Thursday, April 28, 2022

Conservatives label LGBTQ suicide hotline as pedophilia, get brutally dragged all over Twitter for the lie

 The entities accusing LGBTQ people of grooming children have focused on a new target. And they are finding out there is such thing as doing too much.

According to LGBTQNation:

Conservatives have spent the last couple months calling everyone who disagrees with them a pedophile, and now they’re setting their sights on the Trevor Project, an organization that runs a hotline and other resources to fight LGBTQ youth suicide.

 As per their standard operating procedure, many of them have taken one factoid and amplified it to their supporters on Twitter.




This is a part of a nationwide trend by conservatives and the religious right to brand everything pro-LGBTQ as an attempt to sexually groom children. This attack on the widely acclaimed Trevor Project takes this attack to a new level because conservatives are now saying that  protecting LGBTQ youth from suicide or abuse is actually sexual grooming. 

Here is the delicious denouement of it, though. These accusations are getting a loud and brutal pushback. These folks accusing the Trevor Project of 'grooming' children have been dragged on Twitter all day and night with deservedly brutal responses. Here are just a few:

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Anti-LGBTQ author easily manipulates his followers into buying his trashy book

Matt Walsh is a walking joke.


Matt Walsh is an incredibly annoying far-right podcaster and provocateur who engages in immature stunts (such as attempting to trick trans people into taking part in an anti-trans documentary) as well as spewing some of the most awful racist, bigoted, and anti-LGBTQ junk to supposedly 'own' liberals.  Not surprisingly, that makes him popular amongst the male and female incel sect.

One of his stunts is authoring a nasty children's book which compares being trans to being a walrus. I will spare you its name, but you can read all about it here

The point is that today, Walsh announced something interesting regarding his book.


That's right. Walsh pulled the old conservative canard of playing the victim of censorship. Who knows the actual truth, which I'm pretty sure is a bit far from what Walsh claims. The pertinent thing is the responses of his followers on the thread. They practically fell over themselves to brag about how they bought his book in an effort to 'own' Amazon.

Now granted, some of these folks are probably bots and trolls simply amplifying Walsh. But others did buy his book, even providing proof of their purchases:


This is not to minimize what Walsh is doing to harm the trans community with his ridiculous book. It's simply to make the point how sad it is that some folks are more than eager to exploit ignorance about important issues to make money.  Walsh is a clown with a huge following. He is an addled minded, one note fraud with enough intelligence to tap into the false sense of superiority or genuine feelings inferiority of his followers. He's a human leech who attaches himself to them and sucks out what he needs for clout monetary sustenance.

In the long run, Walsh is a walking joke.   He's a reminder of how the conservative movement has fallen from intelligent adults to children on an elementary school playground who satisfy themselves with transient games of tag and keep-away. When it is all said and done, his book won't have any effect on the argument of trans people. At least not as much as he and his supporters wish. The LGBTQ community has had to deal with entities more powerful than him and we have overcome them. We will overcome Walsh in the same manner.

But it's amazing to me that his followers allowed themselves to be manipulated. Walsh's pathetic qualities are only rivaled by their equally sad mindset. It's both amusing and tragic that these folks think they are a part of a movement when the only thing they're moving is more money to Amazon's pocket. 

If giving people more money is how you punish them, then sign me up to be punished.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Trump supporter believes that Jim Carrey is pretending to be President Biden

Jim Carrey, not President Biden

This may not be LGBTQ-oriented per se, but then again maybe it is.

This video of a Trump supporter insisting that Jim Carrey is masquerading as President Joe Biden would be hilarious except for two things - this is the type of element Republicans across the country are speaking to as they push these awful anti-transgender and 'Don't Say Gay' bills state by state. And she votes. 

Elections matter. Every time. 

Just something to keep in mind.


Monday, April 25, 2022

Thank you Franklin Graham for exposing DeSantis's 'Don't Say Gay' bill

 Wow, I never thought I would ever find myself saying this but thank you Franklin Graham:



Graham's entire Facebook statement is as follows:

LGBTQ activists are using corporations to force their agenda on the public, and companies may want to take another look at what they are allowing to happen. Disney has gone too far. The people of Florida have revolted, and it’s going to cost Disney big time. Disney had a special tax status in the state which they benefitted from in a huge way—but because they came out against the parents of Florida, the governor and legislators have revoked that status.

 What has happened at Disney is moral failure. Walt Disney had a vision for wholesome family entertainment. He was committed to the family. The morals of the corporate leadership of Disney today are in the gutter, and they want to redefine family counter to God’s original design and flaunt sin. Thank God for Governor Ron DeSantis who is willing to take a bold stand. We need more leaders like him. God bless him and the Florida legislature. 

 I’m in Orlando right now with our Samaritan’s Purse Operation Heal Our Patriots military veteran couples and it is absolutely beautiful! I can tell you there’s a TON of fun things for families to do here other than supporting Disney.

What I want to know is what happened to all of the stuff folks were saying about how DeSantis and Florida was trying to protect kids from 'groomers' and pedophiles? Graham didn't mention any of that and this is probably because the 'Don't Say Gay' bill was never about protecting children. It was about  mandating, by the full weight of secular law, the idea that LGBTQ families are something to be ashamed of or erased because they supposedly don't fit 'God's design,' as determined by Graham and company. 

It's about legal sanction of homophobia, transphobia. and simple prejudice. It's especially about imposing far-right Christian fascism. And that last part especially pisses me off.

Obviously Graham must think the entire nation is stupid. He spent four years kissing Donald Trump's ass, defending Donald Trump's lies and himself lying for Donald Trump and then thinks he can place himself on some mantle in which he gets to judge people and mandate families to be sinful inferiors?

Who in the hell does Graham think he is? What gives him the right to point out people as sinners when he has yet to acknowledge his very public sins? 

Graham must have prayed that God give America amnesia to wipe away the Trump years from our minds.  Well, I've got news for him.

It didn't work.

Editor's note - Graham or his people weren't happy with me talking about 'far-right Christian fascism' on his Facebook page, so I am blocked. Oh well. I don't take any of it back.


'Some Republicans fear party overreach with attack on LGBTQ people' & other Mon midday news briefs



Some Republicans fear party overreach on LGBT measures - They already have and they don't care. More opportunity for us, if we are smart. 

Oklahoma bill that could require school counselors to out students advances - Exposing the kids to danger from hateful parents. Oh yeah, this is going to far. 

GMHC Has Been Helping People Living with HIV for 40 Years - This organization has been a lifesaver for so many people.


Opinion: The anti-LGBTQ backlash could have deadly consequences - I'm both scared and pissed. But more pissed than scared.

Sunday, April 24, 2022

Franklin Graham, Family Research Council embarrass themselves with weekend of anti-LGBTQ hypocrisy and lies

 

Franklin Graham's hypocritical support of DeSantis's attack on Disney only demonstrates his hatred for LGBTQ people.

For the first time a long time on this blog, we have a two for one when it comes to religious right hypocrisy, lies, and basic hatred for LGBTQ people.

First, leave it to Franklin Graham back up Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis in their war against Disney over the 'Don't Say Gay' law:


Whether or not Disney will suffer is a serious question. The popular opinion seems to be that neither DeSantis nor the Florida legislature thought their actions through when passing the bill to revoke Disney's status. And it looks like the company won't even suffer while Florida residents will see an increase in their taxes.

But this is about Graham's hypocrisy when it comes to governors and private companies. I can remember when he wasn't so congenial to elected officials, particularly in 2016:

The Rev. Franklin Graham has strongly condemned Mayor Bill de Blasio's call for a boycott of popular fast-food chain Chick-fil-A, which is opening a new location in the New York City borough of Queens, just because its Christian owners believe in the biblical definition of marriage. 

"Can you imagine a city where a popular, successful business is singled out and attacked by the mayor who calls for a boycott — all because the business owners let it be known that they operate by Christian principles and believe in God's definition of marriage?" Graham, the president of Samaritan's Purse and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on his Facebook page.

 "That's exactly what just happened to one of America's most successful businesses. Chick-fil-A has almost 2000 restaurants and sales of more than $6 billion annually. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that doesn't like their chicken sandwiches — and their high quality service," Graham adds. 

 De Blasio is backing openly gay Councilman Danny Dromm who has jurisdiction over the area where the restaurant will be situated and is calling for an all-out boycott of the fast food joint, NY1 News reported.

The only thing sadder than Graham's blatant hypocrisy is the reason behind it. He supports DeSantis because the governor is acting against the LGBTQ community and he got angry at de Blasio because that mayor's actions was against Chick-fil-A's anti-LGBTQ record.

So the only consistency with Graham here is just how much he hates LGBTQ people. 

And not to be outdone by Graham's homophobia and hypocrisy, the Family Research Council decided to corner the market on blatant lying with the following tweet:




That lie is so easy to refute with the following links:

Gender-affirming care can improve mental health outcomes in transgender youth 



These two situations with Franklin Graham and the Family Research Council merely underscore the simple fact that for all of their talk about being religious and pro-family, we are talking about people and entities who are power hungry and willing to stoop to any level and tell any lie to gain more advantage and clout. 

Christianity and morality is simply a props for them and as long as they can hide behind these identifiers, they will continue to play these games and harm LGBTQ people. Our job must be to expose them every time we have the opportunity. 

Friday, April 22, 2022

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Family Research Council counting on people's Biblical ignorance in effort to dehumanize LGBTQ Americans

Taking advantage of this recent trend of smearing LGBTQ people as 'groomers of children,' hate group the Family Research Council has the following on its webpage:


A few things about this stands out to me. FRC yet again dehumanizes LGBTQ people. Apparently we aren't human beings. We are an 'ideology.' Worse than that, we are like those aliens in Invasion of the Body Snatchers in that FRC implies that we are trying to infect children to supposedly 'refreshen our ranks.'

It's a rude assertion and totally incorrect. If LGBTQ people could actually recruit, why bother with children when there are so many wealthy people in the world. Who needs kids. I want money.

Also, that part about 'advancing a worldview of marriage and sexuality grounded in Scripture.' What exactly does that mean anyway? We know what FRC wants people to think it means - some Leave It To Beaver fever dream of a family which probably includes the 2.5 kids and the pet dog.

Forget the reality of single parent homes, and definitely not LGBTQ homes.

Also, FRC's idea of a Scriptural foundation is highly confusing.

If we are to talk about a 'Scriptural' view of marriage, we could talk about Jesus, who was never married. Or we could talk about polygamy with such as examples as King David and his son Solomon (two Biblical heroes) who had more wives than they could count. Then there was Jacob who had two wives (they were sisters). And then there is the idea that marriage after divorce was considered to be adultery. And then there the certain passages in Bible which reputedly approved of child brides (Numbers 31:17-18).

And let's talk about sexuality. There was Onan who was reportedly punished by God for not impregnating the widow of his brother (historically the story had been used inaccurately to call masturbation a sin ),  Then there was Lot and his daughters (the less said about that, the better), and while so many people have interpreted the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as being a prohibition of homosexuality, no one talks about the story in Judges 19 - 21 in which the exact scenario of gang rape (but involving a woman instead of angels) enhances the theory that Sodom and Gomorrah was not a prohibition against homosexuality, but against mistreating guests in your country or city.

The Family Research Council's commitment to 'advancing a worldview of  marriage and sexuality grounded in Scripture' is not as admirable as one would think. It's a testament to FRC's exploitation of the fact that so many people have images of what's supposed to be Scriptural, but have absolutely no idea what's in the Bible.

And then there is the simple fact that not everyone is a Christian and not every Christian interprets Scripture in the same manner.

Seems to me that it would be easier and safer to stop undermining the lives and rights of LGBTQ people.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Video - 1961 film 'Boys Beware' pushed the 'gays are grooming children' lie years before Anita Bryant

The situation with Libs of TikTok accusing LGBTQ people and teachers of being pedophiles takes me back. There was an article which pointed out how Anita Bryant in the 1970s was probably the first person to harness the lie into political power.

But she certainly wasn't the first to exploit the lie. In 1961, there was an educational film shown to students called Boys Beware:

Shot in 1961 BOYS BEWARE was shot in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California and produced with the cooperation of the city's police department and the Inglewood Unified School District, is narrated by a police detective who is on his way to a school meeting to discuss the issue of sexual predators that attempt to lure young adolescent males. It not only shows basic misunderstandings about homosexuality but also attempts to prejudice the community against homosexuals who are portrayed as predatory at best, and basically as anti-social and evil.

It's a rather ridiculous film and can be seen as comedically ludicrous now. That is until you realize how the ideas it presents have been constantly recasted and believed by so many.

'Libs of TikTok falsely portrayed teachers and LGBTQ people as pedophiles' & other Wed midday news briefs



The real victims in the “Libs of TikTok” discourse are the teachers and LGBTQ people harassed because of the account - A certain Twitter address is getting what it deserves but conservatives are trying to make it the victim. Once again for the liars in the back, Libs of TikTok gained a massive following by reposting videos while falsely framing folks in the videos as groomers and pedophiles. The creator of the Twitter address has no right to anonymity.  

The most damaging myths about transgender kids​ - Easily one of the most important pieces you will ever read. 

Ohio University to Pay $400K to Professor Who Rejected Trans Student’s Pronouns - Only because the university chose to give in. It decided NOT to fight. Take a lesson and learn how not to behave.

DeSantis calls on Legislature to kill Disney's special self-governing status - Ronnie has his eyes on the White House and is set on using Disney and LGBTQ people to get there. He should be watching where his feet are headed.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

BUSTED! Online trolls caught making up false stories of parents 'forcing' their kids to be transgender

What a lovely day. First a far-right Twitter address which posted deceptive videos accusing LGBTQ people and our allies of being pedophiles got exposed.

Now this courtesy of  Reuters by way of  LGBTQNation:

A screenshot of a post on a Reddit channel is circulating online with comments purportedly from the parent of a transgender child who is forcibly giving their child hormones. However, the entire post is fabricated, and the channel has been shuttered by Reddit on the grounds it was aimed at promoting hatred of transgender people and spreading “hateful stereotypes.” 

 The fabricated screenshot shows a post on the subreddit “r/transparenttranskid”, allegedly from a transgender parent. The parent says they forcefully administered the female hormone estradiol to their child, who was purportedly transitioning, as their child did not want to take the drugs. 

 . . . However, there is no evidence that the post is an authentic account of events, and the “r/transparenttranskid” subreddit has since been removed. A conversation in an online forum on Aug. 6, 2021, revealed that users were planning to contribute false stories to the “r/transparenttranskid” subreddit here . 

 On the same forum, a user called “Funkyduffy” responded to a call to “snap up” the subreddit and fill it with fabricated stories by linking to the post about the forced administration of estradiol and pairing it with a GIF that reads: “I’m doing my part” here . 

 An archive of the subreddit shows the original poster of the alleged forced estradiol story was also called “Funkyduffy” (archive.ph/BojLr). The “r/transparenttranskid” subreddit was removed by Reddit for “generally violating the Reddit Rules”, a moderator on the platform said on Aug. 25, 2021 (here).  

“They were engaged in promoting hatred of transgender people, as well as targeted harassment,” they added.

LGBTQNation pointed how folks on the right not only believed these lies but also spread them online:

 . . .the stories still spread outside of Reddit to rightwingers who were all too willing to believe them. “This is fucking child abuse and I’ll die on this Hill,” wrote libertarian author Justin O’Donnell on Twitter, posting a picture of Funkyduffy’s fake story. He got almost 46,000 likes for it. Ian Miles Cheong – who has a history of posting misinformation about trans people online and even riling Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) up – shared the story with the words “Good parenting.”

That of course was the entire point of this madness - generating outrage even if you have to fake it.

Monday, April 18, 2022

Gay conservative Dave Rubin aligns himself those who think that gays are 'grooming' kids

Dave Rubin is not the type of man gay boys should aspire to be.

Last month, noted gay conservative Dave Rubin got attacked by folks on his side of the political spectrum. The reason was that he and his husband announced that they were going to become parents. After making the announcement, Rubin was inundated with criticisms from several other conservative figures and sites with comments ranging from calling him an 'unrepentant sodomite' to claiming that he is 'negating women.'

Such comments like the one below:


One would think that Rubin would have learned something about what conservatives put LGBTQ people through when they smear and dehumanize us.

He didn't. 

Less than a month after him, his husband, and expected children were made the subject of homophobic smears, Rubin has embraced the smearers and joined them in echoing the same lies about Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' bill and claims that LGBTQ people and teachers in general are trying to teach little kids about sex.

 Like so:

During that appearance, Rubin said:

What's very sad about this Disney situation is they stepped into the woke swamp, and they cannot get themselves out. This bill, which is not don't say gay, there's no phrase in the bill even with the word gay, you could have just as easily called it don't say straight. This is a bill about transparency and that you don't want state employees talking to six-year-olds about sex, which we all know that's the right thing… This is an imaginary controversy, but Bob Chapek, who is the CEO of Disney, he has a woke corporation. 

He has woke activists working for him, and Bill, I'm guessing you and Dana saw it. There was a video where he has all of his activist employees, and he's pledging he'll be a better ally, and he wishes he could be better, and he'll do more for them. And congratulations, Bob Chapek, you run one of the biggest corporations in the world, one of the most culturally relevant corporations, at least. So you've been culturally relevant. We'll see, and now you are a hostage, you are a CEO hostage to your activist employees. This is not going to end well for Disney, and I think we just need to build new things.

And then there is his appearance on Mark Levin's show, when Levin asked him this: 

 Dave, I want to ask you a question about this culture virus. I want to go right to the classroom and the parents movement. I want to go right to Disney and so forth. I feel like this has all just suddenly happened the last two or three years, where it has become a civil right to sexualize 5-year-olds, 6-year-olds, and 7-year-olds, and I say to myself, shouldn't everybody be rising up against this? Whether you're straight or gay or whatever you are, isn't the point to leave little babies alone?

Feel free to see what Rubin's answer was by following this link. But to summarize, Rubin repeats the nonsense he said in the other Fox interview - the bill has nothing to do with LGBTQ people, it's about transparency, and doesn't target LGBTQ people at all.

Rubin's attempt to distort about the bill shouldn't fool anyone.  According to NBC news:

 . . .legal experts say that whether the bill prohibits the word “gay” itself is a “distraction.” “In the same way that critical race theory isn’t being taught in schools, that hasn’t stopped people like the governor of Florida from deploying the term ‘critical race theory’ in efforts to engage in certain kinds of political maneuverings,” said Charlton Copeland, a professor at the University of Miami School of Law who writes about sexual orientation and gender identity. “The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ moniker is a moniker about a certain political framing of this situation.”

Beyond branding, a core argument over the bill centers around whether it would prohibit the “instruction” or “discussion” of sexual orientation. The bill’s sponsors have emphatically stated that the bill would not prohibit students from talking about their LGBTQ families or bar classroom discussions about LGBTQ history, including events like the 2016 deadly attack on the Pulse nightclub, a gay club in Orlando. Instead, they argue that the bill would bar the “instruction” of sexual orientation or gender identity. But the text says both. 

In its preamble, the bill’s authors write that their aim is to prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity.” But later, the actual bill states that “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur.” “I could see why people are confused by that,” said Clay Calvert, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law who specializes in freedom of speech.

And teachers are not having private sexual conversations with kindergartners and six-year-olds.  That is simply not happening. 

But enough of the bill. Let's talk about Rubin. He reminds me a disgusting oily salesman oozing with two dollar knock-off  cologne you can get from the Dollar Tree,  smelly hair cream, and illusions of grandeur. He sees himself as an alpha male and a free thinker, but he comes across as a wannabe willing to sell his own mother out for a little clout and a lot of money. 

Apparently Rubin didn't learn anything from being targeted by other conservatives. Or maybe he did learn something.  Still Rubin remains a  pathetic sell-out trying to disguise what is obviously  his self-hatred with empty snark masquerading as intelligence. There isn't enough negative things I can say about a man who will stab other LGBTQ people in the back with the same weapons of deceit and hatred used against him.

This isn't a matter of integrity or difference of opinion. It's about a sad fool who seems to think that he is above the rest of us LGBTQ people. He mistakes his usefulness to the opposition as some sort of attribute instead of the sad pandering that it is. Rubin is fooling himself  when it comes what he's saying.  His words aren't emanating from a golden tongue. That's just all of the grime, dirt, and grit which comes from his licking of conservative boots.

What's worse is that Rubin attempts to delude the rest of us into thinking that he is making an independent stand. Honey, you aren't standing. You're bending over with your lips puckered.  I can even smell your lip gloss.

What makes Rubin think that he's any different in the eyes of homophobic conservatives except for the fact that he is making himself useful? What makes Rubin think that he, his husband, and expectant kids are protected from the undermining that homophobic conservatives want to inflict on LGBTQ people.

Does Rubin think that his money or prominence is going to save him should things do come to a dire point? Does he think his rights are safe? What about the rights of  his husband and expectant kids?

I'd call him a fool, but that would be too generous.

Even a fool has better sense not to cut off his own nose to smite his face.

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Videos - Kids meet a drag queen, a transgender soldier, and a gay conversion therapy survivor

All of smears and lies about LGBTQ people supposedly grooming kids got me thinking. What exactly would happen if young kids were educated about LGBTQ people, parts of our culture, and our lives. What would happen if they were allowed to talk to LGBTQ people and ask questions? No matter what the opposition says, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with someone's fevered imagination about sex.  Nor does it have anything to do with with grooming, indoctrination, or recruiting. Folks may get all up in arms and scream 'let kids be kids,' but don't fall for it.

The videos below are incredibly simple and prove that the slogan 'let kids be kids' is a useless misnomer which doesn't denote truth but instead caters to an absolutely ignorant idea of childhood. In talking to kids about LGBTQ people and our issues, you are in fact allowing them to be kids. You are answering their questions, dispelling myths, and then allowing them to process the information. That's how they grow to become responsible adults.

    

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Tucker Carlson's homoerotic clip whines about the 'The End of Men'

Tucker Carlson's new special should be about the 'birth of homoeroticism' instead of 'The End of Men.

So while Tucker Carlson and his cohorts on Fox News accuse LGBTQ people of grooming children, he just dropped this clip previewing some upcoming special he's doing called 'The End of Men.' No doubt it's some claptrap about how supposedly 'liberals' and 'wokeism' are ruining the concept of masculinity and such. If you ask me though, I think the clip may say more about Carlson's idea of masculinity than society's. Let's just say it's a bit less heterosexually-based. 

You got something you wanna tell us, Tucker?

Thursday, April 14, 2022

'Parents rights' is a phony phrase which deliberately omits LGBTQ families

We shouldn't be bullied from saying the obvious about this hysteria concerning 'Don't Say Gay' bills. 

It's a bunch of crap. And so is the phrase 'parents rights' which is fueling all of this garbage. It's all less about the children and more about adult fears of realizing that sexual orientation and gender identity are about more than sexual intercourse. 

Let's be real. No school is instructing little children about sexual behavior. It's not happening. What is happening is that a bunch of adults are using children to cloak their own personal fears and animus about LGBTQ people and families. 

And exercising their imaginary privilege. 

Think about it. Whenever you hear things about 'parents rights,' you know those spewing the phrase aren't talking about same sex families or LGBTQ parents, even though between 2 million and 3.7 million children under age 18 have an LGBTQ parent, and approximately 200,000 of them are being raised by a same-sex couple. Many of these children are being raised by a single LGBTQ parent or by a different-sex couple where one parent is bisexual.    

And more than a third of same-sex couples raising children are racial or ethnic minorities. That last part is very apt because these crusaders of  parental rights aren't necessarily in the corner of parents of color  no matter what sexual orientation they may be. But that's a subject which I can go on at length. at another time.

To the point, the idea of 'parents rights' is in the same vernacular of 'real America' or 'middle America' in that it's the co-option of a phrase which sounds perfectly sane but masks deep and ugly prejudices  It's sending semantics not about who's included, but who is deliberately being excluded from mainstream society.

In other words 'parents rights' means mostly white and all heterosexual parents. The supporters of the concept will attempt to deny it, but trust your own eyes and ears on this matter. No parents of color (except for maybe one or two who are visible for appearance sake but have no real power) and certainly NO LGBTQ parents. It's about maintaining an inaccurate status quo in which certain type of parents are hustled to spotlights and intense visibility in order to present an image of mother bears and father grizzlies protecting their innocent and fragile young.

But these mother bears and father grizzlies and their children are almost always white and heterosexual, fostering image which has nothing to do with reality. And when they get spotlighted or amplified, they aren't protecting their children. They are protecting the mythology of their privilege. They don't represent all parents. They represent a pecking order which puts them on the top and anoints them as a sort of gold standard. And most of all,  that imaginary pecking order gives them the right to undermine and shut down any other type of parenting which doesn't fit their qualifications.

In their world, no matter how LGBTQ parents love, do for, and care for their children, they don't count. They are imperfections which can be at the very least can be ignored, kicked aside, or erased. Their voices don't matter and their children don't matter as well. They are ever so slightly but firmly pushed to the outskirts of the mainstream That is until another right-wing astroturfed grassroots group can draft a new law or create a new court case to stomp them out. 

It's not fair nor is it right, but people seem to be more involved in protecting that image than presenting the reality in which all families matter and the concerns of all parents should be seen as equal.

That's real harm being done to children.

Statistics on same-sex families come from Family Equality Council. You can read more here.


'Christian Post falsely equates sexualizing minors with LGBTQ content' & other Thur midday news briefs



Christian Post Falsely Equates Sexualizing Minors with LGBTQ Content - Great article which underscores a serious problem with portraying LGBTQ people as those grooming children. You have to keep that narrative up to the point that you ignore the actual sexual grooming of children. The Christian Post wrote a terrible article in which it talked about how girls are being groomed by grown men but only in a bad attempt to connect it to LGBTQ people. 

Republicans are now threatening to defund schools that support trans students - They are doing absolutely too much. This will backfire but it worries me about the kids being harmed by it in the meantime. Considerably. 

Gay Family Confronted on Train Shows How Politics is Intimately Personal - All of these accusations against LGBTQ people being pedophiles recently led a same-sex family to be harassed on a train. Now if I were one of the parents . . . 


Colorado Board of Education discusses excluding LGBTQ references from curriculum until 4th grade - And the battle rages on. One thing which I am hopeful which will come out of this is that more people will be educated that LGBTQ lives mean more than sexual behavior.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Video - How the right attempts to reduce the worth of LGBTQ lives into one ugly slur

 
 A video to show how this new attack on LGBTQ people is coordinated. These twisted individuals attempt to reduce the worth of our lives into one exploitative word and they constantly repeat it. LGBTQ people have been called worse and we've managed to come out as winners. Let's keep that streak going.

Related posts:

Visual montage - Just a few of the times conservatives have accused LGBTQ people of 'indoctrinating,' 'recruiting,' or 'grooming' children 

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Anti-LGBTQ twitter site Libs of Tik Tok runs away after confronted with its own sleaze

The tweet above is courtesy of me calling out a Twitter address called Libs of Tik Tok.

 According to Media Matters:

 Started on TikTok in April 2020 (where the account has since been removed) the Libs of TikTok account moved to Twitter in November 2020, where it soon gained momentum following a series of popular tweets and promotion by conservative influencers Joe Rogan and Meghan McCain. A self-proclaimed “mini Project Veritas,” the Libs of TikTok account has amassed over 500,000 followers, growing into an influential online marketplace for right-wing attacks. 

Many of its viral posts feed into the full-fledged moral panic on the right about LGBTQ+ issues being taught in public education, accusing “groomer teachers” of using schools as “government run indoctrination camps” for conversations about gender and sexual identity. The account has also tweeted examples of teachers supposedly promoting critical race theory in the classroom, a major obsession in right-wing media, and suggested that transgender people are part of a “serious mental health crisis.” As the right-wing media increases their defense of the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida, the Libs of TikTok content has become ammunition for their arguments.

In other words, it posts snippets of videos and tweets designed to push the lie that LGBTQ people are 'groomers' after children.  Libs of Tik Tok goes all in on the lies as seen here:


 In the tweet above, Libs of Tik Tok is attacking a school for supposedly putting on a drag show. It only shows 49 seconds of said show, leaving its supporters and followers to go on and on about 'groomers' and gays wanting to 'diddle' children. You probably can't see the entirety of the above tweet because Libs blocked me when I confronted it about what it was doing. 

In reality, there is no there there.  And if Libs had not had blocked me, I would have embedded the tweet to prove that point. But I did manage to make a screenshot. It gives an indication how Libs of Tik Tok is portraying the drag show as opposed to what's actually going on:


By all means feel free to find the Twitter address and view the footage. It's only 49 seconds and to be honest, we don't the circumstances or where it took place. But here is what we do know. There is nothing out of the ordinary going on here. Nothing sexual. Nothing scandalous. And above all, no 'grooming' (even though some folks have yet to explain how can a drag show be used to 'groom' anyone into any sexual behavior.')

This is no different than extracurricular events going on at any school. When I was in high school, we had fundraisers like "womanless weddings" which were athletes dressed in drag. And then there was Spirit Week for Homecoming, in which the boys and girls  participated in 'Opposite Day.' Lastly, don't even get me started about pep rallies and homecoming floats.

But  I will give Libs of Tik Tok an point here. Grooming is going on, but not by LGBTQ people. People are being groomed to get hysterical, to believe lies, and to allow their personal prejudices to flourish under the guise of protecting children. When you get right to the point, Libs of Tik Tok isn't doing anything noble. It's simply bigoted and downright sleazy. 

And it may just work. Libs of Tik Tok is already bragging about the harm its followers are causing the school.  An ignorant mob led by a trashy leader is always successful causing hurt.

Monday, April 11, 2022

Video: GOP Pedo Ring - Before calling LGBTQ people 'groomers,' the GOP needs to clean out its own closet

Dear Republican Party, I would suggest that you make sure your closet is squeaky clean before you and your goons continue to designate LGBTQ people as 'groomers' and 'pedophiles.'  According to this video from Meidas Touch, your glass house has got huge cracks.

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Video Flashback 1987 - Gay Rights in the middle of the AIDS crisis


I ran across this video featuring an episode of the ABC news program Nightline from 1987. The subject was Gay Rights in the middle of the AIDS crisis. It's an eye opener to see  how LGBTQ people were referred to and talked about in the 80s. Check it out, particularly the debate beginning at 7:01.

Aside from the fact that Fox News personality Britt Hume worked at ABC and  actually embraced a more objective view of presenting the news back then, I was taken aback seeing - and remembering - the ugly verbiage thrown at LGBTQ people, ,particularly when folks were making accusations about our supposed sex lives.

Thursday, April 07, 2022

Someone called me a 'groomer' today . . . big mistake


Someone called me a groomer today. 

If you've been keeping up with things, you would know that conservatives and others on the right are using the word 'groomer' to imply that gays are pedophiles. It's no different than when they used to say that we 'recruit' children.

Before deciding whether or not to respond, I took a moment to think about what being called a 'groomer' meant. I thought about how when I was younger,  it would have deeply hurt my feelings. 

How it would have reminded me about how alone I felt and how society despised who I was. 

How it would have reinforced the notion that my life had been decided for me by people who wanted to box me up in accordance to their beliefs and prejudices.  People who didn't care about my worth because the only thing they knew was that I was gay and therefore to them, I was a less than;  a diseased, pitiful sinner trying to go after their children and infect everyone with AIDS.

And how I was probably doomed to a sad life filled with misery, loneliness, and self-hatred because of all of the hate thrown at me.

All in all, it was the saddest five seconds of my life. 

That is before I said f@ck it and responded back with an immature but very satisfying comeback:


I'm in no mood to apologize, capitulate, or play nice with anyone trying to take away the rights and peace of mind I've earned. And neither should you. Whether it be on Twitter or when it comes to legislation designed to take us down, we shouldn't sit back and allow things to be taken from us. No matter what you hear, always remember that you have a voice and an ability to fight.  

Use them, albeit not being as petty as I was.