Many are affirming! Many support us, many open their doors for us.
Just like here in the U.S. where there was a 33% increase.
Not all religions are anti-LGBTQ+ many of them open their doors for us!
Way back in 1990 the Quakers open their doors to a trans support group where the group held their meetings until last month.Quakers pledge to stand by trans Brits: ‘A gold-standard for other faiths to follow’
Pink News
By Chantelle Billson
August 1, 2023Quakers in Britain’s most senior staff member, Paul Parker, has joined more than 215 charity leaders in signing a pledge to stand with trans people against hate amid a rise in transphobic hate crimes.
“Quakers believe that all people are equal, and that gender and sexuality are sacred gifts,” the group’s announcement read.
The almost 400-year-old religion of Quakerism, which welcomes all people, is the common name for the Religious Society of Friends. The faith unites people through a belief in each person’s ability to experience the light within or “answering that of God in everyone”.
Parker, recording clerk at Quakers in Britain, told PinkNews: “Belonging is being accepted as one’s true self. Who are we to resist what God has created and continues to create in all their glory?
In 2022, statistics from the Home Office showed hate crimes in England and Wales had hit a new record high.
The report detailed at least 155,841 recorded hate crimes from March 2021 to March 2022, which was an increase of about 26 per cent from the previous year, with transphobic hate crimes rising by a shocking 56 per cent.
Veteran human rights activist and founder of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, Peter Tatchell, who is one of the signatories, told PinkNews: “I am not religious but I applaud the Quakers’ support for the trans community.
“It sets a gold-standard for other faiths to follow. This proves that not all religions are our oppressors and enemies.
Down in Texas a trans student was kicked off of the play Oklahoma,
Sherman ISD said the high school production of "Oklahoma!" is postponed and under reviewKXAS NBC Ch5By Katy BlakeyNovember 7, 2023A decision by school leaders in the Sherman Independent School District is affecting the upcoming high school musical due to gender-related concerns.Max Hightower, a senior at Sherman High School, has thrived in the school's choir and theater programs for the last four years. In October, the 17-year-old landed his first lead role in the school's production of "Oklahoma!"However, Max was later kicked out of his lead role in the musical, and he believes it is because he is a transgender male.Max and his parents were elated until they were notified two weeks later by the school principal that there was a new policy."And [he] said we're instituting a new policy where only males can play males, and only females can play females," said Max's father, Phillip Hightower."I was devastated," said Hightower.His father said their son's identity has never been an issue with the District, and the decision by school leaders cost other students their roles, too. Parents plan to appeal to the school board.
Now some 7 days later the school board had changed it tune!
After a high school production of “Oklahoma!” was halted in conservative Sherman, Texas, something unusual happened: The school board sided with transgender students.New York TimesBy J. David GoodmanNovember 14, 2023A school district in the conservative town of Sherman, Texas, made national headlines last week when it put a stop to a high school production of the musical “Oklahoma!” after a transgender student was cast in a lead role.[…]But then something even more unusual happened in Sherman, a rural college town that has been rapidly drawn into the expanding orbit of Dallas to its south. The school district reversed course. In a late-night vote on Monday, the school board voted unanimously to restore the original casting. The decision rebuked efforts to bring the fight over transgender participation in student activities into the world of theater, which has long provided a haven for gay, lesbian and transgender students, and it reflected just how deeply the controversy had unsettled the town.
So what brought about the sudden switch in school policy?
The parents… you know as in “Parents Rights” and the town folks didn’t like the new policy one bit.
The board’s vote came after students and outraged parents began organizing. In recent days, the district’s administrators, seeking a compromise, offered to recast the students in a version of the musical meant for middle schoolers or younger that omitted solos and included roles as cattle and birds. Students balked.After the vote, the school board announced a special meeting for Friday to open an investigation and to consider taking action against the district superintendent, Tyson Bennett, who oversaw the district’s handling of “Oklahoma!,” including “possible administrative leave.”Suddenly, improbably, the students had won.
Do you think the pounding Moms for Liberty from the elections had anything to do with the sudden change?
Every seat in the room was filled, almost entirely with supporters of the production. Some lined the walls while others who were turned away waited outside. Of the 65 people who signed up to speak, only a handful voiced support for the district’s restrictions.The outpouring came as a shock, even to longtime Sherman residents.“What you’re seeing today is history,” said Valerie Fox, 41, a local L.G.B.T.Q. advocate and the parent of a queer high schooler. Ms. Fox said she was taken aback by the scene of dozens of transgender people and their supporters holding signs and flags outside the district offices. “This is one of the biggest things we’ve seen in Sherman.”
Do you think the Board got a little nervous with the way things had changed? When you see a flash flood coming you don’t stand in its way.
But the controversy over “Oklahoma!” came as a surprise. The musical had been selected and approved last school year, casting was completed in August and more than 60 students in the cast and crew — as well as dozens of dancers — had been preparing for months. Performances were scheduled for early December.[…]Days later, his father, Phillip Hightower, got a call from the high school principal, who told him that Max could not have the part because, under a new policy, no students could play roles that differed from their sex at birth. “He was not rude or disrespectful, but he was very curt and to the point,” Mr. Hightower recalled.The district later denied having such a policy. But the principal also left messages for other parents whose children were losing their roles, one of which was shared with The New York Times.Isn’t that the Republican way… when get caught deny, deny, deny!“I just want this town to be what it can be and not be a laughingstock for the entire nation,” one woman, Rebecca Gebhard, told the board.
It should be interesting to read those meeting minutes!
“We want to apologize to our students, parents, our community regarding the circumstances that they’ve had to go through,” the board president, Brad Morgan, said afterward.
Yeah, they should. After the elections the people spoke, “We don’t want any of this ‘WOKE’ stuff, we don’t want a small group on narrow minded buttinskies tell us what we can and cannot do!”
The couple decided, for the first time, to hang a pride flag in the window of their home. For now, they felt a little more confident in their neighbors than they had a day before.
Update 11/17/23 @ 7:30 AM
The school system caved into pressure! WFAA reported...
Sherman ISD reinstates musical cast after dozens support transgender student at heated board meeting"We want to apologize to our students, parents and our community," board President Brad Morgan said Monday night.Late Monday night, Sherman Independent School District board members voted to reinstate the original script and cast of "Oklahoma!" for the Sherman High School drama, reversing the school's controversial decision to recast and pause the production.The board's reversal came after a heated meeting, where more than 60 people spoke in support of Max Hightower, a transgender senior cast in the musical.
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