Where Are We Going As A Country.

A blog of a straight Christian that I follow asked the question Why is simple decency so impossible these days? He wrote about the verbal of attack of Congresswoman McBride by Congressman Keith Self  and asks the question... "Why is simple decency so impossible these days?"

Look what a student down in Alabama to a autistic student who liked a pair of rainbow glasses, CBS Sunday Morning wrote...

Sometimes, wearing rainbow colors isn't about orientation or politicization. Sometimes, a rainbow is just a rainbow, such as when 10-year-old Hunter Blankenship of Clanton, Alabama, picked out his rainbow-colored glasses.

This car-loving, autistic boy wasn't making a statement, he just loved the look — until the day he didn't.

A few months ago, Hunter was outside playing when an older child teased him about his glasses. The bully called Hunter a homophobic slur and then told Hunter he should just kill himself.

"All of a sudden, he stormed off and he's holding a knife," Hunter's mother, Meghan Fancher, recalls. "And I was like, 'No, what are you doing?' And he said, 'I'm going to kill myself.'"

The piece is so heart warm about what the town did for him. But I want to ask the question, why did the bully fell empower to say those homophobic words? Think about what the Republicans are doing to our children, they are grooming them to become bigots,

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We have gone so far that even saying this is a "Safe Place" brings the wrath of MAGA!

Teacher ordered to remove signs from classroom, including one saying 'Everyone is welcome here'

“There are only two opinions on this sign: Everyone is welcome here, or not everyone is welcome here,” argues Sarah Inama, a sixth-grade history teacher.

NBC News

By Alex Portée

March 15, 2025

An Idaho teacher is in a standoff with her own school district after officials ordered her to remove classroom signs, including one that reads, “Everyone is welcome here.” 

Sarah Inama, a sixth-grade history teacher at Lewis and Clark Middle School in Meridian, Idaho, says she won’t comply with the order, arguing that the message is a fundamental part to ensuring a positive learning environment for her students.

Inama, who has taught at the school for five years, says her commitment to inclusivity isn’t about politics. It’s about her passion for education and students.

[...]

Five years ago, when she first put up the two signs, it was to make sure students knew they were in an open and welcoming space. Now, she says she is risking her job in the name of those values.

Have we reached a place in our country where the "Thought Police" like in the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is coming true? Where treating people equally is now a crime? Where wearing rainbow glasses because you like rainbows is grounds for bullying?

How Old Is He?

This is something that grade school kids do out on the player ground…

Trump refers to CNN’s Anderson Cooper by a woman’s first name
AP News
October 26, 2024

 Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly referred to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper with a woman’s first name in recent days as the Republican presidential nominee focuses his closing message on a hypermasculine appeal to men.

On a Friday morning post on Trump’s social media site Truth Social, the former president referred to one of the most prominent openly gay journalists in the U.S. as “Allison Cooper.”

Trump made the subtext even more explicit later Friday during a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, where he criticized a town hall Cooper hosted with Vice President Kamala Harris.

“If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before pausing and saying in a mocking voice: “Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”

That is so wrong on so many levels, first it is misogynistic, second it is homophobic. And his hyper-masculine MAGA just gobble it up!

In referring to Cooper with a woman’s name, Trump appeared to turn to a stereotype heterosexual people have long deployed against gay men. Such rhetoric evokes the trope of gay men as effeminate and comes as Trump aims to drive up his appeal among men in the final stages of his bid to return to the White House.

Is this person presidential material? Or is he is just another right-wing bully.

True Blue State?

Yeah, we’re Blue but you know what not everywhere is Blue the suburbs are a dark Red and they don’t want to recognize the fact that they are racist, homophobic, and transphobic.

CASE #1 Cromwell.

Cromwell racist school bullying incidents prompt calls for 'swift' action
The Middletown Press
By Cassandra Day
March 22, 2024

After allegations of racial bullying at Cromwell High School, one official is stressing the urgency of "swift" action to curb "hate crimes.”

The issue came to light two weeks ago after a student posted allegations on Reddit, describing themselves as a Black teen at the high school who faced racism and bullying themselves or witnessed it.  

Since then Superintendent Enza Macri said education officials, the school community and Mayor James Demetriades have been “working around the clock” to address the problem.

[…]

The mayor laid out several actions he hopes the district will consider, including periodic reporting of progress with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; having town and school leaders meet with members of the high school Unity Club; and tasking the DEI consultant with guiding the community, helping it heal and strengthening trust.

CASE #2 East Haddam

Action demanded in East Haddam Public Schools as police investigate racist messages, videos
NBC Connecticut
By Jeremy Chen
June 12, 2024

There’s frustration and anger in East Haddam Public Schools. State police are investigating a series of racist messages and videos that they say targeted a middle school student.

Some in the community are demanding the district take action against those responsible.

“This is not to be tolerated. I do not want my children to see this,” Brandon Spencer, a parent, said.

Visible anger from parents during Wednesday’s East Haddam Board of Education meeting. Many disgusted by the news that racist images and videos were sent to a student at Nathan Hale Ray Middle School. A current high school student appalled by the behavior.

“People I care about are in this school and they are surrounded by this hatred that should not exist in schools,” Ashley St. Germaine, a high school student, said.

CASE #3 Glastonbury

Glastonbury town councilors condemn online threats directed toward high schoolers
NBC Connecticut
By Jeremy Chen
July 23, 2024

Condemning hate in the Town of Glastonbury. During Tuesday’s regular meeting, town councilors responded to community concerns over social media threats at the high school.

“Today, I, a tax-paying Glastonbury High School graduate and potential homebuyer, was told from the comfort of my home that I am unwelcome here.”

Heaven Diaz spoke directly to Glastonbury town councilors during Tuesday’s meeting. She says the news of racist social media posts targeting Black students at the high school brought pain.

“I demand accountability and change. Racism isn't something people are born with. It is taught and you should feel ashamed that such hatred can be nurtured in our community,” she said.

A 16-year-old was arrested Monday after Glastonbury Police say they illegally accessed another teen's account on Discord in June. Police say the teenager used the account to reportedly reference the KKK and Hitler, make a bomb threat, and death threats toward Black students. The owner of that account is considered a victim with the arrested teen facing hate crime charges.

One parent who says her son was a target of threats is questioning his safety at school.

Even though we have a Democrat governor, even though we have a Democrat legislature you get away from the cities and it turns red.

CASE #4 Watertown

It Is The Law… Obey It.

One of the federal school requirements is that they provide a conducive environment for learning, but bullying does not meet that requirement.

Gay ex-student sues school district for allegedly failing to stop ‘relentless’ bullying
A gay former pupil and his mother are suing a school district where he allegedly experienced relentless bullying, including verbal abuse, threats of violence and another student making a “straight pride” poster with his face on it.
Pink News
By Sophie Perry
August 29, 2024

The legal complaint, filed by the student’s mother in June 2023, details that when he attended Ronald Reagan Middle School, in Haymarket, Virginia, he faced “regular and relentless anti-LGBTQ+ bullying” from classmates.

The defendants named in the case are the Prince William County School Board, the principal, Christopher Beemer, and assistant principal Jenita Boatwright.

Beemer still works as the school but Boatwright has left.

The claimant alleges that Beemer, Boatwright and the school board responded to requests for help “with victim-blaming and inaction”.

The openly gay student started in sixth grade at the school in August 2019 which is when the alleged victimisation began, with the first incident involving classmates taking his belongings and passing them around the classroom while voicing homophobic slurs, it is claimed.

The teacher reportedly did not put an end to the bullying and it happened three more times.

[…]

The case asserts four causes of action: sex discrimination under Title IX civil rights protections against the school board, an equal protection clause violation against the individual defendants, a violation against the individual defendants, which the judge dismissed, and gross negligence against the individual defendants.

District judge Rossie D Alston Jr gave the plaintiffs 14 days to file an amended complaint for the charge that was dismissed.

Of course they denied everything, we didn’t do anything wrong, it just kids being kids. WTOP reported that,

The plaintiff’s mother alleges two teachers in the area did nothing and that he felt unsafe and intimidated. The mother observed the boys surrounding her son when she came to pick him up from school. The student hurried to the car, but the alleged harassers called out to the plaintiff’s mother and gave her “the finger,” according to the complaint. The mother got out of her car and asked two nearby teachers for assistance, who said they would “take care of it.”

The plaintiff’s mother said the teachers walked the boys to defendant Boatwright’s office, where they were met by one of the boy’s mother, who worked for the school. The plaintiff’s mother then called the front office of the school to again report what happened — a call that was received by the one boy’s mother, who told the plaintiff’s mother that she would handle the matter.

It sound like the school is in deep do-do.

I sat on the CT State Department of Education’s Safe School Coalition and we reviewed bullying reports from around the state and what is really amazing if that some of the largest school systems report zero, that is not one bullying incident all year. Amazing! Do you believe it? I know that we didn’t.

Their inaction gives a green light to the bullies.

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I have been reading about a group that is boycotting the elections. I think they are shooting themselves in the foot. Trump has said that he supports Israel’s right to continue “its war on terror.” And in order to defeat Trump every vote is needed and to not vote in the election is stupid, yes it is the choice "between two evils" but one is really evil while the others are trying to mediate the war.

You do remember that it was Trump who moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and the "Deal" he brokered lead to the crisis we now have.

A Trump win will do more harm to the world than he did his first term, that was just a trial run.

Laws Are Only Good If They Are Enforced.

Probably four or five years ago I went to a “town meeting” to discuss what laws we need here in Connecticut and I was amazed! Simply amazed that most of the complaints were from school children saying we need laws but most of what they wanted were already laws.

CT: ‘Safe haven’ for transgender youth? For some, not safe enough
Connecticut lawmakers and advocates are pushing for legislation offering protections for trans and LGBTQ+ students
CT Mirror
by Ally LeMaster and Luke Feeney
May 5, 2024

[…]

Among state lawmakers, the debate is far from settled. Connecticut has some of the most comprehensive legal protections in the country for transgender individuals, yet for the past two years, Republican lawmakers have supported legislation the LGBTQ+ community takes issue with — for example, banning trans athletes from competing in school sports and mandating schools to notify parents when a child starts using different pronouns.
But there is already a law for those!

However, these were also bill introduced by the Republicans this session (Which by the way ends Wednesday.) Why did they introduce those bills? Simple. They wanted to reverse the law.
“I came out in high school. I was relentlessly bullied,” said Juliett, “My school binders were thrown in the trash and had milk poured over them. My school locker was vandalized on my birthday. I would get harassing messages and things like that on social media.”

Did you know that Connecticut has a really strong non-bullying law? You can find out about here. Back ten, fifteen years ago I sat on the “Safe School Coalition” where we reviewed bullying topics. It was amazing at how many reported “Zero” bullying in their school systems for over a thousand students while much smaller towns reported many instances of bullying. They just ignored the law.

In 2022, Melissa Combs and other concerned parents reported Irving A. Robbins Middle School in Farmington to the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights after school administrators declined to investigate an incident where students ripped a Pride flag from the wall and stomped on it.

The laws need to be enforced! School systems know that there is no teeth behind the bill. They also know that when people go to buy homes they look at the school systems. “Oh look this school has a high number bullying incidents!” that is another incentive to not enforce the laws.

 

We need to get the laws enforced! not just lip-service, but laws that have teeth. We also need to get the word out about the laws on the books.

The CT Mirror writes that the anti-LGBTQ+ organization said...

“I am actually very encouraged, because we grew awareness at the General Assembly this year,” Leslie Wolfgang, director of public policy at the Family Institute, wrote in a statement to the Connecticut Mirror. “This session was just the first step in a multi-year process to grow awareness and look for ways to balance the needs of all children and their families in Connecticut.”

Heed his words. This is just a skirmish in the battle, they will be coming back, and back, and back every year until one time the Democrats will blink.

*****

A disclosure: many of the people in this article I know.

Turned Upside Down!

Standing the Republican party on its head! The new Trump Republican party is everything the old Republican party wasn't. The Trump Cult has turned the Republican party on its head, they are for government telling businesses how to conduct their business, they are for telling doctors how to treat their patients, and they are telling us what we can say or do.

Once the party of small government and big business, the GOP has turned upside down
First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
NBC News
By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
April 7, 2021

 

 

 For decades, the Republican Party stood for limited government, free enterprise, free expression and local control.

But look what has changed inside the GOP and within the conservative movement since Donald Trump’s presidency:

•     Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas have signed executive orders preventing private businesses from requiring Covid vaccination passports from customers.
•     Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently took issue with social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook banning Trump after he spread falsehoods and misinformation about the 2020 election.
•     Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has always championed political contributions as free speech, told corporate America to “stay out of politics.”
•     Arkansas’ GOP-dominated legislature — overriding the veto from Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who called it “too extreme” — enacted a treatment ban for transgender youth.

And as we wrote yesterday, GOP-controlled legislatures in Georgia, Texas, Iowa and even Michigan have passed or drafted bills curtailing the authority of local election officials and elected secretaries of state.

Since then it has only gotten worst.

 

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They are trying to groom us out of existence as a result bias crimes are increasing with their green light.

In states with laws targeting LGBTQ issues, school hate crimes quadrupled
The Washington Post
By Laura Meckler
March 14, 2024

School hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people have sharply risen in recent years, climbing fastest in states that have passed laws restricting LGBTQ student rights and education, a Washington Post analysis of FBI data finds.

In states with restrictive laws, the number of hate crimes on K-12 campuses has more than quadrupled since the onset of a divisive culture war that has often centered on the rights of LGBTQ+ youth.

At the same time, calls to LGBTQ+ youth crisis hotlines have exploded, with some advocates drawing a connection between the spike in bullying and hate crimes, and the political climate.

LGBTQ+ students have long dealt with bullying and harassment at school, but some students are feeling particularly vulnerable due to the wave of legislation. They are also on edge following the death of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died after a fight in their Oklahoma public school bathroom. The death was ruled a suicide, according to a one-page summary report released Wednesday by the state’s chief medical examiner.

With a wink and nod the schools are looking the other way when it comes to violence against us in Republican states.

The Post analysis found that the number of anti-LGBTQ+ school hate crimes serious enough to be reported to local police more than doubled nationwide between 2015-2019 and 2021-2022. The rise is steeper in the 28 states that have passed laws curbing the rights of transgender students at school and restricting how teachers can talk about issues of gender and sexuality.

In more-liberal states that have not enacted restrictive school LGBTQ+ laws, The Post found that the rise in FBI hate crimes was lower - though the absolute number of crimes was higher. Analysts said that may be because people in those states are more likely to report incidents.

There is your direct correlation between legislation and bias crimes!

The National Institute of Health’s website PubMed has a research paper about the targeting of the LGBTQ+ community, their conclusion…

Our findings largely support our research hypotheses. LGBT people have higher rates of hate crime victimization than non-LGBT people (H1), particularly hate crime motivated by anti-SOGI bias. The results show that LGBT people face many varied types of hate violence. We further find that a greater percentage of LGBT victims of hate-motivated violence to say that the bias-motivation was sexuality or gender compared to non-LGBT victims of hate-motivated violence.
[….]

Similarly, the Rainbow Youth Project, a nonprofit that offers crisis response and counseling to at-risk LGBTQ+ youth, saw calls to its hotline rise from an average of about 1,000 per month in 2022 to just over 1,400 per month last year. The top reason cited by callers in 2023 was anti-LGBTQ+ “political rhetoric,” such as debate over laws and policies limiting rights at school.

The evidence is there, the Republicans pogrom against is causing the rise in bias-motivation crimes.

The rise was even steeper in states that have enacted laws or policies which restrict LGBTQ+ students’ education or rights at school - tripling from an average of about 28 per year from 2015-2019 to an average of about 90 per year in 2021-22. There was also an upsurge in the states without these laws, from about 79 reported hate crimes per year to 140.

While here in Connecticut legislators have proposed funding for an advertising campaign prevent and combat hate crimes, a statewide marketing campaign on hate crimes, including social media posts, billboards, television spots, and other effective marketing methods.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace writes in “The Rise in Political Violence in the United States and Damage to Our Democracy,”

The consciously propagated false narrative regarding election theft is directly linked to the growing support for violence on the right. Those who believed the election was fraudulent were twice as likely in Kalmoe and Mason’s survey data to endorse a military coup and were more likely to justify armed citizen rebellion.5 Of the 9% of Americans who agreed that “force is justified to restore Trump to the Presidency” in a separate University of Chicago survey in June 2021, 90% believed Biden’s presidency was illegitimate.6 Throughout 2021, a time during which the Bright Line Watch organization found that 73-74% of Republicans felt that President Biden was not the rightful winner of the election, a separate 22,900 person poll found that almost 1 in 5 among Republican men claimed that violence was justifiable “right now”.

The Republican party knows that the rhetoric they rallies their base to get and vote on election day. It is all about power and to satisfy Trump’s narcissistic tendencies.

 

The Post article ends with,

“This culture of hostility and division has been festering, especially for the last three years, and its ramped up more and more each year,” Max said. “The school board has made it very clear we’re not welcome here. It’s very clear they don’t want us to exist.”

Some of the comments on Yahoo News about this article are disgusting!

Maybe these "hate crimes" are a result of people getting sick and tired of an agenda being shoved down their throats with the threat of being punished if they don't comply?

Progressive policies forced on a free people seem to provoke violence.

***

After turning the young lady into a martyr based on made up facts it will be a long time before I believe anything out of some outlets. Nex was a bully and took her own life. Stop the charade, the truth has come out and the media has mud on their face.

***

 I have a solution. go back into the closet. problem solved. I don't want to know about your private  life, and you don't need to know about mine.

*****

I asked the AI Perplexity: “Compare the rise in bias crimes between Democratic states and Republican state?”

And the AI answer was…

Based on the search results provided, there appears to be a stronger correlation between the passage of anti-LGBTQ legislation in Republican-led states and a subsequent rise in bias crimes targeting LGBTQ individuals, compared to Democratic-led states:
Key Findings:

•     In states that have passed laws restricting LGBTQ+ student rights and education, school hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people have quadrupled compared to states without such laws. These restrictive laws have predominantly been passed in Republican-controlled states.
•     The number of anti-LGBTQ+ school hate crimes serious enough to be reported to local police was more than four times higher on average per year in 2021-2022 in states that have enacted restrictive LGBTQ+ laws, which are primarily Republican-led states.
•     The FBI's 2022 hate crime statistics showed a 19% increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes nationally, with a 35% rise in hate crimes motivated by anti-transgender bias. This aligns with the passage of numerous anti-LGBTQ bills in Republican-controlled state legislatures.
•     Research has found that LGBTQ people are 9 times more likely than non-LGBTQ people to be victims of violent hate crimes, and LGBTQ hate crime victims experience more severe negative impacts.

In contrast, the search results do not indicate a similar correlation between Democratic-led states and rising bias crimes targeting LGBTQ individuals. The data suggests the hostile political rhetoric and discriminatory policies enacted in Republican-controlled states are creating an environment that emboldens individuals with violent tendencies to target the LGBTQ community, especially transgender people.

News Flash: Medical Examiner Report on Nex Benedict Autopsy Report

When your own government turns against you, when harassment become too much, when others look away at the bullying we are driven in to despair.

Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict’s cause of death revealed in autopsy report

USA Today

By Molly Young

March 13, 2024

An Oklahoma teen whose death sparked widespread outrage and calls for change died of an overdose, authorities said Wednesday.  

Nex Benedict was pronounced dead Feb. 8, one day after being injured in an altercation inside an Owasso High School bathroom. A summary autopsy report concluded the 16-year-old died of toxicity from diphenhydramine, an antihistamine, and fluoxetine, an anti-depression medication. The medical examiner ruled the teen died by suicide, and that the full report would be released in about 10 business days.

The findings cap weeks of speculation over how the teen died, but many questions remain unanswered about the fight that preceded Nex’s death.  

Nex had been bullied in the past over their gender identity, which did not align with societal stereotypes. Nex, a descendant of the Choctaw Nation, used the pronouns he, him, they and them, friends and relatives have said.  

Jacob Biby, a lawyer for the teen’s family did not immediately return messages regarding the medical examiner’s conclusions.

There is no place to turn, the authorities turn a blind eye, there is no hope.

Federal civil rights investigators in the U.S. Department of Education have also said they will look into allegations that the school failed to adequately address past instances of sex-based bullying.  

More:What we know about death of Oklahoma teen Nex Benedict after beating in school bathroom

Nex told a school resource officer that the bathroom fight started because a group of girls they did not know were making fun of the way the teen and their friends dressed and laughed. Police released a recording of the conversation captured by the officer’s body camera.

There is no doubt in my mind, their death was caused the politicians creating an environment of fear, hatred, and indifference that cause Nex to be looking in a dark tunnel with no end and no way out.

Good, Bad, Or Indifference?

That is the question. Will the schools be desperate but equal?

CT’s first school for LGBTQ+ students could open this fall
PROUD Academy will be the first LGBTQ-affirming private school in New England and one of few across the country, according to its founder
CT Mirror
By Jessika Harkay
July 21, 2023

When Patty Nicolari came out in the spring of 1997, she was a teacher at Ansonia High School. She remembers students yelling slurs at her, vandalizing her car, leaving nasty notes on her desk and teachers whispering among themselves.

Nearly 30 years later, many members of the LGBTQ+ community, like Charlie Wills, a 12-year-old transgender boy from New York City, still experience similar harassment and bullying in schools. He’s often excluded by other students from activities at school, misgendered, laughed and stared at or called names, his mother Tanya said.

[…]

The school will be located at the Ansonia Boys & Girls Club and will start by serving seventh and eighth graders in its first year and expand each year up to 12th grade. Nicolari said over 50 people have expressed interest across the country and about 15 students have applied already.

My thoughts…

Connecticut law mandates safe space for learning for every student, requires schools to prevent bullying and report all incidents of bullying to the state.
Schools are suppose to have anti-bullying policies in place.

Now for reality. Some school systems report zero (that is no bullying) in their school systems, do you believe that? Some policies are simply “We will not tolerate and bullying.” To school systems that will haul the bully before a student court! To some systems practicing Restorative Justice.
“By creating a safe space for students where they will be valued and respected for who they are, that age group seemed to make the most sense,” Nicolari added.
But that is also the goal of all school systems in the state.

I worry about separate but equal, in the past they were not equal.

• Will the new school offer all the same classes as the public school? Or will they just cover the basics.
• Will the new school offer sports programs?
• Will the new school offer (My favorite) science classes?
• Will the new school have quality educators?
• Will the schools buildings be equal in quality?
• Will the school system shuck-off their legal responsibility to have a safe school system for us?
• Will every student be able to afford the new school or will it be only for those who can afford the tuition?

These are some of my concerens.

I realize that for many LGBTQ+ students they will want a separate school, but are we ghettoizing them. Will the LGBTQ students who go to the public school feel welcome? Or will they be subtlety steered toward the private school?

So my question…

online polls

What Do You Expect When You Are Screaming And Yelling At Us?

With what the Republicans and right-wing militias are doing to stir up animosity toward us did you expect anything different.

Yet another study reveals worrying numbers of trans suicide and mortality rates

A long-term Danish study has found that trans people in the country experience higher rates of suicide and mortality.

Pink News

By Emily Chudy

July 19, 2023

According to the study, which used data gathered on people aged 15 and older, between 1980 and 2021, trans people in Denmark had attempted to take their own lives at 7.7 times the rate of cisgender people, with the rate of death 3.5 times higher for trans people than their cisgender counterparts. 

Among the 3,759 survey participants who identified as transgender, there were 92 suicide attempts and 12 suicides between 1980 and 2021. However, researchers say the true numbers could be higher, because the records they used did not always capture a person’s gender identity.

Transgender people in Denmark also experience 1.9 times the rate of mortality unrelated to suicide and twice the rate of “all-cause” mortality, compared with non-transgender individuals. 

The study also found that trans people in Denmark have a statistically lower age of mortality compared with their cisgender peers.

Well what exactly did you think they would find? Between lack of family support and the political climate that the right-wing is stirring up there is no other outcome that can be expected.

An earlier American study found that half of trans and non-binary youth in the country had considered suicide in the past year, with five to 10 per cent of participants also revealing that they had been subjected to conversion therapy practices..

Another study by the same charity, The Trevor Project, found that a quarter of young Black trans and non-binary people in the US had attempted to end their own lives.

“Simply put, the mental health of Black transgender and non-binary young people is a public-health crisis,” the senior director of research science at The Trevor Project, Dr Myeshia Price, said.

Intersectionality. It is not just additive but multiplicative, being trans and Black doubles the stress we are under.

The conservatives know what they are doing increases self-harm idealizations but they don’t care and they even use it against us, “These people are mentally unstable, look at the self harm attempts.” Yeah right! It is because you right-wingers are threaten us, screaming and yelling at us, refusing to sever us, bullying, and harassing us. Gee, what did think would happen?

The Results Of Bullying In Schools

This starts off bad but end up good.

The results of being the odd kid out at school often ends in bullying.

Stop and think for a minute… “Who gets bullied in school?”

Is it the most popular kid in school?
Is it the star football player?
Is it the student with a large “Click” around them?
It it the kid wearing glasses?
Is it the Kid that stutters?
Is it the boy who acts feminine?

I wore glasses in early elementary school and I was henceforth known as “HEY Four Eyes!”

It is the child who is different, the quite shy ones who get bullied.

High schoolers step in to fill sixth grader's yearbook after his classmates refused to sign it
'Just seeing him light up, it felt really good,' said one teen. 'It was a small thing, but it made him so happy.'
UpWorthly
By Jisha Joseph
September 9, 2022


Cassandra Ridder was heartbroken when her son Brody came home from school last week with only a handful of signatures in his yearbook—one of which was his own. "Hope you make some more friends. — Brody Ridder," the 12-year-old had written. A devastated Ridder saw that only two other classmates and two teachers had signed the yearbook apart from her rising seventh grader. According to The Washington Post, Brody has been a student at the Academy of Charter Schools in Westminster, Colorado, since fifth grade. Although he had several friends at his previous school, his mother revealed that he has struggled socially and has been repeatedly bullied over the past two years.

"There [are] kids that have pushed him and called him names," said Ridder, who explained that she switched her son's school before fifth grade to give him more academic support. "Brody has been through a lot." Although the bullying somewhat subsided after she addressed the issue with school administrators in February, the concerned mother says she could tell "the teasing was still there." She realized the true extent of what Brody was going through when he told her what happened when he asked his classmates to sign his yearbook on May 24.

This could have had a very different ending if wasn’t for some high schoolers.

Seventeen-year-old Joanna Cooper revealed that when she received a text message from her mother with a screenshot of Ridder's post, she decided right away that she would "get people and we're going to sign his yearbook" because "no kid deserves to feel like that." The 11th grader still remembers the intense pressure she felt to fit in when she was Brody's age. Having signatures in your yearbook wasn't only a measure of popularity, she recalled, but also meant simply "knowing that you have friends." "Signing someone's yearbook was all the rage," Cooper said. "That people would tell him no and deny him a signature, it just hurt my heart."

Cooper contacted several of her friends and they made a plan to visit Brody's homeroom class together the following day. However, what she didn't know at the time was that many other students were hatching the same plan. One of them was Simone Lightfoot—also an 11th grader at the school—who revealed that she could relate to Brody's plight. "When I was younger, I was bullied a lot like him," she said. "If I could do one little thing to help this kid feel a little better, I'd be more than willing to." Maya Gregory, an eighth grader at the school, felt the same. "No one helped me when I was in that situation," the 14-year-old revealed. "So I wanted to be there for him."

I remembers being the new kid on the block, we moved to town when I was just 7 and I hated the fact that my parents held me back so I could start in the first grade at the new school instead of second grade… I hated it!

Well I hated school in general but being held back also added to angst, looking back at it, they made a smart move. I was with the same group of kids not starting off as the new kid in second grade, we were all new kids in the first grade.

When the high schoolers marched in to sign his year book it shamed some of his classmate to also sign. The peer-pressure from the other classmates was broken.

That is the other thing about bullying… peer-pressure, children who know bullying is wrong but don’t speak up because it is “not cool.”

… Cooper said. The students' kindness touched school administrators, who explained that the transition from remote learning back to in-person classes has caused more conflicts and bullying. "A lot of students are struggling with peer relationships and social skills," said Brent Reckman, chief executive at the Academy of Charter Schools. "It's up to us to figure out how to help kids and families with it, but it's a challenge faced by all schools right now. It can be really tough to be a teenager. I was really impressed with how our students stepped up when they saw a peer in need."

Simple Things Bring Big Rewards

I learned this in 2010 when I was on the Safe School committee where we were looking for ways to cut bullying in schools. In a 2005 paper “Creating a peaceful school learning environment: the impact of an antibullying program on educational attainment in elementary schools” in Medical Science Monitor I quoted,

Implement intervention strategies specific to aggressive children. Approaches to intervention with aggressive students and their victims fall into five general categories: (a) behavior management; (b) self-control strategies; (c) social skills training; (d) information processing; and (e) cognitive perspective taking.

Which brings me to an article in UpWorthy…

Researchers studied kindergarteners' behavior and followed up 19 years later. Here are the findings.
Every parent wants to see their kid get good grades in school. But now we know social success is just as important.
By Evan Porter
January 12, 2023


Every parent wants to see their kid get good grades in school. But now we know social success is just as important.

From an early age, we're led to believe our grades and test scores are the key to everything — namely, going to college, getting a job, and finding that glittery path to lifelong happiness and prosperity.

It can be a little stressful.

But a study showed that when children learn to interact effectively with their peers and control their emotions, it can have an enormous impact on how their adult lives take shape. And according to the study, kids should be spending more time on these skills in school.

That is what the 2005 paper found, early intervention can prevent life long anti-social behavior.

2. Skills like sharing and cooperating pay off later in life.

We know we need to look beyond GPA and state-mandated testing to figure out which kids are on the right path. That's why the researchers zeroed in so heavily on that social competency score.

What they found probably isn't too surprising: Kids who related well to their peers, handled their emotions better, and were good at resolving problems went on to have more successful lives.

What's surprising is just how strong the correlation was.

An increase of a single point in social competency score showed a child would be 54% more likely to earn a high school diploma, twice as likely to graduate with a college degree, and 46% more likely to have a stable, full-time job at age 25.

The kids who were always stealing toys, breaking things, and having meltdowns? More likely to have run-ins with the law and substance abuse problems.

The study couldn't say for sure that strong or poor social skills directly cause any of these things. But we can say for sure that eating too much glue during arts and crafts definitely doesn't help.

3. Social behaviors can be learned and unlearned — meaning it's never too late to change.

The researchers called some of these pro-social behaviors like sharing and cooperating "malleable," or changeable.

Let's face it: Some kids are just never going to be rocket scientists. Turns out there are physical differences in our brains that make learning easier for some people than others. But settling disputes with peers? That's something kids (and adults) can always continue to improve on.

And guess what? For a lot of kids, these behaviors come from their parents. The more you're able to demonstrate positive social traits like warmth and empathy, the better off your kids will be.

So can we all agree to stop yelling at people when they take the parking spot we wanted?

Early intervention for socially inapt can make a big difference, it ended bullying, and violence later in life.

Still, the 19-year study paints a pretty clear picture: Pro-social behavior matters, even at a young age. And because it can be learned, it's a great "target for prevention or intervention efforts."

The bottom line? We need to do more than just teach kids information. We need to invest in teaching them how to relate to others and how to handle the things they're feeling inside.

Ignoring social skills in our curricula could have huge ramifications for our kids down the road.

My conclusion in my paper  was,

From the research it is clear that a broad approach to end bullying is needed, that the focus cannot just be on the bully or just the school, but it must be focused on the whole community. That there has to be a wholesale intervention to bring about a change in culture that involves the community, parents, school administration, teachers and students in order to stop the bullying. In addition, it must be an ongoing process and not just a onetime intervention.

How Safe Do You Feel – Part I

How many school shootings have happened this year? How many students were murdered this year?

Do you think students feel safe in the classrooms? How about the teachers and staff, do you think they feel safe at work?

Now add to that fear and anxiety the feelings of students who are LGBTQ, who are being bullied everyday.

Nearly 70% of LGBTQ students feel unsafe at school due to sexual orientation or gender identity: survey

New York Daily News

By Muri Assunção

October 22, 2022

Nearly seven in 10 LGBTQ students reported feeling unsafe at school in 2021 because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, according to new data released this week.

Researchers with GLSEN, a national organization that fights to end anti-LGBTQ discrimination in k-12 schools, found an increasingly more hostile environment for LGBTQ students in middle and high schools across the nation.

For its 2021 National School Climate Survey, the group spoke with 22,300 students between the ages of 13 and 21 and found that they’ve experienced an alarming incidence of discrimination — including verbal and physical harassment — from their peers.

Around 68% of LGBTQ students reported feeling unsafe because of their LGBTQ identity — 51% of them because of their sexual orientation, and 43% of them because of their gender expression, or the external appearance of a person’s gender identity.

The law says that the schools must provide a safe space for learning, do you think that these students have a safe place for learning?

Bullying and discrimination in the classroom “continue to create a chilling effect that threatens the wellbeing of gay and transgender youth across the country,” said Aaron Ridings, GLSEN deputy executive director for public policy and research.

I found this article on Yahoo News where they allow comments, most of them are condescending and hostile.

But are they really unsafe because of their identity? Many young people say it has become cool and trendy. So I have some doubts about these polls and even doubt those making the claims. I need to see some real evidence because bullying is not at all limited to what has become a privileged and protected class.

***

Feel free to "feel unsafe" someplace else.  We are not catering to mental defects who threaten suicide because they feel sad panda nor are we accepting some nonsensical excuse of "feeling unsafe".

There are over 170 comments like this, do you wonder why the children don’t feel safe and remember children are taught to pick on us by their parents.

Education Week has an article on the GLSEN survey.

Research has shown that when LGBTQ students feel supported in school, they are more engaged in activities and academics. They are also less likely to miss school, more likely to get better grades, and more likely to want to continue their education, Kosciw said.

Students who had access to supportive educators, went to schools with inclusive policies, and had GSAs at their schools were more likely overall to feel better about themselves and not suffer from depression or suicidal ideation, the report says.

“That’s why it’s troubling when the supports have decreased so that fewer students have these things that have such a positive effect on their lives,” Kosciw said.

Yesterday article abut the taking down of the Pride flag in Stonington CT how do you think it makes LGBTQ students feel in school and more important when other see the flag taken down do you feel that it emboldens them to bully?

How do you think the LGBTQ students feel when they see about the laws like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law?

The EW article goes on to say,

LGBTQ students often avoid bathrooms, school buses, and hallways, where there’s no supervision by educators, in fear of verbal or physical bullying, he said. Because that was no longer a factor for online-only students, school was also safer for them.

Many times when student do report the bullying the administration does nothing!

When I was on the CT Department of Education Safe School Committee so school systems report 0 incidents, that is not a single incident of bullying in their school system. Do you believe that?

This afternoon I write about the bullying of a trans student that is now the subject of a federal investigation in part II.

Undoing The Wrongs

For the last 4 years there was a pogrom against us instituted by highest levels of government and that is slowly being unraveled by the current administration.

K-12 EDUCATION: Students’ Experiences with Bullying, Hate Speech, Hate Crimes, and Victimization in Schools
GAO


What GAO Found

Students experience a range of hostile behaviors at schools nationwide, according to GAO’s analysis of nationally generalizable surveys of students and schools. About one in five students aged 12 to 18 were bullied annually in school years 2014-15, 2016-17, and 2018-19. Of students who were bullied in school year 2018-19, about one in four students experienced bullying related to their race, national origin, religion, disability, gender, or sexual orientation. About one in four of all students aged 12 to 18 saw hate words or symbols written in their schools, such as homophobic slurs and references to lynching. Most hostile behaviors also increased in school year 2017-18, according to our analysis of the school survey. Hate crimes—which most commonly targeted students because of their race and national origin—and physical attacks with a weapon nearly doubled (see figure). Sexual assaults also increased during the same period.

[…]

 Hostile behaviors, including bullying, harassment, hate speech and hate crimes, or other types of victimization like sexual assault and rape, in schools can negatively affect K-12 students' short- and long-term mental health, education, income, and overall well-being. According to Education's guidance, incidents of harassment or hate, when motivated by race, color, national origin, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), or disability status can impede access to an equal education. In certain circumstances, these kinds of incidents may violate certain federal civil rights laws, which Education's OCR is tasked with enforcing in K-12 schools.

I was on the CT Department of Education's Safe School Climate Coalition where we looked at bullying, one thing that amazed me some towns in Connecticut reported 0% bullying in their schools. We didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe now, what I think they are doing is under reporting bullying to make their school system look good.

What the GAO study found was,

Effects of Hostile Behaviors on K-12 Students

Students who experience hostile behaviors are more likely to experience:

•  Depression and anxiety
•  Interrupted sleep and eating disorders
•  Loss of interest in activities they used to enjoy
•  Physical health complaints
•  Decreased academic achievement and school participation

Students who bully others are more likely to:

•  Abuse alcohol and other drugs in adolescence and as adults
•  Get into fights, vandalize property, and drop out of school
•  Engage in early sexual activity
•  Have criminal convictions and traffic citations as adults
•  Be abusive toward their romantic partners, spouses, or children as adults

Students who witness bullying are more likely to:

•  Have increased use of tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs
•  Have increased mental health problems, including depression and anxiety
•  Miss or skip school

It is not good for the targets of bullying, it is not good for the students who witness the bullying, and it is not good for the bullies.

When I was an intern in 2010 I was working towards my MSW, I did a research paper on bullying and drew the same conclusions as the GAO study.

This review focuses upon studies that show a linkage between school bullying and harassment and how it effect school and student achievement.

It takes a village to end bullying.

Fighting The Board

What happens when a school board rules to ignore the laws and institutes anti-trans policies?

For family of trans child, idyllic life in Hastings is no more
A school board election turned nasty when a kid was brought into politics. That was the Waits family's worst nightmare.
Star Tribune
By Reid Forgrave
December 11, 2021


If you know the name Kit Waits, it is probably because the third-grader from Hastings has become a symbol for transgender children after a CNN feature last month turned this community upside down.

Like many mid-western towns they are very conservative and do like change and when a child came out as trans all the animosity came out.

In a place that's 94% white, some leaders have tried to combat Hastings' lack of diversity. The school district recently received a large grant for diversity, equity and inclusion. A few years ago, the city and the school district released a joint resolution expressing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, including for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

After that, eight local pastors signed a letter against the "promotion of transgenderism,"writing, "We are not willing to sacrifice our children on an altar of social experimentation and political correctness." One church hosted a speaker who spoke against transgender issues. A local community group, Thrive in Hastings, countered by hosting a transgender lawyer for a Transgender 101 community class.

And who is stuck in the middle of the group that are trying to impose their religion on others?

It is the child.

But the school board election turned nasty and personal. A Facebook group, Concerned Parents of Hastings, outed Kit several times and made threats against the family. "She should be locked up for child abuse," wrote one commenter. "Her younger 'daughter' is actually a boy." Kelsey lost.

Kelsey said Kit being transgender was a closely held secret. It was clear to her that Kit's situation is different from Kelsey being a tomboy who grew up not conforming to societal views of femininity. Kit identifies as gender nonbinary, meaning they identify neither as a boy or a girl.

The hatred turned ugly, with threats, and bullying.

But now the secret is out. Telling the family's story became a way to turn something bad into something good.
[...]
It has been a rough several months for the Waits family. Their perfect home turned into a place they no longer consider safe. There had been uncomfortable moments before: a mom at a kids' playgroup who said she couldn't guarantee Kit's safety, the event at the church against transgender issues. But all that was a subtle prelude to the outing on Facebook, which led them to leave Hastings.

Hate won.

We see this all over the country, the hate has been fanned by politics, the lose of civility replace by threats and profanity which has became normal. Some guy down the end of my street where school busses drive by has signs on his front lawn with profanities against President Biden. To parents yell profanities over the heads of preschoolers when the president visited the daycare. Right-wing politics has embolden them to do thing that four years ago they would never have done.

How do we break this cycle of hate crimes? How do we get back civility in our public discussions?

At one time when I was interning at a family support agency for LGBTQ+ children there was talk that we were getting a person doing community service for a hate crime against LGBTQ+ person. Is that the answer having them the perpetrator of a hate crime do work with their targets? Or will that put everyone in danger?

Can you reeducate a hater? By knowing us can that change a person or will that only work for some and actually increase the hate in others?

Out on the west coast there was a study done that found that intervention done at an early age works, but it has to start in kindergarten. The teachers have to be trained to spot anti-social behavior, in a paper for the Safe School Coalition that I was on and for my internship, I wrote…

Furthermore, in a paper by California Department of Education (2002) titled, “What We’ve Learned About Safe and Effective Schools “ they found that anti-bullying intervention had to start early, not just in the middle or high schools, but in the elementary schools. The report stated that “Teachers in Beaverton Oregon elementary schools who were trained to spot children with anti-social behaviors who were then taught how to play together. The program reduced suspensions from 175 a year to less than a dozen.” (p. 12) Some of the other findings to reduce bullying according to the report were, teaching respect for others, generate self respect, and reward achievement. (p. 13 & 14) They also report that,

Create community connections—A dynamic partnership with the community includes volunteers and mentors in the classroom, health and family services on campus, community members on every committee, and recognition and incentive programs for the students. (California Department of Education, 2002, p. 16)

In addition, the report points out that the community involvement should include law enforcement agencies and parents. It also reported that the parental involvement should begin before their children start kindergarten. (p. 16)

Hillary Clinton was right it does take a whole village to raise a child, to show them that it is wrong to hate, something the village of Hastings is not teaching their children.

If you want to read some more about the articles that I reference here is the “Works Cited” for my paper,

Works Cited

• Ali, R. (2010, October 26). Dear Colleague Letter: Harassment and Bullying. Retrieved November 16, 2010, from U. S. Department of Education: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201010.pdf
• Batsche, G., & Knoff, H. (1994). BULLIES AND THEIR VICTIMS: UNDERSTANDING A PERVASIVE PROBLEM IN THE SCHOOLS. School Psychology Review , 23, pp. 165 - 175.
• California Department of Education. (2002). What We’ve Learned About Safe and Effective Schools. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from Safe Schools: A Planning Guide for Action: http://www.gonzales.k12.ca.us/ssf/Safe_Schools_Planning/SSG2.PDF
• Cohen, J. (Summer 2006). Social, Emotional, Ethical, and Academic Education: Creating a Climate for Learning, Participation in Democracy, and Well-Being. (2. 237, Ed.) Harvard Educational Review , 76 (2).
• Eisenberg, M., Neumark-Sztainer, D., & Perry, C. (2003, October). Peer Harassment, School Connectedness and Academic Achievement. Journal of School Health , pp. p. 311 - 316.
• Espelage, D., & Swearer, S. (2003). Reseach on School Bullying and Victimization: What Have We Learned and Where Do We Go From Here. School Psychology Review , 32 (3), pp. 365 - 383.
• Fonagy, P., Twemlow, S., Vernberg, E., Sacco, F., & Little, T. (2005, Vol 11(7)). Creating a peaceful school learning environment: the impact of an antibullying program on educational attainment in elementaryschools. Medical Science Monitor , pp. CR317-325.
• Konishi, C., Hymel, S., Zumbo, B., & Li, Z. (2010). Do School Bullying and Student–Teacher Relationships Matter for Academic Achievement? Canadian Journal of School Psychology , 25 (1), pp. 19 - 38.
• Newman-Carlson, D., & Horne, A. (Summer 2004). Bully Busters: A Psychoeducational Intervention for Reducing Bullying Behavior in Middle Schools. Journal of Counseling and Development , 82 (3), pp. 259 - 267.
• Twemlow, S., Fonagy, P., Sacco, F., Gies, R., Evans, R., & Ewbank, R. (2001, MAY). Creating a Peaceful School Learning Environment: A Controlled Study of an Elementary School Intervention to Reduce Violence. Retrieved 10 29, 2010, from American Journal Psychiatry: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/158/5/808

Sticks And Stones…

The problem is that words do hurt, words do kill.

We see it in the increase in self harm when children are confronted with hate.

How can cissexism affect a person’s mental health?
Experiencing cissexism* can lead to mental health conditions.

In a 2018 systematic review, researchers used a minority stress model to investigate the stressors that a minority group experiences.

These stressors include:

• discrimination and violence
• the energy that a minority group has to expend to protect themselves against this discrimination and violence
• a minority group’s internalization of negative stereotypes

These all contribute toward mental health conditions. A combination of these stressors may overwhelm a person’s ability to cope. 

The review looked at several studies through the minority stress model to investigate the effect of cissexism on a person’s mental health.

• People who are a part of the trans community and experience cissexism are likely to experience:
• depressive symptoms
• anxiety symptoms
• posttraumatic stress symptoms
• general psychological distress

[…]
How can it affect a transgender person’s physical health?
Cissexism can directly and indirectly affect a person’s health in multiple ways.
[…]
Violence and abuse
Violence against those who are transgender often comes from people they are close to, such as friends and family.

Some families reject people who are transgender, and this rejection can include physical confrontations.

It can also come in the form of:

• refusing to use gender-affirming language
• denying access to medical procedures
• cutting off financial support
• refusing access to the home

This can all cause feelings of isolation, low self-esteem, depression, and other adverse mental health outcomes.

Direct health effects
The 2015 critical review states that all of the above stressors can have immediate health effects on the body, including:

• an impact on a person’s diastolic blood pressure
• an increased chance of a cardiovascular event, such as stroke or heart attack
• elevated cortisol levels, which can affect a person’s physical and psychological health

The prolonged effects of chronic stress can lead to:

• hypertension, or high blood pressure
• diabetes
• anxiety
• depression
• substance use
• suicidality

[…]
How to be an ally and how to play a part in stopping cissexism
There are several ways to be an ally and play a part in stopping cissexism.

These include:

• never using cissexist slurs
• not asking personal questions about a person’s genitals, surgery, or sex life
• avoiding giving insults that sound like compliments, such as saying, “you look like a real girl”
• not making assumptions or believing in stereotypes of people who are transgender
• people educating themselves about the issues the trans community faces
• respecting people’s decisions on when and where they come out as transgender
• asking for and using a person’s preferred pronouns
• using gender-neutral language, such as “they”
• if it is safe to do so, speaking up and educating other people who are displaying cissexist tendencies or behaviors

Planned Parenthood note that if a person decides to speak up and educate others who are engaging in cissexist attitudes and behaviors, it is important to make sure they remain safe while doing so.

In some situations, it may be safer to remain quiet and walk away rather than addressing cissexism.

It is also important to remain calm and ask questions, as some people may not be aware that the language they are using is cissexist.

*The article defines cissexism as…

In this article, we will be replacing the term “transphobia” with “cissexism.” This is because the term “transphobia” inaccurately focuses on an individual’s irrational fears as opposed to the oppressive systems that can affect a person’s health.

Chose your words carefully because words do hurt.

This Is True For Bloggers

One of the reasons that I only allow monitored comments is this…

It’s time to hold editors accountable for harassed news workers
If you are an editor, publisher or general manager, what, if anything, do you do when employees, especially women, are harassed online?
Poynter
By: Michael Bugeja
November 25, 2020


Like many professors, I follow journalism graduates on Facebook to keep up with their achievements, and recently came upon a disturbing post that inspired this column. An alumna received a signed message from a reader who called her “a f—— idiot” and told her to “go and f— yourself, b—-.”

Jessie Opoien, opinion editor for The (Madison, Wisconsin) Capital Times, broke journalism convention by sharing the offensive message. That same convention asks news workers to ignore slurs and threats, promote their work on social media, and focus on their assignments instead of their detractors.

That’s a prescription for PTSD, especially for women journalists.

In October, Ms. Magazine ran a article titled, “Online Harassment, Physical Threats: The Cost of Reporting for Women Journalists,” emphasizing these points:

• In the first half of 2020, some 25 organized troll campaigns targeted women journalists, up from 17 cases during the same period last year.
• By publication time, there had been 267 attacks and threats against women journalists.
• Many of these attacks focused on appearance or sexuality, including death and rape threats, as well as incidents of doxing in extreme cases.
• Women of color were 34% more likely than white women to be mentioned in abusive tweets.
• Black women received racist messages in addition to being addressed in sexist or profane slurs.

The article concluded:

As trolling often falls into the gray zone somewhere between freedom of speech and online anonymity, we believe that a real, honest conversation with actual journalists who experience online abuse firsthand, is crucial to get some more clarity and sense of solidarity.

Solidarity is fine. What isn’t is journalism convention.

I also get shall we call them “negative comments.” and all a ton of spam comments

A man, by any other name, (or dress or "presentation"), is stilts [sic] man.

And it seems like a conservative group latched on to a blog where I wrote about a trans woman in Maine and I am getting a series of comments that uses her deadname and male pronouns.

The Poynter article ends with,

Trolls have power without consequence. It’s time to give them a taste of their own toxic medicine.

I believe in not feeding the trolls.

In This Day Of Hate

This has not been a good year for us, the death toll of trans people is increasing at an alarming rate.

A Most Deadly Year: Black Transgender Americans Are Being Killed at an Alarming Rate

Data from the FBI and UCLA’s Williams Institute shows that LGBTQ Americans are more than twice as likely to be killed in the United States

NBC News

By Chase Cain,

July 29, 2020

Transgender people have more visibility in America than ever before, but that visibility has come at a deadly cost in 2020.

Through the month of July, at least 22 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been killed in the United States. That puts 2020 on track to be the most deadly year for the trans community since the Human Rights Campaign began tracking violence against them.

The uptick in murders has taken the lives of young, mostly Black transgender people from Philadelphia and Chicago to Miami and Dallas. It also comes as the “Black Trans Lives Matter” movement has gained momentum. Massive rallies in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. drew diverse crowds, hoping to bring attention to the epidemic of violence against the trans community.

Data from the FBI and UCLA’s Williams Institute shows that LGBTQ Americans are more than twice as likely to be killed in the United States, but when you look specifically at Black trans women, their risk of being murdered is more than 7 times higher. 

---

Transgender Woman Is Fatally Stabbed While Attending Oregon Vigil for Man

Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears was attending the vigil of a murder victim

People

By Harriet Sokmensuer

August 03, 2020

Police in Oregon are investigating the killing of a transgender woman who was fatally stabbed at a vigil for a murder victim Tuesday night.

Aja Raquell Rhone-Spears, 33, was attending the vigil of murder victim Tyrell Penney when she and one other person were stabbed, according to a Portland police statement.  The vigil, which was held near the 15800 block of Southeast Division, moved to a home with 20 to 30 people in attendance, including Rhone-Spears.

[...]

Police said in the statement that despite "multiple witnesses" being present, they "encountered hostility and a lack of cooperation." No arrests have been made.

---

'Brave' and 'outspoken' Marilyn Cazares among six transgender Americans killed in July

This year is on track to be one of the deadliest for transgender Americans, particularly trans women of color, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

NBC Out News

By Sakshi Venkatraman

August 4, 2020

Rosa Diaz and her daughter were riding their motorcycles through rural Brawley, California, this year when they noticed a young person who appeared lost walking down the town's main street. Diaz, who runs the only LGBTQ resource center for miles, sensed that the person might be in need of support.

[…]

"I asked her for her name," and the person shared a male name, Diaz said in an interview. "I said, 'Is there another name that you prefer?' And that's when she told me, 'Well, I like Marilyn.'"

Diaz asked her whether she needed anything. "I need a new wig," Diaz recalled Marilyn saying, gesturing to her worn clothes and hairpiece. Diaz gave her a business card, and Marilyn promised to call her after the weekend. Diaz's team found her a wig, but the call never came.

[…]

Marilyn Cazares, 22, was found dead last month in an abandoned building in Brawley, about a half-hour north of the Mexican border. It has been a particularly deadly year for trans people — especially trans women of color. In 2019, 27 trans people died because of violence in total. In 2020, the number has already reached 25, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

---

Man indicted on murder charges in stabbing death of transgender woman at SA barbershop

Damion Campbell also indicted on two charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon

KSAT

July 31, 2020

SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County grand juries handed down nearly 230 felony indictments this week, including one against the man behind a deadly barbershop attack back in May.

In another KSAT article about the murder…

SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE: San Antonio police have arrested a man in the slaying of a 20-year-old at a Northwest Side barber shop Wednesday afternoon.

[…]

The affidavit said a female employee was also injured, but was able to run to a nearby business for help. A third employee escaped unharmed.

One woman was fatally shot while another was hospitalized with multiple stab wounds after a disturbance turned violent at a Bandera Oaks barber shop, San Antonio police said Wednesday.

[…]

The owner of the Diesel Barbershop, Shayne Brown, told KSAT his employees were getting ready to reopen the business starting Friday when a man walked in asking to make an appointment.

The employees told the man he needed a form of payment, Brown said. The man stepped out to get it, and when he returned, he was armed.

---

The Trump administration refused asylum for a trans woman who said she was in fear for her life in her home country.

El Salvador police officers convicted of killing trans woman who had been deported from U.S.

Camila Díaz Córdova was deported from the United States despite telling American asylum officers that she feared for her life in her home country.

NBC News

By Tim Fitzsimons

August 3, 2020

Three police officers were convicted in a Salvadoran court in the 2019 murder of Camila Díaz Córdova, a transgender woman who had been deported from the United States the year before.

The three officers convicted of aggravated homicide July 28 were Jaime Geovany Mendoza Rivas, Luis Alfredo Avelar Sandoval and Carlos Valentín Rosales Carpio, according to the newspaper El Diario De Hoy. Each officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Diaz left El Salvador in 2018 and traveled to the U.S. with a migrant caravan to request asylum, as NBC News previously reported. After her claim was rejected, she went back to El Salvador where she reportedly returned to sex work. After midnight on Jan. 31, 2019, she was arrested for public nuisance and intoxication.

According to El Diaro De Hoy, she was beaten by the arresting officers in the patrol car and left in the road for dead. She was found and later taken to a hospital where she died from her wounds on Feb. 3, 2019.

In 2017, the United Nations called for an investigation into the surge of violence against transgender women in El Salvador. Local LGBTQ groups have counted the killings of at least 600 transgender people since 1993.

The current administration here lacks any moral compass, they are devoid of any empathy or compassion.

---

Overseas we also face discrimination and violence.

LGBTQ Russians Fight to Survive Putin’s Campaign of Hate

Vladimir Putin’s relentless assault on LGBTQ rights in Russia continues, helped by ex-senator Yekaterina Lakhova, who recently said rainbow-colored ice cream was “gay propaganda.”

The Daily Beast

By Anna Nemtsova

August 03, 2020

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia—Dozens of young people were singing lyrics by a local band on Palace Square: “We’ll be together, like Sid and Nancy, we’ll never live long enough to be pensioners.”

The warm July night was young. In spite of the dark context of the song, people looked happy. The wind played with a young woman’s rainbow-dyed hair, while she was kissing her girlfriend. That scene was hardly unusual, even in Russia, where authorities ban what they call “gay propaganda,” same-sex marriage and even the rainbow itself. 

[…]

But the Russian repression machine is working full force. The leader of Russia’s Women’s Union, ex-senator Yekaterina Lakhova, recently complained to President Vladimir Putin about an ice cream ad “promoting homosexual behavior among minors” because it included a rainbow, signifying a multi-flavored ice cream.

[…]

On July 1, Russians voted in a referendum for dozens of constitutional amendments allowing Putin to stay in power until 2036, defining “belief in God” as a Russian national value, and constitutionally banning same-sex marriage.

The amendments also allow Russia to ignore international courts’ rulings on cases of human rights violations. Lakhova was one of the amendments’ lobbyists. At a meeting earlier this month, Putin told Lakhova he needed a loyal network of organizations to keep an eye on any type of “gay propaganda” that might come up, since he alone “cannot follow everybody.” 

Authoritarians love us.

They love us because they can use us for the scapegoat of everything that is going wrong in their countries. The world disastrous economy is our fault! COVID-19 is our fault. We are being blamed for everything.

Trump was brought up in a family of hate.

Mary Trump, a lesbian, says family used racial, anti-Semitic, and homophobic slurs

Washington Blade

By Chris Johnson

July 17, 2020

Mary Trump, whose tell-all book reveals new unflattering secrets about her uncle as he pursues re-election, is a lesbian and kept her sexual orientation a secret from her family in the late 1990s, according to multiple media accounts of the book.

[…]

“Growing up, it was sort of normal to hear them use the N-word or use anti-Semitic expressions,” she reportedly said.

Mary Trump added, “Homophobia was never an issue because nobody ever talked about gay people, well, until my grandmother called Elton John” a slur.

In that background you can easily see where Trump gets his hate for us.

"Have You No Sense of Decency?"

That is what Edward R. Murrow on his television show “See It Now” asked Wisconsin Republican senator Joseph R. McCarthy and another Republican needs to be asked that question today.

Lawmaker Mocks Trans Health Secretary, Denounces ‘Discrimination Against Unmasked’

Forbes

By Dawn Ennis

August 1, 2020

Some political hot water reached the boiling point this week in an ongoing tiff between an outspoken Republican opponent of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and State Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine.

After months tolerating slurs involving her gender identity, Levine spoke out on Tuesday in response, ahead of a news conference on the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in her state. One day later, State Rep. Russ Diamond of Lebanon County, Penn., issued a statement that parroted Levine’s words, but he did so in defense of those — like him — who refuse to wear masks to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

Diamond, who was elected to the statehouse in 2014, has openly criticized Levine’s order that requires most Pennsylvanians to wear a mask in public, except in rare cases of health concerns.

Like Senator McCarthy, Representative Diamond needs to be asked if he has if he has any decency. It is one thing to attack the Democrat policies and another to attack a person.

The governor called on Diamond’s superiors in the Republican legislative caucus to censure the representative for mimicking Levine, calling it a “thinly veiled attack on the LGBTQ community,” according to the Pa Post.

“To equate any disrespect for those not wearing masks to the decades of disrespect, threats, and violence against our LGBTQ community goes far beyond the hallmarks of a decent society,” Wolf said in a statement. “For these actions to come from a legislator elected to fairly represent all his constituents is simply unforgivable.”

But somehow the Republicans don’t seem to see the difference. They have no sense of decency at all.

---

As temperatures rise in America’s summer of discontent, a transgender doctor becomes a flashpoint

The Daily Maverick

By Glen Retief

August 2, 2020

In Johannesburg, three decades ago, the homophobes were out in force: bible-thumpers trying to save our souls; right-wingers with their AWB swastikas. Last week, too, there were missionaries galore, with bibles and salvation brochures; giant pickup trucks, with gun racks and Trump 2020 signs, revving their engines at us, and in some cases shouting ‘queer!’ and ‘faggot!

What a blistering summer this is turning out to be for the United States. It is not just the literal heat, unprecedented here in my adoptive home of Pennsylvania.

Patients are running fevers, too. Like South Africa, the US is a world leader in uncontrolled coronavirus spread, at around 18 new cases per day, per 100,000 residents: the comparable figure for Greece is only 0.3. 

[…]

Enter Dr Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health—the equivalent of, say, Dr Bandile Masuku or Dr Nomafrench Mbombo. Levine has, for the past four months, been the public face of Pennsylvania’s coronavirus response. In semi-weekly television briefings, she has explained and justified one of America’s tougher Covid regulatory regimens, one which has spared our state the spectacle of, say, people crowding into bars, nightclubs and churches, even as hospital morgues order refrigerator trucks for excess bodies.

Jumping back into time to before the plague when she was nominated for Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health…

By all accounts, Levine is a star, having earned degrees from Harvard and Tulane, and rising to become one of the top doctors at the famed Hershey Medical Centre. The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Senate unanimously confirmed her, without any attention to her gender identity.

You got that? The Senate unanimously confirmed her!

But now things have changed, the Republicans are falling behind in the polls and have a chance of losing control of the Senate and House and the Republicans go for the jugular.

Then at a country fair in Pennsylvania, they had a dunking booth just like at the fair in my hometown but unlike my hometown where you dunk a high schooler…

Then came Saturday, 18 July. A group of hose companies held a fundraiser at the grounds of the Bloomsburg Fair, a giant agricultural fair held down the road every September. Hose companies – volunteer firefighting clubs in small-town America – have, like everyone else, been hit hard by the coronavirus, since they make most of their income from late-night bars.

However, the most popular game that day turned out to be a dunk tank. There, a man dressed in a garish parody of Levine – long, blonde wig, bookish spectacles, and a flowery dress – sat under a target. For a fee, locals could throw a ball, and if they hit the bull’s eye – bam, the mock cross-dressed Health Secretary would end up in a tank.

No they don’t have any decency. What they don't see that belittling and mocking people and communities is wrong they have lost their moral compass.

It Is Important To Keep A Log.

Although the article I about documenting racism at work it also can be apply to other forms of discrimination.

How To Securely Document Racism You Experience At Work

Keeping track of who said what can be useful for legal action and for your own peace of mind.

HuffPost

By Monica Torres

July 2, 2020

Racial discrimination in the workplace is illegal in America, yet it is still all too common: Over a quarter of all complaints filed to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2010 to 2017 came from Black employees alleging racial discrimination, according to data obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

If co-workers of different races are being treated differently, there could be workplace racism happening on your team.

When it’s your word against your company’s, gathering evidence is key for future lawsuits or for documenting your truth as you see it. “Employers are not just going to roll over and accept what you say is true, and they are going to hire equally talented defense lawyers to defend them,” said Edgar Ndjatou, executive director of the nonprofit Workplace Fairness and a former employment lawyer.

This means you need to document the racism you experience at work. Legal and mental health experts shared advice on what and how to document, as well as why it matters even if you don’t bring a complaint:

Don’t use company equipment.

If you’re going to document your negative experiences at work, don’t do it on company equipment if you want it to stay private, Ndjatou said. “There is no expectation of privacy when you do use your employer’s software and hardware.”

If you write it down, he said, stick to your personal devices, or pen and paper can work, too. Don’t leave this evidence at a worksite, though.

I recommend getting a bound notebook with numbered pages (Something like this)and not use an electronic device because records could be deleted or changed while the notebook is a permanent record.

This is what you should compile in your documentation:

Keep track of direct evidence, such as racial comments, jokes and stereotypes made by your colleagues, Ballman advised.

“Take photos if there is something physically posted. Print out copies of anything written. If it’s a text message, take a screenshot and print,” she said.

Very good advice!

Evidence! Is the most important thing, in our case anything that is transphobic… emails, items posted on the bulletin board, signs posted in the bathroom, etc. and tape them into your notebook with a written description of it in the logbook.

What to do with the evidence you’ve gathered.

Once you have gathered documentation of unfair treatment, you can report it to human resources and give them an opportunity to correct the situation.

But be aware that alleging racial discrimination can result in retaliation by your employer. Ndjatou cautioned that people you consider allies within the company may also disappoint you when it comes to corroborating your statements.

Personally I wouldn’t show them the logbook. If you go to HR to complain I would not tell them that you are keeping a logbook… I would keep as an Ace in the Hole. But you can write something up and give it to them. Something like,

On Tuesday July 7, 2020 at 3 PM; Mr. Jones called me a derogatory term for a transgender person when I was sitting at my desk, on July 2 he sent me this email.

You want to give them dates and places of where the discrimination took place in writing so that they have to respond in writing.

DO NOT RECORD the conversation! Connecticut is a two party consent state when recording conversations. If you want to record a conversation get their verbal consent recorded and have the voice recorder sitting on the table in plain sight and I personally wouldn’t do that all.

Know there are mental benefits to journaling your experience, too.

Even if you never come forward with what you document, writing down what you experienced can be validating when you are surrounded by people telling you otherwise.

If you don’t want to document your experiences, don’t bottle up those feelings. Share them with someone you trust.

“If you are in a position in which you have no control and you cannot get out of that position, I always say talk to someone,” Johnson said. “Look for support; it might not necessarily be at your workplace.... Know that you’re not stuck. We can find a way out of this, and a way to get out of this is through utilizing supports. Do not battle this alone.”

Once again it is a form of documentation telling another person and it also helps to get it off of your chest.

I was a supervisor for 25 years and at our peak I had 21 technicians in my department and only three times was I asked by HR to keep a log on a persons. Each time I told the technician that HR told me to keep a log on them and I advised them that they should keep a log on me and the company. Nothing ever came of it. One person HR wanted me to track always came in late during the summer, he was a golfer and he either snuck out early or came in late after a morning round of golf. He left the company and became a golf pro at a country club.

If someone threatens you with violence report them immediately not only to HR but file a police report. 

Remember rule number one, be safe!