More and more people are stepping up and saying enough is enough!
Lizzo, Madonna Join Chorus of Artists Who ‘Strongly Denounce’ Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills
Rolling Stone via Yahoo News
By Daniel Kreps
March 31, 2023Lizzo and Madonna have both taken stances in calling out the recent rash of anti-LGBTQ bills like the Tennessee drag ban and laws aimed at trans healthcare.Earlier this month, Lizzo shared a series of tweets about getting to the root of the hate. “I’ve never heard a person say why they’re racist… Or fatphobic.. I’ve never heard a reason why someone is transphobic.. I think if we knew ‘why’ these people felt this way there would way less support for these ideals. Because the ‘why’ is more insidious than we realize,” she wrote before adding later: “Don’t get it twisted— I don’t care why people are bigoted. That’s a waste of my imagination. I feel like there’s a lot of complicit silence and apathetic participation going on that wouldn’t fly if people knew more.”
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“The oppression of the LGBTQ+ is not only unacceptable and inhumane; it’s creating an unsafe environment; it makes America a dangerous place for our most vulnerable citizens, especially trans women of color,” Madonna said in a statement. “Also, these so-called laws to protect our children are unfounded and pathetic. Anyone with half a brain knows not to fuck with a drag queen. Bob and I will see you from the stage in Nashville where we will celebrate the beauty that is the queer community.”
Visibility!
That is the key, the more people know someone who is trans the more they will understand and not believe the conservative lies. The Republican legislators know what they are doing, they know it will hurt children. They heard testimony from all the medical associations in the US but instead they decided to listen to the quakes.
Read what Reba McEntire, it is amazing!
Country star Reba McEntire chimed in a few weeks later, too, when asked about the anti-drag bill during an interview with the Los Angeles Times. McEntire said she was “disappointed” that the bill past, adding, “I wish they would spend that much time and energy and money on feeding the homeless children in those two counties.”
When asked potentially alienating segments of her audience, McEntire quipped, “I mean, we’ve got a real problem in this country, and to be worrying about men wanting to dress up as women? God bless ’em to wear those high heels — I feel for ’em. But let’s center our attention on something that really needs attention.”
Allies, we need allies to speak out! They are speaking from the heart. On last Friday the Transgender flag flew over the state capitol here in Connecticut. Meanwhile down south and the mid-west they are making it crime to be trans.
There are reports of families with LGBTQ+ children fleeing north while at the same time conservatives are flocking south and forming enclaves of gated White bastions.
Is this the future of our country? To be segregated along culture, racial, and religious lines?
Will we be seeing books like the “Green Book” and the “Peeing in Peace” come back in vogue?
Back in 1978 at the height of the Lavender Scare and the Anita Bryant's Save Our Children campaign, Harvey Milk made his famous speech after winning Proposition 6 and he said…
Gay brothers and sisters,... You must come out. Come out... to your parents... Come out to your relatives... come out to your friends... Come out to your neighbors... to your fellow workers... to the people who work where you eat and shop... come out only to the people you know, and who know you.
He knew back then that visibility was the key!
How do we counter the rise in bias crimes, there is no simple quick fix and there is no one answer but instead it is Senator Clinton said, “it takes a village.” We have to speak up and speak out. We need our neighbors to speak up.
When you know someone it is much harder to hate them, when you know someone it is much easier to stand beside them. We need everyone to speak up against violence and discrimination.
The B-52’s also took aim at the laws targeting trans healthcare. “We, The B-52’s, are deeply concerned about the numerous new bills that promote transphobia and discrimination against transgender individuals and drag artists, which have been introduced in the United States,” the band wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
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Nashville’s own Hayley Williams of Paramore previously wrote of the Tennessee laws aimed at the LGBTQ+ community, “Once again our state has passed two regressive and unfathomably harmful bills. We stand in solidarity with our LGBTQIA+ family and local LGBTQIA+ orgs in this fight, not only for inclusion for our friends and family in the queer community, but for radical acceptance and empowerment for each of them. Drag is not a crime. Gender-affirming healthcare for all, including our youth, is a necessity.”
People are realizing that they can’t keep silent that they must speak out.
I'll believe Madonna when she gives ALL THE PROCEEDS from her show in Nashville to LGBT+organizations fighting these neo-fascist republican monsters. Prancing around on the stage spewing just doesn't fully make it. As far as families and their trans kids fleeing the neo fascist states of amerikkka are the liberal churches, LGBT community, business, and other allies ready to help get them settled here? Let's not wait until we hear, those who fled early are the lucky ones. Some say, "Stay and fight," when I hear that I say what a privilege ___hole is yapping foam from their mouth. As is always, the case the ones who have the money will be able to flee leaving the working poor trans +families behind to fight the battle for them for them. If I may Diana, I wrote about this today on furbirdsqueerly under the title of The Least of These. The Responsibility of Liberal Churches and Others to Transgender Children and Their Families Living in Neo-Fascist States. This response will be a lot of work but we cannot fail. Hey Madonna give a million.
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