Fallout!

All this anti-LGBTQ+ animosity is having its toll on us and others, they are running scared.

NHL team won’t wear Pride jerseys, citing new Russian law

AP News

By Jay Cohen and Stephen Whyno

March 24, 2023

A National Hockey League team with a Russian player has decided against wearing special warmup jerseys to commemorate Pride night, citing an anti-gay Kremlin law that could imperil Russian athletes when they return home.

The Chicago Blackhawks, who have at least two more players with connections to Russia, will not wear Pride-themed warmup jerseys before Sunday’s game against Vancouver, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press, because of security concerns involving the law, which expands restrictions on supporting LGBTQ rights. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed it in December.

The decision was made by the Blackhawks following discussions with security officials within and outside the franchise, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke Wednesday to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the move.

The Dessert News wrote…

The Minnesota Wild’s second annual Pride Night sparked confusion Tuesday after the team scrapped one of the planned events with little warning or explanation.

Although some Wild players had rainbow-colored tape on their sticks during warmups, they did not wear Pride-themed warmup jerseys. The jerseys had been advertised in advance of the game, along with the team’s plans to auction them off.

While the Washington Blade in January said,

New York LGBTQ Rangers fans were disappointed after the National Hockey League team forwent wearing the team’s special warm-up jerseys and using Pride stick tape during the team’s 7th annual Pride Night Friday.

The Rangers had promoted Friday night’s Madison Square Garden home game against Vegas Golden Knights, saying players “will be showing their support by donning pride-themed warm-up jerseys and tape in solidarity with those who continue to advocate for inclusivity.”  But ultimately the team wore their “Liberty Head” jerseys in warmups instead.

Will the Hartford Yard Goats drop their Pride Night? What about Connecticut Sun, the women’s basketball team at Mohegan Sun? Will they run scared?

And their excuse! They worry about their Russian players???? Why?

They worry that they might embarrass them? They are worried about offending the Russian people? The ones that support an invasion of a country? That “Does not compute.”

I believe that the real reason is they afraid of antagonizing their right-wing base. They are afraid that it will hurt their bottom line.

Big Or Small? That Is The Question

There is a new kid on the block, they question is will they play with others.

I am not saying that I am against them but only that we have to be be aware that it can happen and guard against it.

Pa. LGBTQ leaders create statewide advocacy organization

The group, Keystone Equality, is meant to mirror the diversity of LGBTQ communities

Philadelphia Gay News

By Michele Zipkin

February 7, 2023

In an effort to advance LGBTQ inclusion in Pennsylvania, leaders from across the state formed Keystone Equality, a nonpartisan organization with a goal of organizing statewide LGBTQ advocacy initiatives. The organization’s membership will accomplish this via community building within local, state and federal governments; and it will work to get LGBTQ community supporters elected, facilitate LGBTQ voter participation and convey to government officials that LGBTQ Pennsylvanians have political power. 

“We have been in need of a state-wide LGBT group for some time now,” said Keystone Equality Board Co-Chair Bre Reynolds, president and founder of the Clinton County LGBTQ+ Network. “Several folks came to the table from a variety of different areas to start this. It’s very necessary with the way politics are going these days, with the way that the elections shook out in the fall.”

I agree we need a  state-wide LGBT group, but… but…

Will they dominate in the state.

2011 Celebrating the passing on the
non-discrimination law 

I was there in the beginning when CT Equality was formed with a grant from Love Makes a Family. Back in 2010 the focus was on passing the gender inclusive none discrimination law. Then it kind of faded into the background but it was recreated a couple of years ago to dominate.

Back then a question was raised and never answered… what about the smaller LGBTQ orgainizations like the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective and outCT will they be pushed aside? What will happen to them in their quest for funding? What about when the media reaches out for interviews who will they ask? Will a national advocacy organization be good for the states?

Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head

Saturday 9: Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head (1969)

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

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

1) In this week's song, BJ Thomas sings that he knows it won't be long until he finds happiness. What are you looking forward to today? What's going to make you smile?

Babies, puppies, kittens...

2) BJ Thomas met his wife Gloria at a bar. She was there with his drummer, but BJ let his friend know he felt a connection to Gloria and was going to drive her home. BJ and Gloria were married for 50 years, until his death. Have you and a friend ever found yourselves attracted to the same person? If yes, how did you handle it?

Nope.

3) This song is from Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, which has been called "the most entertaining Western ever made." Do you enjoy Westerns?

Yes and no. All westerns are not made the same. Some are really bloody and gory and some are not. There is a difference between old time westerns and the new blood and guts western. In the old days a bad guy in western who got shot clutched his stomach and died, not there is blood and guts splattered over the walls, and they show a body with its head blown off.

4) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the most popular movies Paul Newman made, but he liked to say his "favorite role is philanthropist." He raised an amazing $500 million for children's charities through his Newman's Own brand. The most popular Newman's Own product is salad dressing. What flavor of salad dressing would we find in your kitchen right now?

Well if you open my refrigerators door you will see a whole row of salad dressing… some going back over a year.

I have driven by Newman's Hole in the Wall children’s camp and I usually only buy Newman's Own brand of juice, spaghetti sauce and salad dressing. The old camp burned down and the new camp is just reopening.

5) Burt Bacharach won the first of his three Oscars for this song. Yet 20th Century Fox originally wanted to cut the song from the movie, maintaining that that song and the famous "bicycle sequence" between Paul Newman and Katharine Ross were anachronistic and made the movie too long. Burt and the movie's director George Roy Hill fought for it, insisting that it helped define the optimistic character of Butch. Tell us about a time you were glad you stood your ground.

When I decided to get my MSW there was some opposition to it.

6) Edith Head also won an Oscar for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. She said that Robert Redford, who played Sundance, presented a wardrobe problem. His jawline is too strong so she had to create special wider-brimmed hats to balance it. If you could magically change one of your physical features, which would you choose? And which feature would you never change?

My face.

One thing I wish would disappear is my belly. 

7) In 1969, when this song was a hit, The Beatles played their last concert on the roof of Abbey Road Studios. When did you last climb onto the roof?

Not for a very long time ago, but I will tell you a story of when I was around 16,

We were using a snow coaster as a frisbee and it landed up on our roof. So I climbed up on the roof of the our ranch style home on the sunny side of the roof. I took one step from the sunny side to the shady side and zip… it was all ice and I slid all the down and off the roof on to the drivway.

Just then my mother came out looking for me. I zipped over her head and on to the driveway, rolled and got up. Being a teenager I tried to act nonchalant after having fallen off the roof and said “You wanted me?” Needless to say my mother was freaking out.

8) Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries sold at a brisk pace at Christmastime 1969. They're still popular today. Were you a fan?

No I was in my 20s and those books were too young for me.

9) Random question: Do you consider yourself old fashioned?

No, but the younger generation does.

***

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid brings back many a memory for me, I went on a first date, I had graduated from high school two years earlier  and I just got a date with a high school senior that i had a crush on and we went to watch the movie.

Afterward I went out and bought the album, and somewhere I still have the ticket stub from the movie.

Another Ally Speaks Up!

More and more celebrities are speaking up for us.

Jon Stewart Lays Out the Hypocrisy of a GOP Agenda Aimed at Drag Queens in Viral Clip

Stewart read a GOP lawmaker for filth in a clip shared widely over the weekend.

them

By Abby Monteil

March 6, 2023

Jon Stewart took Oklahoma State Sen. Nathan Dahm to task for pursuing anti-drag legislation “to protect children,” while simultaneously supporting looser gun restrictions.

In a now-viral clip from the latest episode of Apple TV+’s The Problem With Jon Stewart, the host confronted the Republican politician about his pro-gun stance. 

After Dahm argued that laws requiring people to register their guns infringe on a person’s right to bear arms, Stewart said, “Even rights have responsibilities.”

The talk show host then pivoted to Dahm and the general Right’s obsession with “protecting” children from drag performers, despite the fact that guns became the number one cause of death of children in the United States in 2022. 

“Are you infringing on that [drag] performer’s free speech?” Stewart asked.

“They can continue to exercise their free speech,” Dahm replied. “Just not in front of a child.” When Stewart pushed him as to why, Dahm continued, “Because the government does have a responsibility… in certain instances, to protect children.”

“What’s the leading cause of death amongst children in this country?” Stewart fired back. “I’m going to give you a hint: It’s not drag show readings to children.”

Our allies need to speak up and hold the Republicans’ feet to the fire and hold them accountable for their lies!

Unfortunately, the fact that Stewart sticks to the facts when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues like anti-drag legislation and bills targeting trans youth while almost every major newspaper has failed to do the same speaks volumes about the state of reporting on these issues — and the very real dangers that queer and trans people face when media outlets give people a platform to spread disinformation while not providing proper context and data.

Our media outlets are being bought up mega billionaires and look out for their money and not the truth. They no longer has ties to the community just to their pocketbooks.

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Between the time I wrote this and it was going to be publish I found this... another ally.

Lynda Carter is reported by MSN that on Twitter she wrote,

I cannot think of anything that helps women’s rights less than pinning the blame on trans women. They face so much violence and scrutiny as is. Leave them alone and focus on the real war on women. It’s happening in the courts and legislatures around this country.

Special Report... WPATH Statement: Denounces the anti-trans healthcare laws

The United States Professional Association for Transgender Health  and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Confirm Gender-Affirming Health Care is Not Experimental;

Condemns Legislation Asserting Otherwise

March 22, 2023 - 

The United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH) and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) denounces the emergency regulation halting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) children and adolescents issued by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey as lacking scientific grounding.

The WPATH Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, now in its 8th version (SOC8), is the foremost evidence-based guideline for the provision of TGD healthcare. SOC8 is based on the best available science with input from over 100 global medical professionals and experts and represents best-practice guidelines for the provision of gender-affirming healthcare. Gender-affirming interventions are based on decades of clinical experience and research and are not considered experimental. Gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) is a component of widely accepted medically-necessary care for TGD people.

In addition to WPATH, the largest establishment medical associations (including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the Endocrine Society, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association, among others) have supported the provision of gender-affirming care for TGD people as medically-necessary care.

Attorney General Bailey’s claims were either taken out of context, cherry-picked, or from unverified sources. In some situations, the excerpted statements used in the regulation are later contradicted in the same study or article from which they were pulled. The resulting regulation from the AG’s office strings together non sequitur misinformation in their attempt to prohibit safe and legal health care. For example, there are no formal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals for many hormonal therapies across all of endocrinology, not limited to hormone replacement therapies for TGD patients, despite the medications themselves having been approved by the FDA. FDA regulations do not directly or explicitly prohibit the promotion of off-label uses and, per the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, the FDA must review all materials and peer-reviewed articles about off-label use.1 Off-label use is neither uncommon nor illegal.

AG Bailey’s information about brain swelling and blindness as a result of puberty blockers or hormone suppression therapy was taken from a 2022 FDA statement that referenced six patients who identified a plausible association between gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and pseudotumor cerebri. Of the six cases that were identified, all were assigned female at birth and five were undergoing treatment for precocious puberty - only one case identified was for transgender care.2 According to the Mayo Clinic, pseudotumor cerebri can occur in children but is most common in women of childbearing age who are obese. The most common treatment for pseudotumor cerebri is weight loss.3 Notably, at the time of the FDA’s review, symptoms had resolved in three patients and were resolving in another. In the same statement, the FDA asserts that “the incidence rate of pseudotumor cerebri associated with GnRH agonist use in pediatric patients could not be reliably established due to the small number of cases and data limitations.”4 The full FDA statement asserts a lack of information to draw such conclusions, yet AG Bailey has done so in his efforts to ban gender-affirming care.

AG Bailey’s reference to Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW) recent declaration about the risks of puberty suppression therapy and gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy outweighing the possible benefits is also taken out of context; in their press release, NBHW recommends restraint and further study regarding GAHT for people under 18, not a total ban on care.5 Furthermore, this statement includes no citations to literature or studies. In a July 2022 article published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Kristina R. Olson et al reports that five years after their initial social transition, 97.5% of TGD youth continued to identify as transgender or nonbinary.6 A peer-reviewed study from Dr. Jack Turban et al in June 2021 found that among adults who detransition or retransition, 82.5% reported at least one external driving factor including family and social stigma.7 Instead of issuing blanket bans on gender-affirming care because some TGD people may detransition or retransition, we need fewer invasive laws and policies that further entrench social and cultural stigma about TGD people and identities and more support and resources for those who detransition or retransition.

Further, AG Bailey’s emergency regulation incorrectly cites “one scientific study” that claims an exponential increase in individuals identifying as transgender because of “social factors.” WPATH is unaware of any scientific study of this nature. Likely, however, the AG’s office is referring to a 2018 report by Lisa Littman based upon parent observations and perceptions of their TGD child, adolescent, or young adult.8 At no point during this process did Littman interview, survey, or evaluate any TGD people themselves and in 2019, she issued a correction to the report stating that, 

"Rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) is not a formal mental health diagnosis at this time. This report did not collect data from the adolescents and young adults (AYAs) or clinicians and therefore does not validate the phenomenon."

With this, Littman effectively disproves her own initial report. AG Bailey has used outdated information from a report that was later challenged by the reports’ author, yet AG Bailey’s inaccurate information remains in the emergency regulation.

Finally, AG Bailey’s citation about a study from the Endocrine Society and the rates of gender incongruence in TGD children is also cherry-picked, this time from the 2017 Endocrine Society Guidelines referencing Dr. Peggy Cohen-Kettenis’ data that only evaluated gender nonconforming children who were not necessarily transgender.9 This claim from AG Bailey is therefore not only factually inaccurate but unrepresentative of those who would be affected by this emergency regulation. More accurate data about persistence of gender identity for TGD youth can be found in Dr. Olson’s peer-reviewed study which, as noted above, reports that 97.5% of TGD youth continue to identify as transgender or nonbinary 5 years after their initial social transition.10 Further, a January 2023 longitudinal study from Dr. Diane Chen published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows an increase in positive affect and life satisfaction and a decrease in depression and anxiety for TGD youth after 2 years of hormones.11

Except for obtaining and maintaining informed consent, the latter bullet points in AG Bailey’s emergency regulation are all in contradiction to SOC8 and do not follow best practice medical guidelines. Additionally, a 2022 study from Dr. Jack Turban, et al, refuted claims about social contagion affecting gender identity.12

The emergency regulation issued by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is based upon manipulated statistics, flawed reports, and incomplete data, and prevents the provision of medically-necessary care. Medical decisions must remain between providers and patients and their families. Consistent with earlier statements, WPATH and USPATH condemn any legislative actions to restrict or prohibit access to gender-affirming health care.

---

1 Ventola, C. Lee. “Off-Label Drug Information.” Pharmacy and Therapeutics, vol. 34, no. 8, Aug. 2009, pp. 428–40. PubMed Central, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799128/.

 2Risk of Pseudotumor Cerebri Added to Labeling for Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonists. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 1 July 2022, https://www.fda.gov/media/159663/download.

3 “Pseudotumor Cerebri (Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension) - Symptoms and Causes.” Mayo Clinic, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pseudotumor-cerebri/symptoms-causes/syc-20354031. Accessed 20 Mar. 2023.

4 Risk of Pseudotumor Cerebri Added to Labeling for Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonists. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 1 July 2022, https://www.fda.gov/media/159663/download.

 5“Updated recommendations for hormone therapy for gender dysphoria in young people.” Socialstyrelsen, 22 Feb. 2022, https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/om-socialstyrelsen/pressrum/press/uppdaterade-rekommendationer-for-hormonbehandling-vid-konsdysfori-hos-unga/.

6 Kristina R. Olson, PhD, et al. “Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition.” Pediatrics, vol. 150, no. 2, Aug. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-056082.

 7Turban, Jack L., et al. “Factors Leading to ‘Detransition’ Among Transgender and Gender Diverse People in the United States: A Mixed-Methods Analysis.” LGBT Health, vol. 8, no. 4, 2021, pp. 273–80. PubMed, https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2020.0437.

8 Littman, Lisa. “Parent Reports of Adolescents and Young Adults Perceived to Show Signs of a Rapid Onset of Gender Dysphoria.” PLOS ONE, vol. 13, no. 8, Aug. 2018, p. e0202330. PLoS Journals, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202330.

9 Hembree, Wylie C. “Endocrine Treatment of Gender-Dysphoric/Gender-Incongruent Persons: An Endocrine Society* Clinical Practice Guideline.” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 102, no. 11, Nov. 2017, pp. 3869–903, https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2017-01658.

10 Olson, Kristina R., et al. “Gender Identity 5 Years After Social Transition.” Pediatrics, vol. 150, no. 2, Aug. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-056082.

11 Chen, Diane, et al. “Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after 2 Years of Hormones.” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 388, no. 3, Jan. 2023, pp. 240–50. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2206297.

12 Turban, Jack L., et al. “Sex Assigned at Birth Ratio Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents in the United States.” Pediatrics, vol. 150, no. 3, Sept. 2022, p. e2022056567. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2022-056567.

The Republicans twist the facts (i.e. Lying) to suit their own agenda to create fear and animosity towards us for their own political gains.

Yeah, But What About My Rights?

We see this across the country one person complains about a LGBTQ+ book and they are yanked from the self. What about the rights of all the other people to decide what they want their children to read?

The parent of a transgender child asks: What about my parental rights?

Tallahassee Democrat

By Jennifer Koslow

March 20, 2023

Florida Statute 1014 reads: "The Legislature finds that it is a fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children." If HB 1421 & SB 254 pass into law, the state needs to update its language to say: "The Legislature finds that it is a fundamental right of someparents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children."

Sound familiar? Do you remember reading George Orwell's satirical novella Animal Farm? I do. I vividly recollect that the pigs on Manor Farm transformed the original tenet "All Animals are Equal" into "But Some Animals are More Equal than Others." What I never imagined, however, is that my family might be the subject of a similar dystopian nightmare.

[…]

My family, and no family I know, has ever made a medical decision regarding their transgender child without consulting a team of physicians. Having gender dysphoria is not being "confused." It is a condition where a person's feelings about their body are out of alignment with the physical traits of their body. For some (but not all), gender dysphoria creates extreme distress.

Thirty years of data on puberty blockers tell us that this is a safe medication to temporarily pause puberty. As transgender children become adolescents, gradually taking gender-affirming hormones is only done as an informed decision for them and their parents. HB 1421 & SB 254 undermines a parent's fundamental right to make medical decisions for their child in consultation with their physicians.

I am sick and tired of this being a one way street against!

“Parental Right” has become an euphemism for discrimination. It is an attempt for an end run around the non-discrimination laws.

“I don’t want my children reading those horrible books on LGBTQ+ children!” is just discriminatory. They say that they are protecting their children… from what?

Imagine sitting in a classroom and everyone knows you as Sally. And then this bill passes, and the teacher calls you James. Everyone laughs. Then the kids in the class begin to taunt you. What does the teacher do? Nothing. Why? Because, in Florida, it will be OK for a teacher and peers to intentionally misgender someone, which by its very nature is belittling. The state Constitution of Florida makes it a duty of the state to provide all children with a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality system of free public schools." HB 1403/SB 1580 undermines every transgender child's constitutional right to feel safe and secure at school.

And the bullying, that harassment is becoming state sponsored. It is being pushed gleefully by Republican legislators.

---

It used to be a badge of honor to have your book “Banned in Boston” but now…

School library book bans are seen as targeting LGBTQ content

AP News

By Scott McFetridge, Anthony Izaguirre and Sara Cline

March 20, 2023

Teri Patrick bristles at the idea she wants to ban books about LGBTQ issues in Iowa schools, arguing her only goal is ridding schools of sexually explicit material.

Sara Hayden Parris says that whatever you want to call it, it’s wrong for some parents to think a book shouldn’t be readily available to any child if it isn’t right for their own child.

The viewpoints of the two mothers from suburban Des Moines underscore a divide over LGBTQ content in books as Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds pushes an especially sweeping crackdown on content in Iowa school libraries. The bill she’s backing could result in the removal of books from school libraries in all of the state’s 327 districts if they’re successfully challenged in any one of them.

The thing is what they call “sexually explicit material” it seems to differ to what is acceptable is based on their orientation, a boy and a girl kissing… OK. A boy and a boy kissing… “sexually explicit material.”

Longstanding disagreements about content in school libraries often focus this year on books with LGBTQ themes as policymakers nationwide also consider limiting or banning gender-affirming care and drag shows, allowing the deadnaming of transgender students or adults in the workplace, and other measures targeting LGBTQ people.

The thing is what is “sexually explicit material” to one person is “racy” but not “sexually explicit” who gets to define what is and what isn’t “sexually explicit material?”

I think they hit the nail on its head…

“People are scared because they don’t think LGBTQ people should exist,” Maul said. “They don’t want their own children to be LGBTQ, and they feel if they can limit access to these books and materials, then their children won’t be that way, which is simply not true and is heartbreaking and disgusting.”

BINGO, they fear anything different form them.

In Louisiana, activists fear a push by Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry to investigate sexually explicit materials in public libraries — and recently proposed legislation that could restrict children and teens’ access to those books — is being used to target and censor LGBTQ content.

What a witch hunt that will be! Would the investigators be a bunch of old prunes and evangelicals Christians leaders? Who do you think the Republican will appoint? A broad coalition of views and a very narrow view of what is “sexually explicit material?”

---

Update to an earlier story that I wrote about here.

The filibuster continues, ABC News wrote,

For the past three weeks, Nebraska State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh has been on an endless run, speaking on the Senate floor on just about every topic: legislation, fish fries, Girl Scout cookies and the movie "Madagascar."

The state's non-partisan, single-chamber legislature is ruled by Republican lawmakers, however, it takes 33 votes to overcome a filibuster, and the legislature has only 32 Republicans.

Now, Cavanaugh is heading into her fourth week of fighting an anti-LGBTQ bill that would ban transgender health care for people under the age of 19. According to a representative from Speaker of the Legislature Sen. John Arch's office, debate on the bill is set to begin on Tuesday, and is being brought to the floor sooner thanks to a deal between Cavanaugh and Arch.

Thank you Senator Cavanaugh for standing up to the tyranny for us and having our backs.

Please, Please Watch This!

ALOK sits down with Jamie Lee Curtis to explore themes of gender, race, trauma, belonging and the human condition. 

Recorded March 2, 2023 at the Upfront Summit.

It Is Spreading!

Around the world the violence and laws against us and our lesbian sisters and gay brothers it is spreading.

Gay activist says Uganda LGBTQ community 'in shock' at new law

Reuters

March 22, 2023

Members of Uganda's LGBTQ community are in shock and fear being arrested after parliament passed a new law that makes it a crime to identify as gay, and imposes tough sentences that include the death penalty in certain cases, an activist said on Wednesday.

The "Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023" was passed with a near-unanimous majority by lawmakers in the east African country where anti-gay sentiment runs deep.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the law would undermine fundamental human rights and "reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS" and urged authorities to reconsider implementation of the law.

[…]

It includes steep sentences that include death for "aggravated homosexuality" and life in prison for same-sex relations. Aggravated homosexuality involves same-sex relations with people under the age of 18 or when the perpetrator is HIV positive, among other categories, according to the law.

This is the dream of the Republicans here in the U.S. after all the Republicans did call for our eradication.

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They are probably using Florida as a model for the pogrom against us.

Woke Wars: Why is Florida so obsessed with gender and sexuality? | Opinion

By The Miami Herald Editorial Board

March 23, 2023

The Florida Legislature is once again going after sexuality and gender issues during the annual session.

Drag shows, the use of preferred pronouns in classrooms, expanding the ban on talking about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, gender-affirming care for minors — all are targets of lawmakers as they seek to hand Gov. Ron DeSantis a series of culture-war wins before he announces his presumed run for the presidency.

In this episode of “Woke Wars,” the Miami Herald opinion team discusses the real and dangerous consequences of the state’s actions, often couched as issues of “parental rights” — but only if those parents agree with DeSantis.

Florida’s governor has repeatedly reframed feelings of discontent or occasional concern and made them crises that must be addressed.

It’s a tactic that his mentor, former President Donald Trump, used to his advantage and DeSantis has honed into a formidable political weapon. It’s also a tactic that marginalizes vulnerable groups of people, including the trans community.

---

Maybe there is hope!

The people are “Waking” to being “Woke.”

DeSantis sees lowest level of support since December in new poll, trails Trump by 28 points

The Hill

By Olafimihan Oshin

March 21, 2023

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) received just 26 percent support in the latest GOP presidential poll from Morning Consult — the lowest number he’s hit in the survey since December.

DeSantis, who has not entered the GOP primary but is expected to do so, trailed former President Trump, who won 54 percent, by 28 percentage points in the new poll published on Tuesday.

Former Vice President Mike Pence came in third with 7 percent of respondents saying they’ll support him, followed by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who won 4 percent.

[…]

DeSantis, who indicated that an official announcement on a presidential run will not come until after his state’s legislative session is over, has been widely seen as a leading contender for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.

*****

DeSantis agenda wins in Florida but could cost him in 2024

Reuters/Ipsos

By Jason Lange and Gram Slattery

March 23, 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' policy agenda includes new restrictions on abortion and further loosening gun laws, stances that may help him in his expected run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination but could hurt his chances of actually being elected, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.

The results of the March 14-20 survey, which gauged national opinion around policies DeSantis backs, underscore the challenges - as well as some opportunities - that await him should he challenge former President Donald Trump for the nomination.

Only a third of Americans want a presidential candidate who supports severe restrictions on abortion rights and most voters oppose allowing people to carry concealed firearms without a permit, according to the poll of 4,410 adults.

Should DeSantis run, his positions on abortion and guns will likely help win support of Republican primary voters in the early months of 2024, but may hurt him with the independent and more moderate voters he would need to win, the data suggested.

The Democrats have to make sure that they don’t shoot themselves in the foot.

The Pieces Are Falling Into Place.

It is starting to make sense with what is happening in Florida… did you know that DeSantis was a JAG officers at Guantánamo Bay during the time when the prisoners were “force-feed” which the  U.N. Commission on Human Rights concluding that force-feeding amounted to torture.

DeSantis’s pivotal service at Guantánamo during a violent year

‘Hey, you can actually force-feed,’ Ron DeSantis said he advised, endorsing a practice detainee lawyers described as torture

Washing ton Post

By Michael Kranish

March 19, 2023

Ron DeSantis was a 27-year-old Navy lawyer fresh out of Harvard Law School when he arrived in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, amid an escalating crisis at the U.S. military base.

Hundreds of “enemy combatants,” held without charges, had gone on hunger strikes. As pressure grew to end the protests, DeSantis later said, he was part of a team of military lawyers asked what could be done.

“How do I combat this?” a commanding officer asked in 2006, as DeSantis recalled in an interview he gave years later to a local CBS television station.

“Hey, you actually can force-feed,” DeSantis said he responded in his role as a legal adviser. “Here’s what you can do. Here’s kind of the rules for that.”

Ultimately, it was the Pentagon’s decision to authorize force-feeding. Detainees were strapped into a chair and a lubricated tube was stuffed down their nose so a nurse could pour down two cans of a protein drink, according to military records. The detainees’ lawyers tried and failed to stop the painful practice, arguing that it violated international torture conventions.

DeSantis had no qualms torturing the prisoners! Just like he is torturing the trans youth in Florida be denying them proper healthcare. The guy has no empathy for others, he only cares about himself. And power!

His own account of his service at the base and those of his associates also makes it clear that it was a transformational experience that hardened his views about politics, conflict and the Constitution.

DeSantis is...

You're as cold as ice
Cold as ice, I know (you're as cold as ice)
Yes, I know
(You're as cold as ice) You're as cold as ice
Cold as ice, I know (you're as cold as ice)
Oh, yes I know

Click, the pieces are starting to fall together!

Former detainees, defense lawyers and other human rights advocates said in interviews that DeSantis’s actions at the base — and his continued view of what happened there as fully legitimate — present one of the most revealing and troubling chapters of his life, noting that he has never publicly expressed any concern or questioned his own role in what transpired.

Jezebel reported that 

DeSantis not only received complaints about the force-feeding, but also witnessed it, Ahmed Abdel Aziz, a former detainee, told McClatchy. Mansoor Adayfi said that DeSantis had introduced himself by saying, “I’m here to ensure that you are treated humanely,” according to Harper’s. But Adayfi alleged that DeSantis personally observed one of his force-feedings and laughed at him; Adayfi remembers vomiting on him. (Abdel Aziz and Adayfi were released after 13 and 14 years, respectively, without being charged.) McClatchy couldn’t confirm that DeSantis witnessed force-feedings, but multiple former officers and attorneys said it was possible, as he had access to the areas where they happened, though probably unlikely.

“ you are treated humanely…” yeah as they stuffed a rubber hose down his nose.

Harper Magazine reported...

Adayfi: Yes. And, “If you have any problems, if you have any concerns, just talk to me.” We were drowning in that place. So I was like, “Oh, this is cool. This person will raise the concerns.” But it was a piece of the game. What they were doing was looking for what hurts us more so they could use it against us. In 2006, when DeSantis was there, it was one of the worst times at Guantánamo. The administration, the guards, all of them were the worst. They cracked down on us so hard. When they came to break our hunger strike, a team came to us. The head of the team, he was a general. He said, “I have a job. I was sent here to break your fucking hunger strike. I don’t care why you are here. I don’t care who you are. My job is to make you eat. Today we are talking. Tomorrow there will be no talking.” The second day, they brought piles of Ensure and they started force-feeding us over and over again.

*Foreigner Cold As Ice.

---

What is the worst thing right now that the country needs?

Stop inflation?
Stop the high cost of rent?
The price of gas?
Fix our crumbling bridges?
What about making sure we had drinking water?
Ban trans children for getting proper medical care?

WAIT what?

Yup.

Republicans seize on transgender rights ahead of 2024

The Hill

By Brooke Migdon and Julia Manchester

March 22, 2023

Republicans have seized on transgender rights ahead of 2024, with policy proposals including punishing doctors who treat transgender youths to barring transgender women and girls from playing on school sports teams with their peers.

In a February campaign video, former President Trump pledged to enact a federal law that recognizes only two genders if he is reelected in November, claiming that being transgender is a concept that has only recently been manufactured by the “radical left.” The former president in the video also announced his intent to enact close to a dozen policies if he is elected in 2024, all of them targeting transgender people.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is seen as a top 2024 GOP contender, has called for physicians who provide gender-affirming health care to transgender minors to be sued, and Florida under his administration has barred transgender minors from accessing puberty blockers, hormone therapies and surgeries. A state health department rule adopted in August prohibits transgender Floridians, regardless of age, from using Medicaid to help pay for gender-affirming health care.

****

In Congress the House Republicans are debating on a “Parents Bill of Rights” that includes us.

‘Us vs Them’: Politicians Push Toxic Vision of Parental Engagement

The so-called “parents' bill of rights” being debated in Congress will increase book bans and censorship and undermine local control and educator autonomy—while doing nothing to promote authentic and constructive parent involvement in schools.

National Education Association (NEA)

By: Tim Walker, Senior Writer

March 21, 2023

The bill’s supporters call it a “parents’ bill of rights,” another example of the deceptive but familiar ploy of using popular, digestible labels to disguise unpopular and destructive schemes. This bill, introduced in January, is now being debated in the House of Representatives and will have a floor vote later this week.

The bill’s supporters call it a “parents’ bill of rights,” another example of the deceptive but familiar ploy of using popular, digestible labels to disguise unpopular and destructive schemes. This bill, introduced in January, is now being debated in the House of Representatives and will have a floor vote later this week.

The “Parents' Bill of Rights Act” (HR 5) contains a list of provisions already ensured by local and state law, including, but not limited to, a parent’s right to view a school’s budget or speak at a public school board meeting.

Of all the problems facing our nation, the Republicans think these issues are right up there at the top!

A New Twist.

 The conservatives are trying a novel twist to banning drag shows… degrading to women.

Down in Texas a campus of Texas A&M University has taken to banning a fundraiser for the Trevor Project.

WTAMU President provides reasoning on canceling on-campus drag show in letter to students, staff, faculty

My High Plains

By David Gay and Caden Keenan

March 20, 2023

Update (March 21, 11:20 a.m.)

MyHighPlains.com reached out to officials with West Texas A&M University, asking for clarification on how Wendler’s letter lines up with approved expressive activity on campus rules from member academic institutions of the Texas A&M University System.

According to documents found on West Texas A&M University’s website, this comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 18, adding a clause of “Protected Expression on Campus” to the Texas Education Code, intending to “insure that all persons may peaceably assemble on campuses of institutions of higher education for expressive activities.”

In section 1.3 of the system’s “Expressive Activity on Campus” document, it states:

“The university may not take action against a student organization or deny the organization any benefit generally available to other student organizations at the university on the basis of a political, religious, philosophical, ideological, or academic viewpoint expressed by the organization or of any expressive activities of the organization.”

[…]

Original Story:

CANYON, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — In a letter sent to students, faculty and staff at West Texas A&M University on Monday that was obtained by MyHighPlains.com, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler announced that a planned drag show for later this month will not happen, stating his view that drag shows exaggerate and stereotype women in “cartoon-like extremes.”

According to a post on the university’s Spectrum student organization’s Instagram, a student organization for the university’s LGBTQIA+ students and allies, the group, along with a number of other student organizations, was recruiting for an upcoming drag show scheduled for March 31.

[…]

Wendler said in the letter that he believes drag shows do not preserve “a single thread of human dignity,” stating that it discriminates against womanhood.

[…]

Wendler goes on to say that mocking or objectifying members “of any group based on appearance, bias or predisposition is unacceptable.” At the end of the letter, Wendler cites the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s purpose, stating that prejudice in the workplace, which Wendler said he believes drag shows are, is “harmful and wholly inappropriate” even if they are not criminal.

Has there ever been a protest by women against a drag show saying that it mocks women? Not that I know. However, it his letter he says…

I believe every human being is created in the image of God and, therefore, a person of dignity. Being created in God’s image is basis of Natural Law. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, prisoners of the culture at their time as are we, declared the Creator’s origin as the foundational fiber in the fabric of our nation as they breathed life into it.

Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not. As a performance exaggerating aspects of womanhood (sexuality, femininity, gender), drag shows stereotype woman in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others and discriminate against womanhood…

… I would not support “blackface” performances on our campus, even if told the performance is form of free speech or intended as humor. It is wrong…

I would have said that he had a point about “blackface” but then he added a quote from the Bible about doing one to others as you would them do it to you. Now it looks like he based his decision not that it mocks women but rather it is against “gods law.”

Of course the students are protesting…

Students protest after WT president cancels drag show

Amarillo Globe-News

By Michael Cuviello

March 21, 2023

Students held a protest on campus Tuesday after West Texas A&M University (WT) President Walter Wendler sent out a letter to students, staff and faculty of the university Monday afternoon, announcing that the university would not permit a planned drag show on campus.

The drag show was scheduled for March 31, to raise money for the Trevor Project, which according to its website, is a nonprofit organization that focuses on suicide prevention counseling and the mental health of LGBTQIA+ young people. The group also provides other mental health services and advocacy for LGBTQIA+ youth.

WT Spectrum, a student organization for LGBTQIA+ students and allies, was recruiting for the proposed drag show. Open and Affirming Congregations of the Texas Panhandle has started a petition which had more than 3,750 signatures as of 3 p.m. Tuesday, decrying the university’s decision to cancel the drag show. The petition can be found at https://www.change.org/p/save-the-wtamu-drag-show .

According to the statement from the petition, the group states “Not only is this a gross and abhorrent comparison of two completely different topics, but it is also an extremely distorted and incorrect definition of drag as a culture and form of performance art.” They also allege the act by the university president violates university policy by denying a student organization a benefit available to any other organizations based on a political, religious and ideological basis.

That was a novel twist President Walter Wendler tried but it sure looks like he based his decision on religious views and personal prejudices.

An article in the Los Angles Blade said,

His comments and decision to cancel the campus drag show come amid surging uproar over the lively entertainment as far-right extremist groups have recruited conservatives to protest the events, claiming that drag performances are sexualizing kids.

[…]

Wendler argued in his letter that the West Texas A&M drag show goes against the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s purpose, saying it’s inappropriate even if drag shows are not illegal.

A lawyer for the national campus free speech group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression rejected that argument as “nonsense.”

“The only prejudice in play here is his,” said lawyer Alex Morey, arguing that Wendler has violated state and federal law by canceling the show.

And so the struggle for our rights continues...

It Is Working!

The intimidation is working in Florida, venues are afraid to host drag events.

A drag queen who survived the Orlando Pulse shooting says Florida's LGBTQ community is 'scared' of further hate following DeSantis' push to revoke a hotel's liquor license

Insider

By Lloyd Lee and Chris Panella

• Florida has recently proposed a spate of bills concerning the LGBTQ community.
• Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida leaders have often framed the move as an effort to protect children.
•  A drag queen who survived the 2016 Pulse club shooting said it only further demonizes LGBTQ people. 

Florida's push to axe gender-affirming care for minors, restrict discussions of gender identity in schools, and, more recently, revoke a hotel's liquor license after hosting a drag show have repeatedly been painted by GOP state leaders and Gov. Ron DeSantis as an urgent crusade to protect children. 

But LGBTQ rights groups and communities are skeptical and maintain that the latest actions in Florida further marginalize a minority community that makes up less than 5% of the state's population.

"On the surface level, these pieces of legislation limit job opportunities for drag entertainers, reduce resources for transgender individuals, and prevent students (both children and adults) from being educated about LGBTQ+ topics," a drag performer who goes by the name of Venus Envy told Insider in an email. "All of these outcomes are harmful in their own right, but the greater impact of these bills is already being seen in the increase of hatred toward the LGBTQ+ community and the harmful rhetoric that drag queens are predatory."

[…]

In response to the Tuesday complaint, Equality Florida, an LGBTQ rights advocacy group, accused DeSantis of "selectively weaponizing" state agencies against businesses to target drag performances.

But you have to realize… that is their goal. To shut anything down anything that has anything to do with us. To force us back in the closet!

***

It is having a chilling effect on our community, more businesses are shutting their doors to us.

Florida drag queens say venues have started shutting them down after DeSantis pushed to revoke a Hyatt hotel's liquor license
Insider
By Chris Panella
March 21, 2023

• Florida drag queens say the GOP's push to restrict performances is hitting them in their wallets.
• Venues are canceling performances as Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration has tried to punish venues.
• Recently, the state moved to pull the liquor license of a hotel that hosted a drag event.

Florida drag queens say recent pushes by Republicans to restrict and limit performances across the state are already forcing them out of work.

"I can't tell you the amount of friends of mine who have lost their jobs because the venue just said, 'Hey, we don't want to risk it,'" Orlando-based drag performer Mr Ms Adrien — who asked to go by their stage name — told Insider. 

Adrien said the businesses have real fears that lead to these cancellations, such as protests from anti-LGBTQ+ groups, staff safety, and even death threats to performers themselves.

There are also concerns about upcoming legislation that could have impacts on drag, including 10 anti-LGBTQ+ bills that the ACLU of Florida is tracking.

Marginalized. Isolated. Forced back in the closet. That is the Republican goals! That want everything back to the way it was before the Stonewall Uprising.

"They're just trying to paint a picture that isn't real," they said. "And they're hitting us in our wallets, where it counts. They want us to be broke and they want everybody to be afraid of us." 

DeSantis & Company want to paint us as evil and corrupting “the children” it is always about “the children”

Read what Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation found when they sent undercover agents at a drag event. According to the Tampa Bay Times,

When the historic Plaza Live theater in Orlando hosted an event last December called “A Drag Queen Christmas,” the show drew a full house, noisy street demonstrators — and a small squad of undercover state agents there to document whether children were being exposed to sights that ran afoul of Florida’s decency law.

What lewd behavior did they find?

But while agents took photos of three minors — who appeared to be accompanied by adults — at the Orlando drag show, they acknowledged that nothing indecent had happened on stage, according to an incident report obtained exclusively by the Miami Herald.

“Besides some of the outfits being provocative (bikinis and short shorts), agents did not witness any lewd acts such as exposure of genital organs,” the brief report stated. “The performers did not have any physical contact while performing to the rhythm of the music with any patrons.”

The truth doesn’t matter to these Republicans whose mission in life is to rid the world of us.

Still, the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation proceeded to file a complaint against the nonprofit that runs Plaza Live, claiming the venue had illegally exposed children to sexual content. The complaint, issued Feb. 3, seeks to strip the small, nonprofit theater of its liquor license — a serious blow that would likely put it out of business.

---

Update 3/22/23: The filibuster continues in Nebraska! 

Debate on Nebraska gender-affirming care bill gets combative

AP News

By Margery A. Beck

Sen. John Lowe, of Kearney, cited an activist group’s claim that gender dysphoria in youth “is just temporary,” while Sen. Brad von Gillern, of Omaha, compared gender-affirming treatment to shock treatments, lobotomies and forced sterilizations of years’ past. Bellevue Sen. Carol Blood countered that if lawmakers really cared about medical procedures affecting children, “how come we’re not talking about circumcision?”

And that was only the first three hours of an eight-hour Senate debate expected to stretch into Thursday.

Just more lies from the Republicans to create animosity against us.

Lawmakers convened Tuesday to begin that debate with the understanding that the bill didn’t have enough votes to break a filibuster. But Kauth introduced an amendment to drop the restriction on hormone treatments, instead banning only gender reassignment surgery for minors. That amendment, she said, does have enough votes to advance.

Cavanaugh has said if the bill advances on a vote expected Thursday, she will resume filibustering every bill through the end of the 90-day session in early June.

And so our struggle for our human rights continues...

Weaponizing Children!

The right-wing does not care who they use.

Oh how horrible!

The boy read from the book: 'We kiss for a long time, like it's two years ago and we're on Nick's lounge sofa trying to watch a film. Impossible.

'I can't think about anything else when he's running his hands so gently through my hair, across my back, over my hips.

'Suddenly he's pulling my T-shirt off and laughing when I can't undo his shirt buttons, I'm asking if he wants to and he's saying yes before I've even finished my sentence, he's undoing my belt, I'm reaching into his bedside drawer for a condom, we're kissing again, we're rolling over, obviously you can see where this is going.'

The corruption of youth!

So what exactly is so bad with this? I tell you what is so bad about this… nothing! If it wasn’t for the fact that it was about two boys it would be like hundreds of other books on the school library selves.

If it was so bad why did his father who was with him at the library at the time allow him to pick it up? Did his father put him up to pick up the book? Could his motive have been political?

Maine sixth grade student, 11, reads from 'pornographic' LGBT book he found in school library during school board meeting - and reveals librarian asked if he wanted a graphic version

• An 11-year-old boy read a passage describing a sex scene to a school board
• He told those attending the meeting that he got the book from the school library
• The book, Nick and Charlie, is for those '13 and up' and about a teen relationship

The Daily Mail

By Neirin Gray Desai

28 February 2023

The book featured in the Maine meeting was Nick and Charlie by bestselling 28-year-old British author Alice Oseman, which tells the story of a high school relationship.

Her popular book, Heartstopper, which was recently turned into a Netflix series, tells the story of the same pair beginning their relationship aged 15 and 16.

[…]

Oseman has published a number of teen books and graphic novels that explore LGBTQ+ themes.

Oh! The humanity!  ...I can’t talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, this is so horrible! Everybody can hardly breathe and talk… Honest, I can hardly breathe. I’m going to step inside where I cannot see it…”

They feign that this is so horrible because it is two boys, but is okay if it is a heterosexual relationship.

---

A reader to my blog posted a comment on it that pointed out a court case that…

Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico by Pico

March 2, 1982

Facts of the case

The Island Trees Union Free School District's Board of Education (the "Board"), acting contrary to the recommendations of a committee of parents and school staff, ordered that certain books be removed from its district's junior high and high school libraries. In support of its actions, the Board said such books were: "anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy." Acting through his friend Francis Pico, and on behalf of several other students, Steven Pico brought suit in federal district court challenging the Board's decision to remove the books. The Board won; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed. The Board petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted certiorari.

Question

Did the Board of Education's decision to ban certain books from its junior high and high school libraries, based on their content, violate the First Amendment's freedom of speech protections?

Conclusion

5–4 Decision 

Yes. Although school boards have a vested interest in promoting respect for social, moral, and political community values, their discretionary power is secondary to the transcendent imperatives of the First Amendment. The Court, in a 5-to-4 decision, held that as centers for voluntary inquiry and the dissemination of information and ideas, school libraries enjoy a special affinity with the rights of free speech and press. Therefore, the Board could not restrict the availability of books in its libraries simply because its members disagreed with their idea content.

And the Republicans want to bring it again to the Trump/McConnell conservative Supreme Court and are hoping for a different outcome.

What Do You Call…

A person who causes American hostages to be held longer by a terrorist government?

Do you remember the 1980 presidential election? Carter verse Reagan?

I think of Reagan as a traitor to the U.S. people, because of him Americans sat in Iranian jails longer.

A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-election

A prominent Texas politician said he unwittingly took part in a 1980 tour of the Middle East with a clandestine agenda.

New York Times

By Peter Baker

March 18, 2023

It has been more than four decades, but Ben Barnes said he remembers it vividly. His longtime political mentor invited him on a mission to the Middle East. What Mr. Barnes said he did not realize until later was the real purpose of the mission: to sabotage the re-election campaign of the president of the United States.

It was 1980 and Jimmy Carter was in the White House, bedeviled by a hostage crisis in Iran that had paralyzed his presidency and hampered his effort to win a second term. Mr. Carter’s best chance for victory was to free the 52 Americans held captive before Election Day. That was something that Mr. Barnes said his mentor was determined to prevent.

[...]

What happened next Mr. Barnes has largely kept secret for nearly 43 years. Mr. Connally, he said, took him to one Middle Eastern capital after another that summer, meeting with a host of regional leaders to deliver a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal.

Did you get that?

They bribed Iran to hold American prisoners longer for political gains!

They put Americans in harms way for political purposes.

Mr. Carter’s camp has long suspected that Mr. Casey or someone else in Mr. Reagan’s orbit sought to secretly torpedo efforts to liberate the hostages before the election, and books have been written on what came to be called the October surprise. But congressional investigations debunked previous theories of what happened.

I don’t know about you but I call someone who did that a traitor.

And what party was Reagan?

Speak The Truth And Get Your Hand Slap.

A Democrat had the nerve to call it what it is… genocide. However the Republicans didn’t like the truth.

Nebraska lawmaker threatened with censure for comparing transgender legislation with genocide

State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh says she won’t stop her efforts but also wants bills to be debated

Nebraska Examiner

By Zach Wendling

March 15, 2023

A Nebraska lawmaker faced a threat of censure Wednesday for alleging that a couple of bills aim to perpetrate genocide against transgender Nebraskans.

State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar offered the motion after State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha made comparisons between past genocides and two bills that she said would lead to a genocide.

State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha introduced the bills that Cavanaugh said “legislate hate.” They would, respectively, prohibit access to some health care for youth experiencing gender dysphoria and restrict bathrooms or sports teams on the basis of sex assigned at birth.

On Wednesday, Cavanaugh outlined “The Ten Stages of Genocide” as defined by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which states that “genocide never just happens.”

“There is always a set of circumstances which occur or which are created to build the climate in which genocide can take place,” Cavanaugh said, quoting the trust.

Well it is!

That is what happens when you speak truth to power, power goes after the them.

Slama warned Cavanaugh multiple times she would move to censure her. Slama told the Examiner that Cavanaugh’s speech minimized “the seriousness and the gravity” of the word “genocide.”

As trans children die, as trans children get bullied, as trans people get murdered at an alarming rate, as the Republicans cheer on the animosity.

Meanwhile a Democrat on the floor of the Senate said,

“I want a record for the history of this genocide for those who stood by it, for those who had an opportunity to change the course of history — the direction in which we are moving as a state and a country,” Cavanaugh said. “I want the bloody hands recorded. This is a genocide. This is an assault on a population of people because they are different from you.”

[…]

“It’s the same language that’s used in genocides, it’s the same type of imagery, it’s the same type of rhetoric,” Hunt said. “Calling people part of a social contagion is disgusting language comparing them to a disease. Being trans is not a disease and no child is made wrong. They’re all exactly who they should be.”

The Republicans had a hissy fit over that.

Around 11:24 a.m., Slama objected to Cavanaugh saying: “We are witnessing a genocide.”

Citing Rule 2, Section 9 of the Legislature, Slama raised a point of order. Slama, Cavanaugh and Arch met with the clerk of the Legislature at the front of the room for a few minutes.

Well Duh! It is.

Critics of the censure motion, including Tim Royers, president of the Millard Education Association, who ran against Kauth in 2022, questioned why Slama chose to censure Cavanaugh but not criticize others who have compared COVID-19 to the Holocaust, such as Kauth.

Even I know the answer to that… It was a Democrat of said “genocide” and a Republican that said “Holocaust” it is as simple as that… politics.

Ari Kohen, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor and director of the Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies, told the Examiner that it’s important to understand the “real consequences from effectively targeting a minority population.” 

Kohen said he sees the point Cavanaugh was making and understands why those who support Kauth’s legislation would feel attacked. He added that there can be no direct comparison to the Holocaust because it — like all genocides — had its own circumstances.

Still, Slama said there’s a “huge difference” between the comments Kauth and Cavanaugh made.

“I think you’re comparing apples and oranges there, for sure,” Slama said.

And so the madness continues in the month of Madness.

Ops… I might be censured by the Republicans for saying the Republicans are crazy.

---

Then down in Florida the political attack on us continues proving that this is all motivated by right-wing politics.

Undercover agents saw nothing ‘lewd’ at Orlando drag show. Florida is going after venue anyway 

Miami Herald

By Nicholas Nehamas and Ana Ceballos 

March 20, 2023

When the historic Plaza Live theater in Orlando hosted an event last December called “A Drag Queen Christmas,” the show drew a full house, noisy street demonstrators — and a small squad of undercover state agents there to document whether children were being exposed to sights that ran afoul of Florida’s decency law.

[…]

But while agents took photos of three minors — who appeared to be accompanied by adults — at the Orlando drag show, they acknowledged that nothing indecent had happened on stage, according to an incident report obtained exclusively by the Miami Herald.

“Besides some of the outfits being provocative [bikinis and short shorts], agents did not witness any lewd acts such as exposure of genital organs,” the brief report stated. “The performers did not have any physical contact while performing to the rhythm of the music with any patrons.”

Now everything is BS after this “...they acknowledged that nothing indecent had happened on stage…”

It’s all part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ statewide crackdown on drag shows, which could escalate further as legislators draft new laws to tighten restrictions on venues that allow minors into those performances. DeSantis has said he believes “sexualized” drag shows are dangerous for kids.

It political prosecution pure and simple!

DBPR, which regulates alcohol sales in Florida and has its own sworn cops, says it has the authority to strip liquor licenses from venues that violate state law. DeSantis himself has said the goal is to financially hurt venues that allow children to see drag.

 It get worst… they had to dig up a 1947 law!

In cracking down on drag shows, state regulators have had to cite existing laws against “public nuisances,” as well as a precedent set by the Florida Supreme Court in 1947 that defines “men impersonating women in the context of ‘suggestive and indecent’ performances” as such a nuisance.

Hours before doors opened for a “A Drag Queen Christmas,” DBPR delivered a letter to the Plaza Live warning it not to allow children into the show that evening.

Political! That is all it is, going after innocent businesses and individuals for nothing more than votes and campaign donations.

~~~~~

I found this article in Yahoo News and went to the original article in the Herald but in Yahoo they allow comments. Usually there are horrible and acid but for this time the hoard went after DeSantis with comments like…

• I need the government to tell me what to see. Does Ron have a list of approved movies as well?
• the sins politicians do in the " name of children" is typical fascist nonsense.
• Create an imaginary problem, then come up with a solution is the Republican way.
• Fuhrer DeFascist and his not sea regime
• DeSantis' "Florida Fascism" dictates that the only allowable public displays are Christian Centered displays. Everything else must be immediately banned and the actors be jailed for life for insulting his sensitive sensibilities.

---

I was reading another article on the anti-Trans legislation in the Oklahoman that caught my attention,

Oklahoma lawmakers, for example, introduced scores of anti-LGBTQ+ bills and related bills in 2023. One must ask, what crimes against humanity has our peaceful community committed? What would warrant a group of suit-wearing officials to tie us to their political whipping posts, laughing and ridiculing us, while they do their best to beat us into submission?

What have we done to deserve these brutal attacks on us? All we want to do is live our lives in peace, what is so criminal about that?

***

I would like to point out that the Republicans here in Connecticut have introduced bill against us and a town pulled an LGBTQ book off the library shelf.

It Happened Here!

Book banning has happened here in Connecticut!

A CT leader’s decision to pull a children’s book about pronouns from library display called ‘censorship’

The Hartford Courant

By Pamela McLoughlin

March 18, 2023

Suffield First Selectman Colin Moll was criticized this week by a handful of residents for his decision to remove a children’s book about pronouns from a display at Kent Memorial Library.

In addition to the traditional she, her, he, him pronouns in a the book written for 4- to 8- year-old children, it includes the more recent they, them, their pronouns when referring to individuals whose gender identity is fluid.

Moll said in response to the controversy that he had the book taken off display, but had not banned or removed it from the library shelf, and that was in response to a resident’s complaint.

It wasn’t the material that prompted him to do it, he said, but rather because, “It’s my job to respond to residents.”

Banning the book because of “a handful” of people objected to it, I wonder what would happen if a handful of people objected to the violence in the Bible?

Some of the words and phrases residents directed at Moll during the public speaking portion of Wednesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting included: “abuse of power,” “disappointed, angry and resolute,” “censorship,” embarrassed.”

Kristen Hamilton, who read the book with her fourth-grader, said during the meeting that there are “way more copies of this book floating around,” than there would have been without the controversy. She said the move to take the book off display was a “disappointment” and embarrassment.”

It is wrong for “a handful” to be able dictate to a whole town and tell them what they can and cannot read! And the people are speaking out over the censorship.

Another resident, Amy Healy, said during the meeting that the book is one that could make “LGBTQ plus children and adults feel welcome in the library, feel acknowledged and at less risk for suicide.”

However some of the Republicans are supporting the pulling of the book. One said,

The book was on display, but there was “no balance,” he said. He did not elaborate.

Tell me how do you balance a book that is about accepting and affirming? One with hate and exclusion?

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Connecticut Republicans are stating to follow the insanities in other states.

School library book bans are seen as targeting LGBTQ content

AP News

By Scott McFetridge, Anthony Izaguirre and Sara Cline

March 20, 2023

Teri Patrick bristles at the idea she wants to ban books about LGBTQ issues in Iowa schools, arguing her only goal is ridding schools of sexually explicit material.

Sara Hayden Parris says that whatever you want to call it, it’s wrong for some parents to think a book shouldn’t be readily available to any child if it isn’t right for their own child.

The viewpoints of the two mothers from suburban Des Moines underscore a divide over LGBTQ content in books as Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds pushes an especially sweeping crackdown on content in Iowa school libraries. The bill she’s backing could result in the removal of books from school libraries in all of the state’s 327 districts if they’re successfully challenged in any one of them.

School boards and legislatures nationwide also are facing questions about books and considering making it easier to limit access.

“We’re seeing these challenges arise in almost every state of the union,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “It’s a national phenomenon.”

The difference between the two sides is the fact that the anti-LGBTQ side sees anything LGBTQ as obscene while everyone else does not.