They Are On A Roll!

Pogroms against us are so successful that they are branching out to other minorities.

Hundreds of Chinese Americans protest in Dallas against ‘discriminatory’ Texas Senate bills
The bills would prevent people with ties to four countries — China, Russia, North Korea and Iran — from purchasing property in the state
Next Shark
By Ryan General
January 31, 2023

Chinese Americans from North Texas are protesting against two Texas Senate bills that would ban specific communities from buying property in the state. 

Over 250 protesters flocked to John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza in downtown Dallas on Sunday to condemn Senate Bills 147 and 552, which they have denounced as discriminatory.

Bill 147, filed by Republican State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst in November 2022, will effectively prevent people with ties to four countries — China, Russia, North Korea and Iran — from purchasing Texas property or real estate if passed.

Meanwhile, Bill 552 will hinder companies with links to the four countries from buying agricultural land.

“I will sign it,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted on Jan. 15 in support of Bill 147. “This follows a law I signed banning those countries from threatening our infrastructure.”

According to Kolkhorst, the bill seeks to address national security issues with the singled-out countries.

Do you believe this crap?

There is a law preventing discriminations based on The Fair Housing Act (Act), the Act prohibits discrimination because of any of the following protected characteristics:

Race
Color
Religion
Sex (including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity (LGBTQ+)
National Origin (country of origin or ancestry)
Disability (a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits an individual’s major life activity or bodily function, being regarded as having such an impairment, or having a record of such an impairment)
Familial Status (parent(s) or guardian(s) living with a child or children under age 18 or pregnancy)

Republican don't let a little law stand in their way (You know that this will go all the to the Supreme Court).

The Republican will use anyone to dived the country… this is Fascism!

This is exactly what Germany did in the 1930 diving the country: Jews, Romani, gays, trans people, Blacks, and the disabled they used them as scapegoats for all the ills of the country.

The Republicans:

Women,
Trans people,
Gays,
Blacks,
Muslims,
Asians,
Latinx.

Who will they go after next?

 

Getting Pounded.

Blue states v. Red States.

I live in paradise. I live in a state that has sponsored a legislative committee and funded it on LGBTQ issues. I live in a state where saying “Gay” is not a crime. I live in a state where books are not banned. I live in a state where just about every public school has a LGBTQ club.

I cannot imagine what it is like to live in a state that hates our guts.

New data on LGBTQ Tennesseans should be a wake up call to lawmakers | Opinion
The hate toward LGBTQ people that is both reflected in and produced by anti-LGBTQ policies is harming Tennesseans every day.
Tennessean
By Emma Chinn Guest Columnist
January 31, 2023


Tennessee has begun a new legislative session and the state’s LGBTQ residents are bracing for impact.The General Assembly’s hostility towards its LGBTQ constituents has resulted in one of the most unsupportive legal systems in the country for LGBTQ people.

As a result of Tennessee state laws, transgender people struggle to access life-saving healthcare, teachers fear the repercussions of discussing LGBTQ identity at school, and same-sex couples worry that adoption agencies may refuse them the chance to raise a child.

The trend of anti-LGBTQ hostility is set to continue in 2023, with a slate of discriminatory bills already moving – including a complete ban on transgender-related healthcare for people under the age of 18 and a bill banning public drag performances written so broadly that it could result in public erasure for all trans people.

They say it is to protect the children but they really don’t care what it is doing to the kids.

Real people are being harmed by these policies

As a member of the LGBTQ community in Tennessee, I often find myself in the position of an advocate, attempting to convince friends and family members that our state’s anti-LGBTQ policies are dangerous and wrong.In these conversations, I am often dismissed. I am told that “it’s just politics”; that while we may disagree, we can still love each other.

The hate toward LGBTQ people that is both reflected in and produced by anti-LGBTQ policies is harming Tennesseans every day.

This legislative session, Tennesseans must unite behind our LGBTQ neighbors and denounce the slate of anti-LGBTQ policies.

But the children are being harmed! Human Rights Watch report;

Fifteen years ago, I helped interviewed some 140 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students in seven US states about their day-to-day life in middle and high school.  We heard grim reports of unchecked verbal abuse escalating into violence and of school administrators’ deliberate indifference when abuses were brought to their attention.

One lesson of that investigation was that laws, even when rarely enforced, can send a powerful message. Many teachers told us, with great shame, that they feared losing their jobs if they protected their students from attacks.

The Republicans are encouraging the swamp people because they vote Republican so they are rallying their baser side of intolerance of people who are different.

An Experiment: ChatGPT & Trans Children

Okay I have been trying to get on ChatGPT and I finally got on and asked it…

Write a 500 word essay on transgender children.

And this is what it wrote…

Transgender children are individuals whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The issue of transgender children has gained significant attention in recent years, and has become a controversial topic in society.

Many transgender children face discrimination, bullying and lack of understanding from their peers and even family members. This can lead to a feeling of isolation and depression, affecting their mental health and overall well-being. It is important to note that gender identity is a deeply personal and intrinsic part of an individual, and denying it can have serious consequences.

On the other hand, supporting and affirming a transgender child's identity can have a positive impact on their mental health and well-being. This includes using their preferred name and pronouns, allowing them to express their gender identity and providing access to appropriate medical care, such as hormone therapy.

It is also crucial for society to educate and raise awareness on the topic of transgender children. This includes dispelling harmful myths and misconceptions about gender identity, and promoting an understanding and accepting environment for all individuals, regardless of their gender identity.

In conclusion, transgender children face unique challenges and it is important for society to provide support, understanding and affirmation for their gender identity. By educating and raising awareness, we can create a more accepting and inclusive society for all individuals.

I was concerned that it would do a hatchet job on us. Knowing a little about AI, I know garbage in garbage out (GIGO), and I know that the AI is only as good as the information feed in to it. So with all the negative stuff that the Republicans are pushing out I didn’t know if it would corrupt the database. But it good a very good job. I gave it an A+.

What do you think?

online polls

Anti-Trans Bills In Connecticut!

Yup the Republicans here in Connecticut have introduced a number of anti-legislation.

These are the bills that I’m following*:

HB-5270**: AN ACT CONCERNING PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION.

HB-5274: AN ACT ESTABLISHING A SCOPE OF REVIEW PROCESS FOR THE ADOPTION OF NEW CURRICULUM GUIDES AND MATERIALS AND PROVIDING FOR LEGISLATIVE APPOINTMENTS TO THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

HB-5490: AN ACT ESTABLISHING A PILOT PROGRAM REGARDING COLLECTION AND REFERRAL OF INFORMATION ON HATE CRIMES, BIAS INCIDENTS AND CRIMES WITH BIAS ELEMENTS.

HB-6331: AN ACT REQUIRING PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATORS TO RECOGNIZE EACH STUDENT BY THE BIOLOGICAL GENDER OF SUCH STUDENT.

HB-6349: AN ACT CONCERNING THE UPDATING OF STATE FORMS AND APPLICATIONS TO INCLUDE A NONBINARY GENDER OPTION.

HB-6396: AN ACT PROTECTING EDUCATORS IN TEACHING CERTAIN SUBJECTS AND TOPICS IN SCHOOLS.

SB-467: AN ACT CONCERNING GENDER-SPECIFIC FACILITIES AND ACTIVITIES IN PRIVATE BUSINESSES.

SB-909: AN ACT ESTABLISHING A RIGHT TO HOUSING.

Warning! Bills can change numbers. Sometimes they merge bills or strip all the wording and make it completely different bill. One time I was tracking a bill that appeared to never make it out of committee… Whew! But then I was talking to a lobbyist friend and she said “Oh no, they combined three bills into one.” So I redo the search terms to see if a bill snuck back in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Bills:

5270: AN ACT CONCERNING PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION.

Is a bill that requires all syllabuses, lesson plans, and policies to be posted online and then have a gender public comment period, followed by the Board of Education vote.

I think that it is very bureaucratic and will stretch out how long it will to make simple changes, suppose a book goes out of print and has a new edition. It could take months to go through the process of approving the new addition.

I don’t think this bill has wings and it will not go anywhere… but you never know.

++++++++

HB-5274: AN ACT ESTABLISHING A SCOPE OF REVIEW PROCESS FOR THE ADOPTION OF NEW CURRICULUM GUIDES AND MATERIALS AND PROVIDING FOR LEGISLATIVE APPOINTMENTS TO THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Is a bill that is the same as 5270 but goes into more details.

++++++++

HB-5490: AN ACT ESTABLISHING A PILOT PROGRAM REGARDING COLLECTION AND REFERRAL OF INFORMATION ON HATE CRIMES, BIAS INCIDENTS AND CRIMES WITH BIAS ELEMENTS.

1 That a two-year pilot program be established, on or after July 1, 2023,
2 requiring the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection,
3 or another appropriate state agency, within available appropriations, to
4 operate a state-wide community-oriented hate crimes reporting system
5 that collects and refers information on hate crimes, bias incidents and
6 crimes with bias elements in cooperation with existing community
7 organizations that collect or respond to hate crime and incident
8 information reported by individuals.

Okay, this is my bill. The Governor’s Advisory Council on Hate Crimes which I am a member proposed this legislation. Right now there is no one agency that collects bias crime data, each town keeps track of their own data this will create a central data collection location.

This bill has wings like a falcon… it has the governor’s support and bipartisan support in the legislature.

++++++++

HB-6331:AN ACT REQUIRING PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATORS TO RECOGNIZE EACH STUDENT BY THE BIOLOGICAL GENDER OF SUCH STUDENT.

This bill requires public school educators to recognize each student by their gender assigned at birth.

Yup, this is just what you think it is. And I wonder what will happen if a student transitions and changes their birth certificate, it kind of punches hole in their bill. 

I don’t think this bill has wings and it will not go anywhere, however you never know what bills are horse traded… “If you won’t oppose my bill I’ll let your bill come up for discussion on the floor.”

++++++++

HB-6349: AN ACT CONCERNING THE UPDATING OF STATE FORMS AND APPLICATIONS TO INCLUDE A NONBINARY GENDER OPTION.

This bill changes all the state forms to add “Non-Binary” to them.

This bill has wings but not a hawk but rather a sparrow and it could go by the wayside if it doesn’t have support {Hint, hint, wink, nod}

++++++++

HB-6396: AN ACT PROTECTING EDUCATORS IN TEACHING CERTAIN SUBJECTS AND TOPICS IN SCHOOLS.

It allows a teacher to back down from teaching a class, 

Okay this is another dozy. You know the drill just by saying the magic words “This violates my deeply held religious belief” the teacher doesn’t have to teach the class. The actual words of the bill are “...ideological differences of opinion exist between such board and educator...”

I think that this bird has two broken wings, it is a touchy feel go bill for the Republicans. See the bills we proposed and the evil Democrats killed the bill!

++++++++

SB-467: AN ACT CONCERNING GENDER-SPECIFIC FACILITIES AND ACTIVITIES IN PRIVATE BUSINESSES.

This bill allows companies to determine who can use which gender bathrooms.

Yup, the Republicans introduced a bathroom bill!

This bird got stepped on. I doubt it will even have a committee hearing.

++++++++

SB-909: AN ACT ESTABLISHING A RIGHT TO HOUSING.

This bill orders the sate agencies to work toward making housing more affordable and bans discrimination.

48 Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) There is established a right to
49 housing committee to review existing and proposed housing policies
50 and advise on (1) the state's implementation of a right to housing; and
51 (2) gaps and needs of vulnerable populations with regard to access to
52 permanent housing, including, but not limited to, (A) individuals
53 experiencing homelessness, including homeless youth, individuals with
54 disabilities, including physical disabilities and disabilities related to
55 mental health, substance abuse and developmental conditions; (B)
56 individuals with past or current criminal justice system involvement;
57 (C) individuals from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups;
58 (D) individuals from historically marginalized groups based on sexual
59 orientation, gender identity or gender expression; (E) survivors of
60 sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and sexual
61 trafficking; (F) refugees and immigrants; and (G) veterans.
62 (b) The committee shall consist of the following members:
63 (1) Three appointed by the speaker of the House of Representatives,
64 one with expertise in homelessness policies and programs, one with
65 expertise in low-income housing policies and programs and one with
66 expertise in matters relating to evictions and housing court;

This bird is getting supersonic support. You might seen the news coverage by non-profits about housing affordability, the governor went on TV to say he supports this bill, and some of the Republicans are also behind the bill.

Notice the bill says, “...individuals from historically marginalized groups based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression…” so we will be included in the help to get housing.

Okay these are the bills before the Connecticut General Assembly that includes something about “gender identity” and affect us so far. All the bills as of this morning have been referred to committees

The likelihood of the bills chances of passage are just my estimates.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* The Connecticut General Assembly’s website allows the public to track bills. You need an email account and a password to create a tracking list. On the CGA website you can search for trans bills, I usually use key words like: gender, identity, and orientation. And also add 2023 otherwise you will get every bill with the keyword.

** A little lesson in the Governor Bill, House Bills and the Senate Bills and how a bill becomes law.

First the obvious: a Governor Bill is introduced by the governor but they are only a few of them, a House Bill is introduced by a member of the House, and the Senate Bill is introduced by a Senator.

The numbering of the bills: the Senate bills begins a 1 and ends at 4999, and the House bills begin at 5000, while the Governor bills can be any number.

Hearings: the hearings are held jointly by the Senate and House committees and is open to public to
give testimony.

Voting: the House bills usually get heard in the House first, while the Senate bills begin in the Senate

Amendments: can be added by either chamber if it is amended the bill goes back for a debate and vote in the originating chamber. Passing the legislation requires a vote of 51 percent.

Signing: Then it goes on to the governor to sign. If he vetoes the bill it goes back to the legislature and has to be passed by a 2/3 vote.

Important dates: The Connecticut General Assembly on odd years it is a long session from the beginning of January (This year it was January 4^th) and ends mid-June (This year it is June 7^th) and in the even years the session begins mid-February until mid-May. Each committee have their own deadlines.

Last day to submit bills: Depending up the committee it is either February 14^th or 15^th.

Last day a committee can submit a bill to the full legislature: March 7^th through April 20^th depending upon the committee.

Amendments: Can be added at anytime before the vote in their respected chambers up until the session ends in June or May.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Update: 2/2/23 @ 9:00AM

Testifying and Speaking in Public

Damn The Laws Full Speed Ahead

The Republicans like to only follow the rules they like and ignore the other ones.

There are procedures that have to be followed when you change policies or regulations… but hey the Republicans just don’t following them.

Judge curbs Fla. probe into U.S. medicine’s trans treatment standards
American Academy of Pediatrics, Endocrine Society and others accuse the state of targeting them after they backed lawsuit by patients and families fighting Florida’s Medicaid funding ban
The Washington Post
By Spencer S. Hsu
January 26, 2023


A legal battle over Florida’s ban on Medicaid spending for gender-affirming medical care spilled into Washington on Thursday as a federal judge partially granted an urgent request by 18 American medical and mental health groups to quash subpoenas sent to them by the state after they opposed the prohibition.

The professional associations accused Florida of targeting members such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association and the Endocrine Society after they expressed the widely accepted medical view that care such as puberty blockers, hormones and gender transition surgery can be appropriate treatment for transgender youth and adults.

The groups spoke out last fall in support of a lawsuit filed by four transgender patients and their parents to overturn the ban in federal court in Tallahassee. But the organizations said state officials responded with a “highly inappropriate and invasive” fishing expedition for internal documents and communications about their policy positions. They accused the state of hunting for “supposed internal dissent” and bias in the service of an attack on the guidelines and credibility of the groups “from the inside-out.”

In other words attack the complainer and not defend the process that they used to change policies.

“Openness and transparency are hallmarks of the scientific method,” lead Florida attorney Mohammad O. Jazil wrote to the court. “Casting themselves in the underlying case as the standard bearers of the prevailing scientific view regarding gender dysphoria treatment,” the associations now seek to shield how they reached that view from any scrutiny and whether it “is the result of careful study and debate among their memberships or the result of a handful of people dictating a result.”

The kind-of agreed.

On Thursday, Nichols said the suing patients and their families leaned heavily on the public and wide acceptance of the standards of care set and endorsed “by every major medical organization in the United States” as evidence that such treatments are not experimental.

“I think that the question of how exactly the guidelines or policy statements were adopted and whether [they] therefore truly reflect the medical consensus is relevant here,” Nichols said.

So now the state is on a fishing expedition in finding documents on how the AMA, APA, WPATH, Endocrine Society, and AAP created their guidelines.

---

Then there is the banning of anything related to race or to the LGBTQ+ community.

DeSantis' Ignorant Law Has Florida Cataloging Books
Those who breach HB 1467 could be charged with a third-degree felony.
The Root
By Candace McDuffie
January 26, 2023


The effects of HB 1467 are being felt in Florida as counties are starting to comply with Governor Ron DeSantis’ law. It mandates that all books in classroom libraries must be approved by his administration.

Pat Barber, the president of the Manatee Education Association (the county’s teachers’ union), stated that the books can only be pre-approved materials or vetted by a media specialist who is trained by Florida’s Department of Education.

[...]

DeSantis, who could possibly become the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, is hellbent on upholding oppressive practices that oppress people of color. Ben Crump has decided to sue DeSantis over his latest stunt and we hope he takes him for everything he’s got.

Isn’t that scary?

If he becomes president and we see his persecution of us become national! It will be the Senator McCarthy and House Un-American Activities Committee’s Lavender Scare on steroids! 

Standing Up To The Republican Juggernaut

 We need our allies to step up to the mic and denounce the violence and animosity directed at us and some people did just that,

Opinion: Republican legislation targets vulnerable LGBTQ+ Iowans
To advance society, communities need an opportunity to engage in issues openly, without fear of reprisal or coercion. These proposals actively shut down that engagement.
DesMoines Register
By Andrea Frantz
January 26, 2023


This essay is also signed by Storm Lake LGBTQ+ advocates and community members Wind Goodfriend, Meg McKeon, Gus Raymond, Joel Berrien Jr., the Rev. Melanie Hauser, Willa J. Casstevens, Maggie Martinez

In 2009, Iowa became just the third state in the nation to recognize gay marriage as a legal right according to its state Supreme Court decision Varnum v. Brien.  So, we Iowans not only can say “gay,” but most of us understand that doing so makes us stronger as a community.

Simply put, words matter.

They determine the ways in which we can connect with others and clearly indicate where we diverge.  Such awareness ensures our ability to make decisions that impact our individual health, safety, and engagement with the broader world.

Conversely, for government to either silence speech or compel it is not only unconstitutional, but also undermines the very fabric of American society. Unfortunately, as history has long shown us, governments seem unable to resist trying. Why? Because if successful, the silencers remain in power.

It should come as no surprise that Republican Iowa legislators, emboldened by midterm wins and GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds’ rising national star, feel they have a blank check to focus their agenda on pandering to the extreme element of the conservative base by targeting LGBTQ+ Iowans.

Under the cynical guise of defending “parental rights,” Iowa legislators are attempting to follow the lead of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law enacted in March 2022 that prohibits “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” in the state’s public schools.  Those conservative coattails look like Iowa House File 7, House File 8, and House File 9 respectively.

So what does the bill do?

The bills limits free speech and bans black history, and LGBTQ issues from schools and the new bills limit what books a school libraries can have!

The bills imposes like a Connecticut bill that adds onus reporting requirements for school curricula in those topics and is vaguely defined.

The problem hinges on what constitutes “instruction.” No teacher sets out to offer instruction in how to be or become a member of the LGBTQ+ community. No one. This is not about indoctrination. It is about inclusion. If a child with two same-sex parents has the opportunity to read a book about a family with same-sex parents, it bolsters that child’s sense that they are not alone.  Seeing oneself in this light can be life-affirming.  According to a survey released in 2022 by The Trevor Project, “nearly half of all LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.” Ultimately, marginalized youth are at higher risk for depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts when they are stigmatized or ostracized by the broader community. Active silencing or the erasure of the LGBTQ+ perspective from community conversation undermines a child’s ability to see themselves as a valued member in that community.  Such isolation can have deadly consequences and strengthens existing social divisions that foster bullying and other abuses.

If government silencing to perpetuate systemic inequity can be understood as a violation of our democratic values, it’s not hard to look at compelled speech as its evil twin equivalent.  House File 9 sets out to do just that.  The bill’s third point reads: “Each school district is prohibited from … willfully withholding information … or knowingly giving false information to, the parent or guardian of a student regarding the student’s gender identity or intention to transition …” In essence, legislators will require teachers to tell parents if they know or suspect that their child is wrestling with gender identity issues. 

The Republicans only about the Second Amendment and ignore the rest of the Constitution, the First Amendment only gets in their way to banning topics they bury their heads in the sand over.

If it causes students to do self-harm because they feel helpless, because they feel dirty. Hey that’s one less gay child or one Black student to worry about. The Republicans don’t care as long as it gets them votes and political donations.

---

Update on last's night Drag Bingo:

People were worried over a Drag Show at a church in Madison Connecticut because a right-wing church was creating a brouhaha over the fundraiser for travel to Appalachia and repair homes in poor communities that happened last night. Queer News reported...

FABULOUS update on Drag Queen Bingo. The line was around the building and they had to turn people away! We got in! But we are sitting at the stage.

Oh yeah the “protesters” were 5 folks with one sign. Love wins.

The event was attended by a few legislators unlike Iowa.

However, that wasn’t the only thing that got the conservatives in a tizzy (You got to love this!), Queer News goes on to report… Wait for it! A S&M dinner!

Calo excitedly called Bingo! himself after finding a poster for an event one of the drag queens once performed at — an S&M dinner in support of a Mr Bear competition.

But then someone pointed out S&M stood for Spaghetti & Meatballs. Poor love. The post suddenly disappeared.

Talk about having spaghetti on your face!

And the pastor who did all the “Sinful” “Grooming the kids” “Child abuse” and “viral Anti-Christ” well he has a checkered past,

But it now turns out, someone in this story did once pose as a woman for nefarious and illegal purposes.

Bingo! You guessed it. Pastor Mike Calo, or ‘Mary’ as he once called himself.

Mike Calo is a convicted swindler. The year before he set up Shoreline Church,  a court convicted him of inventing a fictitious business to defraud another businessman. When he wished to avoid contact with his victim, Calo posed as a secretary called Mary who emailed to say her boss was in an area of Central America with poor communication.

Prior to that scam, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Calo to stop publishing misleading newsletters in which he claimed to offer subscribers up to 373% returns.

On his church's Facebook page...

Shoreline Church
January 21, 2023 4:09PM

What kind of parent would willing bring their children to an event filled with men, dressed and strutting around like women?  And, what type of man would want to dress and try and win the approval of kids?  This is evil in one of its worst forms and must be stopped!

This is child ABUSE and any parent attending an event with their children should be investigated.   

Then we have an organization, posing as a "Church" allowing such vial and anti-Christ activites within the walls of its building?  What type of religious leadership is this?  

These "so-called" leaders are nothing but wolves in sheeps clothing twisting the Lords words and commandments.  They willingly impose their 11th commandmant of "thou shalt be nice and accepting" while all the while violating the 10 commandments and forgetting that not only is the God of the Bible, Jehovah God, love, but He is also Righteous, Just and Holy.  

Repent and turn your hearts back to God before its too late!

In another Facebook post…

Shoreline Church

The sad part of all this is people are not even willing to be intellectually honest, forget about the spiritual aspects for a moment.

Why would men dressing as women be acceptable to anyone? Why would these “men” want to flaunt this obvious abnormal behavior for free? If not to incite and brainwash, then why?

Why try to make your personal behaviors a norm for society?

If feminine behavior is exciting to a male, thats a personal choice and decision. We have no right to make any judgment on your personal life. However, the moment you try and change society and social behaviors to fit your personal choices then we have an issue. Hence this is unacceptable. Being a “church” offering a stage for such unnatural behaviors is a reproach to Christianity and the person of Christ.

It is never love to embrace a falsehood or an untruth. Christian love must always reflect truth and righteousness or it is NOT love

Yes, he may have reformed and he may be using the church as a different scam. Who knows?

So anyway, it was a none event with only 5 protesters showing up.

Saturday 9: On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe

Sam’s Saturday 9: On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe (1946)

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 song, Judy Garland sings about the train whistle and wheels. What sounds make you happy?

Well yesterday, it was the sound of the blender making my chocolate milk shake at a local hamburger joint.

2) She tells us that, since she loves dreaming of train travel, she must have "a little gypsy in her heart." How about you? Do you often dream of visiting faraway places?

Ha! Not only far away places but also on other worlds. Right now I’m dreaming of being on the planet Darkover.

3) Judy sings about a future when she's "old and gray and settled down." At what age do you consider a person is old?

Hmm… I would say, as a person who is in their mid-seventies, that it is when you are pushing up dasies.

4) This song is from the movie, The Harvey Girls. Filming was a time of stress for Judy. She was appearing before the cameras by day (she sprained her ankle in a scene where slips down a hill), recording the soundtrack by night, and dealing with lawyers regarding her divorce from composer David Rose. Yet watching the movie, none of the tension shows. Do you work well under pressure?

I used to. But having been retired for almost 20 years I say “What pressure?” Now I walk away from stressful situations.

5) Judy relaxed on the set by knitting and would make blankets and caps for the children of crew members. Do you knit?

Nope. I have no desire to learn, I found when I tried it very boring and hard to concentrate. My mind keeps drifting off thinking of other things.

6) Judy admitted she had a problem with tardiness. Do you strive to be prompt?

I do, but I’m a dismal failure. But now that I out a clock in the shower I’m better on arriving on time. However, I’m still usually putting on the last item of clothing as I run to the car.

7) In 1946, when this song was on the radio, cigarette cases were very popular. Since these metal cases were standard issue in the Army during WWII, many soldiers got into the habit of using them and continued to after the war ended. Women often carried fabric or leather cigarette cases that closed with a clasp like a coin purse. In the 1940s, elegant cigarette cases were a fashionable gift but today, they are largely forgotten. Did you ever carry one? Do you know anyone who did?

Nope.

8) Also in 1946, bikinis appeared for the first time on runways in Paris. How often did you don swimwear during 2022?

Here I have a cottage on the Cape and I have probably only wore a bathing suit two or three times last summer.

9) Random question: Thinking of your past romantic involvements, were you truly in love with one of them, some of them, or all of them?

Yes.

Why Now?

[RANT]

The Freedom Caucus, you know; Greene, Boebert, Meadows, Jordan, Gaetz, et al, are shouting that they are going to shut down the government if they don’t get their way. The question is why now?

Under Trump the deficit increased by 317% by a whopping $2,107 Trillion! What did we hear from the caucus back then? Nothing but crickets.

Take a look at the deficit from Reagan.

Reagan (R): national debt increase $74 billion a 94% increase in the deficit from his first budget to his final budget.
Bush (R): national debt increase $102 billion a 67% increase in the deficit from his first budget to his final budget.
Clinton (D): national debt decrease $383 a 150% decrease in the deficit from his first budget to his final budget.
Bush (R): national debt increase $1,541 billion a 1204% increase in the deficit from his first budget to his final budget.
Obama (D): national debt decrease $748 a 53% decrease in the deficit from his first budget to his final budget.
Trump (R): national debt increase $2,107 billion a 317% increase in the deficit from his first budget to his final budget.

I’ll ask again, why now?

They didn’t complain about the deficit skyrocketing under Trump, why now… politics! That is why, pure politics.

They are willing to have the federal default on our debt.

What do they want?

• Defang the FBI & the Department of Justice.
• Defang the IRS.
• Major cuts to Social Security.
• Major cuts to Medicare.
• Cuts to the Defense Department at a time when China is building their military.
• A national anti-abortion law.
• A national anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ laws.
• They are willing to bankrupt the United States over politics!
• They are willing to have a recession unless they get their way.
• They are putting political parties ahead ot the country.

They are willing to do anything to stay in power, just look at Santos, they are doing nothing about him and they even changed the rules of Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). The Republicans made it harder to discipline a congressman.

The only way to stop this madness is to vote! Vote then out office.

[/RANT]

---

Update 1/28/23 @ 8:00AM

This Fourteenth Amendment says...

Section 4

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

The Republicans just ignore the Constitution when it doesn't suit the agenda.

It Has Comes To Connecticut!

Yup, we are not immune. It is happening right here in River City! Or in this case Madison CT.

There is going to be Drag Queen Bingo and the far-right churches are in a dither.

Drag Queen Bingo comes to Madison's First Congregational Church to raise funds for youth mission
CT Insider
By Sarah Kyrcz
January 16, 2023


Dressed to the nines in cocktail dresses and women’s brunch finery, accented by jewelry and artfully applied makeup, six drag queens will entertain at the First Congregational Church’s Drag Queen Bingo night.

For Michael Morgan, known as Morgana DeLuxe when performing, this means “a little black dress and a strand of pearls.”

“I have a pair of aurora borealis stone earrings," Morgana DeLuxe said. "They catch with the light, and I think they sparkle a little better.”

Drag Queen Bingo will take place Saturday, Jan. 28 at the First Congregational Church’s Hubley Hall, 26 Meeting House Lane, Madison from 7 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $20.

The evening will raise money for the church’s annual youth mission trip to Appalachia for home repair and rehabilitation, scheduled for June 14 – July 1. 

Last year, 25 youths participated, along with 10 adults. The trip, said Rev. Sarah Vetter, typically costs between $20,000 and $25,000.

The performers will donate their time and any gratuities to the mission trip.

The evening will include bingo, interspersed by lip sync performances by the drag queens.

Meanwhile just down the street in Guilford an evangelical church is creating unrest over it the show. From the church’s Facebook page…

Sadly, we are seeing more and more Christians affirming immoral lifestyle choices in the name of being more inclusive, affirming, and loving — even in the spirit of the Love of Christ Himself!

Now this is Bingo. Not Drag Story Time for children. It will be not at a bar but at a church!

Shaneeda Razor, who prefers to be known only by her stage name, said “it’s going to be tasteful dress because there are going to be youths there.”

“The clothing that everybody is going to be wearing would most likely be something that someone would wear to brunch or to a nice dinner party,” she said. “It’s not going to be like fishnet stockings and feather boas.”

Shaneeda Razor, who prefers to be known only by her stage name, said “it’s going to be tasteful dress because there are going to be youths there.”

“The clothing that everybody is going to be wearing would most likely be something that someone would wear to brunch or to a nice dinner party,” she said. “It’s not going to be like fishnet stockings and feather boas.”

[…]

Morgana DeLuxe has been doing drag since 1991 and participates in about two or three dozen benefit shows a year.

[…]

Morgana DeLuxe and the five other performers are members of the Imperial Sovereign Court of All Connecticut.

“The Court is a nonprofit group that raises funds for other nonprofits,” said Morgana DeLuxe. “Our chapter has been around since 1999, the international court system was actually founded in 1965.”

I have been to a number of Imperial Sovereign Court of All Connecticut functions fundraiser and including their coronation. I am friends with Morgana DeLuxe and have know her for over ten years and I worry about them tomorrow, will there be armed protesters? Will there be violence?

Why do they hate us so? What have we done to them? Why can't they just mind their own flock?

The evangelicals are always screaming "Religious Freedom" but it seems that they can deny other people their "Religious Freedom" if it doesn't agree with their religious beliefs. 

---

Update 1/29/23 @ 4:00AM

Queer News reports...

FABULOUS update on Drag Queen Bingo. The line was around the building and they had to turn people away! We got in! But we are sitting at the stage.

Oh yeah the “protesters” were 5 folks with one sign. Love wins.

No Kidding!

Allegations of officials skirting the law are surfacing over Florida’s new trans children healthcare policy. I think we knew that the policy was fudged to get the anti-trans policy that they wanted.

State employee alleges Florida sidestepped process in excluding gender-affirming care from Medicaid
The Hill
By Brooke Migdon
January 21, 2023


Florida health officials circumvented traditional regulatory channels to draft a report recommending gender-affirming health care be excluded from coverage under Medicaid, a state employee alleges in an exchange included in new court filings.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which controls most of the state’s Medicaid program, wrote in a June report that available medical literature provides “insufficient evidence” that puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries are safe and effective treatments for gender dysphoria and therefore excluded them from Medicaid coverage because they are “experimental and investigational.”

No s**t Sherlock!

As soon as any trans person read it knew that it was bogus, their policy flew in the face of every single medical association’s standards of care.

But new court documents filed late Friday by plaintiffs in a case challenging Florida’s Medicaid exclusion include allegations from an AHCA employee that state health officials did not follow customary procedures for developing generally accepted professional medical standards (GAPMS) in creating the June report.

Documentation of an email exchange between Christopher Cogle, the chief medical officer of Florida Medicaid, and Jeffrey English, an AHCA employee, show evidence of tension within the agency over the GAPMS recommendation on treatments for gender dysphoria.

But political ideology won out over science.

The AHCA report in June acknowledged that groups such as the AMA and AAP support the use of puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries to treat gender dysphoria but said that “none of those organizations rely on high-quality evidence.”

This is unbelievable! They are saying that the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics are not reliable medical authorities! And they admitted in court…

Court documents filed Friday also show the AHCA determined as recently as 2016 that it cannot “categorically exclude” the prescription of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria in transgender youths under Medicaid, though the agency admitted at the time that it was unable to determine “whether puberty suppression therapy is considered a health service that is consistent with generally accepted professional medical standards.”

What changed since then?

Simple: the governor is promoting his political pogrom against us.

In addition to instituting a state Medicaid policy explicitly excluding coverage for gender-affirming health care, Florida’s Board of Medicine — whose membership consists of doctors appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — in October voted to begin drafting a rule to ban puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries for transgender youths under 18.

He stacked the deck against us.

Run Out Of Town

A lesbian couple claim that they were forced to leave town because of the anti-LGBTQ+ feeling in town.

LGBTQ store owners close down Micanopy store. Locals cast blame on town elected official
The Gainesville Sun
By Gershon Harrell
January 23, 2023


A few business owners in Micanopy say they are being targeted and discriminated against by town officials and some locals for showing support for the LGBTQ community.

One of the businesses has since closed up shop, citing concerns for their safety.

In a Jan. 14 Facebook post, the store owners of the antique shop Restless Mommas announced they closed their doors in Micanopy. Though no specific threat was mentioned, the store − owned by a same-sex couple − has alluded to being run out of town for anti-LGBTQ views from some area residents.

"It was very frightening for a minute there," the page posted to one commenter.

"We are so sad about it ... but we can’t risk our safety."

[…]

"Anybody that displays anything that Mike doesn't like, Mike's gonna go after," Bambrick said. "And he uses the town for his own political gain, like his own kind of agenda."

Those feelings of animosity recently spilled over into a Jan. 10 town commission meeting, where locals defended the store owners who weren't in attendance. Some also noted how locals displaying Trump flags weren't cited.

The animosity has spilled out in public bringing it to the attention of the country offices and in another article the Gainesville Sun writes,

Commissioner Mary Alford, followed by her colleagues, said she supported the women who fled and was saddened to hear the news.

“They are great ladies and they literally had to close down their business and move out of town because they felt unsafe,” Alford said.

[…]

Regardless of the rule, Alford said the issue was uncalled for and that the ordinance appears to be unfairly enforced, as locals have reported seeing Donald Trump and Blue Lives Matter flags being flown without consequence.

So many of these Trump supporters are becoming petty tyrants following in their “Great Leader” footsteps. But then against it is Florida where the little tyrant rules.

---

I wrote about a lesbian couple claim that they were forced to leave town because of the anti-LGBTQ+ feeling in town. You can read it here.

WOW????

Or is it?

We have seen this before from other popes…

The AP Interview: Pope says homosexuality not a crime
AP News
By Nicole Winfield
January 25, 2023


Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church.

“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said during an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.

Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops in some parts of the world support laws that criminalize homosexuality or discriminate against the LGBTQ community, and he himself referred to the issue in terms of “sin.” But he attributed such attitudes to cultural backgrounds, and said bishops in particular need to undergo a process of change to recognize the dignity of everyone.

Do you really think that this will change the Republican pogrom against us? Do you think one Republican will say “Maybe we went too far?”

Catholic teaching holds that while gay people must be treated with respect, homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” Francis has not changed that teaching, but he has made reaching out to the LGBTQ community a hallmark of his papacy.

These are the Bishops that have spoken in favor of all the anti-LGBTQ laws, these are the same Bishops that said this about the Equality Act,

The Equality Act purports to protect people experiencing same-sex attraction or gender discordance from unjust discrimination. Although this is a worthy purpose, the Equality Act does not serve it. And instead of respecting differences in beliefs about marriage and sexuality, the Equality Act discriminates against people of faith precisely because of those beliefs.  In the process, the Equality Act codifies the new ideology of “gender” in federal law, dismissing sexual difference and falsely presenting “gender” as only a social construct.

Do you think that the Pope’s statement will change them?

It Will Be A Crap Shoot.

Many states are going to be passing laws banning drag queens and they will have a hard time doing it because drag queens are protected by the First Amendment.

‘Unconstitutional’ anti-drag bills would restrict musicals, panto and even Shakespeare
Republican Arizona lawmakers have proposed three anti-drag bills that would define all gender non-conforming performances as “adult content” – including musicals.
Pink News
By Amelia Hansford
January 9, 2023


The three Senate bills were all introduced by Republican senator John Kavanagh after being prefiled on Friday (6 January).

Each relates specifically to drag performances and attempts to restrict public family-friendly drag shows in some capacity.

One of the bills, SB1026, would ban performances in which an individual or group “dress in clothing and makeup opposite of the performer’s or group of performers’ gender at birth” in a show for under-18s.

If passed, this would essentially mean that most pantomime performances, musicals, and even much of Shakespeare’s work would be deemed “adult-only” content.

The other two bills would ban drag performances on public property and third bill defines what is a drag performance, “adult content” with zoning ordinances that would force establishments that host drag shows to apply for “adult-oriented business manager permits”.

Not being a lawyer this is just my opinion that the state will have to show that “crossdressing” is obscene.

LGBTQ+ activists unanimously slammed the three bills as “insane” and “unconstitutional” for essentially imposing strict gendered roles on clothing without pretence as to what those would be.

“How do we even define ‘opposite gender clothes’ at this point? What constitutes exaggerated gender?” one user wrote. “How the heck would you be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that either of these things has happened?”

That is the scary part these laws could make being trans illegal, this harkens back to the 1950s when you could get arrested for wearing clothing of the opposite gender, the History Channel wrote,

“I have been arrested in New York more times than I have fingers and toes,” she told an interviewer from the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project in 1983, “for wearing pants and a shirt.” At that time, she says, “you had to have three pieces of female attire” in order to avoid being arrested for cross-dressing. 

In LGBTQ circles around the country, this was known as the three-article rule—or the three-piece law. It was referenced everywhere—including in reports about arrests in Greenwich Village in the weeks and months leading up to the 1969 Stonewall Riots.

[…]

Laws criminalizing cross-dressing spread like wildfire around the United States in the mid-19th century. New York’s, dating back to 1845, was one of the oldest. It declared it a crime to have your “face painted, discolored, covered, or concealed, or [be] otherwise disguised… [while] in a road or public highway.”

Are we returning to the 50s?

The Supreme Court has ruled many times that nudity can be regulated but with limits…

In a 5-4 decision announced by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the Supreme Court ruled in Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U.S. 560 (1991), that the state of Indiana could regulate totally nude dancing without violating the First Amendment, even though such performance dancing constituted expressive conduct.

The case came before the Court on writ of certiorari after two entertainment establishments and the dancers they employed sought an injunction to stop enforcement of an Indiana public indecency statute that made nudity in a public place a misdemeanor. The statute defined "nudity" in a way that required female dancers to wear G-strings and pasties.

In 1972 in the case of California v. LaRue the court ruled…

The Court first hinted that nude dancing might be entitled to First Amendment protection in California v. LaRue (1972). In this case, the Court upheld the power of state government officials to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages at bars offering nude dancing, but Justice William H. Rehnquist’s opinion for the Court observed that “at least some of the performances to which these regulations address themselves are within the limits of the constitutional protection of freedom of expression.”

Three years later, in Doran v. Salem Inn (1975), the Court again alluded to constitutional protection for nude dancing. Rehnquist wrote, “Although the customary ‘barroom’ type of nude dancing may involve only the barest minimum of protected expression, ... this form of entertainment might be entitled to First and Fourteenth Amendment protection under some circumstances.”

In Schad v. Mount Ephraim (1981), the Court struck down a local ordinance banning all live entertainment in a New Jersey borough. The operators of an adult bookstore that offered nude dancers in booths for patron viewing successfully challenged the ordinance. Justice Byron R. White wrote for the Court that “nude dancing is not without its First Amendment protections from official regulation.”

The states will have hard time banning us but with this Supreme Court it is a crap shoot, because they haven't been following court precedent and it is a Christian court so how they will rule is anyone's guess. 

I Don’t Think This Will Change Anything.

A new study show trans healthcare does improve the lives of trans children!

Yet Another Study Shows Gender-Affirming Healthcare Improves Trans Kids’ Mental Health
She Knows
By Sam Manzella
January 23, 2023


Despite the deluge of proposed bans on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth, yet another academic study has proven the validity of this care.

A new report published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that access to hormone therapy is linked to improved mental health among trans and nonbinary kids. As NBC News reported, it is part of a growing body of research establishing the link between gender-affirming care and better quality of life for trans youth.

The report, authored by a group of doctors from children’s hospitals throughout the United States, looked at 315 trans and nonbinary youths ages 12–20 years old who received gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAH) over the course of two years. They were surveyed at multiple points with questions designed to gauge their depression, anxiety, positive emotions, life satisfaction, and “appearance congruence” — in other words, how much they felt their external appearance aligned with their gender identity.

I would like to see a longitudinal research to follow them for more than two years, five years would be nice but ten years better.

These findings echo previous research on the topic. A JAMA study from February 2022 also found that access to gender-affirming healthcare significantly reduced the risk of depression, self-harm, or suicidal thoughts among trans youth.

Now the 64 thousand dollar question.

Will it make any changes with the Republican pogrom against us?

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? Unfortunately, transphobic lawmakers have not gotten the memo. Over the past few years, anti-trans bills have been passed or introduced by Republicans in dozens of states throughout the U.S. Many of these legislative attacks are specifically targeting access to gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors. Some, including a particularly absurd bill from Oklahoma introduced earlier this month, even take aim at trans adults.

This year alone, lawmakers have introduced bills targeting gender-affirming healthcare in at least 19 states, per the ACLU’s legislative tracker. And it’s only January 23.

Somehow I don’t see this changing DeSantis, or Abbott, or Greene, or any other Republican. I don’t see them changing their draconian ideology against us.

Switch!

[RANT]

I moderated a panel on diversity for the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity and one of the questions that was asked of the panel stuck with me. The question was what happens if a patient in four bed hospital ward complains about a trans patient in the room?

The lawyer answered the question with a question; what happens if another patient complains about a patient who has a different religion or a different race what do you do then?

How a 17-Year-Old’s Locker Room Freakout Became an Anti-Trans Crusade
She said seeing a trans woman scared her. Right-wing blowhards took it from there.
The Daily Beast
By Samuel Braslow
January 23, 2023


On Jan. 11, 17-year-old Rebecca Phillips approached the lectern at a sparsely attended city council meeting in Santee, a suburb of San Diego, California. No item on the agenda brought her to city hall that night. Instead, she tearfully recounted how a local YMCA had followed state law and company policy by allowing a transgender woman to use the same locker room that she did. She had no contact with the woman and claimed only to have seen her, but the experience left her “terrified,” she said.

From there, a symbiotic network of local and national right-wing media began passing the story upwards, catapulting Phillips to the airwaves of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight in just six days. But while Phillips earned the adulation of a constellation of conservative and far-right actors—including a former politician himself accused of sexual misconduct in public bathrooms—the subject of her outburst became a national target.

Okay let’s do the “switch…”

Instead substitute "Black" woman for "trans" woman; "... she tearfully recounted how a local YMCA had followed state law and company policy by allowing a Black woman to use the same locker room that she did. She had no contact with the woman and claimed only to have seen her, but the experience left her 'terrified,' she said."

Would that be okay?

Would just the fear of something different be enough to justify discrimination?

Do we ban clowns at circuses because some people are afraid of them?

Back before the seventies, segregationists used the same argument to justify segregation. That having Black men using the same bathroom a little White child was scary of what might the Black man do to the child

Where do we stop?

---

[/RANT]

Trans Healthcare.

We have been under legislative onslaught for years now and it is getting worst,

Laverne Cox: Anti-trans bills are about ‘criminalizing our existence’
KFOR Oklahoma 4 News
By Judy Kurtz
January 19, 2023


Laverne Cox says state lawmakers’ efforts to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for transgender people are really attempts at “making us not exist.”

Referencing legislation introduced in Oklahoma earlier this month that would bar adults up to age 25 from receiving gender-affirming care, the “Orange is the New Black” star said, “For a year, we’ve been hearing from anti-trans pundits and politicians, ‘This is about children. This is about protecting children.’”

“But I think what this Oklahoma law reveals is that it’s never been about the children,” the transgender actor said during a Thursday interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“It’s always been about scapegoating trans people, stigmatizing us and criminalizing our existence — making us not exist,” Cox said.

BINGO!

She got that right, it is all about politics, votes, and donations.

“What adults do with their bodies is none of their business. This is America — it should be about freedom, bodily autonomy,” she added.

“Even for children, that’s their parents’ business. It’s their doctor’s business. It is not a legislator’s business, who doesn’t know anything about it.”

Stop and think for a minute how two faced the Republicans and the right-wing pundit are…

In Connecticut two bill have been introduced about parental rights.

Then they step between the parents and their doctors telling they can’t get treatment for their child.

They speak with a forked tongue.

“There’s no trans question. I’m not a question,” Cox exclaimed. “I exist here. I have a material reality, lived experiences. And trans people have always existed, and we’re not going to stop existing if people don’t teach about us.”

 

Extremes!

The Republicans are so far right that they are in “Never, Neverland! In some fantasy place where they ignore the Constitution, ignore the will of the people, and are proposing wacko legislation!

Case in Point #1: A Gag Order

LGBTQ people, allies dodge $1,500 fines in North Dakota
AP News
By Trisha Ahmed
January 20, 2023


As more than a dozen states consider passing anti-transgender legislation this year, North Dakota lawmakers rejected a bill Friday that would have made people pay $1,500 each time they refer to themselves or others with gender pronouns different from the ones they were assigned at birth.

“The main purpose of the bill was to eliminate state funding for entities including education that would promote, allow or support the ideology of transgenderism,” said Republican sponsor Sen. David Clemens, of West Fargo. Others testified at a Wednesday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the bill is designed to discriminate, and could impact the state’s behavioral health providers.

The vote tally came to 39 senators against the bill and eight in favor.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee had said they agreed with the bill’s purpose, but that it was poorly written and would be difficult to enforce. It would also have harmed people who do not identify as transgender and would possibly violate First Amendment rights, they said.

How sick is that!

They knew that they went too far with that bill and what made the legislator think he could get the bill passed.

It is like when here in Connecticut when the gender inclusive was being voted on one Republican Senator raised an amendment that would require all trans people to registered the Department of Motor Vehicles as trans so we could get a marker on our driver license signifying we’re trans. It was so awful that even the other Republicans didn’t vote for it.

Case in Point #2: The Wild West

Judge issues order blocking Illinois semiautomatic gun ban
AP News
January 21, 2023


A judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the new Illinois law banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Effingham County Judge Joshua Morrison issued the order after former Republican candidate for attorney general Tom DeVore sued to block the law. DeVore said he’s representing hundreds of people from dozens of counties who argue the law violates their constitutional rights.

Morrison’s ruling only applies to 850 plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit in Effingham County and four licensed gun dealers.

Gov. JB Pritzker said he was not surprised by Morrison’s ruling.

“Although disappointing, it is the initial result we’ve seen in many cases brought by plaintiffs whose goal is to advance ideology over public safety,” Pritzker said. “We are well aware that this is only the first step in defending this important legislation.”

Ah yes, let's have people armed with AR-16s, AK-47s, and other assault type weapons walking down the streets of Chicago!

Case In Point #3: Racism

Black FedEx Driver Kept Composure During Racist Attack And Went Viral On Social Media
"Welcome to Facebook," the driver informed the white customer at the end of the video.
The Root
By Candace McDuffie
January 20, 2023


Uncensored Twitter recently shared a viral video of a Black FedEx worker who was subjected to racist threats by a white man during a stop in an Atlanta suburb. Somehow, the employee managed to keep his composure. The video, which was posted on Twitter, has now been seen almost six million times and is half a minute long.

Many who saw the video commented on the driver’s ability to keep his cool. To summarize, the white (and bafflingly barefoot) customer calls the worker several racial slurs including the n-word. He then threatens to fight the driver if he runs over his dog, which can also be seen in the video.

Bias crimes are on the rise, why do people like this feel bold enough to verbalize their hate. What has changed the climate in the U.S. and the world where racism and anti-LGBTQ+ violence is on the increase.

Case In Point #4: Government Sanctioned Racism

Florida Explains Why It Blocked Black History Class—and It’s a Doozy
The Florida Department of Education was concerned with the class teaching students about activism and reparations without providing a “critical perspective or balancing opinion.”
The Daily Beast
By Alec Karam
January 20, 2023


The Florida Department of Education says it banned AP African American History because it teaches students about activism, intersectionality and encourages “ending the war on Black trans, queer, gender non-conforming, and intersex people,” according to a document the department sent to The Daily Beast.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a request from the College Board to provide the class in high school classes in the state Wednesday. The move comes in the same week the far-right Republican—who a judge just ruled violated free speech laws by firing a prosecutor for being “woke”—requested info on trans students from universities state-wide.

[…]

A representative for DeSantis said the now-banned class “lacks educational value and historical accuracy” in a statement to The Daily Beast.

The document further admonishes the teaching of intersectionality, claiming it is “foundational to” Critical Race Theory, without explaining how.

The department also takes issue with topics advocating for reparations—a movement with the goal of helping recipients overcome generations of human rights violations.

“There is no critical perspective or balancing opinion in this lesson,” the document says of one topic devoted to the Reparations Movement.

WTF… “There is no critical perspective or balancing opinion in this lesson,” there is nothing good about slavery and the way Blacks were treated by their “Owners” this is nothing more that the new “Jim Crow” laws.

“As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” the department said in a letter to the College Board.

The department apparently doesn’t want people to think DeSantis is against Black history, however. After all, according to department representatives, he specifically promotes teaching (some of) it.

Case In Point #5: A Women’s Body Is For Government Control

2 States Introduce Radical Bills To Prosecute Pregnant People For Abortions
Republicans in Arkansas and Oklahoma have proposed legislation that would criminalize those who seek abortion care.
HuffPost
By Alanna Vagianos
January 20, 2023


Republicans in Arkansas and Oklahoma introduced bills this week that would allow authorities to criminally prosecute pregnant people for seeking abortion care. The legislation offers a terrifying preview of what’s to come in a country that no longer has federal abortion protections.

Oklahoma Senate Bill 287 and Arkansas House Bill 1174 were proposed with the specific intent to criminalize anyone who gets an abortion. The Oklahoma legislation aims to amend the state’s near-total abortion ban to eliminate language that protects pregnant people from prosecution. The Arkansas legislation would let the state’s homicide laws apply to aborted fetuses and give them due process protections, while also repealing protections for people who “solicit, advise, encourage, or coerce a pregnant woman” to get an abortion.

Both bills include exceptions for preserving the life of a pregnant person. But as with rape and incest exemptions in bans in other states, the wording is vague and will likely force people to be at death’s door before they are legally allowed to receive lifesaving care. The Arkansas legislation also includes exceptions for miscarriages, but this may be virtually meaningless since abortion and miscarriage are medically indistinguishable.

Case In Point #6: Gag Orders

You all know the First Amendment about free speech… now do you think a state banning the use of words might violate it?

Sanders’ Latinx ban wades into community’s generational rift
AP News
By Andrew DeMillo and Claire Savage
January 22, 2023


One of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ first acts as Arkansas governor was to ban most state agencies from using the gender-neutral term Latinx, tapping into a debate that’s divided Hispanics along generational lines.

Sanders called the word “culturally insensitive” in an order that’s prompted complaints from some critics who view it as yet another attack by Republicans on the LGBTQ community. Yet her move may have limited impact, given that the word does not appear to be widely used in Arkansas government.

It was among several orders the 40-year-old former White House press secretary signed within hours of taking office office that were cheered by conservatives, including restrictions on teaching critical race theory in public schools and banning TikTok on state devices. The Latinx prohibition gives agencies 60 days to revise written materials to comply.

“One of the things as governor that I will not permit is the government using culturally insensitive words,” Sanders said as she signed the order.

The governor doesn’t care about banning speech she is ignoring the 1^st Amendment by banning words.

The Republican have lost sight of reality and is being driven by people who have loathing in their hearts against people who are different, different color of their skin, different sexual orientation, different gender identity, and are misogynistic. But the dangerous and scary thing is that 50 percent of the people agree with their extremes!

They Don’t Want To Understand.

[RANT]

Take a look at this Fox News headline…

Christian charity worker faces potential jail time, fine after speaking about leaving LGBT lifestyle

This is 2023 and they still say “Lifestyle!”

Why are they stuck in the “Father Know Best” 1950s?

When you stop and thing about it is because if they believe that we are born LGBTQ+ then their bubble of animosity against would burst and they couldn’t discriminate against us.

If it is a choice then they could justify the oppression so they stick their head in the ground and ignore the science and call it a "Lifestyle".

If they continue to say that it is only chromosomes then they continue to say our gender identity is a “lifestyle” persecute us.

They will never admit that it is not a choice because it will burst their ignorance and animosity.

[/RANT]

They Know Not What They Say.

Their bias and angst against us knows no bounds, and they don't even know what they are ranting about.

Pink Floyd Announce Massive ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ 50th Anniversary Box Set
Legendary 1973 LP accompanied by unreleased full-album performance, hardcover book, songbook, replica 7" singles, and more
Rolling Stone
By Daniel Kreps
January 19, 2023


PINK FLOYD WILL mark the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon with a massive reissue that houses an unreleased 1974 full-album performance of the legendary LP.

The 2CD/2LP/2-Blu-ray The Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary deluxe box set — due out March 24, 2023, a half-century plus 23 days after the original album’s release date — pairs the remastered LP with the live album The Dark Side Of The Moon – Live At Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974, featuring an unreleased Nov. 1974 performance of the album.

Pop Quiz!

What was on the cover of the album.

Okay, now look at these right-wing conservatives and what got them into a hissy fit!

In their ignorance seeing what they thought was a Pride flag was the trigger, their abhorrence to anything LGBTQ+ and seeing the prism rainbow set them off.

Now tell me who are the real "snowflakes"?

Saturday 9: Kiss

Sam’s Saturday 9: Kiss (1986)

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, Prince insists there's no particular sign he's more compatible with. Do you take astrology seriously?

Nope, not a bit.

2) He tells his prospective lover there's no need to be flirty. Are you a good flirt?

I am a horrible flirt and I don’t recognize if I am being flirted with.

3) He refers to the nighttime soap opera Dynasty. Were you a fan?

Nope, but my mother and aunt watched it regularly.

4) "Kiss" was recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood. Built by Walt Disney Studio, it's the studio where the soundtracks to Mary Poppins and 101 Dalmatians were recorded. When you think of Disney movies, what's the first song that comes to mind?

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho It's Off To Work I Go.

5) Prince said he was "obsessed" with Mozart and read everything he could find about the master. Do you often read biographies? If yes, who was the last one about?

Nope, the last one that I read was Annie Leibovitz biography that was giving to me by the non-profit where I interned for my MSW, the Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF)

6) He loved snacking while watching a movie in the theater and would mix Goobers (chocolate-covered peanuts) with his popcorn. When you go to the movies, do you visit the concession counter?

Um… I haven’t been to a movie in a dogs age. I think they are way overpriced.

7) In 1986, when this song was popular, Peewee's Playhouse premiered. While ostensibly for children, this show had many, many adult viewers. Do you ever watch kids' shows today?

Nope.

8) Also in 1986, Sears shoppers were painting their interior walls with "Country Clover," a pale beige with a hint of pink. What color is the room you're in right now?

Light green.

9) Random question: Do you enjoy pressing the pedal to the metal and driving fast?

I try to not go over 5 mph on secondary roads and 10 mph on divided highways.

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!

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I had my heart stress test this week, a lot of huffing and puffing on the treadmill but my heart is okay.

I will just glow in the dark for the next couple of days. 

This Is Really Sad.

A great Pride Center just got its breath knocked out of them… a Pride Center life blood is their 501(c)3 tax exempt status almost all of the people and businesses that donate use it as a tax write off. That is one of the reasons why I donate especially for businesses.

When I was the Executive Director one of my duties was to make sure our treasurer filed the 990 tax exempt form. A couple of times I had to hound him but it was filed each year, for us it was really simple… “Did your organization make less than $10,000? Yes. And it was done, I imagine it is more complicated for a large non-profit.  But to file with the IRS each year is the ED’s “Prime Directive,” the results of that inaction…

New Haven Pride Center Furloughs Eight Of Nine Employees
The Arts Council of Greater New Haven
By Lucy Gellman
January 20th, 2023


An anchor of New Haven’s LGBTQ+ community has furloughed eight of its nine staff members for the immediate future in a bid to stay financially afloat during a time of sustained uncertainty.

On Friday afternoon, the New Haven Pride Center (NHPC) announced that it is temporarily furloughing eight of its nine remaining staff members starting Jan. 23 because it is no longer able to make payroll. The center will be keeping on staff its interim executive director, Juancarlos Soto.

Board President Dolores Dégagé Hopkins and board members Hope Chávez and Nick Bussett told the Arts Paper that they hope the furlough of the rest of the staff members will last no longer than a month.  

These furloughs come nearly three months after the Pride Center announced that it had lost its tax-exempt nonprofit status and terminated its former longtime executive director after failing to file multiple years’ worth of tax forms.

This is the results of his inaction; eight people are not bring in a paycheck!

The furloughing of these eight employees does not mean that they’ve been fired. But it does mean that they won’t get paid by the center until the organization brings them back onto the payroll. It also means that they won’t be working for the center during that team, leaving the formerly vibrant and program-rich organization with a working staff of one.

I have worked with their Executive Director, he seemed a very nice amiable person but what he did was a dereliction of duty that had very far reaching ramifications.

At the time of Dunn’s termination in November, the center had a staff of 12. It now has a staff of nine (and as of next Monday, a temporary staff of one). When pressed on how long it took the board to learn about the 990s—the IRS does ask if a board reviewed the forms—Chávez  said that the board “had a lot of trust” in the organization's previous leadership, and was under the impression that necessary paperwork for taxes, institutional partnerships, and grants was all submitted properly and on time.

There is a very simple way to check if the paperwork has been filed.

Around the end of April I went on a website that list 990s, I went and looked to see what the latest 990 Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition was filed and I usually sent a friendly reminder to our Treasurer (And just checking it, CTAC hasn’t filed last year’s 2021 990!).

Soto also praised the Triangle Community Center (TCC), Junta for Progressive Action, and Fair Haven Community Health Care, which have helped to keep the Pride Center’s food pantry stocked and helped bring in coats, hats and mittens for the clothing closet. He and staff have worked to ensure that affinity and support groups and the center’s youth internship program continue without interruption. 

I have been working with their Manager of Support Services and others to start up an elder LGBTQ program our next meeting is scheduled meeting is the 30th, but they left for another job.

Ta’LannaMonique Lawson-Dickerson, who came onboard in August of last year, wiped tears from her face as she described her dedication to her work—and the fact that she does not expect it to end anytime soon. As a single mom raising two kids, she said that the timing of the furloughs is difficult—she has been hoping to buy a home that will move her family out of Newhallville, which has been subject to so much violence that her kids don’t play outside anymore.

Sadly the Executive Director’s inaction has a direct consequences on people lives!

“I implore people to remember that the folks in these walls, that work in this building, are people too,” he had said earlier in the day. “They are trying their best to navigate a difficult situation, to show up for themselves, for their families, our community while maintaining a commitment that we hold sacred to keep the doors to the Center open. We signed up for this work knowing that in good times this was not gonna be easy work.”