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| Thomas Nast (1840-1902). Two Great Questions. 1871. Museum of the City of New York. |
All these anti-LGBTQ+ laws are coming out of a well oiled political machine that are interconnected.
Mark Trammell wrote posts in 2013 and 2014 for Liberty Counsel, a far-right group on a ‘crusade to strip LGBTQ people of their rights’The GuardianBy Jason WilsonJune 27, 2023The executive director of a Republican-linked nonprofit wrote blog posts for an extremist organization in which he advocated so-called “conversion therapy”, the supremacy of biblical rules on marriage over “man-made law”, and expressed a general theocratic view that divine law as interpreted by US evangelical Christians trumps secular law.The since-deleted posts by Mark Trammell – now executive director of the self-styled civil rights group Center for American Liberty (CAL) – were written for Liberty Counsel, dubbed an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its work “to ensure that Christians can continue to engage in anti-LGBT discrimination in places of business under the guise of ‘religious liberty’”.The Guardian has previously reported on the financial relationship between CAL and CEO Harmeet Dhillon’s law firm, which a nonprofit expert described as “problematic”, and the lack of transparency in the nonprofit’s arrangements with a PR firm.But CAL’s extremist links, and other CAL attorneys links to groups like the Proud Boys and the Claremont Institute, raise questions about the organization’s recent pivot to suits that seek to limit transgender rights.
Round and round where it stops nobody knows.
In a September 2013 post, Trammell complained about laws passed in California in 2012 and New Jersey in 2013 that were the first in the country to ban so-called “conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy”, a scientifically discredited practice whose practitioners falsely claim to be able to change the sexual orientation of same-sex attracted people.In the post, Trammell wrote: “In both California and New Jersey, by statute, licensed physicians are not permitted to provide reparative therapy to minors, under the age of 18, who struggle with an unwanted same-sex attraction and who desire such reparative therapy.”He continued: “This restriction on therapy is a viewpoint-based content restriction aimed at silencing Christian views on human sexuality.”
STOP RIGHT THERE!
In each and every one of the laws banning conversion therapy there is an exemption for clergy, it seems like these holier than thou Christians have no qualm about bearing false witness.
What we have is a reaction to these so called Christians ramming their religious beliefs down our throats!
Further on in the post, Trammell continued his advocacy of theocracy, writing: “For one to state that the Tenth Amendment reserves the authority for states to define marriage according to the will of the citizens of that state is to say that the Constitution had authority over the Natural Law. Such a conclusion is contrary to the essence of the Natural Law and is contrary to Scripture.”
According to the New York Times article, in Texas they tried to pass…
A push to inject religion into public schools across Texas faltered on Tuesday after the State House failed to pass a contentious bill that would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed prominently in every classroom.The measure was part of an effort by conservative Republicans in the Legislature to expand the reach of religion into the daily life of public schools. In recent weeks, both chambers passed versions of a bill to allow school districts to hire religious chaplains in place of licensed counselors.[…]The Texas bill on displaying the Ten Commandments resembled another bill, passed in 2021 during the last legislative session, that required public schools to accept and display donated posters bearing the motto “In God We Trust.” Patriot Mobile, a conservative Christian cellphone company outside of Fort Worth, was among the first to make such donations after the bill’s passage.
All of these bills are an attempt to appease the Evangelical Christian base to make the United States a “Christian” nation. The Guardian goes on to write;
Except for brief stints as a congressional intern and a county-level law clerk, Trammell has spent his entire career working for a string of rightwing organizations. They include Young America’s Foundation (YAF), where as assistant general counsel he secured Dhillon’s services in suing UC Berkeley over the university’s cancellation of a speech by conservative firebrand Ann Coulter in 2017.Much of his early career, however, was spent in the service of organizations that are directly affiliated or historically connected to Liberty University, an institution founded by rightwing Baptist televangelist Jerry Falwell in 1971.
Don’t forget he is the head of the nonprofit with close ties to the Republican party.
Dhillon, meanwhile, has spread baseless conspiracy theories about the attack on Paul Pelosi last October, joined election-denying legal efforts by Donald Trump and Kari Lake, and has been acting for far-right media figure Tucker Carlson since his ouster from Fox News.
The Republicans are like Medusa with a head full of snakes.
“Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.*”
That we are in fascist Germany in the 1930s.
The Wichita EagleCommentary by John WhitmerJune 27, 2023I can no longer remain silent.The idea proposed by the Kansas Republican Party’s rules committee to remove minority representation from party leadership is just asinine. It’s wrong, and it’s counterproductive.As Republicans, we should elevating all voices who share our values and principles, especially minority voices. The rules committee claims the change is being offered in an effort to align with the national GOP, and that the effort would streamline the party to better align it with national Republican Party rules.The problem is that the current system is working just fine. The Kansas GOP is a big tent party, as evidenced by the inclusion of these very groups.Removing them might be streamlining, but it’s not smart.Ousting minority voices and elected officials who have won important elections is ill-conceived, lacks justification and shocks the conscience. It furthers division and discord and sends the wrong message at the very moment we need to be unifying, growing and working together on behalf of our candidates in 2023 and 2024.[…]Chairman, now is your time to lead. If you do not take action to end this, Republicans in Kansas should take action to remove you and replace you with someone who will.
But… but… isn’t that what the national party does? How many Republican Blacks are in Congress? How many Republican Latinx are in Congress? How many Republican women are in Congress?**
* The Wizard of Oz.
** The Republicans have 19 members that are minorities in Congress out of 211 members.
I was raised in a very diverse community in Astoria, Queens in the 1950's and 1960's. I was forced to attend a church that stressed "stay with your own" and was very repressive on sexual matters. As a young boy who dabbled in his mother's lingerie draw I thought I was destined to go to hell. It took decades of self therapy to realize there is nothing wrong with me or others. I still have to deal with the crap that comes out of the pulpits around the country. At best, when people ask me if I am a Christian I will tell them I try my best to follow the teachings of Christ, but the organized churches throw hate for anyone that is not like them. A quote attributable to Jimmy Carter says that in all the words attributable to Jesus, there is no passage in the Bible condemning anyone for his or her sexuality. Government needs to stay out of religion.
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