert Thollander. His crime? Thollander acknowledged his marriage at school.

“He married a man. This alone is not an issue. Sharing the details … with all his 6th grade students is the issue,” the parents wrote in a letter sent to their children’s school board, which was shared with NBC News. “It was not appropriate. Many of these students felt very uncomfortable with the conversations and shared this with their families.”

Had Thollander just “said he will be out for a few days because he was getting married, no problem,” the letter continued, “but to discuss the details and create an uncomfortable situation for the students with no benefit to teaching his subject matter is inappropriate.”

Thollander denied having discussed his marriage since he and his husband tied the knot in March of last year, aside from acknowledging it when he was asked. No action was taken against him by school leaders, who defended him several days later with a letter of their own, he said.

And from that the “Don’t Say Gay” law came into being.

The law will be overturned no doubt about it.

Why? Because first it violates the First Amendment free speech, it prevents teachers some teacher from talking about their spouses while other can talk about their spouses. Along those it also violates the Fourteenth Amendment by treating people differently based on sex. Back in June of 2020 the Supreme Court upheld the expanded definition of sex.

But legal experts have said the broad language of the law could open districts and teachers to lawsuits from parents who believe any conversation about LGBTQ people or issues is “inappropriate.” 

These laws teach the students that it is all right to pick on and bully LGBTQ+ students, and you wonder hate crimes are going up!

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Politicians don’t care what they are doing to children but that could be their Achilles heel…

Including young kids likely to sink Kansas trans sports ban

AP

By John Hanna

April 2, 2022

Kansas appears unlikely to join other states this year in keeping transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s school sports, partly because conservative state lawmakers want the ban to apply to elementary school students.

The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a proposed ban early Saturday with solid majorities in both chambers — but not the two-thirds needed to override an almost-certain veto from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. She rejected a similar bill last year, saying it would send “a devastating message that Kansas is not welcoming to all children and their families.”

[…]

But enough GOP lawmakers in Kansas keep breaking with Republican colleagues that LGBTQ-rights advocates probably will prevail for a second consecutive year. Several of those dissident Republicans said having a ban apply as early as kindergarten is a problem for them. State Sen. John Doll, a western Kansas Republican, has voted both ways and was a “no” early Saturday because he wasn’t able to persuade colleagues last month to exempt elementary school students from the ban.

Did they realized that they went too far in attacking young children?

Like in other states Republican are demonizing young children and denying our existence just like the Governor of Arizona is doing.

State Rep. Heather Meyer, an Overland Park Democrat, said Friday the bill told transgender children that “they are not valid.” After speaking about her transgender 12-year-old son in sixth grade and their transgender best friend, she wiped her eyes with a tissue as the debate continued.

Conservatives hate to have to think, it hurts their heads when they have to contemplate things that different of their idealized world. They want to live in a simplified world of the 1950s where Blacks knew their place and LGBTQ+ people were hiding in the closet.