Um… No.

You know they say LGBTQ+ but what they really mean is LG! Some of these places I wound never set foot in.

6 Best Retirement Destinations for LGBTQ+ Seniors
These inclusive towns and retirement communities offer amenities for LGBTQ+ retirees.
US News & World Report
By Emily Sherman
June 25, 2024

Key Takeaways

•    Many cities across the U.S. offer welcoming environments for LGBTQ+ seniors.
•    LGBTQ+ seniors can choose to live independently or in dedicated retirement communities available.
•   The right community should provide LGBTQ+ seniors with social connections, health care resources and a safe space to be themselves.

When deciding the best place to retire, you have to consider a variety of factors, such as cost of living, accessibility to health care and proximity to family. For an LGBTQ+ senior, inclusivity and community amenities are equally important.

If you’re ready to settle in a community of like-minded retirees, you’ll need to do your research and choose the right towns and retirement communities for your needs. Retirees shouldn't have to sacrifice their identity, and these retirement destinations can help LGBTQ+ seniors feel at ease.

Throughout the U.S., many retirement communities offer an inclusive and welcoming environment to LGBTQ+ seniors. Consider these six cities and the LGBTQ+ retirement homes in them.
Charleston, South Carolina
Asheville, North Carolina
Portland, Oregon
Denver
Austin, Texas
Cleveland

[…]

Charleston, South Carolina
Darren Colananni, wealth management advisor for Centurion Wealth Management, recommends Charleston based on its climate, affordable cost of living and health care.

Although it's located in the traditionally conservative South, Charleston has evolved into a popular LGBTQ+ destination over the years, with neighborhoods such as Riverland Terrace serving as a hub for the community.

If you are seeking a retirement community in the Charleston area, nearby Columbia, South Carolina, offers several options, including Mill Creek Manor and Holiday by Atria.

NEVER! NEVER! Can you imagine a trans women there where they are trying to ban trans healthcare! Asheville is okay but the state laws… nope not for me!

Austin, Texas
Retiring doesn’t mean giving up an active lifestyle, and Austin can be the perfect place to embrace one.

“Austin is known for its vibrant music and art scene, making it a great place for LGBTQ+ seniors to settle down in retirement,” Chavez says.

A liberal hub in a conservative state, Austin has a large, active LGBTQ+ community.

For seniors looking for a dedicated community, there are plenty of local options, including the up-and-coming Kindred Uncommon, a unique community being built in nearby Buda.

Are you kidding me? Anywhere in Texas is anti-trans!

That is the thing, probably some gay or lesbian wrote the article who had no problems there so they figured it must be a safe place for everyone! Just typical “Gay Inc.” behavior thinking only of themselves.

I’m Not One Of Those Republicans!

[Editorial]

How many times have you heard that from traditional Republicans?

How many times have you heard that they don’t like the Republican stand on abortion but they are voting because of the economy?

How many times have you heard that they don’t like the Republican anti-trans laws but they want smaller government?

But let me tell when you lie down with rats you wake up with flees!

You cannot separate the issues you are voting for a person who makes no distinction.

You cannot say I voted for him because he is pro-worker and ignore what he want to do to us! It is all part of the package you bought into.

You cannot say that you are for trans rights and vote for him.

Lesbian says LGBTQ+ people have ‘turned their backs’ on her after she voted for Trump

Nov 20A lesbian has moaned about LGBTQ+ people “turning their backs” on her after she voted for Donald Trump, a decision that doesn’t make her “anti-gay”, she insisted.

Pink News

By Chantelle Billson

November 20, 2024

Following Trump’s victory in the presidential election, the LGBTQ+ community has been worried about what his second term in office could mean for their rights. 

Equal marriage rights are one of the concerns, with one Iowa chaplain choosing to help couples plan their weddings before Trump returns to the White House on 20 January 2025.

Concerns around Project 2025 are also rife, with many believing it will be the manifesto for Trump’s second term. The hard-line right-wing blueprint for the next four years threatens to shred the rights and advancements of the LGBTQ+ community.

Well yeah… you voted to harm other members of the community what do you expect them to do. They are talking about fleeing the country and you think that they should welcome you with open arms?

“Ever since I publicly said I was voting for Trump, I am no longer welcome in [LGBTQ+] social spheres. If there was a birthday party I was invited to, I’m no longer able to attend. It’s disgusting someone can push me out of something [like this]. They liked me two weeks ago, now they don’t. Just because I voted for someone.”

She said of other LGBTQ+ people’s concerns regarding the president-elect: “I was a lesbian under the Trump presidency before and my rights haven’t changed,” and adding that she wasn’t anti-LGBTQ+.

You ignored what the first Trump administration did to trans people! You said “my rights haven’t changed” well others did! No you weren’t anti-LGBTQ+ you were just anti-GBTQ+. But you know she is a typical Republican: Me before Us.

When you vote for a fascist, you lie down with a fascist. I imagine a lot of people in the 1930s voted because they wanted prosperity but got concentration camps instead.

[/Editorial]

And So It Begins!

We saw it out in Montana when House Republicans voted to censured Rep. Zephyr and now the Republicans are focusing on the first trans person in Congress it got them in their craw.

House Republican introduces measure to ban transgender women from female bathrooms in Capitol
Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced the resolution as Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., is set to become the first out transgender member of Congress.
NBC News
By Kyle Stewart and Raquel Coronell Uribe
November 19, 2024

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution Monday that would ban transgender women from using female bathrooms in the Capitol just weeks before Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware is set to become the first out transgender member of Congress.

The measure would prohibit any lawmakers and House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”

Asked by reporters whether her resolution was meant to target a marginalized person, Mace said, “Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say in this.”

Representative McBride responded…

McBride, who won the race for Delaware’s lone House seat this month, slammed the measure Monday.

“This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars,” she said in a statement.

The Pink News has more of what she said,

”The sanctity of protecting women and standing up against the left’s systematic erasure of biological women starts here in the nation’s Capitol,” Mace wrote.

[…]

McBride, who will become the first trans member of congress when she takes office in January, added: “Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on.”

Her words echo what she said, after her victory at the polls, about Donald Trump’s anti-trans ads, which reportedly cost Republicans almost $215 million (£169 million).

“Those ads were part of a long-term strategy by the far-right-wing in this country, which is to pick [on] a small and vulnerable misunderstood community to fear-monger and scapegoat around, in order to distract and divide from the fact that those politicians have absolutely no policy solutions for the issues that are actually keeping people up at night.”

And…

Republican’s effort to block first transgender House member from using women’s bathrooms brings campaign issue to the Capitol
CNN
By Annie Grayer
November 20, 2024

 On one side of the Capitol, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace vowed to “stand in the way” of Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, the first out transgender woman elected to Congress, using women’s bathrooms in the US Capitol.

Across the building, McBride was privately counseling her Democratic colleagues how to balance both pushing back on dehumanizing rhetoric while also staying on message. McBride, who came up through the Delaware legislature, assured Democrats that she has faced similar attacks before and was not going to let this define her.

“This is not her first rodeo,” Democratic Rep. Becca Balint said of McBride. “I’m so impressed by the way Rep. McBride is really helping us navigate this. Because she said, ‘If we let them, this entire Congress, all we’ll talk about is bathrooms.’”

[…]

But Republicans discussing the issue privately say that any steps Johnson takes would be difficult to enforce. Although Mace’s resolution is in response to McBride coming to Congress, there are many transgender people who work and visit the Capitol.

“Those of us who want to be reasonable about things are having trouble with how you legislate this,” one GOP lawmaker told CNN.

Lastly FOX News wrote,

Johnson declines to say if transgender rep-elect is man or woman, says House to treat everyone with 'respect'
House Speaker Mike Johnson declines to say whether Rep-elect McBride is a man or a woman after Nancy Mace's transgender resolution
By Danielle Wallace
November 19, 2024

House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to answer whether transgender Rep-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., is a man or a woman, vowing to "treat all persons with dignity and respect."

At the House GOP weekly press conference on Tuesday, a reporter asked Johnson, "Is freshman elect Sarah McBride a man or a woman?"

"Look, I'm not going to get into this. We welcome all new members with open arms who are duly elected representatives of the people," Johnson responded. "I believe it's a… command that we treat all persons with dignity and respect, and we will. And I'm not going to engage in… silly debates about this. There's a concern about uses of restroom facilities and locker rooms and all that. This is an issue that Congress has never had to address before. And we're going to do that in a deliberate fashion, with member consensus on it. And we will accommodate the needs of every single person."

The Speaker was right in saying, “...We welcome all new members with open arms who are duly elected representatives of the people…” and “we treat all persons with dignity and respect, and we will.” We shall see!

The people of the state of Delaware elected her… respect their decision!

My prediction… The Republicans will use male pronouns when addressing Rep. McBride.

---

Between when I wrote this in the morning and now... there has been developments!

Mike Johnson institutes transgender bathroom ban for U.S. House

Axios

By Andrew Solender

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday he is banning transgender individuals from accessing bathrooms on the House side of the Capitol complex that correspond to their gender identity.

Why it matters: The move comes in response to an effort by GOP firebrands to restrict Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who is set to be the first transgender member of Congress, from using women's restrooms.

What he's saying: "All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings (like restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms) are reserved only for individuals of that biological sex," Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday: "Like all policies, it's enforceable. We have single-sex facilities for a reason. Women deserve women's only spaces."

"We're not anti-anyone. We're pro-woman. I think it's an important policy for us to continue. It's always been, I guess, an unwritten policy, but now it's in writing," he added.

I guess that “we treat all persons with dignity and respect" didn't last long!

Forbes reported...

After Forbes spoke with Mace, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a new rule that would prohibit McBride from using women’s restrooms in the U.S. Capitol. “All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings — such as restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms — are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” he wrote in a statement.

However, indecent behavior is okay by its members as long as it is by a Republican.

The New York Times,

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s announcement that he will nominate Matt Gaetz to be attorney general has resurrected questions about Justice Department and House ethics investigations into Mr. Gaetz’s conduct and whether he had sex with a 17-year-old girl who was being paid for her services.

CBS News,

The House Ethics Committee revealed in an unusual statement on Tuesday the status of its investigation of GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on allegations ranging from sexual misconduct, drug use and obstruction.

So that behavior is okay! But being trans had to shutdown the House so they ban one of their elected members from using the bathroom!

The Hill reported that the Republicans might not release the investigation on Rep. Gaetz just like the Republicans covered sexual allegations on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh!

On one side, Democrats on the committee — and several Republicans in Congress — say the report contains information that the public and senators should know as they consider whether to make Gaetz the head of an agency that once investigated him.

On the other end is Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is arguing that releasing the report — which is the culmination of a roughly three-year investigation — could damage the House since the panel would be in the rare, but not unprecedented, situation of publishing information on a former member.

Now we have the feigned indignation Rep. McBride!

---

Update: 3:30PM

---

Update 4:00PM

McBride says she will ‘follow the rules’ of House bathroom ban

The Hill

by Brooke Migdon

November 20, 2024 @ 3:05 PM ET

Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), set to be the nation’s first openly transgender member of Congress when she takes office in January, said she will comply with a policy instituted Wednesday by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) barring transgender people from single-sex facilities that match their gender identity in the Capitol and House office buildings. 

“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down the costs facing families. Like all members, I will follow the rules outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them,” McBride said Wednesday in a statement posted to the social platform X. 

“This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days, as I’ve remained hard at work preparing to represent the greatest state in the union come January,” she said. “Serving in the 119th Congress will be the honor of a lifetime — and I continue to look forward to getting to know my future colleagues on both sides of the aisle.”

Bravo! Sarah bravo! She took the high ground not wallow in the mud.

“Each of us were sent here because voters saw something in us that they value,” McBride continued. “I have loved getting to see those qualities in the future colleagues that I’ve met and I look forward to seeing those qualities in every member come January. I hope all my colleagues will seek to do the same with me.”

She is showing the voters how petty the Republicans can be. In another Pink News article,

A Democratic congresswoman has spoken out against Republican Nancy Mace’s efforts to ban transgender women from female toilets in the US Capitol – aimed directly at Democratic congresswoman Sarah McBride.

[...]

Now, McBride’s fellow Democratic congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, the US representative for Texas’s 30th congressional district, has also spoken out forcefully against the anti-trans move.

Writing on X/Twitter on November 19, she said: “If @HouseGOP really wanted to protect women, they’d release the Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz’ alleged sex trafficking – not try to ban their colleagues from using the bathroom. Stop the bigotry and release the report.”

The Republicans are so transparent.

---

Update: 11/21 @ 5:00AM

It seems that one of the qualifications of the new Trump administration is to have a sexual assault on your record...

Police report reveals new details from sexual assault allegation against Trump’s defense secretary nominee

CNN

By Casey Tolan, Scott Glover and Sara Murray

November 21, 2024

A California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she “remembered saying ‘no’ a lot,” a police report obtained by CNN shows.

The 22-page report, released by the city attorney’s office of Monterey, California, on Wednesday night in response to a public records request, lays out the competing narratives of what happened in new detail – including conflicting accounts of how intoxicated Hegseth and the woman were, and descriptions of video surveillance showing some of their movements that night.

Hegseth, who President-elect Donald Trump has named as his pick for secretary of defense, told police that their encounter was consensual, and that he had repeatedly made sure the woman “was comfortable with what was going on between the two of them.”

Of course he denies all of it! But...

Hegseth was not charged with a crime in connection with the allegation. His attorney has acknowledged that Hegseth later entered into a settlement agreement with his accuser that included an undisclosed monetary payment and a confidentiality clause. Though Hegseth insisted the encounter was consensual, the lawyer said he was fearful that the woman was poised to make an allegation against him during the #MeToo movement that might have cost him his job as a Fox News host.

It seems like having a sexual assault allegations is a badge of honor in the Trump administration! 

Over Two Decades

And what has changed?

It has been over two decades since I first attended a Day of Remembrance. Going back to my old GeoCities [Warning: My virus software has flagged this link but found no problems] blog in 2001 I wrote...

The "Day of Remembrance". I just got back from the vigil that was held in Hartford. I read the name of Ontwon Curtis, On September 13^th of this year she was murdered. She was shot several times in the chest at her home in Newport News, Virginia. Andrew Coleman has been arrested for her murder.

I had a very difficult time reading that statement out loud. It brings home the point that people will kill one another just because they are different, that they are just trying to be whom they are inside, to be themselves.

2002...

The "Day of Remembrance". I just got back from the vigil that was held in Hartford. I read the name of Ontwon Curtis, On September 13 th of this year she was murdered. She was shot several times in the chest at her home in Newport News, Virginia. Andrew Coleman has been arrested for her murder.

I had a very difficult time reading that statement out loud. It brings home the point that people will kill one another just because they are different, that they are just trying to be whom they are inside, to be themselves.

2003...

Last night I went to the "Day of Remembrance" vigil in Hartford. They filled the room with people who came out for it at the MCC chapel in the Community Center. They had a number of good speakers there and these two I thought stood out.

The speaker from the Anti-Defamation League spoke about the time he was over in Germany a couple of years ago. He was walking around a city in the old East German sector looking for the Synagogue. He saw an Orthodox Jew and he went over to ask him where the Synagogue was. The Orthodox Jew said that he was on the way there now and was welcome to come along with him. As he was walking along with him he could hear kids laughing and taunting them. At first he was embarrass, but as he walked he started to straighten his back and walk tall, proud of whom he is. He said it made him aware of what it is like to be identified by what you wear, to be singled out by how you dress. And through that experience it helped him imagine what it is like every day for us in the transgender community.

The other speaker spoke about her youth. First when she and her friend were asked to leave a church because of her friend. The second incident was when she was bused to a white school in New Jersey, out of all the children that were bused to the other school, only her friend they did not accept and was sent back to her old school. A little while latter her friend committed suicide. Why? Because, she was a Transsexual.

I went up to read one of the names and I had a hard time doing it, my eyes were all tears. It was a very emotional time. As I sat back down in my seat the woman next to me touch my hand and just nodded slightly, she was from the ACLU. And her gesture brought on more tears.

And now I attend another TDoR, what has changed?

 

The list has gotten longer, that is the only thing that has changed.

You can see the list of those who were murdered this here.

The Fox Is In Charge Of The Hen House

You know how Musk bought Twitter and changed its name to X and now hate is all over the platform! You know how much Trump denied knowing anything about Project 2025… it that is true then how come Trump is appointing the guy who wrote the chapter on the FCC?

Trump's FCC pick, Brendan Carr, wrote Project 2025's chapter on the agency. Here's what he wants.
CBS News
By Aimee Picchi
November 19, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, will oversee the agency that regulates U.S. internet access and communications networks such as TV and radio. Carr believes it's an institution ripe for change,  according to the chapter he wrote in Project 2025 about the FCC.

Carr will be stepping into the role of FCC Chair after serving as one of its five commissioners since 2017, when Trump nominated him to the role during his first administration. Prior to that, Carr served as the agency's general counsel.

[…]

In Project 2025, Carr highlighted what he believes is a need for a new approach to dealing with tech giants such as Google, Meta and others.

"Today, a handful of corporations can shape everything from the information we consume to the places we shop," Carr wrote in the document. "These corporate behemoths are not merely exercising market power, they are abusing dominant positions."

So what does Musk have to do with all of this?

Carr has built an alliance with billionaire Musk, the world's wealthiest person who backed Trump's campaign and whose Starlink satellite internet service could benefit from access to federal cash.

In a Tuesday interview with Fox News, Carr pointed to Musk as an example of how the federal government doesn't treat people fairly, noting that a grant of almost $900 million to Musk's Starlink was "revoked unlawfully." Last year, the FCC said it rejected the grant because of lack of proof that Starlink would be able to provide service to hundreds of thousands of rural properties.

"It is time for the American government to not give people different treatment based on their last name," Carr told Fox News. "Everybody will get a fair shake from the government going forward."

Carr said he is going after NBC!

Carr has taken aim at some broadcasters, including CBS News, echoing Trump's claims that they engage in political bias. For instance, Carr singled out NBC for including Trump's Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in a "Saturday Night Live" skit before the election. 

"This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule," Carr wrote on X on November 2. "The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election."

After Trump announced Carr's pick, Carr said on X that he will ensure the FCC "will enforce" laws that call on broadcasters "to operate in the public interest."

Of course all the lies that Fox News spreads are okay!

"While styling himself as a free-speech champion, Carr refused to stand up when Trump threatened to take away the broadcast licenses of TV stations for daring to fact check him during the campaign," Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron said in a statement. "This alone should be disqualifying."

Free Press and Fight for the Future, an advocacy group focused on digital rights, both have cited concerns about net neutrality, a policy that ensures internet service providers treat all websites and online content equally. Net neutrality was overturned during the first Trump administration, but was restored during Biden's term.

The truth will take a back seat in Trump's administration!

Trump got up and swore that he knew nothing about Project 2025 but he is hiring all the authors of the different chapters. Two other appointees are from Project 2025, Russ Vought and Gene Hamilton!

The New Republic writes…

Donald Trump repeatedly told America he had “nothing to do” with Project 2025. But now, he’s welcoming its architect into his Cabinet with open arms.

Russ Vought, who was deeply involved in the creation of Project 2025 and wrote an entire chapter in the right-wing playbook, is being strongly considered for an upcoming Cabinet position, according to several sources who spoke with ABC News. Vought has already begun the vetting process and has been seen at Mar-a-Lago meeting with Trump’s team.

Vought—a former lobbyist, self-described Christian nationalist, and director of the Office of Management and Budget in Trump’s first term—authored a chapter in the 922-page MAGA extremist master plan titled “Executive Office of the President” for Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” section. The chapter serves as “a comprehensive policy guide for the next conservative U.S. president.”

[…]

On the campaign trail, Trump had tried to distance himself from Project 2025, particularly after it became a focus point for Democrats. “This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do [with it],” Trump stated during his nationally televised debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. His loyal transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick described the project as an “absolute zero” and “radioactive.”

Trump… the Liar-in-Chief will say anything that is for his benefit, not for the country’s benefit, and not for the Republican party’s benefit… but for his own personal benefit. Trump cannot be trusted!

This is so true!

Credit: R.J. Matson, CQ Roll Call

---

Paul Krugman a columnist for The New York Times writes...

The good news: I don’t think Donald Trump will cause a global trade war.

The bad news: The reason I say that is I believe that a trade war would be coming even if Trump had lost the election, largely because China is refusing to act like a responsible economic superpower. Unfortunately, Trump may be the worst possible person to guide U.S. policy through the turmoil that’s probably ahead.

He won’t be the reason we have a trade war, but he may well be the reason we lose it.

China is the greatest economic success story in history. It used to be very poor; there are still many people alive who remember the great famine of 1959-61. But after the reforms that began in 1978, its economy soared. Even now, China is only a middle-income country, with GDP per capita substantially lower than ours or in Western Europe.

[...]

So the trade war is coming; in some ways it has already started. What will Trump add to the story?

Ignorance, lack of focus and potential cronyism. Oh, and gullibility.

[...]

Cronyism: The president has great discretion in granting tariff exemptions to selected companies. During Trump’s first term, such exemptions went disproportionately to companies with Republican political connections. It’s naive to think this isn’t likely to happen again, and on a much larger scale.

Gullibility: During his first term, Trump eventually stopped raising tariffs after signing what he called a “historic trade deal” in which China agreed to buy $200 billion in American goods. How much of that total did China actually buy? None.

The fox is in charge of the hen house! 

We Just Never Thought About It.

That is what I hear more and more, I have seen a tend as I grow older… there is a new forgotten generation. They fought for our rights but now they are being turned out to pasture.

Have you noticed that when there are rallies, protests, Pride parades and legislation that there is a lack of seniors at them. There are no pride busses for seniors and the disabled. There are no speakers speaking about seniors issues. How many Pride events have senior speakers?

I give an A- to the rally this weekend… they had seating for the mobility impaired which earned them an A++ but they didn’t have one senior talking about discrimination that the Stonewall generation faces now and that earned them a B-.

 

The Advocate reports...

But that can't be said for everyone. After I wrote a column with New York Times columnist Frank Bruni about gay men and aging last year, I heard from many older gay men who felt the same insecurities as I did, that being an older gay male makes us obsolete in a community dominated by youth and beauty. Some told me that they felt happy to be out as men of a certain age. While others said that they experienced some form of depression about getting older.

 

[...]

 

"These findings are deeply troubling and point to the need for vigorous enforcement of existing state and federal law prohibiting anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, as well as targeted interventions to reduce social isolation among LGBTQ older adults and meet their unique health care needs," said Sean Cahill, PhD, Director of Health Policy Research at The Fenway Institute and author of the report.

HELL NO! We will not got back!

They May Be Out Of The Closet, But Many LGBT Seniors Are Facing Aging Alone.
Healthcare, support, and legal protection: another hurdle to overcome by the LGBTQ community as they age
My Elder
By: Jack Halpern
Published: 14 Jul

“Boomers don’t want to have to go back into the closet to receive health care,” a woman recently told me. “But if they perceive themselves as being in an unsafe place, they may have to go back.”

Aging and health issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender baby boomers have often been ignored by services, policies and research. However, these seniors face higher rates of disability, physical and mental distress, and a lack of access to elder care services, according to a new study on aging and health in these communities.

Tina and Jackie were born in the same town in 1947. Despite similar beginnings, their lives take very different turns. In 1967, Tina met Frank. And Jackie met Frances. As a same-sex couple, Jackie and Frances couldn’t marry, were denied spousal benefits, and experienced a lifetime of discrimination and lost wages. Today, Jackie, like many other older adults, struggles with financial insecurity, social isolation, and overall lack of health and well-being, simply because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).

HELL NO! We will not got back!

“The higher rates of aging and health disparities among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender older adults is a major concern for public health,” according to author Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen, professor at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work. “The health disparities reflect the historical and social context of their lives. The serious adversity they have encountered can jeopardize their health and willingness to seek services in old age,” she said in a statement.

HELL NO! We will not got back!

Social connections are crucial, the study noted because, unlike their heterosexual counterparts, most lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender seniors rely heavily on partners and friends of similar age to provide assistance as they age. While social ties are critical, there may be limits to the ability of those older adults to provide care over the long-term, especially if decision-making is required for the older adult receiving care.

I have been relying on friends form the community and allies to get around as driving at night becomes more stressful. I was going to go and see my brother and sister-in-law one last time before they move to New Jersey from Maine but I would have had drive up and back in the dark from Litchfield but even though I know the road be heart it still would have meant driving at night for an hour each way.

SAGE which is a LGBTQ+…

SAGE is the country’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older people. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in New York City, SAGE is a national organization that offers supportive services and consumer resources to LGBTQ+ older people and their caregivers.

Writes that,

LGBTQ+ seniors face unique challenges
Posted May 19, 2018

Aging can be a challenge for any community. But the lives of LGBTQ+ seniors bring distinct pleasures and pains. Or, as author Dave Singleton wrote, nearly half a century after Stonewall, “we’re still in the early stages of grasping what it really means to be LGBTQ+ and older. … Now, a confluence of a cultural and legal shift — along with sheer population size — is changing how we approach the needs of the LGBTQ+ senior community.”The Census Bureau reports that over five percent of the 65-and-over population reside in nursing homes, assisted living and similar situations. By 2030, the last Baby Boomers will have turned 65, and older adults will make up a fifth of the nation’s population.

In an interview with Georgia Voice, Linda Ellis, executive director of the Health Initiative (an LGBTQ+-centered health organization), outlined several of the singular problems faced by LGBTQ+ seniors.

“It’s sometimes harder,” she said, “for LGBTQ+ seniors to take advantage of the progress that our community has gained in recent years.” She noted that recognition and marriage had arrived too late for some members of the community.

“Getting old isn’t easy by any standard, and it’s much harder when you’re more likely to be alone or have less income or not enjoy partner or spousal benefits, as many LGBTQ+ elders are.” Isolation was the biggest challenge: many of the “current generation of elders came out of straight marriages after the kids were raised” with strained or lost family connections, or lack of long-term partnering.

Ellis stressed that not all elders share the same experience: “Lesbians and people of color are more likely to live in poverty than white gay men. Older bisexual adults are more likely to experience greater social isolation, and are more prone to depression. Transgender older adults are more likely than their peers to be forced back into the closet or forego needed healthcare.”

Some of the things that I am pushing for anyone who will listen is…

• LGBTQ+ senior housing. Many LGBTQ+ are fine living on their own but some of us need extra care and need LTC facilities. Some of them might also be okay in being in a LTC facilities but other might fear discrimination so it would be nice to have a place like SAGE runs or the new one in Boston.
• Second is getting them out of the house and it would be nice to have a senior day at pride centers where they can go during the day to be with others.
• We have laws here in Connecticut protecting us but when you talk to staff at LTC they say “WE DO NOT DISCRIMINATE end of converation! But they do, they do so out of exclusion… they hold other days special like St. Patrick;s Day but not Pride month. What they need is training! They have Christmas and Hanukkah but what about Kwanzaa? What about Muslim holy days?

SAGE goes on to write,

“Often times,” Ellis said, “the biggest challenges are from fellow residents or participants — or volunteers — and it’s difficult for staff to feel comfortable addressing those behaviors without the policies and training to support them as they do so.” According to a City Lab post, these challenges are even harder when the seniors “are transgender and are people of color. LGBTQ+ older adults who live in more rural areas are also particularly affected.”

There are heartening signs of change. In September 2017, the California Legislature passed SB 219 — a Bill of Rights for LGBTQ+ Seniors in long-term care facilities. The law was designed to protect elderly members of the community (who rely on assistance from professionals) from being mistreated.

Additionally, there is a boom in LGBTQ+-specific institutions. By 2017, the number of retirement communities for LGBTQ+ seniors had grown, numbering 20 according to U.S. News & World Report, with several more on the way.

Can you imagine what it would be like day after day living in a LTC facility or a 55+ facility and being shunned every day?

 

HELL NO! We will not got back!

They Don’t Know It Yet, But They Shot Themselves In The Foot.

All of these anti-trans laws and anti-abortion laws is having an affect on the states… it is slowly happening in ones and two but will add up in time. What I am talking about are medical schools and doctors.

The Common Wealth Fund reports that…

Data indicate that medical students may be less likely to apply for residency training in states with abortion bans. Data from the 2023 and 2024 application cycles showed an overall decrease in the number of graduating M.D. students applying to residencies, but an even greater decrease in applicants to states with abortion bans. While training slots continue to be almost entirely filled for now, the number of applicants to ob/gyn residency programs during the 2024 application year decreased 6.7 percent in states with abortion bans from the prior year. In contrast, there was a small (0.4%) increase in ob/gyn residency applicants to states that maintained legal access to abortion. Family medicine residency applicants were also less likely to apply to states with abortion bans during the 2023 application cycle. Surveys of medical students and residency applicants find that most respondents regarded abortion training, along with abortion access for themselves or a partner, as important considerations in deciding where to apply for residency.

They have a hole in their foot but it hasn’t registered yet in the brain.

Association of American Medical Colleges writes…

States’ abortion-ban status may be correlated with program number and size, but these findings suggest that applicants may be responding to something independent of program size, particularly given two years of similar patterns. In other words, while states with more severe restrictions are often less populous (and have fewer residency programs) than other states, U.S. MD applicants may be selectively reducing their likelihood of applying to programs in states with more state-imposed restrictions on health care regardless of the number of available residency programs. The relative decrease in applicants to programs in states with abortion restrictions compared with the number of applicants to programs in states where abortion remains legal was also greater in 2024 than in 2023.

USA Today reports that,

As hormone specialists, endocrinologists such as Haller can support patients receiving gender-affirming care. But as the profession comes under political pressure, Haller fears that Florida's anti-DEI law could also make it even harder for children to find a specialized doctor in the state who can treat diabetes, thyroid disease and delayed puberty, examples of other work that pediatric endocrinologists do.

[…]

“Why would anyone want to go into this field when they are going to get attacked by their own government, and their own institutions are not necessarily going to speak up on behalf of them or their patients?” Haller said. “It's really hurting our ability to recruit the next generation.”

And it is not just the students are avoiding states with trans bans but also professors…

A recent survey of college professors in Georgia, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina found that two-thirds said they would not recommend their states as a desirable place to work for colleagues. Nearly a third were considering leaving their jobs, and some were already interviewing for positions out of state.

Nearly 60% of the would-be movers cited their state’s political climate as a reason — and over 40% mentioned issues related to DEI and tenure. The survey was conducted by several state American Association of University Professors conferences and faculty unions in Florida and Texas.

In their zeal to punish medical professionals for their “sins” in treating us or providing care for pregnant women they have their blinders on they are so focused that they don’t see what other harm they are doing to their citizens. Wait until a frantic mom is looking for a pediatric endocrinologists for a diabetic baby and told that there will be a six month wait to a see a doctor. Wait until a mother needs a specialist to treat their little boy for thyroid disease and they can’t find a doctor because they all fled to other states where they wouldn’t have government looking over their shoulders. Wait until a child with precocious puberty can’t get any medicine to treat it because the same drug is used for us.

What the Republicans don’t understand is that doctors who treat trans patients also treat cis patients also! And doctors who preform abortions also treat women for other problems! They don’t understand that medical students what a whole education not one with gaps.

A Plethora Of Laws!

Are being passed against us in using bathrooms…

Ohio transgender bathroom ban bill heads to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk
Once DeWine receives Senate Bill 104, he will have 10 days to sign the bill into law or veto it
Ohio Capital Journal
By: Megan Henry
November 14, 2024

A bill that would ban transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity is going to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk.

The Ohio Senate voted to concur on Senate Bill 104 in a 24-7 party-line vote Wednesday afternoon. The Ohio House wove House Bill 183 (the bathroom ban bill) into S.B. 104 and passed the bill before going on break at the end of June.

Once DeWine receives S.B. 104, he will have 10 days to sign the bill into law or veto it.

“We have no new comments today,” DeWine’s press secretary Dan Tierney said in an email Wednesday afternoon. “As far as receipt, sometimes that can take a week or more.”

The bill would require students at Ohio K-12 schools and colleges use the bathroom or locker room that aligns with their gender assigned at birth. It would not prevent a school from having single-occupancy facilities. The bill would not apply to someone helping a person with a disability or a child younger than 10 years old being assisted by a parent, guardian or family member.

So what this bill really does it punishes “out” trans people!  Have you ever met a trans child? There is no way to tell that they are trans.

“It revolves around safety, security and, I think, common sense,” he said. “It protects our children and grandchildren in private spaces where they are most vulnerable. It is us using our legislative authority to ensure schools are, in fact, safe environments. After all, bathrooms, showers, changing rooms should all be safe places for our students.”

Safety! Are you kidding me? Who gets attacked in bathrooms? It is the trans child who get attacked by cis-people! And this law will put us at risk, can you imagine what might happen if a trans girl uses the boys bathroom?

Senate Democrats spoke in opposition to weaving the bathroom ban into S.B. 104.

“We could not wait one week, not one single week before we start attacking children once again in this legislative body,” said state sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus.

This is just another attempt to spread fear of us with their lies! We are the ones being attacked!

2 transgender women attacked at Minneapolis light rail station, advocates say
CBS News
By Kirsten Mitchell
November 18, 2024

The community came together Sunday to support two transgender women who say they were attacked at a light rail station in Minneapolis.

The incident happened Nov. 10 at Hennepin Avenue and Fifth Street in downtown Minneapolis. It's where community members gathered for a rally Sunday afternoon, one week since the attack.

Amber Muhm, a community leader with Trans Movement for Liberation, said the two trans women were attacked by a group of men at the light rail station after one of the men used transphobic slurs.

"No one came to help them. In fact, they said people were cheering the attackers on while they were getting beaten," Muhm said.

She said the attack left one of them with a broken nose. Minneapolis police confirmed they are investigating the incident, but as of Sunday night, no one has been arrested.

We are the victims… we are the target of the anger that the Republicans have stirred up.

Yesterday at the rally for our human rights there were protesters there, they were kept away but once in a while in the silence between speakers you could hear their vitriol chants.

Even With All The Laws…

...They still thought that they could fire someone because they are gay!

N.J. school board fired gay superintendent in anti-LGBTQ+ campaign, lawsuits say
NJ.com
By Anthony G. Attrino
November 13, 2024

The Manchester Township School District in Ocean County is facing multiple lawsuits, with one former superintendent arguing he was fired due to anti-LGBTQ+ bias.

John Berenato, who served as superintendent and is gay, claims the Manchester Board of Education fired him after community members and board officials targeted him in a campaign for his ouster.

Berenato’s lawsuit describes derogatory remarks and overt hostility from district staff and community members, which he says were part of an effort to dismantle LGBTQ+ protections and undermine his leadership.

His lawsuit against the district accuses officials of fostering a hostile work environment intolerant of LGBTQ+ rights and inclusivity.

Two other former employees, Bridget Antonucci and Lori Burns, have also filed lawsuits against the district and various officials, including current Superintendent Diane Pedroza.

NBC News reported that,

According to court documents, board members expressed religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality and discussed fears of Berenato “pushing a gay agenda.”

The complaint alleges that Diane Pedroza, the current superintendent, expressed not wanting the district's curriculum to become "too gay."

I was watching another video not related to this case, in the video a person says that that they are not against LGBTQ+ people but why do they have to keep pushing it in his face! When asked by the reporter what he meant by "in your face" the person said, Well you know like when they (Meaning us trans people) go out in public!

What was his “Gay agenda” well following the non-discrimination laws and that he is gay!

One incident cited in the lawsuit was an October 2023 board meeting to discuss transgender student policy. Burns and Berenato were both in attendance, and, according to court documents, "derogatory and homophobic" comments were made during the meeting and transgender people were characterized as "dangerous" and "predatory."

Berenato’s lawsuit also alleged that there was “open animosity toward policies in place to protect LGBTQ students in the District.”

So just by being an out LGBTQ+ person they feel it is wrong, that he should hide in a closet. The NJ.com article ends with…

Antonucci, the former director of special services, claims that her support for state-mandated inclusive policies and her advocacy for LGBTQ+ colleagues led to targeted harassment and eventual termination. She states in her lawsuit a campaign of retaliation began in late 2023.

Burns, former director of early childhood education and a lesbian, says she experienced anti-LGBTQ+ comments from district officials who opposed her efforts to promote an inclusive curriculum.

Known for her work on LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools, Burns resigned in June, citing a hostile environment for diversity advocacy.

All three former employees accuse the district of violating New Jersey’s anti-discrimination laws and are seeking damages for emotional distress, lost wages, and punitive measures against those involved.

And so it begins...

---

Update 11/19 @ 11:30AM

You know one thing that the Republicans keep forgetting not only are there trans women but they're also trans men. Hairy trans men. Hairy trans men that now have to use the women's bathroom!

Rally In Support Of LGBTQIA+ Lives In West Hartford.

I just got back from a rally in West Hartford where a rally was held in support of the community.

Senator Blumenthal...

Connecticut Attorney General Tong...

I am not an expert, but I think that we had several hundred people attend the rally they have speakers like the Senator and the Attorney General and other politicians speak but they are also had a over a dozen community speak at 2 and half hour rally.

Do you think that you would hear any Republicans speak in support of our community? However, the haters were out but were kept far enough away that we couldn't hear their vile hate speech. The organizers were prepared for them... they had an angel wall of love between them and the rally.

At the end of the rally we sang...

As usual my eyes teared up whenever I sing that song.

I will up date this once the news reports are published.

 

---

 

Through out the rally they talked about you are not alone, you are a part of a community and we have each other's back. We care.

I am part of that community, I want to thank a friend and ally for her help in driving me around. And I want to thank and trans friend who also helps out driving me around.

Cuckoo Award!

It didn’t take long for a Trump appointee to earn the coveted Cuckoo Award! He will be the first two-time award winner and you can probably know who it is already… RFK!

RFK Jr pledged to declare Covid-style health emergency ‘on day one’
New health secretary vows to overhaul the country’s approach to vaccines, fluoride in water and processed foods
Telegraph
By Cameron Henderson
November 14, 2024

Robert F Kennedy Jr said he would declare a Covid-style public health emergency on his first day in office ahead of his appointment as Donald Trump’s health secretary.

The president-elect tapped Mr Kennedy Jr to take charge of the country’s health policy under his administration.

[…]

“We’re going to get the fluoride out the water, we’re going to get the chemicals out of the food, we’re going to get the chemicals out the chemtrails.”

Chemtrails are trails of condensation left in the sky by aircraft.

Does he even know what “chemtrails” actually are… it is the soot from burning jet fuel, water vapor condenses around the soot to form clouds when there is enough moisture in the atmoshere!

Fluoride in water is in approximately 67% of the overall U.S. population has access to fluoridated tap, if it was so bad for you don’t you think that after almost 80 years we would be seeing problems in the people by now. Yes, they have found high levels of fluoride causes learning problems but the levels are much greater then in drinking water and toothpaste!

So with much ado… Kennedy is awarded his second Cuckoo Award!

I think we will see him again here. I think that we might need a special award for a five time winners.

What do you think we should call a five time winner?

Saturday 9

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 memes, however, and here is today's meme!

Saturday 9: My Girl (1965)

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

1) Temptations' lead singer David Ruffin sings that he has sunshine on a cloudy day. How does the sky look where you are today?
Unfortunately… bright and sunny. We are now in a severe drought. We had a forest fire here that lasted for almost 4 weeks and burned about 300 acres. Not much by western standards but big for east coast fires.

2) He maintains that even when it's cold outside, to him it feels like the month of May. What's your favorite month?
October, I like the fall and the cold weather hasn’t settled in yet.

3) In addition to their vocals, The Temptations were known for their stylish suits and choreography. Are you a better dancer or dresser?
Neither, getting too old to dance and I don’t go to anything fancy.

4) Today, nearly 60 years since it's release, "My Girl" is one of the most popular karaoke songs. Do you know the words?
I probably do, but I haven’t heard the song in ages.

5) The Temptations delighted Mets fans when they performed "My Girl" live at Citi Field during the playoffs last month. The World Series is now over and the 2024 season is on the books. How did your baseball team do?
What team?

6) "My Girl" was written by Ronald White and Smokey Robinson. Smokey grew up with Aretha Franklin, and he's said they played together in the sandbox. When you were little, which playground activity was your favorite: sandbox, jungle gym, swings or slide?
I don’t know if I had a favorite… probably the jungle gym but I will tell what it definitely wasn’t, the overhead bars.

7) In 1965, when "My Girl" topped the charts, Winston Churchill died. One of his favorite sayings was, "I am always ready to learn but I do not always like to be taught." What's something you learned recently?
How to access Squirrel Mail (It is a web-based email server. If you have a domain name you know what I mean (diana@mydomainname.com)) My brother couldn’t get into his email account.

8) British-born comedian Stan Laurel also died in 1965. He's been cited as an influence on Jerry Lewis, Dick Van Dyke and Matt LeBlanc. Without looking it up, do you know who Stan Laurel's famous partner was?

How can you forget it, I think every kid has watched their movies! Well is guess the kids today have no idea what we are talking about.

9) Random question: Imagine we Sat 9-ers are taking you to a restaurant for your birthday. Do you find servers who sing "Happy Birthday" cute or annoying?
I think I would find it more embarrassing more than either of those.


Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend!

 

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Yesterday I had a two hour online meeting, but a well run meeting makes it bearable. It was very productive, The meeting was for the Governor's Advisory Council on Hate Crimes, we reviewed the bias crimes here in CT for the last two months, and the plans for combining four separate statues on bias crimes and combining them into one law on bias crimes.

 

We also had a couple of guests at the meeting. One group guests when over the 30sec PSA we are doing on the new CT State Police Hate Crime Hotline. The other group was from New Hampshire to talk about restorative justice program there.

I also got to talk about the Transgender Day of Remembrance that is held each year around the country on November 20, where we remember the 38 trans people who were murdered last year here in the US.

The Selling Of America!

How would you like a McDonalds on the edge of the Grand Canyon? What about a Starbucks on Mt. Rainier?

On A Collision Course: National Parks, Project ‘25, And President Trump

The National Park Traveler

By Kurt Repanshek

November 7, 2024

Memories of the approach the Trump administration took to the environment, and concerns over a "conservative blueprint" for the coming administration, sent shudders through the conservation community after Donald Trump's re-election.

"The impacts of this election are already being felt around the globe. Even before President-elect Trump takes the oath of office, Americans want to know what it will mean," said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association.

How Might Project 2025 Materialize?

Much was made by Democrats during the presidential campaign of "Project 2025," a conservative blueprint, if you will, for how a Republican president should govern, beginning next year. Trump worked throughout the campaign to distance himself from that document, which was written by former members of his last administration and who were all members of the conservative Heritage Foundation.  

Nevertheless, concerns that some, if not many, aspects of Project 2025 will surface were voiced Wednesday by conservation groups worried about the future of the Endangered Species Act, other wildlife measures and issues, and clean water.

Get ready they are all on the chopping block! LA Times wrote...

“Project 2025 is an example of what it would look like to sell off America’s natural resources and public lands to corporations with little-to-no regard for the environment, the climate, taxpayers, or wildlife,” wrote the Center for Western Priorities, a nonprofit that has resisted the push to transfer federal lands to state and private ownership.

I’ll tell you one thing that will probably be the first to get the ax… the Stonewall Inn.

Dave Willis, a horse packer who lives next to monument land in Oregon, has been fighting for creation and preservation of the Cascade-Siskiyou monument for decades. The intent of Trump allies to open the property to timber harvest is just part of a “scorched-earth policy with regard to all public lands,” he said.

I have to wonder how much the billionaires donated to Trump’s campaign…

Back in the 70s we hiked in the Adirondacks State Park, we planned a five day loop in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Area. On the third day we heard chainsaws? We were in an area where no motors were allowed! When we got to the ranger station, there were about 20 off-road vehicles and power boats all over the lake, talking to ranger about what gives? He said that there is a narrow corridor exempt from the wilderness area, but this was the last year that would be allowed.

We came back a couple of years latter... peace and quite! Not one motor on the lake nor was the jeep road open any more. The ranger station was just a clearing. 

And So It Begins…

The quality of his administration picks are just insane!

The Secretary of Defense was a Fox News commentator and veteran who has expressed disdain for the so-called "woke" policies of Pentagon leaders, including its top military officer.! 

UN ambassador hates the UN!

Department of Government Efficiency a newly created position Musk and Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate. I wonder if Musk will step down from Tesla?

Many of them are anti-LGBTQ+…

Trump picks anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz for top roles

US president-elect Donald Trump has tapped Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

Pink News

By Sophie Perry

November 14, 2024

A week on from the Republican’s crushing win over Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential election he has been busy appointing key supporters to top roles in his administration, including tech billionaire Elon Musk and South Dakota governor Kristi Noem.

His latest taps are GOP Florida representative Gaetz and Democrat-turned-Republican Gabbard.

“It is my Great Honor to announce that Congressman Matt Gaetz, of Florida, is hereby nominated to be The Attorney General of the United States,” Trump said on Truth Social, adding Gaetz is a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney”.

He continued: “Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System. Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”

He has previously said he disagreed with the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling and voted against the Equality Act.

A narcissist likes to surround themselves “Yes” people and that is what all these people are… bootlickers.

uniTy TDoR speech.

We are here tonight to remember the members of our community who were murdered just because of who they were. All they wanted was to live their life as their true selves but hate got in their way.

These trans people were the targets of the hate that has been boiling to a head over the last 8 years, and it has been getting worst every year.

The people that we are remembering here today are not victims but rather the targets of the politicians that are stirring up hate against not only us but all those who are different. 

We are lucky here in the Blues states where people have empathy for others and our rights was to the test on a ballot questions, here in 2018 Massachusetts the ballot questions 3 passed by a wide margin, the vote was approximately 68% voted "Yes" to keep the law.

In California a proposal to repeal protections for transgender students was defeated. In Colorado a ballot measure regarding protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, including transgender rights, passed. In New York the voters passed a constitutional ballot question protecting us.

Notice that every time our human rights were put to the test in a ballot initiative we won!

The University of Minnesota conducted a poll about us in 2022 and what they found was that 83%, yes that is 83% thought that transgender people deserve the same rights as other Americans!

The people are behind us!

I am old enough to remember the Lavender Scare of 1950! Which were Congressional hearings on “Homosexuals” by Republican Senator McCarthy… “Are you now a homosexual or have you ever been a homosexual?”

We made it through that and then along came in the 1970s, the “Save Our Children” campaign by Anita Bryant where they accused gay men molesting boys in bathrooms and wanted gay teachers out of the schools. Many states passed Constitutional amendments criminalize us, some of the laws are still on the books.

Once again we made it through the dark times but now new dark days are with us. What is different this time is that there is big money behind it. And that it has turned violent!

Now we are see an increase in bias crimes (I use Bias Crimes instead of Hate Crimes because not all discrimination is based on hate.).

In 2022 there was a 35% increase, in 2023 there was 3.6% increase and according to the FBI in 2021: 307 offenses, 2022: 515 offenses, and in 2023: 547 offenses. What used to be covert is now overt!

I wish we had a way to end bias crimes but no one sees a magical way to end them when podcasters spread their lies, or when politicians green light the violence.

I wish that I could say that the worst is behind us, but I can’t. We have dark days ahead of us but we will get through it together!

As we seen in the elections fifty percent of the voters support the lies and violence! Fifty percent of the people support bigotry and hatred, The language that the politicians used was horrible and it has given a green light to the violence we are now seeing.

So… What can we do?

It is as simple as being ourselves. Research has shown when someone knows a trans person they are more likely to be supportive of the community. I did outreach earlier in the month. What was the “outreach” it was simply I voted. But I had to stand in line for 40 minutes… talking to people.

We talked about... do remember the 5 and 10 cent store… The Red and White store we used to go in and get hot chocolate after skating on the paper-goods pond?… Yeah, I wonder how long the new store will last there no store seems to make a go of it there…

I have a blog and on Saturdays I play a meme that asks 9 questions and we all give our answers, most of the players are Christian women and now they know a trans woman and it changed the way that they think of us.

We move  people’s hearts, just being ourselves. We don’t have to testify at a hearing, we don’t have to go to schools to speak. The most effective means of changing people minds is changing them one mind at a time be just being ourselves.

We will always be targets of bigotry and violence but we and our allies can work for peace and change people minds. We are survivors!

You are a member of a community and communities support one another, and we have allies who will watch our backs for us and that is why we are here tonight to remember our dead.

There is a Latin phrase that I remember at times like this it say… "Ne permittas bastardus te deprimere"

“Don’t let the bastards get you down!”

Prop 1!

This hasn’t been discussed much in the news but it is a major victory for us! Right next door to us in New York. It is a ray of hope. In 2002 NY we got thrown under the bus, the legislature passes a Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act however, last minute backroom deal removes “gender identity and expression” from the bill. They promised to come back for us...

Well it only took 22 years,

New York voters pass constitution change that supporters say will protect abortion and trans rights

AP News

By  ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE

November 5, 2024

New York voters have approved an amendment to the state’s constitution barring discrimination based on things including “gender identity” and “pregnancy outcomes,” changes supporters say will further protect transgender and abortion rights.

Supporters and opponents disagreed sharply about the potential legal impact of the Equal Rights Amendment, also known as Proposition 1. It was fiercely opposed by conservatives who said it would enshrine a legal right for transgender athletes to play on girls’ sports teams.

The amendment adds language to the state constitution saying someone cannot be denied civil rights because of their national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes or “reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Previously, the constitution forbid discrimination based on race, creed or religion.

It was a long time coming but New York finally granted protection for us.

Cosmopolitan wrote that we did pretty good on the state and local elections…

As nationwide election results continue to roll in, we’re breaking down how LGBTQ+ rights—including trans rights and gender-affirming care—fared in the 2024 election, and what those results means for the communities involved.

[…]

Same-sex marriage—which was legalized at the federal level in 2015—was also on the ballot in some states during the 2024 election. Voters in California approved Proposition 3, which amends the state constitution to recognize a “fundamental right to marry, regardless of sex or race.” Similarly, voters in Colorado approved Amendment J, which removed language defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

When it comes to ballot questions the people voted for us! This is a glimmer of hope, the voters have voted for our rights (Human Rights should never be put to a vote… they are called “rights” for a reason!).

Low Hanging Fruit!

I don’t think we will be the first targets of Trump but rather abortion.

My prediction you will see a national abortion ban on the table as the first order of business… second target a national ban on mifepristone!

Abortion opponents prepare to undermine just-passed ballot measures

Most of the bills target mifepristone — the drug used in more than two-thirds of abortions nationwide.

Politico

By Alice Miranda Ollstein

November 12, 2024

Anti-abortion groups on Tuesday unveiled their “Make America Pro-Life Again Roadmap,” an effort to chip away at federal and state access, including in nearly a dozen states that enshrined protections through ballot measures over the last two years.

Drawing on the playbook they successfully used under Roe v. Wade to regulate clinics out of existence and outlaw particular methods of abortion, conservative groups plan next year to file lawsuits targeting federal regulation of abortion pills and push legislation in Congress and in at least 15 states they believe can circumvent constitutional amendments and court rulings protecting the procedure.

Most of the bills target mifepristone — the drug used in more than two-thirds of abortions nationwide. Some attempt to wield environmental laws to cut off access, while others aim to replicate Louisiana’s new law designating abortion pills as controlled substances — a policy that patients and doctors are claiming in court has led to delays in treatment for miscarriages and postpartum hemorrhaging.

Let’s start a pool… when do you think that they will introduce the first in Congress banning abortion and mifepristone?

Do you remember what the ruling was for banning abortions? It was a “States Rights” issue however, one of the first bill will be a national ban on abortions! Hypocrites!

The people voted in states with abortion bans to add the right to abortions to the states constitutions… the Republicans did like the election results so…

State Sen. Tim Salazar, a Wyoming Republican, told POLITICO he plans to introduce Students for Life’s model legislation requiring any doctor who prescribes abortion pills to be responsible for disposing of the fetal tissue — mandating that patients taking the drugs at home collect and return it in medical waste bags rather than flush it down the toilet.

They are trying to weasel around the will of the people!

The 19^th News reports,

The anti-abortion movement is also trying to block access to mifepristone by reviving enforcement of an 1873 law known as the Comstock Act, which prohibits “any drug, medicine, article, or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion” from being mailed or sent via a private company such as UPS or FedEx. 

This is how twisted their little minds are… we live in a global economy, if they ban mifepristone people will just buy them online in Canada or New Zealand. It took me less than five minutes to find a website of a overseas pharmacy!

Then they come after us I predict. Banning puberty blocker will be next on their hit parade. But here is the kicker, I bet you that it will be across the board banning using the blockers for cis-children with precocious puberty. The Republicans will not care that they are harming cis-children… they are on a crusade!

Lunch With The Gang

Or damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

The senior lunch bunch did lunch at a restaurant in Cheshire, we have eaten there many time. There are five of us (And one was a famous blogger! And I can tell you that all of your emails and comments did the trick to get her blogging again.) and one spouse who go out for lunch once a month. There we 8 of us and we had no problems at all, other than the usual problems with getting old.

For me, I wore a light sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers.

But you know what? Nobody paid any attention to us... we were just a bunch of old ladies doing lunch.

My Heart Bleeds For Him... NOT!

I remember when, the Sandy Hook school shooting took place, a friend's daughter was a teacher in the school system and my friend was scared that his daughter might have been killed because first information coming was very sketchy.

Alex Jones Freaks Out as He Prepares to Lose His Entire Empire

Alex Jones looked near tears as he revealed auctioneers were in his office as he spoke.

The New Republic

By Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling

November 12, 2024

InfoWars host Alex Jones appears to have issued his final broadcast.

On Tuesday, the virulent conspiracy theorist—who lost a $1.5 billion case for claiming that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six adults was a hoax—announced that his right-wing media empire, InfoWars, was being staged for a federal auction.

“Wednesday afternoon, Infowars, the equipment, InfoWars.com, InfoWarsStore.com, and a whole bunch of other stuff, is at a federal bankruptcy auction, from the fake judgements and the rigged trials where I was found guilty beforehand, and they had literal show trials like out of the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany,” Jones said in a video posted to X (formerly Twitter).

Well, I tell you this, the families were in hell and he poured gasoline on them, the families started receiving death threating phone calls, hate mail as they were going through the agony of losing a child.

In 2017, the InfoWars host lost primary custody of his children in a case that pinned him as a “cult leader” of an online conspiracy network.

Yeah, I can agree that he is a cult leader... or was.

Jones is still working to appeal the judgments against him. He now admits that the shooting was actually “100 percent real” but argues that his First Amendment rights should permit him to say that it wasn’t.

Oh gee, he admits it after wrecking all those families lives! Scars that will never heal.

You Know That This Isn’t New.

Way back in the late 1970s, we went through all this back then. Renée Richards broke ground for all the trans athletes to come afterward.

Decades later, Renée Richards' breakthrough is as important as ever
At an anarchic US Open, the transgender tennis player made a pioneering point.
Tennis
By Steve Tignor
March 31, 2021

Throughout Women's History Month, TENNIS.com will be highlighting some of the most significant achievements and moments that make our sport what it is today.

As Renée Richards walked through the winding, Tudor-lined lanes of Forest Hills, people from the neighborhood gathered around her to wish her luck. After seeing the ophthalmologist’s picture in the newspapers for months, the locals of Queens knew where she was going—the West Side Tennis Club—and the magnitude of what she was about to do.

It was August 1977, the closing weeks of the notorious Summer of Sam in New York City. Over three harrowing months, the crumbling metropolis had been rocked by terrorizing riots, a chaotic blackout and the frantic search for a serial killer. As autumn mercifully approached, though, tennis became the talk of the town, and Richards was, for the moment, the world’s most talked-about athlete.

Wow! I remember reading about her and admiring her, following her story and wishing her luck.

She had taken the plunge into that fishbowl in August 1976, when she entered her first pro tournament as a woman at the Orange Lawn Tennis Club in New Jersey. There had never been a debut quite like it. The Rolls Royce that took her to the grounds before her opening match was greeted by dozens of fans, autograph seekers and celebrity hounds. As the car approached the clubhouse, the mob surged toward it. Inside, Richards sank down in her seat. Was this private person ready for the public life that awaited her?

Her transition was a very big thing in the news and on the nightly evening news where millions of people watched the case play out.

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We are used to cases involving trans athletes in the news but back then the case was on the evening nightly news every night!

The Court Cases That Changed L.G.B.T.Q. Rights
The New York Times
By Chris Geidner
June 19, 2019

Beginning before Stonewall and continuing in the 50 years since, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have regularly turned to the courts for protection against mistreatment or to overturn laws that targeted them. From H.I.V.-based discrimination to the fight for marriage equality to President Trump’s attempt to ban transgender people from the military, courts across the country have played a key role in the story of L.G.B.T.Q. rights in America.


1958: One, Inc. v. Olesen – United States Supreme Court

In a one-sentence opinion, the Supreme Court provided constitutional protection for a gay magazine started by the Mattachine Society, reversing a lower court’s decision that had found the publication to be obscene.

1971: Baker v. Nelson – Minnesota Supreme Court / 1972: United States Supreme Court

Jack Baker and Michael McConnell asked the United States Supreme Court to declare that Minnesota’s failure to let the two men marry violated the Constitution. The court didn’t even hear arguments in the case, declaring the issue didn’t raise “a substantial federal question.”

1973: Jones v. Hallahan – Kentucky Court of Appeals

When Marjorie Jones and Tracy Knight sued to get a marriage license, the court denied the two women’s request, declaring that “what they propose is not a marriage.”

1974: Singer v. Hara – Washington Court of Appeals

John Singer and Paul Barwick cited Washington State’s new Equal Rights Amendment as a reason for requiring that state to allow same-sex couples to marry, but the court cited the Kentucky case in nonetheless rejecting their request.

1977: Richards v. United States Tennis Association – New York County Supreme Court

Renee Richards, a transgender woman, sought to play in the United States Open. After being denied entrance in 1976, she sued, winning an injunction under New York law and participating in the 1977 competition.

Then along came the cases that overthrew laws that criminalized being gay

2003: Lawrence v. Texas – United States Supreme Court

The Supreme Court ended sodomy laws nationwide, reversing the 1986 ruling in a decision by Justice Kennedy that declared, “Bowers was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today.”

Now all of this is on the chopping block once again!

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Before then came Virginia Prince and his* trial for mailing pornography through the mail.

On the Body: What Transgender History Can Teach us About Censorship
February 28, 2018 Alex Falck Censorship, Civil Liberties, LGBTQIA+    
By: guest blogger J. M. Ellison

When we discuss the dangers of censorship, we usually talk about the importance of ideas and their free circulation. We would be wise to consider also the dangers censorship poses to the body. Restricting intellectual freedom is a means for oppressing communities – for justifying incarceration, for preventing education, for destroying networks, and for thwarting resistance.

Take what happened to transgender activist Virginia Prince. In late 1959, a friend put Virginia Prince in touch with a pen pal. For Prince, exchanging letters with strangers was nothing new. Seven years previous, Prince and a group of friends started a newsletter titled Transvestia: The Journal of the American Society for Equality in Dress. Transvestia was a part of Prince’s work to foster supportive community for people whom she described as “transgenderist.” The correspondence with her new pen pal, however, rapidly grew into something different.

Prince received a photograph from her new correspondent of two women being sexual with each other. Below was the caption “Me and You.” Prince’s pen pal invited her to “ask anything.” Their letters grew more intimate. Prince wrote a letter describing a sexual fantasy between the two of them. This story could have remained nothing more than an analog precursor to cybersex, but in 1960, postal inspectors questioned Prince. Prince was prosecuted for the crime of distributing obscenity through the U.S. post.

And then the heavy hand of the law fell on him for this was the time of the Lavender Scare! In the gay community like the trans community we starting to network, the gay Mattachine Society was busted for mailing smut through the mail, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Then Prince’s case.

During the 1950s and 1960s, obscenity laws were wielded against trans and queer communities not because they were somehow more sexual than cisgender and straight people, but as a part of repressing their organizing. At stake during Prince’s trial was not just the free circulation of ideas, but also the freedom of bodies. Prince and her community were facing the possibility of prison. Further, their right to control how they dressed was being restricted. In fact, at stake was how we understand gender itself and whether a person’s self-understandings of their own body would be respected.

*Virginia always identified as male.

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Will we see more laws banning us from the internet, will we see laws that criminalized us and gays as being phonographic if we post on the internet? Will my blog be labeled as promoting pornography?

Will we see a law like “Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating a Denial of Traditional Family Values” that strips anything LGBTQ+ from the internet? Will we be able to post on Facebook rallies for our human rights like the one this Sunday in West Hartford?

We know that Trump’s idol is Putin and Putin passed the law to protect family values… the distribution of "propaganda of non-traditional relationships" among any age group, not just minors" among minors, will we see this here as reported on CNN,

Putin signs expanded anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia, in latest crackdown on rights
By Ivana Kottasová and Anna Chernova
December 5, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed into law a bill that expands a ban on so-called LGBTQ “propaganda” in Russia, making it illegal for anyone to promote same-sex relationships or suggest that non-heterosexual orientations are “normal.”

The ban was rubber-stamped by Putin just days after a harsh new “foreign agents” law came into effect, as the Kremlin cracks down on free speech and human rights as its military operation in Ukraine falters.

The new laws significantly broaden the scope of a 2013 law which banned the dissemination of LGBTQ-related information to minors. The new iteration extends the ban on promoting such information to adults as well.

The new laws make it illegal to promote or “praise” LGBTQ relationships, publicly express non-heterosexual orientations or suggest that they are “normal.”

The 19^th News writes that...

Project 2025 equates being transgender — or adopting “transgender ideology” — to pornography and declares that it should be outlawed. Under this plan, the federal government would enforce sex discrimination laws on the “biological binary meaning of sex,” and educators and public librarians who spread the concept of being transgender would be registered as sex offenders. The plan says that children should be “raised by their biological fathers and mothers who conceive them,” unless those biological parents are found unfit by a court.

[…]

These ideas have drawn national attention for their far-reaching scope, but they didn’t appear out of thin air. They all have roots in anti-LGBTQ+ state legislation that conservative lobbying groups and think tanks have supported for years, like the law that took effect in Kentucky. Contributors to Project 2025 include senior staff from Alliance Defending Freedom, whose lawyers have helped write anti-transgender legislation in a number of states and defended those laws in court. Members of the conservative groups Family Research Council and the American Principles Project, which have similarly pushed anti-LGBTQ+ bills and anti-trans rhetoric, have served on the Project 2025 advisory board.

Hey! All you gays out there who like in Pastor Martin Niemöller poem, First they came for the the trans community, but I wasn't worried because they not coming for me... well guess again,

The plan states that policies supporting single mothers and LGBTQ+ equity should be replaced with those “that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families,” the authors write — and it lays out specific ideas of how American families should have kids. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate with ties to the Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin D. Roberts, has shared similar views publicly.

The Republicans have a trifecta, it will be like Florida on steroids.