Monday, June 24, 2024

Conservative writer mocked for making his (heterosexual) proposal a failed clap back against Pride Month



Conservative writer Addison Smith succeeded in his attempt to go viral by making his proposal to his heterosexual girlfriend a clap back against Pride Month and the LGBTQ community. Now what did he do that for?


 Addison Smith, far-right wannabe social media influencer posted the following on Twitter as a way of making his proposal to his fiancé all about slapping Pride Month in the face. He obviously did this for the engagement and a chance to rile up LGBTQ people and our allies. Smith clearly got the attention he wanted. He and his right-wing friends and his allies are giddy about how his act has gone extremely viral. 

But at what cost?

Smith comes across as someone deliberately jumping face-first in cow manure while pretending that it's oil he struck. Sometimes if one succeeds in their quest to gain attention, it's not a good thing. It only means more people know how much of a jackass you are, and Smith succeeded in making a jackass of himself. 

He also probably embarrassed his now fiancé, proved our evergreen point about how people like him are completely obsessed with us, and definitely made sure this incident is remembered should the "points" expressed about him by responders (who left brutally funny responses before he shut down the comments) turn out to be true.  It all comes down to how certain folks try so hard to dehumanize us that they end up looking simply stupid.  Can you imagine reducing such a special and sacred event such as a wedding proposal into a failed attempt to "own" LGBTQ people?

But when the adrenaline stops pumping and the glitter fades, that tweet will still be around. And I bet it will come up repeatedly during your marriage. That is if there will be one.  If you make your marriage proposal to your heterosexual fiancé all about making fun of LGBTQ people, you've got issues. And she probably will have problems. Just saying.

Sometimes our enemies are their own worst enemies.



As I said before, the responses have been brutal.

 
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Thursday, June 20, 2024

Why do right-wing pastors talk more about gay sex than most gay men I know?


From LGBTQ Nation: 
 Christian Nationalist hate preacher Joel Webbon shared his vision for a wholly Christian nation in a recent conversation on his Right Response Ministries YouTube show, advocating the death penalty for homosexuals, citing a seemingly made-up statistic about gays eating feces, and gay people dying young.

 . . .The wide-ranging discussion with two far-right wingmen, Michael Belch and Wesley Todd, centered on the perversion of gay men and their corrupting influence on American society. 

 . . . Webbon asserted good people “have been lied to by Modern Family, by Will & Grace” into believing that LGBTQ+ people are like everyone else. Degenerate popular culture dictates LGBTQ+ people are “marked by compassion or they’re marked by artistic expression,” Webbon told his Christian Nationalist fellows. “Well, don’t forget the key characteristic,” he continued. “The key characteristic of the gay community is butt sex. That’s the key characteristic. It’s feces. That’s the key characteristic. It’s AIDS, it’s disease. And it needs to be said, because nobody has said it for a very long time.” 

 . . .Belch jumped in with statistics that he claimed backed up Webbon’s embrace of disgust. “17% of homosexuals” consume human feces, Belch claimed, citing discredited data from anti-gay researcher Paul Cameron and his Family Research Institute. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls Cameron and his so-called institute a “one-man statistical chop shop” which “churns out hate literature masquerading as legitimate science.” Citing Cameron again, Belch asserted that the “median age of death” for gays and lesbians is 42 and 45, respectively. Webbon joked, “Sounds like if society won’t enforce the penalties, God’ll do it.”

 There they go again. I swear that gay men don't have as much sex as the haters imagine we do. And the vast majority of us certainly aren't as sexually active as they think we are. I'm almost disappointed that he didn't bring up the "gay men stuff gerbils up their rectums" lie.

Reading all of that gave me an ugly blast from the past such as this 1984 anti-gay booklet:



It was even endorsed by a United States Congressman, William Dannemeyer:



And to label this comic as homophobic would be an extreme understatement:







 

Combatting junk like this is why I began this blog in 2006.  Nowadays though, our community is in less danger of three idiotic men drooling over what they imagine us doing sexually. 

It's the covert attempts to undermine our community that's the actual danger.  We have legislators teaming up with far-right groups to write laws they claim will protect kids, but whose actual intent is to wreak havoc on our lives, the safety of our children (particularly trans kids) and our culture.

We've got social media leeches shilling for engagement and clout via distorted videos and pictures which appeal to the worst but mostly unexpressed fears and stereotypes about our community, particularly when it comes to children.

All of it goes to prove that there are still people who believe the worse about LGBTQ and will still embrace some of the most unbelievable lies about us. And they either do it openly like the men above or behind a veneer of respectability. We should never be astounded or upset that people like this exist because they will always exist.

The key is to never allow them to shape our lives or make us live in accordance to their stereotypes and fears. And despite how things have been these days, I think we've done a good job at holding our own. 

At least thus far.


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Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Trump-supporting hate group leader accuses Biden Administration of being aligned with Satan

Donald Trump (left) and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins (right)

If having a lack of cognitive dissonance was an Olympic sport, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins would win the gold medal every time. 

From People for the American Way:

.

For the record, the Biden Administration is not targeting Christians. And if Perkins' attempt to connect the transgender community with Satan sounds familiar, then you are correct.

He once made the same claim about the LGBTQ community in general 13 years ago.

 

 And thereby lies two points we should remember. Perkins's affinity for playing the "Satan" card underscores how people like him and groups like FRC have recycled their anti-LGBTQ talking points and lies to specifically target the trans community. It's not without cause that the Family Research Council was designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. 

 The other point is as much as Tony Perkins has defended, lied for, and basically acted like a groupie around Donald Trump, he should know better than anyone else just who could be aligned Satan and who isn't.

Related posts:


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Monday, June 17, 2024

'Marlon Wayans claps back at the objections after posting Pride pics honoring his trans son' & other Mon/Tue news briefs




Marlon Wayans defied haters by posting Pride pics honoring his trans son - "While Wayans’ post drew hundreds of thousands of likes, the ratio wasn’t all good vibrations. But the negative commenters didn’t cow the In Living Color comedian, though, who responded with more selects from the shoot and some fire for his detractors. “Yeah and just for the HATE MONGERS … I’m posting ANOTHER,” Wayans wrote.


Trump campaign makes bizarre pitch to LGBTQ+ voters - "Former President Donald Trump is asking LGBTQ+ voters worried about an expansion of his anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in a second term to see the forest for the trees — and to ignore everything they’re seeing on the ground. “President Trump’s second term agenda will create a safer and more prosperous America for ALL Americans, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, or creed!” 26-year-old campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told The Hill about her boss’s LGBTQ+ policies if he wins a second term." 

Related post - Donald Trump’s 8 Worst Attacks on the LGBTQ+ Community - Trump obviously thinks that the LGBTQ community is stupid. For those who are tempted to be that stupid, Trump's first term wasn't exactly a wonderful time for LGBTQ people. What would make anyone think that his second would be any different? 

Trump-Linked Pastor Admits to Inappropriate Behavior With ‘Young Lady’ After Being Accused of Sexually Abusing a 12-Year-Old - A far-right Trump supporting pastor revealed to be . . . you know where I'm going with this. We've been on this road so many times, we might as well buy a house.
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Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Physician faces felony HIPAA charges for leaking private medical of transgender children to anti-LGBTQ activist

Houston physician Eithan Haim (seen here being interviewed by Fox News personality Laura Ingraham) claims to be a "whistleblower." In reality, he is facing federal HIPAA charges for leaking the private medical information of trans children to a conservative activist. The conservative activist in question, Christopher Rufo, once encouraged his followers to falsely label drag queens as "trans strippers" who are coming into schools.


While this story has been mostly ignored by the mainstream news, conservatives and the anti-LGBTQ industry have been wallowing through it like pigs in mud. The physician in question has already appeared on Fox News. Other right-wing sources have anointed him as a "whistleblower." In reality, he is facing felony charges for leaking private medical information of transgender kids to a far-right personality who once advised people to label drag queens as transgender strippers.

From LGBTQ Nation:

Houston surgeon Eithan Haim has been indicted on four felony counts after he shared public documents revealing the private information of transgender patients – in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a federal law that protects patients’ medical privacy.

Haim leaked internal documents from Texas Children’s Hospital in 2023 to conservative activist Christopher Rufo, alleging that the hospital had violated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) opinion, which called gender-affirming care “child abuse.” Haim claims that the hospital continued to provide care up until the passing of S.B. 14, a gender-affirming care ban.

 . . . Mandatory reporters for medical abuse concerns are required to first go to the Texas Medical Board and not journalists. Reports for child abuse concerns are required to first go to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. 

 . . .HIPAA regulates how healthcare professionals can share patients’ medical information with third parties and places strict limits in order to protect privacy. Haim claims he had a duty to report what he believed was child abuse, but the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services’ website says that they are the agency that needs to be reported to, not rightwing activists like Rufo. 

 Moreover, Haim claims that the medical records he leaked to Rufo were anonymized, but Assistant Clinical Professor Carmel Shachar of Harvard Law School told Assigned Media that the records Haim leaked were not de-identified in compliance with HIPAA, meaning that people could figure out who the records originally belonged to. 

This could potentially make the children whose records Haim leaked targets for harassment and bullying. In an interview with Fox News, Haim stated that he believes the charges were “politically motivated.” Shortly after Haim’s documents were released to the public, an investigation was conducted by Paxton into Texas Children’s Hospital’s alleged continuation of gender-affirming care. Houston Public Media reached out for an indication as to whether this investigation is ongoing but did not receive comment. 


 LGBTQ Nation goes on to point out how anti-LGBTQ and far right personalities such as Libs of TikTok's Chaya Raichik have come out publicly in support of Haim. LGBTQ Nation also shared several questionable tweets and comments Haim has made: 


 Haim has expressed numerous fringe views on his social media as well. In May, he claimed that trans women breastfeeding is “the plight of Western Civilization.” 

 He also said that former President Donald Trump’s felony charges were a “Stalinist show.” 

 Haim said that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the United States through the COVID-19 pandemic, should be imprisoned.

 An independent investigation by journalist Evan Urquhart found evidence of Haim expressing such views directly in an interview with Rufo, believing that support for gender-affirming care is only an extension of the left-wing “capture” of medical organizations. 


 Christopher Rufo, the person Haim is accused of leaking information to, is himself a controversial figure. Along with various other right-wing personalities, he is heavily involved in falsely claiming that LGBTQ people, specifically drag queens, are sexually grooming children. In 2022, he encouraged his supporters to falsely label drag queens as "trans strippers" coming into schools.




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Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Federal court permanently blocks Florida law banning gender-affirming care for trans minors, restrictions on care for trans adults

A huge victory in Florida for the trans community and it tells us something we already knew about anti-trans laws - that they are coming from bigoted animus instead of genuine concern for children. In other words, the opponents of gender-affirming care manufactured justifications to pass laws against it, but the arguments simply didn't stand up in court.

From The Advocate

A federal court has permanently blocked Florida from enforcing its ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors and restrictions on the care for trans adults.

 “Transgender opponents are of course free to hold their beliefs,” Judge Robert Hinkle of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida wrote in his ruling, issued Tuesday. “But they are not free to discriminate against transgender individuals just for being transgender. In time, discrimination against transgender individuals will diminish, just as racism and misogyny have diminished. To paraphrase a civil-rights advocate from an earlier time, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

 “In the meantime, the federal courts have a role to play in upholding the Constitution and laws. The State of Florida can regulate as needed but cannot flatly deny transgender individuals safe and effective medical treatment — treatment with medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity.”

Hinkle also asserted, “Gender identity is real.”

He had temporarily blocked the law last year. When hearing the case in December, he had ripped into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for spreading lies about trans care for young people. 

 Journalist Chris Geidner from his (GLAAD Media Award nominated) substack LawDork pointed out how Hinkle ruled the law was a product of personal animus against the trans community. 

 U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s fiery, 105-page ruling is a complete and proper repudiation of the campaign of hate against transgender people employed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies in the legislature and appointees within his administration.

 “A majority of unbiased legislators and Board members likely would have concluded there was no legitimate reason to ban gender-affirming care across the board for all minors,” Hinkle found in his ruling, which followed a full trial on the law, passed as S.B. 254, and the actions of the Florida Board of Medicine and Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine. “The plaintiffs have shown that animus motivated a sufficient number of statutory decisionmakers.” 

 Hinkle, a Clinton appointee, ruled that the across-the-board ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors is unconstitutional. He also ruled that several of the restrictions placed on similar care for adults or for minors already receiving care are unconstitutional, including limiting provision of care only to physicians, requiring annual X-rays and bone-density scans and other follow-up care regardless of individualized needs, requiring use of a misleading “informed-consent” form, and limiting mental health assessments to being performed by psychiatrists or psychologists.

Under the judgment in the case, which is a class-action lawsuit, the relevant state and local officials are permanently enjoined from enforcing the unconstitutional provisions against any adults or minors seeking gender-affirming medical care in the form of puberty blockers or hormones 

 The ruling does not address surgery, as none of the minor plaintiffs challenged that provision and the remaining adult class representative is not seeking surgery at this time. As such, Hinkle wrote, “This order does not address surgery issues on the merits.”

Geidner goes on to meticulously point out just how Hinkle ripped the law and its justification apart. It's an entertaining read for those of us who've watched the war of lies waged against the trans community and gender-affirming care.
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Monday, June 10, 2024

LGBTQ History - The 'Sissy' Stereotype in Classic Hollywood

For Pride Month 2024, I am going to post a segment every now and then on LGBTQ history because frankly I think a lot of folks - particularly our younger generation - are taking things for granted. Back in the day, I ran a feature every Friday on this blog called Know Your LGBT History. Its point was to spotlight the past portrayals of LGBTQ history in film and television no matter whether they be positive or negative.

In the spirit of that segment, I'm featuring this video about the "Sissy Stereotype in Classic Hollywood."

"In a time when homosexuality was illegal, 1930s Classic Hollywood films commonly had so-called “sissy” characters. Clearly coded as gay, their effeminate demeanor was presented for laughs and ridicule. While these characters were meant to be mocked, they triumphed in their own way. They were bold in expressing their identity, were typically engaged in careers they were passionate about, and lived how they pleased, without caring what anyone thought of them."

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Wednesday, June 05, 2024

'Social media creator Ms. Rachel brushes off backlash against Pride Month post' & other midweek news briefs

Ms. Rachel


SPLC Designates Genspect, SEGM As Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups​  -   "In a major move, the Southern Poverty Law Center has formally designated the anti-transgender pseudoscience organizations Genspect and the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine as anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups. This designation is part of the civil rights organization’s latest release of its “Year In Hate & Extremism” report, which tracks hate groups and extremist groups throughout the United States. Members of these and other anti-LGBTQ+ organizations listed have played significant roles in the passage of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and policy by concealing and underplaying their ties to anti-LGBTQ+ extremism. Most recently, members of the newly designated hate group, Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, helped advise the Cass Review in the United Kingdom, which has led to the criminalization of possession of some forms of transgender care there and is currently being used to argue for heavy restrictions in the United States."


 High turnout at first White House LGBTQ-inclusive Pride Month blood drive - Wonderful news but at the same time, I'm kinda glad it flew under some people's radar. 

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Tuesday, June 04, 2024

Trans man win $4 million appeals court victory in decade-long legal battle with school district

Score another one for the good guys. Some folks have to learn the hard way about bigotry.

From The Missouri Independent:

An appellate court unanimously ruled Tuesday that a transgender man who formerly attended the Blue Springs School District was discriminated against when he was barred from using the boys' locker room. After a decade-long legal battle, a transgender man and former student of the Blue Springs School District should receive over $4 million in damages for discrimination that occurred when he was an adolescent, the Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. 

 Judge Anthony Gabbert wrote the court’s unanimous decision, ruling that the school district discriminated against the student, identified by his initials R.M.A., on the basis of sex when it barred him from using the boys’ locker room. A key part of the appellate court’s decision was the factor that spurred the school district’s discrimination. Attorneys for the Blue Spring School District did not contest that R.M.A. was treated differently, according to Gabbert’s ruling, but said it was because of his “female genitalia.” 

 “School district employees suggested that R.M.A. had been excluded from the boys’ restrooms and locker rooms because of [the] school district’s belief that he had female genitalia,” Gabbert wrote. “[The] school district did not actually determine the nature of R.M.A.’s genitalia, however, and does not speculate, inspect or otherwise inquire as to the genitalia of other male students.” 

 The admission of different treatment based on assumed genitalia, Gabbert wrote, was itself discrimination on the basis of sex.

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Monday, June 03, 2024

Pictures - SC Outfest fun way to start Pride Month 2024

 Editor's note - A nice short post today. I should have posted it Sunday, but I had other obligations. 

Last Saturday, SC Pride held Outfest in downtown Columbia to commemorate the beginning of Pride month in June. While the big event - Famously Hot SC Pride - is held in October, Outfest is a wonderful big block party where everyone is invited to have fun. Below are a few pictures I took.  They are a small reminder how Pride is everywhere, even in the Southern states which don't get as much positive attention from the community as they should.








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Thursday, May 30, 2024

Gay man supporting Donald Trump has meltdown after guilty verdict is announced

The meltdown of a gay man who supports Trump perfectly captures the moment we are in after guilty verdict in hush money trial.


By now, y'all know that Trump was found guilty on 34 counts in hush money criminal case involving porn star Stormy Daniels. That means for now, the presumptive GOP nominee for president is a convicted felon. 

And of course, folks are either happy or prognosticating what it may mean for the November election. I say let's rejoice in this moment because Trump had it coming for a long time. However, let's also not get carried away that we forget that an election is still in November, and he still has a chance to get back into the White House. 

Those of us who oppose Trump should use this verdict and what it brings as a way to remind people just how of a disaster this awful man was in 2016-2020, not to mention how much of a larger disaster he would be if he gets back in.  And how much better and calmer things are with a credible president like Joe Biden in office.

Or to put it another way, this is our opposition below, courtesy of journalist Oliya Scootercaster. According to his t-shirt, this man claims to be a gay supporter of Trump and he has a lot of impolite things to say. One on hand, his tirade is comical and definitely not safe for work or with the volume turned up. On the other hand, he is a perfect example of why the LGBTQ community and other folks in America must do all we can to keep Trump away from the Oval Office.



Now this is really scary. Before the verdict was read, he was threatening to take apart the courthouse.
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Wednesday, May 29, 2024

California ballot measure targeting transgender kids fails to qualify for November election

Good news out of California courtesy of The Los Angeles Times:

 A measure that would have required schools to notify parents about their child’s gender identity and limited transgender youth medical care has failed to get enough signatures in support to qualify for the November ballot, proponents said Tuesday. 

The proposal sought to notify parents if their child changes their name or pronouns at school or requests to use facilities or play sports that don’t match their gender on official records. It also would have banned California doctors from prescribing hormones or otherwise providing gender-affirming care to minors. For the measure to qualify for the ballot, proponents had to submit the signatures of more than half a million registered voters by Tuesday, the deadline set by the California secretary of state.

The campaign fell short but gathered more than 400,000 signatures, according to Jonathan Zachreson, a Roseville school board member who was leading the initiative.

 . . . Supporters of the measure sought to bring Republican-backed debates over “parental rights” that have been playing out on school boards in conservative pockets of California to the statewide level. California Democrats in turn have fought to thwart gender notification policies considered by several school boards, measures they said are harmful to transgender students who may feel safe at school but not at home.

 . . .LGBTQ+ advocacy groups have warned that parental rights debates over gender identity are harmful to youth who already face high rates of suicide. “Across the country and here in California, LGBTQ+ young people are under attack from extremist politicians and school boards seeking to ban books, terrorize teachers and make transgender youth afraid to be themselves at school,” Equality California Executive Director Tony Hoang said in a statement.

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Tuesday, May 28, 2024

DeSantis anti-LGBTQ agenda collapsing after failed presidential run. LGBTQ Floridians enjoying the change.


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a "war on woke" as the centerpiece of his pursuit of the White House.  After his very unsuccessful presidential campaign, the key part of his plan - an attack on the LGBTQ community via various laws - is collapsing. And LGBTQ Floridians are enjoying the change.

From The Guardian:

 Leaders of Florida’s much-embattled LGBTQ+ communities say the worst of Governor Ron DeSantis’s three-year onslaught against them may be over, with the official start of Pride month celebrations only days away. Evidence has been mounting over the past 12 months of a radical change in the political climate now facing LGBTQ+ people in Florida. 

The first sign came in June 2023 when a federal district court judge in Orlando granted an injunction that prevented the state from enforcing a DeSantis-backed law that prohibited children from attending public performances by drag queens. 

 The first quarter of this year brought more welcome news. In March, the state’s premier advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights announced a settlement with the state over key provisions of the so-called “don’t say gay” law that DeSantis rammed through the Republican-controlled state legislature in 2022. Under the terms of that settlement, the state agreed to reinstate the rights of students and teachers to speak freely in the classroom about LGBTQ+ people, families and issues, according to Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida. 

The settlement acknowledged that the law does not prohibit the reading of books or the staging of musicals and plays featuring LGBTQ+ characters in the state’s public schools. 

And then there is this bit of news, which I absolutely adored - the return of drag shows.

. . . A year ago this month, Kristina Bozanich reluctantly canceled an adults-only event at a gym in the central Florida town of St Cloud that would have featured a drag show. The appearance of a road sign in the neighboring community of Lake Nona that read “kill all gays” in the days leading up to the show had prompted the withdrawal of the four drag show performers who had agreed to appear at the event. That put an end to the 2023 Pride month celebrations that had been scheduled to take place in St Cloud on 10 June.

 A year later, the Proud in the Cloud program of events scheduled for 8 June has already received thousands of dollars in corporate contributions. A city council member and lifelong resident of St Cloud named Shawn Fletcher recently issued a proclamation declaring June 2024 to be Pride month in the community of approximately 67,000 people.

 “The drag ban is no longer enforced, and we have so much more backing, including from local law enforcement,” marvels the 32-year-old Bozanich. “I’ve been shocked – but in a good way.”

 

While this does not mean everything is sunshine and roses for LGBTQ Floridians, it does demonstrate yet again how resilient our community is and how we win when we fight together instead of backing down.

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Saturday, May 25, 2024

Drag performer awarded $1.1 million judgement against blogger who falsely accused him of exposing himself to kids

From The Associated Press:

A jury has awarded more than $1.1 million to an Idaho drag performer who accused a far-right blogger of defaming him when she falsely claimed that he exposed himself to a crowd, including children, during a Pride event in June 2022. The Kootenai County District Court jury unanimously found Friday that Summer Bushnell defamed Post Falls resident Eric Posey when she posted a doctored video of his performance with a blurred spot that she claimed covered his “fully exposed genitals,” the Coeur D’Alene Press reported.

Jurors awarded Posey $926,000 in compensatory damages for defamation. Because Posey proved that Bushnell knew her allegations were false when she made them or that she made the accusations with “reckless disregard” for the truth, the jury awarded additional punitive damages in the amount of $250,000. 

The day of Posey’s performance, June 11, 2022, Bushnell posted a video of herself discussing the mass arrest of Patriot Front members near City Park, as well as footage from Posey’s performance. “Why did no one arrest the man in a dress who flashed his genitalia to minors and people in the crowd?” she said in the video. “No one said anything about it and there’s video. I’m going to put up a blurred video to prove it.” 

The next day, Bushnell published an edited video she had received from local videographer Jeremy Lokken, which included a blur over Posey’s pelvis. Bushnell told others that the blur concealed “fully exposed genitals” and urged people to contact police. 

The edited video garnered many thousands of views, sparking national news coverage and a police investigation. City prosecutors ultimately declined to file charges and stated publicly that the unedited video showed no exposure. In reality the unedited video showed no indecent exposure, and prosecutors declined to file charges. Bushnell was expressionless as she hurried out of the courtroom Friday. 

The lie told on Posey was not an isolated incident. It was a part of a wide push by conservatives and those on the far right in which they would amplify videos or pictures of drag events taken out of context, altered, or deliberately mispresented to claim that drag performers and the LGBTQ community in general were sexually grooming kids. 

This has led to threats against drag performers, bomb threats against events, public protests, and even anti-drag legislation. Several state legislatures across the country passed vague legislation which purported to safeguard children but were actually mechanisms designed to ban drag public performances of any kind. This meant banning drag performances at pride events and even Drag Queen Story hour events in public libraries. However, the bans would fail with several courts declaring them unconstitutional and attacks on free speech.

This incident in Idaho, and folks please correct me if I am wrong, is the first time where someone directly making a false allegation against a drag performer was ordered to pay up.

 It's a wonderful consequence which I hope will send a message to others trafficking these lies, particularly a certain person by the name of Chaya Raichik.  And I hope it also sends a message to drag performers in general about what they can do to fight back.

Related posts:
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Wednesday, May 22, 2024

'Colorado GOP to parents - 'Take your kids out of school because Democrats are turning them trans'' & other midweek news briefs


Colorado GOP tells parents the Democrats “turn more kids trans”​ - Lawd hammercy! This is simply shrill desperation. 




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Tuesday, May 21, 2024

SC Gov signs harsh anti-trans bill into law: Bans gender-affirming care for minors, bans public funds & Medicaid from being used for all gender-affirming care, encourages outing of trans students


From The Associated Press:

 South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Tuesday signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. When the ink dried, South Carolina became the 25th state to restrict or ban such care for minors. The governor announced the signing on social media and said he would hold a ceremonial bill signing next week. The law bars health professionals from performing gender-transition surgeries, prescribing puberty blockers and overseeing hormone treatments for patients under 18.

 . . .As the bill advanced in the General Assembly, doctors and parents testified before House and Senate committees that people younger than 18 do not receive gender-transition surgeries in South Carolina and that hormone treatments begin only after extensive consultation with health professionals. They said the treatments can be lifesaving, allowing young transgender people to live more fulfilling lives. Research has shown that transgender youth and adults are prone to stress, depression and suicidal behavior when forced to live as the sex they were assigned at birth. 

 Supporters of the bill have cited their own unpublished evidence that puberty blockers increase self-harm and can be irreversible. 

 To be more specific To be more specific, over 40 physicians, parents and kids testified against this bill. Only one person testified for it - a representative from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is a group which pushed anti-LGBTQ group across the country. And what's worse, he didn't even bother to show up in person. He testified via video.

If anything, this nonsense proves yet again how Republicans and conservatives weaponize the claim of protecting children to in actuality havoc to the LGBTQ community. According to the Campaign for Southern Equality, the new law also:

Prohibits public funds and Medicaid from being used to cover the cost of transition-related healthcare for transgender people of any age – which could result in providers of gender-affirming care who receive public funds to restrict care, and would impact transgender people insured through the state employee healthcare plan. 

 Encourages school professionals to “out” students to their parents if they ask to go by a different name or pronouns, potentially before they are ready to share.

And according to LGBTQ Nation, the law runs counter to what majority of South Carolinians said about the issue in March poll:

A March 2024 poll found that 71% of South Carolina voters felt that the government should not intervene in LGBTQ gender-affirming healthcare decisions that regard individuals under the age of 18.

The Campaign for Southern Equality has information available for those impacted by this law:

With H.4624 immediately in effect, advocates have launched resources to support families navigating this challenging period. Families of transgender youth in South Carolina are now eligible to apply for support from the Southern Trans Youth Emergency Project (STYEP), a regional project of the Campaign for Southern Equality, led in partnership in SC with We Are Family, Uplift Outreach Center, and the Harriet Hancock Center. 

The project helps transgender youth whose access to gender-affirming care has been disrupted by government policies. Through STYEP, families can receive accurate information about H.4624; patient navigation to identify out-of-state gender-affirming care providers; and emergency grants of $500 for immediate needs, including travel, medication, and other logistics. Families can request support at www.southernequality.org/SCResources. 

 Transgender adults who may be impacted by H.4624 should contact the Campaign for Southern Equality’s informational hotline, which is available at https://southernequality.org/SCHealthcareHelp/

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Monday, May 20, 2024

SCOTUS will not hear challenge to Maryland school district pro-trans policy. Second court victory for LGBTQ kids in a week.

 I'm as shocked as you, but a win is a win. The Supreme Court chose the safety of our LGBTQ children over fear tactics and general nonsense.  At least for now

From Reuters:

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid backed by a conservative Christian legal group to challenge a Maryland school district's policy against informing parents if their children identify as transgender or gender nonconforming. The justices turned away an appeal by three parents with children attending public schools in the Washington suburb of Montgomery County of a lower court's ruling holding that they lacked the necessary legal standing to challenge the policy. The plaintiffs are represented by the Virginia-based National Legal Foundation.

 The issue of transgender rights has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars. As part of this, conservative litigants and parents groups have filed lawsuits in various U.S. jurisdictions challenging school policies that seek to respect requests by transgender students to not "out" them to their parents without their consent. 

 The policy at issue, adopted by the Montgomery County Board of Education for the 2020-2021 school year, permitted schools to develop gender support plans for students to ensure they "feel comfortable expressing their gender identity." The policy directs school personnel to help transgender and gender nonconforming students create a plan that addresses their preferred pronouns, names and bathrooms, and bars staff from informing parents of those plans without a student's consent. 

  The Los Angeles Blade posted the following about the failed lawsuit: 

 Three parents of students in the school district in suburban Maryland outside of D.C., — none of whom have trans or gender non-confirming children — filed the lawsuit. A judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last August dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. 

The victory comes a week after another victory in Maryland. That particular one had to do with LGBTQ+ curriculum and what I think was an attempted abuse of the opt-out policy. 

 Again, from The Los Angeles Blade: 

 A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled a group of Montgomery County parents cannot “opt out” their children from classes in which lessons or books on LGBTQ-related topics are taught. The parents filed their lawsuit in May 2023.

 An American Civil Liberties Union press release notes the lawsuit challenges Montgomery County Public Schools’ policy that “mandates the inclusion of literature with LGBTQ+ characters as part of the ELA (English and Language Arts) curriculum, aiming to promote understanding and acceptance among students.” 

 “Although the district originally allowed parents to opt their children out of some ELA lessons, it rescinded the opt-out policy because the number of requests grew too difficult to manage, student absenteeism soared, and it created a stigmatizing environment for students who are LGBTQ or have LGBTQ family members, undermining the purpose of the inclusivity requirement,” said the ACLU. 

 Opt-out policies have been generally used for sex education, but in recent times some parents - backed by conservative groups - have been attempted to weaponize them against anything regarding a mention of LGBTQ people in classrooms. In this case, the parents were objecting to age-appropriate books for pre-kindergartners and elementary schools simply because the books contained LGBTQ characters. 

 According to Reuters: 

 At issue was a set of LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks that the board in 2022 approved for use in Montgomery County Public Schools’ curriculum. Those books included “Pride Puppy!” an alphabet book by Robin Stevenson about a dog who gets lost amid a Pride parade, and “Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope,” a story by Jodie Patterson about her transgender son’s experience. 

 Parents could originally opt children out of reading the books, but the board abandoned the opt-out option with the 2023-2024 school year, prompting the lawsuit.

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Thursday, May 16, 2024

'Don't come home until your d!@k is wet.' Sex scandal involving Moms for Liberty founder heats up again.

According to a report, Moms for Liberty founder Bridget Ziegler would get her husband to go in search of women they could engage in threesomes with. Her instructions included "Don't come home until your dick is wet."


The sex scandal involving Moms For Liberty founder Bridget Ziegler and her husband Christian is heating up again.

From Florida Politics:

Ousted Republican Party of Florida Chair Christian Ziegler acknowledged in court he kept numerous videos of sexual partners besides his wife. The revelation come during a hearing on a now-closed investigation as the former politician as he and wife Bridget, a Sarasota County School Board member, seek to keep further details of their sex life private. The couple has sued the Sarasota Police Department and 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office to stop the further release of his personal data.

  Sarasota Police have copies of much of the videos Christian Ziegler references as part of some 30,000 videos downloaded from Ziegler’s iPhone last year. Authorities obtained the entire contents after serving a search warrant connected to an investigation whether Ziegler raped a woman or filmed a sexual encounter without permission. 

 Ziegler was never arrested, with police ultimately concluding that sex with the Sarasota woman leveling the accusation was “likely consensual” and prosecutors ultimately determining they lacked evidence to pursue a video voyeurism charge. Communications from the phone confirmed multiple encounters between Ziegler and the woman dating back years, including threesomes with Bridget. Now wait a minute.

 

 Hold your shock because it gets more detailed. Apparently when she was not busy accusing schools, teachers, books, and LGBTQ folks of "sexually grooming" children, Mrs. Ziegler was allegedly coordinating threesomes with her husband by getting him to prowl bars, take pictures of women, and then send her the photos. That's from a report obtained by The Florida Trident:


The report, obtained by the Florida Trident and authored by Sarasota police Det. Angela Cox, recounts how Christian Ziegler went “on the prowl” in bars for women to bring home to Bridget, a Sarasota County School Board member who has backed a number of anti-LGBTQ measures at both the state and local level, for threesome encounters. While at the bars, Christian would surreptitiously photograph prospective women and text the photos to Bridget for approval, according to the report. 

 Investigators found “numerous sexual videos” on Christian Ziegler’s phone involving the couple and other women, according to Cox’s report. The detective noted that it wasn’t clear if the women in the videos knew they were being recorded or not. “There were numerous text messages between Bridget and Christian where they are on the prowl for a female and Bridget is directing him to numerous different bars in search of a female that they are both interested in,” Cox wrote of the Ziegler phone contents. 

“During these conversations Christian is secretly taking photographs of women in the bars and sending them to Bridget asking her if she wants this one or that one. Bridget is telling him to pretend to take pictures of his beer, so they don’t see him taking pictures of them. She tells him ‘Don’t come home until your dick is wet.’”


I'm the last person to moralize (although taking pictures of anyone for the alleged purposes stated in the article is tacky as hell), so this isn't about sex. It's about hypocrisy of an extreme level. As much as I hate to generalize, there is something to the claim that if you "scratch" a far-right conservative moralizer, you're bound to find a sex fiend. It amazes me how certain folk gripe about society's decaying moral, accuse schools and books of sexually grooming children, or scapegoat LGBTQ people and culture while secretly engaging conduct in which would make my hair turn white. It would be funny if it didn't piss me off when I consider how many innocent people - especially school administrators and teachers - were branded as pedophiles and groomers. Or how many LGBTQ kids lost access to vital resources.

It's really not funny at all.

Hat tip to JoeMyGod


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