McCarthyism Has Returned!

Back in the fifties there was the Lavender Scare  and it is back today (If you do not know what the Lavender Scare was I suggest that you read the link). And once again it is being lead by the Republicans,

NCAC* LEADS COALITION STATEMENT ON THE ATTACK ON BOOKS IN SCHOOLS
Published December 2021

In communities across the country, an organized political attack on books in schools threatens the education of America’s children. These ongoing attempts to purge schools of books represent a partisan political battle fought in school board meetings and state legislatures. The undersigned organizations and individuals are deeply concerned about this sudden rise in censorship and its impact on education, the rights of students, and freedom of expression.

Nearly all communities have developed policies for both handling book challenges and allowing parents to influence their own child’s reading, but they must do so within the guideposts set forth by the Supreme Court, without infringing on the rights of other students. The law clearly prohibits the kind of activities we are seeing today: censoring school libraries, removing books–and entire reading lists–based on disagreement with viewpoint and without any review of their educational or literary merit. Some would-be censors have gone even farther, threatening teachers, school librarians, authors, and school board members with criminal charges and even violence for allowing students access to books.
[...]
The First Amendment guarantees that no individual, group of individuals, legislator, community member, or even school board member can dictate what public school students are allowed to read based on their own personal beliefs or political viewpoint.

It is freedom of expression that ensures that we can meet the challenges of a changing world.  That freedom is critical for the students who will lead America in the years ahead. We must fight to defend it.

This harkens back to days of the cold war when being LGBTQ+ and people could be fired for being gay and trans people had to have 3 items of their birth gender on!

The attacks on books is gathering momentum among Republicans, we have it here in Connecticut,

'Attack on books': Over 600 authors, publishers, groups condemn book bans
The signatories — including author Judy Blume and the American Library Association —condemned the recent wave of LGBTQ- and race-related book bans.
NBC Out
By Matt Lavietes
December 9, 2021


More than 600 best-selling authors, publishers, bookstore owners and advocacy groups Wednesday condemned the recent wave of LGBTQ- and race-related book bans in public school libraries across the country.

Over the last several weeks, lawmakers, school officials and parents in at least 10 states — including New York, Texas and Virginia — have sought to rid books about the lived experiences of Black and LGBTQ people from elementary, middle and high schools.

Some who are challenging the books argue that they contain graphic illustrations of LGBTQ sexual experiences or portray an unflattering image of the country's history with race.
[…]
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, previously told NBC News that while reported challenges against books with LGBTQ- and race-related content have historically been “constant,” this year, the association has seen a “chilling” uptick.

“I’ve worked at ALA for two decades now, and I’ve never seen this volume of challenges come in,” she said. “The impact will fall to those students who desperately want and need books that reflect their lives, that answer questions about their identity, about their experiences that they always desperately need and often feel that they can’t talk to adults about.”

Queer advocates who signed on to the statement echoed Caldwell-Stone's concerns with regards for the LGBTQ community.

This is something right out of the 1950s and the thing is 50% of the population sees nothing wrong with banning books on LGBTQ+ topics.

~~~~~~~~~~

 *National Coalition Against Censorship

Conflict

That is what the media wants, it sells ads. When the debate over marriage equality was being debate in the news one of the things that I noticed was when they had a religious person on they were always conservatives, they never had a spokesperson from an affirming church.

The importance of queer visibility in religion reporting
Nearly half of LGBTQ+ adults identify as being religious. Why are their stories not proportionally included in religion reporting?
Poynter*
By: Julia Métraux
December 6, 2021

[…]

“I think the biggest impact actually came from my mom because I think that it really opened her eyes to the possibility of people being queer and religious,” Froio said. “Years later when I came out, I think that was like one of her points of reference.”

LGBTQ+ stories are often not proportionally included in religion reporting, both in religious and mainstream publications. While queerphobia does exist in religious spaces, an October 2020 report from UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute found that nearly half of LGBTQ+ adults identified as being religious. LGBTQ+ adults of color are more likely to be religious, especially in the American South, than white LGBTQ+ people.
[…]
Positive representation of stories at the intersection of LGBTQ+ issues and religion also varies by faith and denomination. A December 2020 report from the Center for American Progress found that “news media coverage of religion and LGBTQ rights more often cites religiously identified sources that oppose LGBTQ equality.” However, “mainline Protestant and Jewish sources expressed the highest shares of positive or pro-LGBTQ sentiment.”

In the general population many people think that LGBTQ+ are heathens but that isn’t true, I know many LGBTQ+ who are religious and I know a couple of trans priests, one trans person is rector in an Episcopal church and another who is the head of a MCC parish.

The question is why is it under reported?

~~~~~~~~~~~

*The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida. The school is the owner of the Tampa Bay Times newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Network and operates PolitiFact.

Saturday 9: Drivers License

Sam’s Saturday 9: Drivers License (2021)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

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

1) This song is about a girl who just got her drivers license. Who taught you to drive?
In high school they had a driver education class (Now after driving schools complained they dropped the class.)
My brother taught me to drive a standard in his MGB.

2) Do you like your drivers license/state ID photo?
It is a photo… what is there to like or dislike?

3) Think back to the first ticket you received. How old were you, and what was it for?
My first and only ticket was for going 85 in a 75 mph zone on the New York Thruway in the middle of nowhere, it was flat corn country and there was only one tree a big old oak. It was 5 in the morning, no traffic, the sun was just rising and there was this guy doing jumping jacks in the middle of the highway… What the heck? As I got closer I saw he had on a wide brim hat… Hmm. Then I saw his car behind the tree.
It was an eighteen dollar ticket for going 10 mph over the speed limit.

4) In this week's song, Olivia Rodrigo is brokenhearted, driving through her boyfriend's neighborhood, certain that he has taken up with the sophisticated blonde girl. When it comes to romance, do you have a jealous streak?
No, it is not worth it. Que Sera Sera

5) Olivia grew up in Temucula, California. Temecula is home to 40 wineries and dozens of tasting rooms. Have you ever attended a wine tasting?
Yes, many times. In college it was a way of getting free wine.
The fraternity used to make the rounds of wineries in the Finger Lakes region of New York one Saturday in the fall. Back in the early seventies there was no such thing as a designated driver.

6) Her first on-screen appearance was in a commercial for Old Navy stores. Old Navy is owned by the same company as Banana Republic, Gap and Athletica. Have you done any of your holiday shopping at one of those stores? (Yes, their websites count.)
Nope.
Actually I have only been to one store on the list Old Navy, I was looking for a fleece jacket for the spring and fall. They didn’t have anything in my size.

7) She went on to star in projects for Disney studios. That's also how pop stars Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, and Christina Aguilera got started. Arguably the first teen star created by Disney studios was Annette Funicello. Do you remember her?
Ha! I have never seen any of the pop stars that you mentioned but I have watched all the Annette Funicello moives. And you couldn’t get me way from watching the original Micky Mouse Club.

8) "Drivers License" was one of this year's most popular songs. One of this year's most popular books is John Grisham's The Judge's List. Do you expect to do much reading between now and the end of the year? If so, what's on your TBR (to be read) list?
I have listening to books more than reading them.

9) Random Question: What is the longest line you ever stood in, and was it worth it?
I don’t remember how long I waited and for what but I remember thinking that I would never do that again.

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

My Story Part 186: Outreach

I have been doing outreach for over 15 years, the first time that I spoke in front of group was at the Children from the Shadows conference (Later it became know as the True Colors conference.) at the University of Hartford. It was impromptu, they needed one more person on the panel in fifteen minutes and they talked me into it, something I don’t regret doing.

I was hooked, I could see that I made a difference but then it was a LGBTQ+ conference and the conference attendees were either LGBTQ+ people or our allies.

I joined a LGBTQ+ speakers bureau and started talking in junior high schools, high schools, and colleges, for a few years I did the circuit of the schools. But I noticed a pattern, they were more interested in what I call fluff questions… “How did you chose your name?” “What do hormones do to you?” “Who do you date?” "Did you have 'The Surgery'?" etc. etc. etc.

Then I went to grad school for my masters in social work and they had a day set aside for diversity training and I realized that having students ask question was not the way professional trainers do diversity training, it is a long through presentation, they follows a logical flow. So for an Independent Study class I asked if I could develop diversity training presentation, and they thought that was a great idea. They assigned a professor to me for the class.

From that Independent Studies class I created a 90 minute PowerPoint presentation back in 2010-2011.

I have constantly been update the presentation and I have given it to…

• Albertus Magnus: Multicultural Education
• Connecticut and Massachusetts chapters of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) annual conference.
• Department of Corrections
• Department of Justice
• Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS)
• Jewish Family Services
• Quinnipiac University: Multicultural Education:
• Southern Connecticut State University - DPH: Introduction to Health Promotion
• Yale University - DPH: Introduction to Health Promotion
• University of Connecticut Counseling and Mental Health Services

For the classes the professors turn the class over to me and I run the class for the day.

Some of the feedback that I got from teaching the classes…

Thank you for inviting Diana to guest speak. She was candid, open, and super informative. I am especially excited by what she told us about transgender brain studies.

Though I know her presentation benefited me, I worry that it might have let other students not as accepting of trans folks as I am off the hook too easily. We need the opportunity as a class to hash it out and learn from each other. People who expressed lacking knowledge or tolerance on the discussion board and outside of the classroom were able to be spectators, not participants. In order to ready ourselves for diverse classroom populations, we must engage in active discussion. I recommend that we continue the LGBTQ conversation next week.

Again, though, I am glad Diana came to speak. Her presence humanized the "issue" for me and, I suspect, for my classmates.

---

Diana’s presentation on the science behind the term “transgender” as well as the transgender community was thought provoking, informative, and interesting. I have many family members who are also members of the LGBT community, so topics such as gender identity have always captivated my attention. I have watched numerous documentaries on individuals who identity as transgender and the science behind this phenomenon. I have also had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of transgender biology, psychology, and culture through my interactions with a myriad of students at Hall High School. It was fascinating to learn that sections of a transgender person’s brain often possess gender characteristics that are different from the individual’s physical gender markers. I was also elated to discover that doctors can halt puberty in a transgender person’s body at a young age and help them experience an easier physical transition to their true gender. Such developments make me hopeful for the future. Ideally, treatments such as these will become more widely available to any transgender person who wishes to transition. However, I think the most important takeaway from Diana’s presentation was that people are just people, even if they were born in the wrong body and feel the need to make a change. Everyone should display empathy and compassion for their fellow human beings.

---

I found Diana's presentation to very interesting and informational. Before this presentation, I could honestly never understand how or why somebody would think they were trapped in the wrong body. I specifically found the videos she showed to be moving and allowed for me to understand how some people truly feel. It was amazing to me that the little boy in one of the videos was struggling on so many levels, but greatly improved once his family was on board with him wanting to become a girl. It made me realize that nobody should be afraid of being who they really are, no matter how the public may take it. I learned how hard it truly is for someone to completely switch their lives and literally become a new person.

---

I got to class on weds at 4 minutes past 2pm. When I walked into the class I was given a soft accepting smile from the person who appeared to be teaching for the day, so I quickly put down my stuff, shook off all the wet, (it was absolutely pouring outside, which is why I was a little late (people can't drive in the rain in Hartford)) and begin to listen. I was very taken by how brave she was and I found her life story to be quite moving and inspiring. The video clips that she played were particularly touching and I found it hard to turn away. Especially the girl that wanted her parent to call her Jazz and to block her puberty. Overall, I learned a lot on weds and I must admit I knew nothing about the subject of trans gender before I walked into class, but I knew a ton after I left.

---

I truly enjoyed Diana’s lecture this week and I know that many others in the class agree! She was showing a video near the very end and she cut it off because she felt it was too long, but Christine, Emily, and I all wanted to continue watching!

One thing that stood out to me was the discussion of microaggressions. We had just learned about microaggressions in our previous class! I think that hearing Diana’s perspective enhanced my understanding of microaggressions. Many of the questions that she said never to ask or say are things that I could easily see well-meaning people saying unwittingly. For example, have you had the surgery?I would have never known you were a male! “Which bathroom do you use?” “What was your real name?” and “When did you decide to become a woman?” are all things that I can imagine people would say if they were trying to be kind or genuinely trying to understand her experience. I’m glad that I’ve been taught to be more sensitive about these types of matters and now I can see why it’s actually very rude to say any of these things.

One of the professors wrote me this note…

I did an activity yesterday in my UConn class. It was a simulation in which the 20 students were required to look at 17 resumes and hire seven teachers unanimously. Each brief resume has a loaded statement, such as one person belong to a military militia group, another was a professed segregationist, another had 10 kids, etc. One of the potential people to hire was a transgender teacher FTM. in the past when I did this activity it was usually early on in the course and rarely, if ever do the students choose to hire this person. Often the reason is that there are other candidates better suited. In yesterday's class all four groups unanimously hired the transgender teacher. This was a first. my role is to challenge them on why they hired or did not hire each candidate. The students were uniformly saying that this person is well-qualified.

You are making a difference.

I break down the training into modules…

• Definitions
• Deconstruction gender
• The Standard of Care
• The Coming Out Process
• Transition
• Children/Elder care
• Intersectionality
• Community

I switch modules according to whom I am training, long term care facilities get the Elder Care module while teachers get the module on Children.

The Speaker Bureau has its place but for a more substantial training you really need an hour or two to do proper training.

Forums

I am a members of a number of forums and one thing that is common across all forums is when a member disappears suddenly.

I am a member of a medical forum that I joined ten years ago and a member who greeted back then vanished.

She live alone and in mid-November all stopped posting, all efforts to contact her has failed. One moment she was posting two or three times a day then nothing, and we are fearing the worst.

She nursed newly diagnosed members through their initial trials of living with the disease and she was always there for them if they needed to chat. She was there for me to lend her ear for me.

Then silence.

The same thing happened with trans support groups, people move on but usually there are signs that they are leaving the group, like less frequent posting, or disagreement with other members.

It is a miniature version of life as people move in and out of your sphere. But this is different because the forum is about a disease that can be deadly, so in the back of your mind you think that she might have succumb to the disease? Or is she in a coma? Had a car accident? What about her dogs, who is caring for them?

I have my fingers crossed that she will be back, but as every days goes by the odds are decreaisng.

At One Time The Pope Lead The Catholic Church.

Not any more the Cardinals and Bishops are thumbing their noses at him.

On LGBTQ+ Rights, Ghana’s Bishops Choose to Ignore Pope
The Advocate via Yahoo
By Graeme Reid
December 6, 2021


Pope Francis has repeatedly made news this fall, calling for a Catholic Church that is more welcoming toward LGBTQ+ people. In October, a newly released documentary on the Pope’s life aired earlier comments in support of same-sex civil unions. During a September visit to Hungary and Slovakia, the Pope commented on the need for the Church to “do pastoral work” with same-sex couples. At a press conference a few days later, he remarked on the prospect of same-sex civil unions, saying that “if a homosexual couple wants to lead a life together, the State has the possibility to give them safety, stability, inheritance.”

These comments have led some Catholic observers to praise the Pope’s “pastoral approach to L.G.B.T. people.” This approach not only respects LGBTQ+ people as members of society but calls on governments to provide them basic legal protections.

That was good news for us but…

Just a few days after the Pope’s visit to Hungary and Slovakia, the Ghanaian Catholic Bishops Conference publicly expressed its support for a draconian bill making its way through parliament — The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 — and stated that “homosexual practices [should be made] illegal in Ghana.”

NPR reported…

Among those in opposition [To the Equality Act] are the National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Coalition for Jewish Values, representing Orthodox rabbis. Together, the groups represent a broad swath of U.S. religious denominations.

So much for the Pope to be the leader of the Catholic Church.

Violence

Once again threats of violence against us continues, this time in New York City.

Man arrested for threatening to attack LGBTQ community with guns, bombs
The 74-year-old man reportedly sent dozens of threatening letters.
ABC News
ByAaron Katersky
December 6, 2021


A suburban New York man threatened to attack the 2021 New York City Pride March with "firepower" that would "make the 2016 Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting look like a cakewalk," federal prosecutors said Monday.

Robert Fehring, 74, of Bayport, New York, allegedly sent at least 60 letters threatening to assault, shoot and bomb LGBTQ-affiliated individuals, organizations and businesses. He was arrested Monday morning and was released later that day on a $100,000 bond.

The Hill reported that this has been going on a long time and the authorities finally got around to doing something.

Robert Fehring of Long Island had reportedly been sending letters to LGBTQ+ organizations, businesses, and community members since 2013, threatening to assault, shoot, and bomb them, according to an unsealed criminal complaint.

In one letter, he threatened this year’s New York City Pride March, held in June, writing that there would "be radio-cont[r]olled devices placed at numerous strategic places,” which would do more damage than the Pulse Nightclub shooting, in which 49 people were killed and dozens more wounded at a gay bar in Orlando, Fla.

And when they arrested him they found,

Members of the FBI’s Civil Rights Squad and the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force executed a search warrant on Fehring’s home on Nov. 18, according to a Department of Justice news release. Photographs from a recent Pride event in East Meadow were recovered, along with two loaded shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, two stun guns, and a stamped envelope addressed to an LGBTQ+ affiliated attorney containing the remains of a dead bird.

I would think after the first threatening letter they would have arrested him and not let it go on for some eight years.

In this time of increased violence and hate crimes directed at minorities I would hope that the authorities would be more proactive, the lives that they might be saving is yours and mine.

Still Taking The High Road

Once again Amy shows that she has class.

Trans ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Amy Schneider Called Out The GOP When A Lawmaker Offered Congrats On Her Winning Streak
Uproxx
By Kimberly Ricci
December 6, 2021


Transgender Jeopardy! champ Amy Schneider rose to champ status during Trans Awareness Week and has kept her winning streak, thus far, going for 13 games. This puts her in a rare spot: the 4th all-time champ when it comes to regular-season games, with a total of $536,400 and counting. She’ll be eligible in the Tournament of Champions, at some point down the line, as the first trans contestant to participate. And while producers are still trying to firm up a permanent replacement host (Amy has been praising Ken Jennings), there’s no hesitation at all when it comes to Amy deciding to throw some shade at certain lawmakers when given the chance.

To a Democratic Ohio legislator she wrote,

Amy responded with all the positivity that her tweets have revealed thus far, though there was some spice here. “Thanks!” Amy wrote. “To any followers in Ohio, next year remember that, no matter who the Republican candidate is, one of their goals in office will be to make life harder for me personally. Don’t give them the chance!”

She didn’t go into a rant, or strong language just a simple reminder of their oppressive practices.

There are some trans people that feel that she should use her time on Jeopardy for activism and I think that she is using her time on Jeopardy just right… she has class!

What Is With People Now A Days?

[RANT]
It seems like all civility has disappeared, on planes, trains, and automobiles, in stores and in public people are going berserk and turning to violence. Hate crimes are increasing across the country.

A veteran Taco Bell worker of 20 years says he quit because customers have gotten so 'unreasonable' and hard to deal with
Business Inside
By Mary Meisenzahl
December 3, 2021


After 20 years of working at Taco Bell, a worker told Insider that he's leaving because customers have gotten too difficult in the past year.

The worker, whose employment was confirmed by Insider and who asked to remain anonymous for fears of impacting his future employment, has been in the fast-food industry for years, putting in six years at McDonald's before his two-decade career at Taco Bell.
[…]
The employee says that things have gotten especially bad since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. Customers have become more critical and angry towards workers in the service industry, and suddenly "people think it's perfectly okay to be intolerant, demand things, and just be unreasonable," he said, to the point where his work is "almost untenable."

In the air...

Fed up with being cursed out and attacked, flight attendants speak out about unruly passengers
CNBC
By Andrea Day and Chris DiLella
July 15 2021


They’ve been cursed out, grabbed and even punched in the head.

Flight attendants are now speaking out publicly about the stress of managing increasingly unruly passengers at 35,000 feet, a job that’s gotten more difficult in recent months as passengers return to the skies after months of lockdowns.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced flight attendants to enforce federal rules requiring masks on planes, a mandate that’s touched a political nerve for many Americans and led to a rise in bad behavior onboard.

“It’s definitely out of control,” said flight attendant Matthew Cook, one of two flight attendants who agreed to speak to CNBC on the record as long as their employer wasn’t identified. “I have apprehensions [about] going to work every day. I have a lot of anxiety.”

Is it because of COVID or the state of politics in the country have we lost all civility to one another in America? Is it just in America or is it world wide?

Guest Column: May civility reign
The Bulletin
By Joe Craig
November 29, 2021


It is the holiday season, a season of thankfulness and hope. It can also be a season of stress; stress from shopping, stress from COVID concerns and stress from managing relationships with friends and family with differing opinions. For many this is the time of year to give to those that are less fortunate. I propose that we also give each other the gift of civility this holiday season. It is important that we fully understand what it means to be civil, because in recent years being uncivil has become a social norm.

On Nov. 18, Joe Sluka, the president and CEO at St. Charles Health System, wrote an email about civility and I thank him for his well-stated message. In his email he said that according to Thomas Spath and Cassandra Dahnke, the founders of the Institute for Civility in Government: “Civility is claiming and caring for one’s identity, needs and beliefs without degrading someone else’s in the process.” The Institute for Civility website, www.instituteforcivility.org, goes on to say: Civility is about more than just politeness, although politeness is a necessary first step.

It is about disagreeing without disrespect, seeking common ground as a starting point for dialogue about differences, listening past one’s preconceptions, and teaching others to do the same. Civility is the hard work of staying present even with those with whom we have deep-rooted and fierce disagreements. It is political in the sense that it is a necessary prerequisite for civic action. But it is political, too, in the sense that it is about negotiating interpersonal power such that everyone’s voice is heard, and nobody’s is ignored.

Civility is have respect for others, it is about empathy, and caring for others. It is about “us” and not “me.” It is not just about holding doors open for others, it is about accepting others for who they are. It is about not denying other people right to exist.

It is as James Baldwin said,

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

It is about recognizing that slavery existed, it is about recognizing that systematic racism exists. It is about stopping the policies that deny rights to other individuals and communities.

Politics in this country is being used as a wedge to divide communities, it is being used to stir up hate to divide us into them and us and to tell the truth I don’t know how to stop it. I think the feeling of helplessness is fueling the lack of civility… the “Fuck you” attitude.

I think that many see the world is changing and they want to stop it, they don’t like the change, change bring stress, stress brings fear, fear bring self-defense the circling the wagons response.

I know that in me what triggers a lack of civility is tell LGBTQ+ that we do not have the right to exist, passing laws forcing us back into the closet. I think that lack of civility is justified and what I don’t understand is why they hate us? All we want is for us to live our lives in peace. What is so wrong with that?

What are your thoughts on how to bring civility and empathy back?
[/RANT]

The Supreme Court Anti-LGBTQ+ Bias

But it is getting closer to reality, it is a very strong possibility accord to justices Kavanaugh and Sotomayor, read what Justice Kavanaugh  said,

“If we think that the prior precedents are seriously wrong, if that, why then doesn’t the history of this court’s practice with respect to those cases tell us that the right answer is actually a return to the position of neutrality and — and not stick with those precedents in the same way that all those other cases didn’t?”

They are all primed with court cases to overturn marriage equality and same-sex relationships.

Kavanaugh cites landmark gay rights cases in argument about abortion restrictions
Lawyers who argued for LGBTQ rights in those landmark cases — Obergefell v. Hodges and Lawrence v. Texas — were conflicted on the validity of Justice Kavanaugh’s argument.
NBC Out
By Matt Lavietes
December 3, 2021


Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh seemed to suggest earlier this week that landmark LGBTQ cases could support overturning federal abortion rights.

The Supreme Court heard 90 minutes of oral arguments Wednesday concerning a Mississippi law that would ban almost all abortions in the state after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
[…]
The crux of Wednesday’s oral arguments centered around whether the justices should preserve or walk back on precedent, a court decision that is considered authority for subsequent cases involving similar or identical circumstances. The court’s liberal justices warned that reversing a decades-old ruling would politicize the country’s highest court.

However, citing two landmark gay rights cases — Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down state laws criminalizing consensual same-sex activity in 2003, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which resulted in the legalization of same-sex marriage across the United States in 2015 — Kavanaugh suggested that overruling the court’s previous opinions was standard procedure.

Also speaking up about the concern of overturning other long held landmark case but without the glee that Justice Kavanaugh holds is Justice Sotomayor, she issued this warning.

Sotomayor Says Abortion Case Imperils LGBTQ Rights
Bloomberg Equality
By Kimberly Robinson
December 1, 2021


Supreme Court justices asked whether a ruling in favor of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban could call into question other seemingly settled constitutional rights, from the use of contraception, to the criminalization of sodomy, to the more recently recognized right to same-sex marriage.
[...]
The Supreme Court has recognized other implicit rights including several under the “right to privacy,” which itself isn’t explicitly in the text of the Constitution.

If the court does an about-face on abortion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned the high court could face similar challenges to other rights grounded in the same principles.

Many of the rulings of the Supreme Court that set precedents go back to a 1965 Supreme Court ruling from a case here in Connecticut.

In the 1965 ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut, the court said that the Constitution creates “zones of privacy” even though such a right isn’t explicit in the text. Those zones exist within the “penumbras” of the specific rights in the Bill of Rights, the court said.

Sotomayor noted on Wednesday some of the rights the court has “discerned” from the Constitution.

This is where it gets scary for us.

The case of Lawrence v. Texas where the government has no business with what goes on in the bedroom is in jeopardy.

The antipodal of GLAD and Lambda Legal, the Alliance Defending Freedom which has filed anti-LGBTQ+ court cases and sponsored anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has cases ready to be filed to the Supreme Court. The NBC article when on to say…

But if the court does overrule the landmark abortion law, some legal experts warn that previous rulings, including the landmark LGBTQ decisions, would be in danger.

“You can be sure that the Alliance Defending Freedom has the lawsuit ready to file the day after the Supreme Court issues an opinion broadly overruling Roe,” Katherine Franke, the director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, said referring to a Christian law firm with a decadeslong track record of litigating against LGBTQ rights. “They will file the next day challenging Obergefell and even Lawrence. I have every confidence that that is what they’re to do.”

We can expect more cases coming before the Supreme Court that will decimate our rights and try to force us back into the closet, and back into the time of "Father Knows Best."

---

Then we have the “Religious Freedom” that some of the justices think that the Constitution allows anyone to do anything in the name of “Religious Freedom” and that they are exempt from laws.

Neil Gorsuch's terrifying paragraph

The Hill

By Andrew Koppelman

December 5, 2021

I am terrified by a paragraph that Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a few weeks ago. You should be, too. He and two other justices think the Constitution forbids states from imposing, on religious dissenters, the kind of vaccination requirements that freed the United States from diphtheria, measles and polio. If these judges have their way, those diseases may come back.

[…]

Now here is the paragraph. In October, the Court declined to block Maine’s requirement that health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus notwithstanding their religious objections. Gorsuch, dissenting (joined by Thomas and Alito), wrote: 

I accept that what we said 11 months ago remains true today — that “[s]temming the spread of COVID–19” qualifies as “a compelling inter­est.” At the same time, I would acknowledge that this interest cannot qualify as such forever. Back when we decided Roman Catholic Diocese, there were no widely distributed vac­cines. Today there are three. At that time, the country had comparably few treatments for those suffering with the disease. Today we have additional treatments and more appear near. If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency.

Remember that General George Washington ordered his troops to get vaccinated against smallpox!

The preamble to the U.S, Constitution sates…

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The preamble sets the goals of the nation, and notice the phrase “promote the general Welfare” by allowing people to not get vaccinated is not promoting the general welfare of the people.

~~~~~~~

Remember that these justices were hand picked because of their biases, they are strongly evangelical Christians who are anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ and they believe that the Bible supersede the Constitution.

Saturday 9: Got My Mind Set on You

Sam’s Saturday 9: Got My Mind Set on You (1976)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun…

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

1) George Harrison sings that he requires money, patience and time. Which of those three do you wish for most this morning?
Patience for all the idiots out there, like the idiot who yesterday was in the left turn lane to go straight. The lane for going straight at the light was backed up for several changes of the light, so this person drives all the way down in the left turn lane sat there blocking cars that wanted to turn left. Then when the light turned green they cut the first car off and went straight. He must think he is so superior to everyone else.

2) This was long one of George's favorite songs. He first heard it back in September, 1963 -- months before the Beatles became an international phenomenon -- when he visited his sister in Benton, IL. Is there a song that reminds you of a trip you took?
No not really but I used to have an 8-track that I played while driving the back roads through the Berkshires mountains with a fast beat.

3) For years, George thought his birthday was February 25. When he was 17, he saw his birth certificate and learned he was really born on the 24th. His mother explained that he was born just before midnight on the 24th and she didn't get to hold him until early morning on the 25th, so she considered the 25th as his birthday. Do you know any interesting stories about the day you were born?
Nope, nothing just your typical days however John Lennon was born the same day as me.

4) When George was just 14, he met Paul McCartney on a bus en route to school. Tell us about a time when you met someone who ended up changing your life.
I live a pretty bland life with no persons who changed my life, I got some good advice over the years but nothing earth shattering.

5) Then 17, John Lennon was not interested in letting George perform with his band. He dismissed George as too young. Paul insisted George get a chance and the rest, as they say, is history. Tell us about someone who stood up for you and helped you succeed.
My parents, they stood by me when I flunked out of college a couple of times.

6) In the 1970s, George took up gardening. He said that clearing away weeds and overgrowth helped him clear his head, and he was very proud of his jasmine flowers. What's your hobby? Why do you enjoy it?
Well anyone who has played Saturday 9 for a while knows what my hobby is… photography. Why do I enjoy it, because time stands still.

7) He also enjoyed playing ukulele and encouraged others to do the same. George often gave ukuleles as birthday and Christmas gifts. What's the last gift you received?
We don’t exchange gifts, we have a Yankee Swap instead.

8) At the Academy Awards in spring 1976, another George was in the news. George Burns won an Oscar for his performance in The Sunshine Boys. Who was in the last movie you watched?
It is not really a movie but I have been watching the “Wheel of Time” on Prime.

9) What's the last thing you dropped? Did it break?
Nope, it was my mouse. The trackball popped out, rolled around down the stairs and I had to chase it down the stairs, but it didn’t break. Speaking of which I am on a Zoom panel this afternoon that I’m not looking forward to.


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

A Role Model!

When I was growing there were no role models for trans people, we had Renee Richards but the press tore her down. If you look in the dictionary at that time you would have found “mental illness, perversion, etc. fast forward 60 years…

Amy Schneider has won 11 in a row on ‘Jeopardy!’ — and she’s already made history
The Charlotte Observer
By Mike Stunson
December 2, 2021


On the heels of this year’s successes by Matt Amodio and Jonathan Fisher, a new “Jeopardy!” champion is quickly moving up the show’s all-time leaderboard.

Amy Schneider, an engineering manager from Oakland, California, has won 11 [As of Dec. 2 it is 12 winds and she is something like the 5^th all time money winner.] straight games on “Jeopardy!” as of Dec. 1 to become the third contestant this year to win as many.

She is in a tie for 10th all-time with 11 straight “Jeopardy!” victories. Her $421,200 in winnings rank seventh in the show’s history of regular season prizes.

Here’s what to know about Schneider, who hopes to close out the week before next week’s Professors Tournament begins.

Not only is she winning she has also taken the high road.

You can even catch Schneider recapping each day’s episode on Twitter. After a Nov. 25 episode, she mentioned “the one thing that sucks” about her winning streak is other contestants having to lose.

She also defended the other contestants.

Amy Schneider Defends Fellow 'Jeopardy!' Contestant From Sexist Criticism
Newsweek
By Ryan Smith
December 2, 2021


Jeopardy! champ Amy Schneider has spoken out in defense of one of her recent challengers, saying she had been the target of sexist attacks on Twitter.

On Tuesday's installment of the show, Schneider was seen facing off against Krys Fischer, a retired substitute teacher from Mendota Heights, Minnesota, and Pam Schoenberg, a dentist and entrepreneur from South Salem, New York.

The day after fans watched Schneider emerge from the episode victorious, the Ohio native took to Twitter to speak out against the misogynistic criticism aimed at Schoenberg, whose competitive streak kept the champ on her toes.
[…]
"But I feel it's important to acknowledge: we all know that some amount of the criticism that Pam received, she received for being a woman. I don't know how much of it wouldn't have been directed at a man acting the same way, but I do know that it's more than 0%.

She has become a role model for the trans community, in The Blast she is reported as saying,

Schneider told local San Francisco station ABC7 that “Seeing trans people anywhere in society that you haven’t seen them before is so valuable for the kids right now that are seeing it.”

She continued, “I’m so grateful that I am giving some nerdy little trans kid somewhere the realization that this is something that they could do too.”

The The Washington Post (via the Seattle Times) writes about her where she wore a transgender flag pin,

“The fact is, I don’t actually think about being trans all that often, and so when appearing on national television, I wanted to represent that part of my identity accurately: as important, but also relatively minor,” she wrote. “But I also didn’t want it to seem as if it was some kind of shameful secret.”

Schneider was initially a bit hesitant to publish the thread. She has seen prominent trans people speak out on Twitter, and the reaction is not always pleasant. But as she realized she was going to be on national television for a decent stretch of time, she started thinking about how she wanted to talk about that part of her identity. As a once-closeted trans person, she knew others in similar situations would be watching her closely.

“I just want them to know that I see them and I support them and they’re great, and they can do great things,” she said, adding that she wanted to show people in the closeted phase that it’s possible to “be living your true self and having success and doing everything you ever wanted to do.” The online reaction from “Jeopardy!” viewers, with a few rare exceptions, has been overwhelmingly positive, she said, and she’s enjoyed chatting with fans on Twitter and sharing behind-the-scenes details.

She takes the high road.

Can You See A Difference?

In a tale of two countries in one, one inclusive and one exclusive, one that disenfranchises its citizens and one that embraces difference.

New Haven's schools pass a new policy designed to protect transgender students
WSHU
By John Kane
November 25, 2021


New Haven education officials approved a new policy that they said will help protect the identity, safety and rights of transgender students in schools in the city.

The New Haven Board of Education voted unanimously Monday on a new policy for transgender students rights and protections. Sara Armstrong, who is a parent in the district, told the board that transgender students needed more protection and support as they are more vulnerable to homelessness, violence and suicide.

“I hope that our trans and gender non-conforming students experience what this policy lays out: that they are respected and they are believed when they tell us who they are, that they can bring their whole selves to school and they are going to be safe in doing so and that they will be able to participate fully,” she said.

Meanwhile in the same country states and cities are trying to dehumanize members of their communities. They are denying them healthcare, they are denying them the right to take part in sports and extracurricular activities, they are demonizing them, and they are taking away their rights.

That it the difference between a red state and blue state.

So You Think That It Can’t Happen Here?

Attacks on LGBTQ people is increasing around the world, the latest is in the Ukrainian where gay bars are being attacked while the police did nothing.

Neo-Nazis Attack Gay Bar While Screaming ‘White Power’ & Antigay Slurs
The Advocate vis Yahoo
By Alex Cooper
December 1, 2021


A bar in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv was attacked Tuesday night. The attack comes only a few weeks after a far-right group on social media said it would begin targeting "drug dens," which activists say really means LGBTQ+ establishments.

Camera footage posted on YouTube by the Kyiv Dispatch shows about 20 men in dark clothes in front of the bar as they attempt to make their way in, however, security guards are shown preventing them from doing so. The attackers instead trash the outside area.

The neo-Nazis bombarded HvLv while yellings things like “white power” and “death to faggots,” according to the Russian state-funded news outlet RT.

Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, and the other former Soviet black countries are all anti-LGBTQ+.

So what about the US? How do we stack up?

White supremacist prison guards work with impunity in Fla.
AP
By Jason Dearen
November 19, 2021


In June, three Florida prison guards who boasted of being white supremacists beat, pepper sprayed and used a stun gun on an inmate who screamed “I can’t breathe!” at a prison near the Alabama border, according to a fellow inmate who reported it to the state.

The next day, the officers at Jackson Correctional Institution did it again to another inmate, the report filed with the Florida Department of Corrections’ Office of Inspector General stated.

“If you notice these two incidents were people of color. They (the guards) let it be known they are white supremacist,” the inmate Jamaal Reynolds wrote. “The Black officers and white officers don’t even mingle with each other. Every day they create a hostile environment trying to provoke us so they can have a reason to put their hands on us.”

Both incidents occurred in view of surveillance cameras, he said. Reynolds’ neatly printed letter included the exact times and locations and named the officers and inmates. It’s the type of specific information that would have made it easier for officials to determine if the reports were legitimate. But the inspector general’s office did not investigate, corrections spokeswoman Molly Best said. Best did not provide further explanation, and the department hasn’t responded to The Associated Press’ August public records requests for the videos.

How long do you think that the guards turn their sights on us?

Two Sides, When There Is Really Only One.

The Republicans like to say there are two sides to every argument, two sides to the Holocaust, two side for trans rights, first their side (Take your blood pressure meds first.)

Transgender activists prey on sympathetic parents
Washington Examiner
By Debra Soh
November 29, 2021


Last week, a children’s book reading commemorating the Transgender Day of Remembrance in a Denton, Texas, library was canceled due to safety concerns following public backlash. In response, the mother of a trans-identified child organized a "transgender story time" at a new location, with hundreds of people reportedly in attendance.

While seeming benign due to their celebratory nature, these types of "inclusive" events are not innocuous. All of the research literature shows that the majority of gender dysphoric children will outgrow their dysphoria by puberty. Because gender has become a fashionable accessory, children quickly learn that deciding to identify as anything but their birth sex will increase their popularity and foster adults' attention and adulation.
[…]
Many well-meaning parents erroneously believe that celebrating the so-called transgender child is the kind and ethical thing to do. Activists, many of whom are not transgender, have cleverly tricked parents into doing the heavy lifting for them. It is akin to the way suicide statistics have been used to manipulate caregivers into allowing a child to transition, when these numbers pertain to adults experiencing gender dysphoria, and have little relevance to children.

Okay is your blood pressure all right?

This is what Politico has to say about the Washington Examiner,

Phil Anschutz's conservative agenda
By Michael Calderone
October 16, 2009


One night last week at The Dubliner, an Irish bar near the Capitol, an unassuming Denver billionaire who has quietly made himself a player in Washington’s relatively small media world, had dinner with his editors.

It was a rare D.C. visit by Philip Anschutz, ranked by Forbes as the 37th richest man in America. But Anschutz’s ownership of The Washington Examiner, a daily tabloid, and The Weekly Standard, probably the nation’s most influential conservative magazine, has given him a megaphone for his right-wing views on taxes, national security and President Barack Obama that the 130 or so companies he owns have not provided him.

And that is where the Washington Examiner is coming from the far right so attacking us is right inline with it political base.

Now for the other side…

Not a 'two-sides issue': Transgender people exist. Why is there a debate over whether they should have rights?
USA Today
By Susan Miller
November 18, 2021


[…]
“It’s easier to take away someone’s rights if they don’t exist,” Coleman said.

The year has been a tough one in many ways for transgender people. Anti-transgender legislation brewed in state legislatures, including at least 75 bills that would block trans youths' participation in sports and 40 that would deny youths gender-affirming medical care, according to the Equality Federation and the Movement Advancement Project, which track state laws.
[…]
For a transgender person to feel like their very existence is being debated – or denied – is devastating, says Jay Brown, a senior vice president with the Human Rights Campaign.

“It is very dehumanizing,” he said. “Like you are standing there as a person and you exist and people are talking about you as if you don’t.”

The transgender community “for a long time has been a go-to source for fearmongering when it comes to politics,” he said. “A lot of folks still don’t know us. And in the absence of knowing us there are misunderstandings, doubts and confusion. Some of that is at play and being politicized.”

And that is the key, getting to know us.

If… (Part Two)

[RANT]
After I posted my blog yesterday which I wrote late last week I came across an article in Pink News that backs up what I wrote.

Supreme Court abortion case could lead to more attacks on human rights – including LGBT+ rights
This week, the US Supreme Court will hear Mississippi’s case for overturning the Roe v Wade decision that federally guaranteed the right to an abortion.
By Lily Wakefield
November 29, 2021


[…]
But advocates for reproductive rights are nervous.

The Mississippi case marks the most serious challenge to Roe v Wade in decades, and the court hearing the arguments, beginning on 1 December, has a 6-3 conservative majority thanks to Donald Trump.

Shannon Brewer, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in the whole of Mississippi, told ABC: “This is the most worried I’ve ever been.”

So what does this have to do LGBTQ+ people?

The granting of abortion rights across America relied on the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the fifth and 14th amendments of the US constitution.

Both amendments guarantee that no one shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”. According to the court’s interpretation, the right to privacy falls under “liberty”, and therefore so does the right to an abortion.

But other rights relating to bodily autonomy, including contraception and same-sex marriage, also rest on this interpretation, and are classed as “due process rights”.

Marshall Martinez, executive director of Equality New Mexico, told the non-profit news organisation New Mexico Political Report: “There is a real possibility that if this court said Roe was wrongly decided, it never gave us the right to privacy, then there could be other challenges.”
[…]
The potential “diminishment of the 14th amendment”, which would result in a diminishment of the right to privacy and bodily autonomy, could topple a multitude of LGBT+ rights, from marriage equality, to gender-affirming healthcare, to sex itself.

That is what I wrote yesterday in my Rant, that the court might weaken the Fourteenth Amendment and they might see other “Rights” as superseding the Fourteenth Amendment.

Be very worried, this Supreme Court has been packed with justices that are evangelical Christians and put the Bible before the Constitution they were picked by the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.

[/RANT]

When It Becomes Personal.

Most people don’t think about us, we are just some abstract idea until “Mom, I’m a girl.” then it becomes family.

A small-town mom wanted to help her community. And then the community took aim at her child
CNN
By Evan McMorris-Santoro and Yon Pomrenze
November 28, 2021


Hastings, Minnesota (CNN)Kelsey and Chris Waits moved to Hastings, Minnesota, to build a dream home for themselves and their two children.

Chris had a promising job opportunity when he left the Navy but it was the neighborhood that drew them in.

"Kelsey said, 'Well, I hope the interview went well because we're moving here. This town is great, this town is perfect, this is what I want,'" Chris recalled his wife telling him.

She was the School Board president and took the heat from COVID-19 when the attacks on the Board about mask mandates…

But when the pandemic put pressure on the community, cracks began to appear. Stressed by school closures and debate over wearing masks, some neighbors started taking aim at the school board.

Kelsey Waits was the face and voice of that school board as its chair. The ugliness that followed in Kelsey's unsuccessful race to be re-elected to the board now has the Waits packing up their dream home to move -- and their love for Hastings likely tainted forever.

"I do feel really betrayed by this community," Kelsey told CNN. "Not because I lost but because not only did people attack a child, but so many of them sat by and allowed it to happen." 

So they moved to another town.

She'd been active in local Republican politics as a young woman, but became disillusioned and drifted away, particularly over the opposition to same-sex marriage. She says she was progressive on lesbian, gay and bisexual issues, but transgender people were not on her radar.

But all that changed!

Assigned male at birth, they were into more traditionally feminine things -- if there was a truck being played with, it was likely being driven by a Disney princess -- so the couple took it in stride when their child asked for a Kit Kittredge American Girl doll for a fourth birthday present. Kelsey wondered about the future but Chris just thought it was his child responding to living with a mother and sister while he was deployed overseas with the Navy Reserve.

"So we got this doll and Kit's eyes just lit up. And Kit was so happy and so excited to get this doll," Kelsey said.

"About a week later, when dad was in Japan, and I was standing right there in the kitchen, Kit walks up to me and goes, 'Mom, can you call me Kit?' And my stomach dropped a little bit. Because all of a sudden, maybe things were making a little more sense. Click. And I said, 'Sure. Still my little ... boy?" And Kit goes, 'No, your little girl.' 
[…]
Neither parent said they knew much about trans kids, and decided to let Kit be Kit while they figured things out.

Most parents are like that going from “Oh, that’s interesting.” when it is someone else’s child but when it strikes home then it becomes a horse of a different color and the good folks of Hastings let their true colors show.

"She should be locked up for child abuse," the parent wrote. "Her younger 'daughter' is actually a boy." 
Others jumped in, attacking the Waits as "woke parents" who had pushed their views onto their child.
Kelsey soon found out what was being written.

"This was my most precious secret. The thing I protected most and the thing I was most afraid of ever being used in a political way because for me, this isn't political. This is my family, this is my child," she said. "I dropped to the floor, and I cried." 

This is just anecdotal observations the Trump supporters have no problem using obscenities and vulgar language in front of children. When president Biden visited Hartford daycare the right wing crowd were out there screaming at the top of their lung the young children. That weekend a Republican congresswoman came to Connecticut to a raunchy rally.

My neighbor down the street during the Obama administration had a poster stuck to his mailbox that said piss on Obama that had a black man laying down in front of a white man pissing on him. Yes, there are some liberals who do the same thing but they are few and far between and the same can be said for most Republicans but I feel that the Republicans approve of that behavior by not speaking up against it.

The hate spread and so did the Waits' fears.

"Every interaction we have with new people is me trying to figure out if my child is safe," Kelsey said.

"I'm not talking about if my kid's going to have fun with their kids, it's trying to figure out if my child is ... safe in that household?"

And that is why they do it, to create fear and force you to back down.

How many videos have you seen where at school board meeting a group of raucous conservatives shout down all opposition?

That is all part of their strategy, drown out all opposition and if that doesn’t work threaten them.

Even when they won the election to replace her, the family ordeal didn’t end they were like rabid dogs,

But he says the election did not end the abuse. It may even have spread. The day after the election Chris says he was told by another parent that a middle-schooler was approached by another student and told: "My mom says that we won so now we can deal with sickos like you."

The hater won, they forced them to move.

We are going back to the fifties where if you are not white and straight they put you “in your place.”

If… (Part 1)

[RANT]
There is a lot of discussion on the web about the Supreme Court hearing a case on abortion, many LGBTQ+ people are not interested in the case because it will not affect us. But think again.

Roe v. Wade ruling was based on, “The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion was implicit in the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.”

In 2003 the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex was legal, “The court in Lawrence v. Texas explicitly held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by the substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.” 

In the case of Obergefell v. Hodges where the court found same-sex marriage was legal, “...the United States Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision that same-sex marriage is protected under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Do you now see why LGBTQ+ people should pay attention? Do you see the common thread?

Each case was based on the Fourteenth Amendment.

If the Supreme Court rules that there is a conflict with the other protections in the Constitution and they overturn Roe v. Wade what is to stop them from unraveling our other protections?

Our rights are like a rope made up of many threads and if you start to unravel one thread all come apart.

This court was picked by evangelical Christians for two things; first to overturn Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas.

Do you remember the Martin Niemölle poem,

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Change that to, first they came for the abortionists, then they came for the gays, then came for me.

Be worried, be very worried.
[/RANT]

Court To Rule On A Trans Athlete Case.

Out in Idaho the court is set to hear the arguments for a law that bans trans athletes.

Freeze on Idaho’s transgender athlete ban faces new challenges
The Spokesman-Review
By Blake Jones
November 27, 2021


Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which bars transgender women and girls from competing on collegiate and K-12 women’s and girls’ sports teams, hasn’t been active for over a year while it’s being challenged in court. Now, the law’s defenders are pushing a federal district court to unfreeze enforcement.

The legal challenge, made in the Hecox v. Little case, led a judge to freeze, or enjoin, the ban in August 2020 to prevent “irreparable” harm to two student-athletes who brought forth the challenge. But in June, a higher court remanded, or sent the case back to a lower court, because both students were no longer enrolled in their perspective schools and wouldn’t be immediately affected by the law. As stakeholders make written arguments to that lower court this month, the near-term fate of the Idaho law could depend on whether a judge believes one of those athletes, a transgender woman named Lindsay Hecox, still has a stake in the case.

The Idaho Attorney General’s office, tasked with defending the law, argues she doesn’t. Hecox withdrew from Boise State University a week after unsuccessfully trying out for the women’s cross-country team last school year, rendering her claims moot, a brief filed earlier this month by the Attorney General argued.

“For over a year, the preliminary injunction impinged Idaho’s sovereignty while providing no relief to Hecox,” the brief reads.

Yeah… they are defending their right to discriminate against a group of people in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Then when courts try to decide who’s a woman and whose not opens a whole new avenue to discrimination and invasive procedures.

The second woman listed in the case is Kayden Hulquist, a cisgender soccer player who worried she’d have to undergo invasive medical exams to verify her sex when she played for Boise High School. Hulquist, referred to as Jane Doe when she was a minor, has since graduated. That’s another reason the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court remanded the case to a district court to unpack the mootness challenge being made before the case moves forward.

When the International Olympic Committee tried to do that they were bogged down in a quagmire, Mother Nature doesn’t care about legal niceties.

The Attorney General has been active in defending the ban nationally, too. Wasden’s office signed onto a letter clashing with the Biden administration on transgender student protections in July of this year, and joined a related lawsuit in August. Wasden’s office cited its stake in Hecox v. Little in making both moves.

You would think that as a lawyer that the Attorney General would be cognizant of the Supreme Court ruling on Title VII, the Bostock v. Clayton County case?

Every Once In A While A Ray Of Sun Shine.

When thing look the dimmest once in a while I come across a news article that offers hope for a better future.

Dutch government apologizes for discredited transgender law
The Dutch government has publicly apologized for a now discredited and scrapped law that required transgender people to undergo surgery and sterilization if they wanted to change their gender on their birth certificate
ABC News
By The Associated Press
November 27, 2021


THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The Dutch government made a public apology Saturday for a now discredited and scrapped law that required transgender people to undergo surgery and sterilization if they wanted to change their gender on their birth certificate.

“Nobody should have experienced what you have experienced. I am truly sorry that it happened," said Dutch Minister for Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshoven in an emotional speech at a ceremony in the historic Knights Hall in the Dutch parliamentary complex.

The law was in place for nearly 30 years until being scrapped in 2014.

“For decades, people underwent medical procedures that they did not want at all. But they knew they had no other choice," Van Engelshoven said. "Others have waited because of this law; they were forced to postpone becoming themselves for years.”

Actually just about everywhere had that requirement, in Connecticut, most states also required it along with the federal government.

Willemijn van Kempen, who campaigned for the apology, said in a statement that the government “structurally disadvantaged and damaged transgender and intersex people for almost thirty years. It is important that it now apologizes."

Surgery always be informed consent.