Family Values

That has been the Republican rallying cry for years… but tell me whose family values do you like? The parents values or the grandparents values.

Dear Abby: Grandparent doesn’t support trans child

A reader is looking for advice on what to say to her child and what to do moving forward.|

The Press Democrat

By JEANNE PHILLIPS

DEAR ABBY

August 28, 2024

Dear Abby: My young child came out to us as transgender several months ago. My husband and I, along with her siblings, are supportive and love her unconditionally.

She decided to share the news with her grandparents, sending a heartfelt email along with a couple of resources specifically for grandparents. One grandparent has been completely supportive, immediately started using the correct name and pronouns and began doing some research.

The other grandparents sent a text that pretty much said, “We love you because you’re family, but we don’t really support you.” They have had no contact since. My child is extremely disappointed, and my heart breaks for her. She (and we) knows she may lose friends and family over this, but I guess we always hoped grandparents’ love was unconditional. What advice do you have for her and for us to continue to support her?

— Unconditionally in Oregon

Well you cannot have love and not support a person… you are letting your animosity get in way of your love.

You can guess what Dear Abby replied…

Dear Unconditionally: Your daughter is fortunate to have loving, supportive parents, siblings and ONE grandparent who is willing (and able) to accept her as her true self.

This other set of grandparents appears to be less open to learning and less flexible in what they are able to accept. Your daughter should continue on her own path and not permit their judgments to define her.

How many times have you read about the Republicans values… well throwing a child out on the street isn’t one of my family values.

Death threats, legal risk and backlogs weigh on clinicians treating trans minors

The rise in transgender health care bans is putting providers in the crosshairs.

NBC News

By Emma Davis

August 28, 2024

Dr. Kade Goepferd has received death threats for their work treating transgender youths at Children’s Minnesota Hospital, but Goepferd said the harassment isn’t the most worrying part of the job. 

“The waitlist is what keeps me up at night,” said Goepferd, who uses they/them pronouns. “It has grown every year, and it got particularly long after the bans went into effect.”

Goepferd is the medical director of the hospital’s Gender Health Program, the only multispeciality pediatric gender clinic in Minnesota. The program has experienced a 30% increase in calls since surrounding states outlawed gender-affirming care for minors, and the waitlist is now at least a year for new patients, even after Goepferd hired additional staff to help the hundreds of trans youths requesting appointments.

Let me ask you a question: Is making death threats one of your family values?

“There’s been a growing awareness over the last year that the environment is only getting more and more dangerous for providers,” said Kellan Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Institute, a nonprofit advancing LGBTQ health care.

So which political party is stirring up the animosity against us to the level of violence?

Vote Blue as if you life depends upon it… because it does!

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The Guardian writes about the Republican family values,

The Republican party’s obsession with families has taken a fanatical turn

It is becoming clear that much of the stakes of the November contest will revolve around questions of gender – and specifically, questions of family

By Moira Donegan

July 29, 2024

It’s possible,” writes Jessica Winter in the New Yorker, “that if JD Vance had his way, citizenship in the United States would be conferred not solely by birthright but by marriage and children.” This is no exaggeration. In a now viral 2021 clip, JD Vance said: “Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children. When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power – you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic – than people who don’t have kids. Let’s face the consequences and the reality: If you don’t have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn’t get nearly the same voice.”

This position now represents large swaths of the Republican party, which has taken on an angry and aggressively prescriptive approach to family life.

If you’re a woman in America, Republicans want you to be a mother whether you care to or not. They want you to risk your health to give them more babies. Then, when those babies get bigger, they want to make sure that those children’s fathers – or, excuse me, “parents” – have a near-total control over both them and you.

When the Republicans say “Family Values” they mean only their family values, that of a “traditional housewife” you know the type. The type as in the “Handmaid’s Tale,” that means barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.

They want to bar the medical treatments that allow you to plan your family and have children on your own terms – things like egg freezing and IVF. They want to make you have your children young, and they want to stigmatize those of us women who pursue our own careers, interests and ambitions instead of popping out as many children as they deem appropriate.

If you say no – if you resist their prescription for marriage, motherhood and perpetual feminine self-sacrifice – they want to let you know, in sneeringly condescending terms, that you’re “childless cat ladies”, that you’re not as good as them, that step-parents are not real parents, blended families are not real families, that women who don’t have children are disgusting, worthless and deserving of contempt. If you say no, they want to denigrate you in public, punish you financially, dilute your vote and lessen your citizenship.

[…]

They aim, that is, to advance so-called “family values” in which birth is mandatory, marriage is inescapable, children are property rather than persons with rights of their own, and men are in charge. There’s a word for this dark vision of a world in which the private sphere is wholly controlled by husbands and fathers. That word is “patriarchy”.

Oh, if you have a gay or trans child… cast them out on the streets!

The Lit Hub writes…

“Family values; fiscal responsibility; states’ rights; pro-law enforcement; upholders of the Constitution.” These handy benchmark slogans are still being touted by even the most immoral and hypocritical members of the party.

So how were their so-called values reached in the first place? And how did our modern fringe group of look-at-me Republicans miss the memo regarding the meaning behind the ideals they claim to uphold? Let’s take a look…

[…]

The volatile, consequential 1960s and 1970s are often cited as the years during which the modern GOP became animated behind the notion that they’re the party of traditional Family Values™. It was always a front, used to garner power and make themselves appear safe and sound at a time when the Republican Party was flailing. The defeat in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s resignation, and a wobbly economy left the overwhelmingly white, Christian party in need of a rallying cry. That party viewed itself as being attacked on all sides by those seeking equality (operating under the absurd notion that others’ gaining rights is somehow an affront to their own). Racial integration in schools, the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, and increased awareness of LGBTQ+ rights provoked conservative Republicans to break out their megaphones and shout from some supposed moral high ground. “Family values” proved a crucial shield and sword during this revolutionary era. It would quickly become an essential courting phrase for evangelicals across the country.

Whose family values do you want?

PEW Research did research on this:

1. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to cite religion as a source of meaning in their life. People in both parties mention spirituality, faith and religion as a source of meaning, with specific references to participating in traditional religious practices (e.g., “attending church services”), as well as more general references to living a life informed by faith. One Republican woman, for example, said, “My faith and the ability to choose to be thankful, optimistic and joyful are what keeps me going.
2. Republicans are more likely than Democrats (12% vs. 6%) to bring up freedom and independence as something that gives their life meaning. Some people mention freedom in the personal sense, focusing on their ability to live the way they want, their work-life balance, or having or wanting free time. One Republican woman said, “I like being able to have the freedoms to make my own decisions and to be able to contribute to my country. Being able to express my views without worrying about retribution.”
3. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to cite physical and mental health as part of what gives them meaning in life – and they mention the COVID-19 pandemic more frequently. When the survey was fielded in February, some 13% of Democrats and 9% of Republicans mentioned health – whether people’s current state of well-being, their exercise regimens or the steps they take to lead healthy lives. For some, health is also a precursor for other sources of meaning. One Democratic man put it this way: “The biggest thing for me is health. If you don’t have your health you don’t have much. Everything else can come later but you have to have your health.”
4. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to find meaning in hobbies and recreation, nature and the outdoors, and pets – though small shares of Americans overall mention these things. Overall, only one-in-ten Americans say hobbies are a source of meaning in their life, and even fewer say the same about nature (4%) or pets (3%). But Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans to cite each one as a source of meaning in their life. Among Democrats, liberals are more likely than moderates and conservatives to find meaning in hobbies, nature and pets, but there are few ideological differences among Republicans on these topics.
5. Conservative Republicans are particularly likely to mention their country or where they live as a source of meaning. Among Republicans, 16% mention the country, patriotic and national sentiments, or the state of America’s economy or society as a source of meaning, compared with 12% of Democrats. But conservative Republicans (21%) are particularly likely to mention society relative to moderate and liberal Republicans (9%), while there are no major ideological differences among Democrats.

They go on to list a total seven attributes between Republicans and Democrats on family values.

I think what it all boils down to is… Conservatives = “Me” and Liberals = “Us” or “We”

Vote Blue for your freedom to chose the way you want to bring up you children, you chose what your children read… not the Party! You chose when you want to start a family… not the party! You chose who you love… not the party! You chose if and what religion you believe in or not… not the party!

My body, my choice!

Vote BLUE for freedom to chose.