This Is Totally BS!

This is what the right-wing conservatives have been sprouting ever since the bogus research done by a professor at the Brown University School of Public Health that was discredited but they Republicans still quote it, like a bad penny it never goes away.

Put on your hip boots!

An open secret: social contagion is driving the astronomic rise  in teen gender dysphoria

And adults are not immune either

MercatorNet

By Dianna Kenny

April 28, 2023

Social contagion is at least partially responsible for the upsurge in gender dysphoria in the past three decades, but this is vehemently denied by most social institutions charged with the safeguarding of children and young people, including governments, universities and schools, human rights commissions, legal institutions, and sporting bodies.

First stop… there is no legitimate research into that statement. If anyone has any research on it I would be very interested because I searched and couldn’t find any except for this in PubMed…

Sex Assigned at Birth Ratio Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents in the United States

Objective: Representatives of some pediatric gender clinics have reported an increase in transgender and gender diverse (TGD) adolescents presenting for care who were assigned female sex at birth (AFAB) relative to those assigned male sex at birth (AMAB). These data have been used to suggest that youth come to identify as TGD because of "social contagion," with the underlying assumption that AFAB youth are uniquely vulnerable to this hypothesized phenomenon. Reported changes in the AMAB:AFAB ratio have been cited in recent legislative debates regarding the criminalization of gender-affirming medical care. Our objective was to examine the AMAB:AFAB ratio among United States TGD adolescents in a larger and more representative sample than past clinic-recruited samples.

[…]

Conclusion: The sex assigned at birth ratio of TGD adolescents in the United States does not appear to favor AFAB adolescents and should not be used to argue against the provision of gender-affirming medical care for TGD adolescents.

Google Scholar did not find any research into social contagion, only a bunch of papers written on the topic but no actual studies on the topic. 

Heck I even asked Google’s Bard “Scientific research in to social contagion gender identity?”

The social contagion hypothesis of transgender identity is the idea that transgender identity is spread through social influence, such as through social media, peer pressure, or the media. This hypothesis has been popularized by some conservative politicians and commentators, who have used it to argue against the provision of gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

However, there is no scientific evidence to support the social contagion hypothesis. In fact, a number of studies have found that the social contagion hypothesis is not supported by the data. For example, a study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2022 found that the percentage of adolescents openly identifying as transgender or gender diverse (TGD) did not increase between 2017 and 2019. This finding is inconsistent with the idea that transgender identity is spreading through social contagion.

Another study, published in the journal Psychological Science in 2021, found that there was no evidence that transgender identity was contagious among adolescents. The study found that adolescents who were exposed to transgender people or information about transgender people were no more likely to identify as transgender themselves.

These studies suggest that the social contagion hypothesis of transgender identity is not supported by the data. There is no evidence that transgender identity is spread through social influence.

It is important to note that the social contagion hypothesis is often used to stigmatize and discriminate against transgender people. The idea that transgender identity is contagious can lead to people believing that transgender people are a threat to society, or that they are choosing to be transgender. This can lead to violence, harassment, and discrimination against transgender people.

It is important to remember that transgender identity is not a choice. Transgender people are born with their gender identity, and it is not something that they can change. Transgender people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their gender identity.

But the Republicans and conservatives still use the argument. Bard also points “...that transgender identity is not a choice.” which conservatives still do not believe, they think that we choose being trans.

The MercatorNet article goes on to say,

The misguided adherence to a scientifically bankrupt gender ideology has had, as yet unfathomed negative impacts on young people, their families, and the wider society. The reason that this phenomenon is never debated is that it would detonate and topple the edifice of gender ideology.

With no references cited! The author claims at that the AMA, the APA, the NASW, the Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and all the other professional associations are wrong and others (which she doesn’t name) are right.

The author claims that all these professional associations are, 

...Some of these will become opinion leaders who are central to the network, who contaminate their “peers” who in turn will influence others at different levels of the network. Networks with high centrality are the most effective in disseminating information or innovation.

Other characteristics of networks include cohesion (number of connections within a network) and shape (distribution of ties within the network).  A key example with respect to this discussion are the gender affirming organizations that have achieved remarkable success in a short time in changing health care, educational practices, and legislation related to transgender declaring young people.

This is know as an “ad hominem” which is defined as

1

: appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect

an ad hominem argument

2

: marked by or being an attack on an opponent's character rather than by an answer to the contentions made

The author then goes on to say,

This effect also occurs in online communities which is enhanced by introducing certain features into the market design of products, such as, in this case, puberty blockade, cross sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgery, and identifying the influential and susceptible users.

Online activity enables, enhances, or triggers potential risks of “copycat” behaviours such as self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders through the normalization of pathological behaviours, or vicarious and social reinforcement of these behaviours.

AKA (Also Known As) Peer Support Groups.

Keep in mind that the conservatives believe that it is a choice and you can see how that twists their thinking.

Opinion leaders of this position operating at the centre of these networks are very influential. The level of density in a network has two effects–firstly, it enhances the circulation of information between members and secondly, it blocks the introduction of dissenting ideas and evidence.

Peer contagion may be a relevant factor in the sharp increases in young people presenting with gender dysphoria. There are a number of mechanisms.

Gee! They must mean me. When we point out the non-professional work of professors like the one who did the Brown University research we are branded as stifling the truth.

Fenway Health has an article…

New Study Undercuts The Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria Hypothesis

March 20, 2023

A study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that a substantial proportion of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) adults realized that their gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth during adolescence or later. It also found that TGD people typically waited many years before sharing this realization with another person. The study adds important new knowledge to clinical and popular understanding of the timing of TGD people’s awareness, understanding, and sharing of their gender identity. It also undercuts a core component of the “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD) hypothesis, which posits that TGD identities realized in adolescence are transient and will not continue into adulthood.

Notice that the study was published in Journal of Adolescent Health which is a peer-reviewed medical journal. But MercatorNet is having none of that.

Rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) and the role of social media: There has been a disproportionate increase in the number of female adolescents, and a change in the historically greater ratio of preschool boys compared with adolescent girls in earlier decades. Rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) figures from the Tavistock gender service in Britain 2019-2020 show a peak in presentations at 14-15 years, comprising mainly girls.

So what the article is talking about is the patient count, the number of patients has increased which tells you nothing about the cause of the rise. Is it because of greater awareness of gender dysphoria? Does it mean that child feel safer in coming out? Is it because of discrimination? Unfortunately the reasons or reasons are not known but that didn’t stop the conservatives from making it sound ominous.

Now here comes the detransitioners.

Trangender proponents argue that social contagion is not at play because regret/detransition rates are low. However, Vandenbussche observed that the average time lag from transition to detransition was five years and that any study reporting on shorter time periods would underreport the true rates of detransition.

So I looked up the Vandenbussche study and found,

Conclusion:

The aim of the present research was to examine detransitioners’ needs and support. The four categories of needs (psychological, medical, legal and social) that were created for sake of clarity in the survey were a simplification of the real complexity of the experiences made by detransitioners and they have their limitations. Nonetheless, these categories enabled the current study to uncover the fact that most detransitioners could benefit from some form of counseling and in particular when it comes to psychological support on matters such as gender dysphoria, comorbid conditions, feelings of regret, social/physical changes and internalized homophobic or sexist prejudices. Medical support was also found to be needed by many, in order to address concerns related to stopping/changing hormone therapy, surgery/treatment complications and access to reversal interventions. Furthermore, the current study has shown that detransitioners need spaces to hear about other detransition stories and to exchange with each other.

Gee… the study was about the support after they detransition not about the causes that lead to their detransition.

Look at these two graphs from the Vandenbussche study, they tell it all.

Figure 1. Reasons for detransitioning.

Figure 2. Comparison between transition and detransition support.

The article goes on to say,

Many professional bodies that should be thought leaders appear less concerned about scientifically verifying their stances regarding the transgendering of young people and more concerned about falling foul of the dominant political stance of gender affirmation since they rely in a circular manner on a small oeuvre of flawed transgender affirming “research” that is underpinned by the essentialist notion propagated by trans ideologues that gender, not sex, is primary.

Yep, everyone is wrong and they are right.

According to DSM 5 (APA, 2013), 98 percent of gender confused boys and 88 percent of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty. However, the American Psychological Association (APA, 2015) and the Australian Psychological Society (APS) (2023) ignore the evidence in favour of appeasing an increasingly strident trans lobby.

Notice the terminology “gender confused boys” and “gender confused girls” right out of the MAGA playbook.

When it comes to transgendering children and young people, it appears that we are unable to learn from history. As Ryan T. Anderson (2018) concluded:

The [transgender] movement has to keep patching and shoring up its beliefs, policing the faithful, coercing the heretics, and punishing apostates, because as soon as its furious efforts flag for a moment or someone successfully stands up to it, the whole charade is exposed. That’s what happens when your dogmas are so contrary to obvious, basic, everyday truths. A transgender future is not the “right side of history,” yet activists have convinced the most powerful sectors of our society to acquiesce to their demands. While the claims they make are manifestly false, it will take real work to prevent the spread of these harmful ideas.

Once again, this is only an opinion and not based on fact. It is not predicated on facts.

Since they believe that gender dysphoria is a “lifestyle” choice you can see how they think that the trans children are “being groomed” and influenced by the social media. But the right-wing conservatives are living in a 1950 binary view of gender and sex where there is only male and female. Period.

The Crime Wave Here In Connecticut

I just saw that there was another mass killing again today… eight killed all because according to ABC News,

Police said they believe the massacre occurred after neighbors asked the suspect to stop shooting his gun in the front yard because there was a baby trying to sleep.

I got this email yesterday from my state representative:

Friends and Neighbors,

It's extremely troublesome to continue to read news story after news story about residents all across our state being victimized by lawless individuals who have absolutely no fear or concern for getting caught.

Just recently, a Rocky Hill resident interrupted an attempted car jacking in his driveway in broad daylight. There were 16 reported break-ins in Wethersfield over this past weekend alone. A juvenile was arrested for a string of purse thefts in Wallingford, along with a string of "smash & grabs" happening in Southington, South Windsor, Rocky Hill and two men have recently been arrested in Fairfield for their part in a recent carjacking, and most recently, homes in Greenwich are being broken into as well.

These are just a few recent examples to the types of crimes happening in towns and cities all across our state. This brazen behavior has been permitted to spiral out of control due to the failures of the legislative body to enact policies that hold the individuals who commit these crimes accountable for their actions. 

 

All the while, instead of ensuring public safety remains at the forefront of policy decisions made by the legislature, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle continue to introduce bills with a central focus on less accountability and more on absolving responsibility. 

In her email she is against proposed legislation…

SB-952, AN ACT CONCERNING PAROLE ELIGIBILITY FOR AN INDIVIDUAL SERVING A LENGTHY SENTENCE FOR A CRIME COMMITTED BEFORE THE INDIVIDUAL REACHED THE AGE OF TWENTY-FIVE.

This proposal would permit individuals who committed a crime before the age of 24 and received a sentence greater than 10 years to be available for parole by increasing the current threshold from 18 to 25.

The Chief States Attorney submitted testimony in opposition to this bill. In his testimony he states, "Increasing the age of eligible offenders to include non-adolescents up to the age of twenty-five at the time the offense was committed, is neither constitutionally required, nor apparently based on any credible and compelling scientific or psychological evidence."

[...] 

***

Whether or not any or all of these bills pass this session remains to be seen, but residents who are concerned with the policies being pushed out of the legislature should take note that the sentiment to not hold individuals accountable doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. These policies if passed, would only exacerbate an already growing problem. 

She believes in the Republican philosophy of “Lock em up and throw away the key.”

The website USA Facts show that the crime rate in the US is at the lowest point since 1980! Violent crime has stayed level but other crimes have decreased, in 1980 the crime rate per 100,000 was 5.950 and in 2020 it was 2,357!

The Northeast[3] is the region with the lowest crime rates. The property crime rate in the Northeast was 34% lower than in the rest of the country, and the violent crime rate was 26% lower than in other states.

Four of the bottom five states by property crime rate in 2020 were in the Northeast, as well as all five of the lowest states by violent crime rate. New Hampshire and New Jersey were in the bottom five states for both property and violent crime.

[…]

The Census Bureau defines more specific areas within each region, called districts. The West South Central District – part of the South region and composed of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas – had the highest crime rates of any district. Both property crime and violent crime were 22% higher in these states than the national average.

Hey wait a minute there is a divide between “Lock em up and throw away the key.” Republican and “Lets reform them” Democratic states! And look at Texas the “Fry them” state “Violent crimes per 100,000 people is 446.5 while the “Show them mercy” state of Connecticut is 181.6 per 100,000!

Arkansas is 671.9, Florida is 383.6, Louisiana is 639.4, and Tennessee is 672.7.

The property crime rate fell in every state between 1991 and 2020 with the states of Arkansas, Montana, Kentucky, South Dakota, and North Dakota having the lowest drop in property crime of the 50 states. With Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey, Michigan, and Rhode Island having the greatest drop in crime.

What we need more is better reporting!

KWCH Channel 12 in Wichita reported right at the top of their article that,

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) on Wednesday released a report that showed vehicle thefts nationwide surpassing 1 million for the first time since 2008. The NICB reported in its year-end 2022 vehicle crime update that the stolen vehicle count exceeding 1 million for the year totaled an estimated loss of $8.9 billion.

With the latest report on vehicle thefts, 12 News looked into how closely the trend in Wichita matches what’s occurring nationally. Nationwide, Kia and Hyundai cars are ranked among the most frequently stolen, the NICB reports. In Wichita, the top three targeted vehicles so far this year are pickups: the Chevy Silverado, the Ford F-150 and the Dodge Ram 1500.

Wichita police report responding to more than 2,400 vehicle-theft cases in 2022. That mark sits at more than 350 so far in 2023. Comparing the past three years in the same timeframe, from January to March, 2021 took the lead with more than 550 thefts reported early in the year.

We need the news media to point out that this is a national trend in each article they write about the thefts in the state.

But the Republicans are trying to make this a campaign issue and I believe it will have traction. Why? Because all the voters see is the news headlines as my state rep. Reported “16 reported break-ins in Wethersfield over this past weekend alone” that is all the voters sees, not the fact that around around the country car break-ins are increasing. As they all voters vote locally and they never see the national data.

---

So I asked Google’s Bard about it.

Is there any difference in the murder rate between Republican and Democratic states as reported by the FBI?

The FBI does not report murder rates by political affiliation. However, it does report murder rates by state. In 2020, the murder rate in the 10 states with the highest murder rates was 10.9 per 100,000 people. Of these 10 states, 7 were won by Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. The murder rate in the 10 states with the lowest murder rates was 2.4 per 100,000 people. Of these 10 states, 9 were won by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

These data suggest that there is a correlation between political affiliation and murder rate. However, it is important to note that correlation does not equal causation. There are many other factors that could contribute to the difference in murder rates between states with different political affiliations, such as poverty, education, and access to healthcare.

---

Is there any difference in the crime rate between Republican and Democratic states as reported by the FBI?

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, there is a difference in the crime rate between Republican and Democratic states. In 2020, the violent crime rate in states that voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election was 381.0 per 100,000 people, while the violent crime rate in states that voted for Joe Biden was 267.4 per 100,000 people. The property crime rate in states that voted for Trump was 2,674.4 per 100,000 people, while the property crime rate in states that voted for Biden was 1,886.1 per 100,000 people.

These data suggest that there is a correlation between political affiliation and crime rate. However, it is important to note that correlation does not equal causation. There are many other factors that could contribute to the difference in crime rates between states with different political affiliations, such as poverty, education, and access to healthcare.

It is also important to note that the UCR Program is based on data voluntarily submitted by law enforcement agencies. As a result, the data may not be complete or accurate.

Saturday 9: Promises, Promises

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

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer the questions, however, and here is today's questions!

Saturday 9: Promises, Promises (1983)

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

1) In this week's song, Naked Eyes lead singer Pete Byrne admits he believed his girl's promises, right from the start, but now he knows he should have been more careful with his heart. Do you consider yourself more trusting or skeptical?

I am too trusting, and I get burned a lot.

 

2) He looks back on when he and his girl laughed like kids. When did you recently literally laugh out loud (opposed to keystroking LOL)?

It has been a very long time since I laughed, it would probably be good for me to laugh again but my health hasn’t been that good.

3) He accuses her of not being able to finish what she starts. How about you? Do you finish what you start, or can you think of projects that you're unlikely to ever complete?

I don’t have to think I can just look around the house.

 

4) Naked Eyes was a British New Wave band who had four Top 40 singles, including "Promises, Promises." They never toured 40 years ago because it was difficult to recreate their synthesizer-driven sound onstage. Is there a band or singer you would have liked to have seen perform live, but never did?

No, not really. In my twenties I went to a lot of concerts but now concerts are too much of a hassle, but I am thinking of going to Falcon Ridge this summer, I have to see how that works out.

5) While "Promises, Promises" is about an untrustworthy lover, Peter Byrne says he and bandmate/cowriter Rob Fisher worked well together because they knew they could trust one another professionally. By sharing honest assessments of creative ideas, they knew Naked Eyes would never put out "rubbish." If you want an honest opinion on something important, where do you turn?

Well it depends. It depends on the topic... technical advice would be a different person then asking a person about a general topic.

6) Madonna was a Naked Eyes fan. Are you a Madonna fan?

I like some of her music but basically it is a different generation of music. My mother hated her and one day we were watching the movie “A League of Their Own” and my mother loved the movie. I pointed out that Madonna in the movie and I think that it changed her mind about the her.

7) In 1983, when this song was on the radio, the Lotus 1-2-3 program made it easier for PC users to build spreadsheets. Are you answering these questions on a PC or a Mac? Laptop or desktop? Android or iPhone?

A Laptop PC.

But I have a story about Lotus 1-2-3.

VisiCalc was the original spreadsheet program and I was using it on my Apple II+  long before Lotus.

8) Also in 1983, America West Airlines took off for the first time, taking passengers from Las Vegas to Phoenix. Where did you go on your first flight? What about your most recent flight?

First light 1967 to Orlando, the last flight to Pittsburgh PA on a private jet.

9) Random question -- Finish this statement: If I knew then what I know now, I would have ______________.

"been a millionaire". Just think of all the stock you could buy!

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! 

The Great Migration

Sadly there are people who are fleeing their states and because their government animosity against  them is too much to bear.

LGBTQ parents think of moving from Florida, citing laws that target their children

Fear. Worry. Dread. Shock. These are among the emotions expressed in a survey of LGBTQ parents in Florida on the impact of what critics call the "Don't Say Gay" law.

WUSF

By Kate Payne

April 12, 2023

A survey of more than 100 LGBTQ parents in Florida found more than half are thinking about leaving the state because of the law that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

The contentious law, approved last year by the Republican−majority Florida Legislature, drew intense national scrutiny from critics who argue it marginalizes LGBTQ people.

The survey of 113 queer parents, conducted by Clark University and the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, examined the effects of the Parental Rights in Education law — the one opponents have slammed as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The survey was done between June 13-Sept. 9, 2022.

“The Don’t Say Gay bill claims to be for parent rights, but my rights have been taken away since its passage,” said one parent surveyed in the Clark Univ. / UCLA study.

Parent’s rights to discriminate! That is what the Republicans means when the say “Parent Rights.”

"It's really just one piece of the larger picture — which is for many folks feeling increasingly hostile and really oppressive. And that that actually affects families," Goldberg [Clark University psychology professor] said. "A fifth of them are feeling less safe. And they're feeling like they can't walk down the street holding their partner's hand."

And that is exactly what the Republicans are trying to do force us into the closet or out of the state.

LGBTQ+ people are leaving Florida. They blame the Legislature.

“I spent 30 years in the closet,” one Floridian said. “I won’t be going back now.”

Tampa Bay Times

By Hannah Critchfield

April 24, 2023

June can’t come soon enough for Nikkie Jackson.

Rainbow windsocks no longer wave from her apartment balcony. She removed them in March, along with the magnet on her car that read, “I’m so gay I s--t rainbows.”

When her lease is up this summer, Jackson will return to Illinois after two years in the Sunshine State.

“I spent 30 years in the closet, and I won’t be going back now,” Jackson, a lesbian in Jacksonville, said through tears. “But I’m scared — if they’re targeting trans people now, they’ll eventually come for the rest of us.”

In the wake of a wave of Florida legislation taking aim at LGBTQ+ issues, some people are abandoning life here.

The Republicans are using fear to drive us out! And it is not just Florida…

LGBTQ residents moving to Illinois from states with conservative agendas: ‘I don’t want to be ashamed of where I live’

Chicago Tribune

By Lizzie Kane

April 24, 2023

Mark Niehaus-Rincon, 67, has lived in Omaha, Nebraska, for 12 years but says “life is too short” to stay there.

He and his husband, Alex, a native of Omaha, have faced the silent treatment from others at their gym for 10 years. They’ve also dealt with uncomfortable and hostile workplace environments and homophobic slurs.

That treatment, combined with Nebraska’s current legislative agenda — which includes restricting women’s access to reproductive health care and limiting the rights of the LGBTQ community — helped push Niehaus-Rincon and his husband to relocate to Chicago. He said they are done compromising and hiding their true identities.

“We are just over it,” Niehaus-Rincon said. “We aren’t welcome here. … I am ashamed to say I live in Nebraska … and I don’t want to be ashamed of where I live.”

Niehaus-Rincon is not the only one relocating to Illinois from a state with a conservative legislative agenda and what he describes as an unwelcome environment.

What does it say about our country when states start passing “Jim Crow” laws against their citizens? 

But instead of racial segregation and making black second class citizens they are going after their LGBTQ+ citizens banning them from going the bathroom, from talking about anything LGBTQ+, from reading about their history or reading stories about people like us.

What does it say about our country when states force their citizens to flee?

Does it sound like something you would find in a third world country?

LGBTQ Ugandans live in fear as new law looms

Reuters

April 24, 2023

At a shelter for lesbian women in Uganda's capital Kampala, gone are the days when the residents, having fled abuse and stigma at home, could breathe easy and be themselves.

That came to an end a month ago when parliament passed some of the world's strictest anti-LGBTQ legislation, which would criminalise the "promotion" of homosexuality and impose the death penalty for certain crimes involving gay sex.

President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday that he supports the legislation but has requested some modifications from parliament, including provisions to "rehabilitate" gay people, before he signs it.

Is that next on the Republican hit parade of draconian laws… mandatory conversion therapy?

We are not the only being attack by legislation that is forcing us to flee ot think twice before moving to oppressive states.

Turning down a $300K job, deferring dreams of Austin: How Roe’s end is changing millennials’ career plans—and lives

CNBC

By Jennifer Liu

August 18, 2022

The overturn of Roe v. Wade in June ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights, meaning access to health care depends on where you live and work more than ever.

Restricted abortion access will have major career and financial consequences for women, experts say.

For Kristi Bradford, the immediate cost is a $300,000 paycheck.

Bradford, 32, walked away from a $300,000 job based in Oklahoma out of concern for her health. She’s a strategic investment professional living in Los Angeles and was set to start working remotely for a company based in Oklahoma this month. But once Roe was overturned, and Oklahoma enacted its trigger law banning almost all abortions, Bradford says the uncertainty surrounding the state’s restricted reproductive care led her to pull out of the job altogether.

In the weeks since the Supreme Court ruling, professionals ranging from doctors to academics to tech workers are already changing their career plans in a post-Roe America.

And then there is…

Almost half of nation’s OB-GYN residents train in states poised to ban abortion

Physicians warn that the Supreme Court ruling will have a “dire” impact on training, ultimately affecting patient care.

Health Care Dive

By Samantha Liss

June 28, 2022

The Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal right to abortion is likely to curtail the ability to train doctors in comprehensive reproductive healthcare, physicians said Friday.

Roughly 44% of the nation’s current obstetric and gynecology residents train in states that are poised to ban abortions, CEO of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Maureen Phipps said Friday on a call with reporters.

“The impact on physician training will be dire and the consequences will be long lasting,” Phipps, who is a physician, said.

[…]

Researchers concluded that the rollback of Roe v. Wade will leave “nearly one half of U.S. obstetrics and gynecology residents without access to this fundamental facet of reproductive care, thus affecting care for future patients.”

It is not just OB/GYN doctors and medical students avoiding conservative states but also…

Political Climate And Educational Policies May Lower Enrollment At Florida Colleges

Forbes

By Lucie Lapovsky

April 5, 2023

Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ recent policies and legislation on higher education and other areas are likely to drive students away from Florida’s colleges and universities. According to a new poll by Intelligent one in eight high school seniors in Florida say they will not attend a public college in the State. The key finding include the following:

Overall, 91% of prospective college students and 79% of current college students disagree with DeSantis’ policies

• 1 in 8 graduating high school students in Florida won’t attend a public college due to DeSantis’ education policies
• 78% of students surveyed who plan to attend a state school are worried the policies will have a negative impact on their education
• 1 in 20 current state college students plan to transfer because of DeSantis’ education policies
•  56% of surveyed current state college students are concerned the policies will negatively impact their on-going education.

A survey done by Arts and Sciences, found that one in four students ruled out attending a college in a state because of the political climate in the state; this was true of both liberal and conservative students. Conservative students tended to rule out attending college in California and New York while liberal students tended to mark Florida, Texas, Alabama and Louisiana off their lists. For liberal students, the main issues are abortion and reproductive rights, lack of concern about racial equity, LBGTQ+ laws, and ease of getting guns while for conservative students the reasons were more general.

What I am concerned about is that this migration will result in a deeper divide between the conservative and liberal states.

In Montana the Republicans have tried to silence a trans legislators, in the article in the New York Times they had a paragraph that caught my attention.

But in recent years, as the state has experienced an influx of conservative transplants and joined an increasingly polarized national political debate, Republicans have steadily expanded their control, especially in rural Montana, which had often been the scene of vigorous and competitive political contests.

I worry that there is a decrease in Purple states that they are either turning Red or Blue.

Last year, Republicans gained a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, positioning Montana as a new front in the nation’s culture wars.

[…]

“They want to tell people what their identity is,” he said. “They want to tell people who they can marry. They want to tell people where they can work. They’re reaching into all these private areas of people’s lives. And this is wrong. This is not who we are.”

I worry that a power trip is what the Republicans are on and people are choosing with their feet dividing the country even more. Leading us right down the path to Fascism.

Two Steps Forward, Ten Steps Backward.

[Editorial]

That is where we are heading!

The Republicans rolled back a woman’s right to choose to the 1970s.

The Republicans rolled back our protections to the 1950s.

Now the Republicans roll back child labor laws to the 1900s.

The conservative campaign to rewrite child labor laws

The Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based think tank and lobbying group, drafted state legislation to strip child workplace protections, emails show

Washington Post

By Jacob Bogage and María Luisa Paúl

April 23, 2023

When Iowa lawmakers voted last week to roll back certain child labor protections, they blended into a growing movement driven largely by a conservative advocacy group.

At 4:52 a.m., Tuesday, the state’s Senate approved a bill to allow children as young as 14 to work night shifts and 15 year-olds on assembly lines. The measure, which still must pass the Iowa House, is among several the Foundation for Government Accountability is maneuvering through state legislatures.

The Florida-based think tank and its lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, have found remarkable success among Republicans to relax regulations that prevent children from working long hours in dangerous conditions. And they are gaining traction at a time the Biden administration is scrambling to enforce existing labor protections for children.

And Iowa wasn’t the only state to do this, it happened in Arkansas and Missouri…

That law passed so swiftly and was met with such public outcry that Arkansas officials quickly approved a second measure increasing penalties on violators of the child labor codes the state had just weakened.

In Missouri, where another child labor bill has gained significant GOP support, the FGA helped a lawmaker draft and revise the legislation, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.

But the voters were not happy, not happy at all!

The excuses that they use to justify their raping if the child labor laws are,

Supporters of the child worker proposals say they reduce red tape around the hiring process for minors. A spokeswoman for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a rising Republican star, said her state’s law relieved parents of “obsolete” and “arbitrary burdens.”

[…]

Child welfare advocates and some business leaders said the new legislation could endanger children on the job and entice others to leave school to join the workforce.

Using children as peons is “reducing red tape? The Republicans don’t want us educated, they want an illiterate workforce that they can manipulate.

A January 2022 white paper previewed talking points that lawmakers would go on to use while discussing the legislation.

The paper called teenagers “a critical source of labor,” and linked the conservative backlash to pandemic-era education policies to alleged overreach by school officials charged with protecting children in the workforce.

“Now is the time for state lawmakers to eliminate unnecessary hurdles to teenage work and leave the decision-making to parents,” the paper declares.

This feeds right back into the Republicans’ “Parental Rights” platform to circumvent the laws!

The question is why? Why do they want to roll back the labor to the 1890s and 1900s?

The billionaire oligarchs love this idea! Cheap labor. The next thing that they go after is OSHA.

I asked Google Bard that question… Has any Republicans suggested doing away with OSHA?

Yes, some Republicans have suggested doing away with OSHA. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump proposed a budget that would have eliminated OSHA. The proposal was met with strong opposition from labor unions and safety advocates, and it was ultimately not adopted. However, some Republicans continue to believe that OSHA is an unnecessary government bureaucracy that stifles economic growth.

In 2019, for example, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a bill that would have repealed and replaced OSHA. The bill was never voted on, but it did serve as a reminder that there are some Republicans who would like to see OSHA go away.

It is important to note that not all Republicans support doing away with OSHA. Many Republicans believe that OSHA plays an important role in protecting workers from harm. In fact, a 2018 poll found that 63% of Americans believe that OSHA is doing a good job protecting workers.

Ultimately, the question of whether or not to do away with OSHA is a complex one. There are valid arguments to be made on both sides of the issue. It is up to each individual to decide where they stand on this issue.

Just like when the Republicans said they were not going to roll back Roe v. Wade. I trust the Republicans as far as I can throw a pig.

***

I have had run-ins with OSHA before I retired, I was put in charge of safety of the factory and we had a couple of OSHA inspections after minor accidents (One ghastly accident, an employee jury-rigged a way to defeat a safety interlock, she put a rivet through he thumb.).

They fined us a half a million dollars for the violations that he found but you know what because the company immediately fixed the problems they waved all the fines except the original accident of $10,000 and I had to retrain the woman (So my retraining of her and her supervisor when like this… “What the f**k were you thinking of when you bypassed the safeties? Did it hurt like hell? Well don’t do it again!” And to the supervisor “Why the f**k didn’t you say something when you saw how she rigged the riveting machine?” The company HR wrote her up for not stopping her from bypassing the safety.).

I found OSHA to be reasonable and professional when they saw that we were not taking an adversarial position. I am old enough to remember seeing elderly men with disfiguration and disabilities from industrial accidents.

[/Editorial]

Good News

I figured that you needed some good news…

Minnesota Senate Passes Bill To Ban 'Conversion Therapy' For LGBTQ+ People

The state is a step closer to joining 20 others that have clamped down on the discredited practice.

Huff Post

By Shruti Rajkumar

April 22, 2023

The Minnesota Senate passed a bill Friday that would ban so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth and certain adults.

The legislation, SF23, targets the discredited practice of seeking to change people’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. If signed into law, mental health practitioners and professionals would be prohibited from engaging in conversion therapy with anyone under the age of 18 or any “vulnerable adult,” a label that can include those receiving treatment for physical, mental or emotional conditions.

The Senate voted 36-27 to advance SF23, with two Republicans joining the chamber’s slim Democratic majority. Its passage followed years of failed attempts to get the bill through the legislative body. The proposal had previously passed in the state’s House of Representatives on multiple occasions.

SF23 now awaits a signature from Gov. Tim Walz (D), which would put Minnesota alongside the 20 other states, as well as the District of Columbia, that have passed laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors.

The way that the Republican states are going they are almost encouraging people go to Conversion Therapy because they think being LGBTQ+ is a choice therefore people can be tortured to be straight, as in scared straight.

The Voters Can’t Be Trusted.

In another case of the Republicans overriding the electors…

Montana transgender lawmaker silenced: What to know

AP News

By Amy Beth Hanson, Sam Metz and Matthew Brown

April 27, 2023

The latest high-profile example of statehouses deciding who can be heard during legislative debates is playing out in Montana, where a transgender lawmaker on Wednesday was barred from speaking on the House floor for the remainder of the session.

For days before voting to discipline her, legislative leaders in the GOP-controlled statehouse had not allowed Rep. Zooey Zephyr to speak during debates because she said colleagues who voted to ban gender-affirming care for youth would have “blood” on their hands.

The remark provoked outrage from Republicans who said the language was belittling and an affront to civil discourse. Zephyr rebuffed demands from legislative leaders to apologize for her remarks, leading to days of standoff between her and lawmakers in the majority party over how to move forward.

As she speaks out against the she tell the truth, that with the passage of the anti-trans bill she said that research has shown the the suicide rates increase in the trans community as a result of passing laws like those. But the Republicans don’t like the truth.

The 34-year-old Democrat is from the left-leaning college town Missoula, where she’s been a staffer at the University of Montana. She has spent much of her life advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and worked behind the scenes during the 2021 legislative session to help block efforts to ban gender-affirming health care.

Following her November election, she said she wanted to enlist moderate Republicans to push back on what she called “extreme and dangerous attacks” and help people understand transgender adults like her.

Instead, she and fellow members of the Democratic minority have been powerless to stop Republicans from passing proposals focused on transgender kids. In addition to banning gender-affirming care for minors, lawmakers also passed legislation that says misgendering or deadnaming students is not illegal discrimination unless it rises to the level of bullying.

But the Republicans consider it okay to misgender and deadname  her but when she speaks the truth…

House Majority Leader Sue Vinton, a Republican, immediately called Zephyr’s comments inappropriate and disrespectful. That evening, a group of conservative lawmakers known as the Montana Freedom Caucus demanded Zephyr’s and deliberately referred to her using male pronouns in a letter and tweet. That’s known as misgendering — using pronouns that don’t match a person’s gender identity.

The Republicans steam roller have a super trifecta and they shut down anything that the Democrats introduce.

IS THIS RELATED TO THE TENNESSEE LAWMAKERS BEING EXPELLED?

Not directly, but the dispute reflects tensions and harsh rhetoric around culturally divisive issues — including firearms, racial justice and rights for the LGBTQ+ community — that currently dominate much of America’s political discourse.

It is either the Republican way or the highway.

You know who else does that?

Russia, China, Hungary and other authoritarian governments.

---

NPR reported,

The tension in the Montana House has been building for a while. Zephyr said she ran for office after Republican lawmakers passed legislation restricting the rights of transgender Montanans in 2021.

Now in office, she's taken a very strong stance against bills to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors, to ban minors from attending drag shows and to define sex as binary in state code.

[…]

Zephyr says she stands by her comments. In a notice, Republican leaders cited the section of the Montana Constitution that gives authority to the legislature to "expel or punish a member for good cause" with a two-thirds majority vote.

The Republicans have a different definition of “for good cause” for Republicans and Democrats.

House Minority Leader Kim Abbott says her caucus will hold Republicans accountable for their "anti-democratic agenda." The public gallery was closed for Wednesday's proceedings.

Them wrote that,

On Wednesday, Republican members of the far-right “Montana Freedom Caucus” went on the attack, calling for Zephyr to be officially censured in a statement posted to Twitter that repeatedly misgendered her, using the pronoun “his” to refer to Zephyr throughout. 

The statement falsely claimed that the legislation protects children against “forced life-altering and unnecessary” surgeries. In reality, the bill prohibits best-practice trans medicine conducted with informed consent, while making exceptions for non-consensual surgeries performed on intersex youth. The caucus even claimed that statements like Zephyr’s are “exactly why tragedies such as the Covenant Christian School shooting in Nashville occurred.” Republicans and conservative pundits have repeatedly weaponized the shooting over the past month to falsely claim that trans people are dangerous.

[…]

House Minority Leader Kim Abbott told ABC News in a statement that the Freedom Caucus’ demand was “blatantly disrespectful,” adding, “I find it incredibly ironic that these legislators are making demands of others that they refuse to abide by themselves.” Rep. Theresa Manzella, chair of the caucus, did not reply to Them’s request for comment prior to publication.

But that is all okay because a Republican said it!

They lied about the Nashville shooting, it was never proven that she identified as trans… it was something that the right-wing created and the police or the prosecutors didn’t say that she was trans.

Back When I Was In Elementary School

They didn’t know what learning disorders were and they never tested for them so a whole generation were label dumb, trouble makers, stupid, and lazy.

People think being that being dyslexic words and numbers jumbled up but it is much, much more than that!

Kelly Clarkson tears up after Henry Winkler shares some simple advice for her dyslexic daughter

"The Fonz" has been a dyslexia advocate for years.

UpWorthy 

By Tod Perry

April 19, 2023

Henry Winkler is best known for playing one of the most iconic TV characters of all time, Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzerelli, on “Happy Days.” But at 77, his career is still going strong as he plays acting coach Gene Cousineau on HBO Max’s critically-acclaimed “Barry.”

But success hasn’t been easy for Winkler. He had a challenging time in school as a child because he had undiagnosed dyslexia. The disorder also made it extremely difficult for him to memorize lines as an actor.

“When I was growing up in New York City, no one knew what dyslexia was,” he said, according to The Reading Well. “I was called stupid and lazy, and I was told that I was not living up to my potential. It was, without a doubt, painful. I spent most of my time covering up the fact that reading, writing, spelling, math, science—actually, every subject but lunch—was really, really difficult for me.”

The same for me, I was never diagnosed with dyslexia because there was no testing for learning disorders back then and on my report cards there were comments like lazy on them. Over time I realized that I had dyslexia the symptoms it was so obvious, but like most of us we had work a rounds.

The Mayo Clinic has on their website,

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called a reading disability, dyslexia is a result of individual differences in areas of the brain that process language.

Dyslexia is not due to problems with intelligence, hearing or vision. Most children with dyslexia can succeed in school with tutoring or a specialized education program. Emotional support also plays an important role.

Though there's no cure for dyslexia, early assessment and intervention result in the best outcome. Sometimes dyslexia goes undiagnosed for years and isn't recognized until adulthood, but it's never too late to seek help.

Ding, ding, ding… “problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding)” that is me. Besides the usual jumbling of letters sounds are also scrambled making spelling very hard and using words that sound the same will drive me up a wall.

On another dyslexia website, Dyslexia-Reading-Well…

Quick facts about auditory dyslexia

• Defined by difficulty processing the basic sounds of language (phonemes), sounds of letters and groups of letter resulting in very slow and laboured reading
• Believed to be caused by an impairment in neural processing of auditory information
• Most persons with dyslexia have the auditory type
• Also called audio dyslexia or auditory processing disorder
• Sounds may be being fused, reversed or jumbled
• It is not a hearing impairment

[…]

Symptoms and signs

Not all dyslexics have auditory discrimination problems and symptoms can vary from mild to extreme but common signs include:

Frequently misunderstand what others say

• Have difficulty hearing when any background noise is present
• Often have difficulty pronouncing Ls, Rs and Ths
• Frequently scramble multi-syllabic words (pasghetti instead of spaghetti)
• Difficulty following a sequence of instructions
• Weak auditory memory
• Weak comprehension of something just heard

Boy that is right on! Especially having “difficulty pronouncing Ls, Rs and Ths.” I couldn’t pronounce “poor” (And I still can’t) I had all types of speech therapy in elementary school and junior high school and I could never pronounce “poor” until one day. I was visiting a friend at his road side vegetable stand and he said can you pronounce “pour” sure no problem. So to this day if you listen closely you will hear me say “pour” for “poor” it was an excellent work around.

Many times I get comments about using the wrong words or leaving out words or misspellings on my blog and I get snarky comments. It is like they feel superior because I made a mistake, I think of them as “grammar Nazis” but you know maybe they should stop and think that maybe the person has a learning disorder and they are doing the best that they can.

When I was in grad school, I took one of the few mid-term exam and when the professor were handing them back out in the next class he didn’t give me my test back and said ominously “See me after class.” When I did he gave me a few tests said that I was dyslexic.

In 2005 I went to a fundraiser for GenderPAC down in Westport CT and there I met the mayor of Stamford Dannel Malloy who later became governor of Connecticut. At the fundraiser he mentioned that he said that he was dyslexic. I think those of us who have dyslexia are over achievers. 

The UpWorthy article ends with,

Winkler then looked directly into the camera and shared some great advice for Clarkson’s daughter and the millions who struggle with dyslexia. “How you learn has nothing to do with how brilliant you are,” he said.

[...]

Winkler’s simple message is something everyone should hear: Your ability to learn isn’t necessarily a sign of your intelligence.

And that is so true!

Yikes… They Are Going Off The Deep End!

I can’t say “You wouldn’t believe” because you would believe anything coming out of Florida. But now… but now I think people will start to believe that this is really a vendetta against us.

Florida House authorizes subpoenas for organizations endorsing gender-affirming care

Two Florida chapters of nationwide medical organizations will be issued subpoenas.

Tampa Bay Times

By Romy Ellenbogen

April 25, 2023

A Florida House committee voted Monday to authorize sending subpoenas to the Florida chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association, which have both issued guidance in support of gender-affirming care for transgender children.

House Speaker Paul Renner said he wants the House to examine how the organizations adopted their recommendations. He questioned whether the guidelines were the result of scientific analysis or whether “the integrity of the medical profession has been compromised by a radical gender ideology that stands to cause permanent physical and mental harm to children and adolescents.”

Saying that organizations in favor of gender-affirming care have so far fought “vigorously” to avoid any “meaningful inquiry or disclosure” about how they reached their standards, Renner directed the House Health and Human Services Committee, led by chairperson Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, to begin an investigation.

The House Health and Human Services committee voted 13-6 on Monday to authorize Fine to write and issue subpoenas for the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Florida Psychiatric Society, a branch of the American Psychiatric Association.

Subpoenas from the House can go only to Florida organizations. Fine said he would have liked to subpoena other groups, like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

[…]

Rep. Ashley Gantt, D-Miami, said she worried the subpoenas were reminiscent of the Johns Committee, a legislative committee that sought to investigate communists and LGBTQ+ people in Florida universities.

Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the House Democratic leader, said that since the House has already passed its bill dealing with medical care for transgender children, the subpoena doesn’t serve a legitimate purpose.

“We’re very concerned this could be a political witch hunt,” she said.

The Johns Committee according to the University of Florida,

From 1956 to 1965, the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee threatened civil liberties in the Sunshine State. Led by Senator Charley E. Johns, the committee operated in a McCarthyite manner, seeking to discover communist connections among integrationist organizations and purge academic liberals and so-called "subversives" from educational institutions.

When the committee had failed to demonstrate communist involvement within the NAACP or the academic community, a desperate Charley Johns sought to extend his committee's life by searching for a weaker enemy and "committee agents soon monitored lavatory stalls and private bedrooms rather than city buses." The University of Florida was the first academic target chosen in the search for homosexuals in 1958. At least 15 UF professors and more than 50 students left after being interrogated by investigators. Even though the committee's tactics violated state law, UF administrators did not attempt to halt the investigations and went so far as to allow university police officers to serve as investigators and tape interrogations with professors and students.

Hmm… history is repeating itself.

Cartoon by Don Addis

That was the big question back in the 50s with Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s hearings, according to the Senate history,

Wisconsin Republican senator Joseph R. McCarthy rocketed to public attention in 1950 with his allegations that hundreds of Communists had infiltrated the State Department and other federal agencies. These charges struck a particularly responsive note at a time of deepening national anxiety about the spread of world communism.

[…]

A dispute over his hiring of staff without consulting other committee members prompted the panel's three Democrats to resign in mid-1953. Republican senators also stopped attending, in part because so many of the hearings were called on short notice or held away from the nation's capital. As a result, McCarthy and his chief counsel Roy Cohn largely ran the show by themselves, relentlessly grilling and insulting witnesses. Harvard law dean Ervin Griswold described McCarthy's role as "judge, jury, prosecutor, castigator, and press agent, all in one."

It took a Boston lawyer for the Army to bring the hearings to a close with the famous line,

 As an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness." When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"

Senator Joseph R. McCarthy also started to investigate us, the LGBTQ+ community which resulted in the Lavender Scary. OutHistory wrote that,

Most America’s know the story of Senator Joseph McCarthy and how he set off a “red scare” when he famously charged in 1950 that the US State Department and other government agencies had been infiltrated by communist agents. But few Americans know that McCarthy also charged that the government had been infiltrated by homosexuals, and that they posed a threat equally as grave to national security. This fear that gay men and lesbians could be blackmailed into revealing state secrets resulted in a systematic campaign to identify and remove all government employees suspected of homosexuality. In this book, David Johnson argues that a parallel “lavender scare” permeated American cold war culture. But it also helped launch a new civil rights struggle.

President Eisenhower signed an executive order that…

In 1953, the pressure to strengthen security procedures became codified when newly elected President Eisenhower signed executive order 10450, which expanded Truman’s loyalty program to include issues of character and suitability. For the first time, “sexual perversion” was included in the list of behaviors that would exclude one from holding a job with the federal government or receiving a security clearance from a federal contractor. Agencies set up new policies and procedures for detecting and removing men and women suspected of being gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Applicants were personally interviewed to look for subtle signs of homosexuality, such as gender non-conformity. Invoking the notion of “guilt by association,” investigators checked whether an employee’s friends or roommates were gay. Some were placed under surveillance to determine whether they frequented gay bars or associated with “known homosexuals.” Local police agencies were encouraged to clamp down on local gay meeting places and then share their arrest records. Investigators vigorously interrogated civil servants about their private sex lives and offered a “lie-detector” test as one of the only means of establishing their innocence. Thousands lost their jobs or resigned under pressure. A small number were driven to suicide.

And now history is coming around again!

We are becoming the piranha again, we are the root of all the troubles in the country, we are the scapegoats with what is wrong. And do you want to guess what party McCarthy was member of? OutHistory wrote, 

Based on little evidence, the attacks represented a way for Republicans, the minority party at the time, to attack the Democrats and the New Deal agencies they had created as centers of immorality.  

Edward R Murrow delivered a stinging editorial about McCarthy’s tactics,

The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it – and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

Good night and good luck.” 

It Is Just A Means To Get Their Way

All these laws against drag shows are just a means for the Republicans to achieve their real goals.

How drag bans fit into larger attacks on transgender rights

Drag queen and historian Dr. Lady J discusses how “trans people have always been attacked using these drag bans”

Center for Public Integrity

By Ileana Garnand

April 14, 2023

At least 14 state legislatures have proposed bills targeting drag performances, part of the record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed this year.

Tennessee and Arkansas have both enacted laws placing strict limits on drag shows. They share similar language, restricting “adult-oriented” performances — sometimes explicitly including “male or female impersonators” in the definition. The bulk of the proposed and passed policies ban these performances from public property and cut them off from public funds.

Well first off,  a gay man in a dress is not “adult-oriented” performances, it is not obscene, what the Republicans are really doing is trying to force us back into the closet and criminalizing us. Even though they include “male or female impersonators” in the bill the Supreme Court definition of “adult-oriented” performances does not fit crossdressing. There is no no nudity nor simulated s*x.

When I look at these laws, I look at the way that things are defined by crossing over from assigned sex at birth, not the gender you identify as. … It makes it feel like any person who is trans, who can be noticed, can then be hauled away for doing drag in public. That to me has been a much larger concern than the drag ban. Because the drag ban is bad, but it’s not saying all drag goes away forever. It’s saying we take it out of certain spaces and that is all truly terrifying in and of itself.

[…]

It makes it feel as though these attacks are not attacks on drag. … What I see when I look back at drag bans over time is they seem to come forward always [when] trans people are making strides in the public realm. … Each time these things come up, whether it’s the ‘30s, the ‘40s, the ‘50s, the ‘60s, these things are really attacks on trans people trying to live their lives. Because especially before modern times like the ‘90s forward, many trans people would have called themselves drag queens.

Then we have look at what the conservatives have been trying to stop ever since the first Pride parade in 1970.

But so, they come after that because it seems frivolous. … These laws will be put in place to keep Pride from happening. These laws will be put in place to keep us from marching in the streets for our rights, so that when we as trans people stand up to say “We’re not going to let gender-affirming care be taken away from us, we’re not going to let you demonize us in further ways,” they can say, “Ah, looks like you’re dressed in drag at public at this protest, how about we [arrest you].”

You don’t think that they will ban Pride parades. well it already happened! The Miami Herald reported that “Officials in a Florida city have canceled a gay pride parade...”

There is something that some people find upsetting about drag in general. It’s an easier thing to attack because it’s a thing that people can wrap their head around in an easier fashion, because they have been dealing with RuPaul’s Drag Race for like 16 seasons. So it’s very easy to demonize. Trans people are much harder to demonize. This is why they’re not trying to make direct attacks on trans existence in the way they write the legislation. They are trying to do that, but the way they tried to write the legislation is: “We’re taking away this type of opportunity. We’re taking away this drag opportunity. We’re taking away the opportunity for hormones, we’re taking away the opportunity for puberty blockers.

Make no mistake, the Republicans have shown that this is just the beginning and we are going to see a ton of new anti-LGBTQ+ laws and the court cases against them are going all the way to the Supreme Court where there is a good chance that they might win.

They Are In Competition On Who Can Come Up With The Most Draconian Law!

It seems that Texas and Florida are competing to see who can criminalize us the first.

Florida Advanced a Bill That Could Separate Trans Kids From Affirming Parents

If passed, SB 254 would allow the state to take temporary “physical custody” of minors receiving gender-affirming care.

Them

By Samantha Riedel

April 21, 2023

The Florida House of Representatives approved three anti-LGTBQ+ bills on Wednesday, including one that could be used to forcibly separate affirming parents from their transgender children during custody battles, in a continuation of the state’s troubling legislative attacks on the queer and trans community.

Lawmakers in the lower house of the state legislature voted 82-31 to approve an amended version of Senate Bill 254, which was first introduced in March by Republican Sen. Clay Yarborough. The bill would classify gender-affirming care for minors — including puberty blockers and hormone therapy — as a form of “serious physical harm” that courts could cite to justify temporarily taking “physical custody of the child” during custody enforcement hearings.

SB 254 would also prohibit state funds from being used to provide gender-affirming care, and direct the state Board of Medicine to adopt emergency rules regarding trans minors already receiving care, adding to the ongoing atmosphere of confusion about those rules in Florida.

[…]

“I can’t believe I’m writing this,” former Democratic Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith posted on Twitter last month regarding SB 254. “Parents would be charged with felonies [and] thrown in prison. This is fascist.”

Although not yet formally passed into law, SB 1438 is already having a chilling effect. Hours before the House vote on Wednesday, organizers with Pride of the Treasure Coast announced in a Facebook post that they were canceling plans for this year’s Pride parade in June and would limit attendance at their annual PrideFest event to those 21 and over. Organizers cited SB 1438 as the reason for the changes.

Then there are the other laws against us that Florida has are is trying to pass.

Florida Can’t Take Trans Teens From Their Parents

Bloomberg via Washington Post

Analysis by Noah Feldman

April 21, 2023

[...]

One problem with the Florida bill is that it overrides regulatory decisions made by the Food and Drug Administration. The drugs known as puberty blockers, which can be used in the treatment of gender-affirming care, have been around for 30 years and are safe and legal when prescribed by a physician. The Florida law is designed to make it impossible to administer those drugs to minors in the state.

Under the principal known as federal preemption, Congress can choose to assume exclusive federal control over regulating a given area, such as nuclear power or pharmaceuticals. Congress exercised that power to make the FDA the sole judge of what drugs are appropriate for medical use and how they should be regulated.

[…]

Turning to the Constitution, there are at least two provisions that the Florida bill would violate. First, by denying medical care to trans people in particular, the law discriminates. For example, under the bill parents could choose to give puberty blockers to a child experiencing early puberty. The fact that the same parents could not use the same drugs when prescribed by a physician for gender dysphoria shows the unconstitutional double standard.

You know what will happen if and when the laws get overturned… the Republicans will rally their base with the “Activist Judges” never mind that it was overturned by Trump appointees but the Republicans will forget that little fact.

***

23/7 wrote that,

To determine which states are restricting transgender health care, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on anti-trans health care legislation by state from Axios. The legislative status of anti-trans bills are current as of March 23, 2023. The 31 states with pending or active anti-trans legislation are ordered alphabetically. (These are the worst American states for health care.)

Kansas, South Carolina, and Oklahoma are proposing bans that not only target minors but anyone under the age of 21. A bill in Texas would ban gender affirming medical care for trans people under the age of 26. Some bills seek to give people who received gender-affirming care as minors to sue for medical malpractice well into their adulthood, well beyond the typical statute of limitations for such civil litigation.

You know the Republican manta “Parent’s Rights” but it seems to end when it goes against the Republican ideology.