Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
Just in case none of you dear readers heard about Tuesday night's midterm election, allow me to give you a summation. The Democratic Party won control over the House and the Senate, five governorships and a bunch of state houses. It also grabbed victories in Republican strongholds considered to be untouchable, such as senate seats in South Carolina, Kansas, and Texas.
Voters, many of them most likely die-hard MAGA members or at least voted for Trump in 2024, were angered by his many broken promises, unnecessary war with Iran, and inability - or refusal - to do something about our poor economy. So, they sent him a message at the voting booth.
And it was a harsh one.
Donald Trump and the Republican Party got wrecked, thrashed, dragged from one end of the country to another, and basically stomped into fine powder. I don't think I have ever seen such a huge Democratic victory in a midterm election. Not even the thrashing in the 1998 midterms which was so embarrassing that Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich resigned from Congress or the 2006 midterms which officially made President George Bush a lame duck. What happened on Tuesday night was historically brutal. The results and their implications will be talked about on this blog and a lot of other places from days to weeks to come.
Included in last night's blue wave were monumental victories for the LGBTQ community and specifically the trans community. This is definitely much needed visibility.
Editor's note - Tuesday is election day and the LGBTQ community simply have to show up. A lot of us do weeping and hand wringing about the attacks on our community, but Tuesday is the time we take some action. Securing our rights and safety isn't going to happen instantaneously. It's a process which begins on Tuesday by voting for the candidates who support our community and - at the very least - we can establish a dialogue with even if they don't fully support our rights (i.e. some issues involving our trans brothers and sisters.) Victory doesn't happen in one day or even in one election. It's a long process. It's about building power while telling our stories. That's how we've won so many battles in the past. And that's how we win now That gameplan never changes.
The point is it's easy to bellyache, but bellyachers have never won anything. Those who fight win. Let's make Tuesday a start in our fight. Don't take anything for granted, don't get complacent and don't predict anything. Just get your asses out and VOTE.
Okay, on to the news briefs:
MAGA Melts Down Over Misleading Clip of El-Sayed on 60 Minutes - In spite of all of the unnecessary controversy regarding El-Sayed (much of it has to do with him being a Muslim running for the Senate,) the fact that his opponent has to rely on a misleading clip about trans athletes says a lot about how the Republican party have nothing to run on except to scare folks about trans people. The fact that MAGA folks are working to increase engagement of this narrative speaks to the same point.
Preschool case puts LGBTQ and religious rights at odds in Supreme Court- So here we go again with this Supreme Court. The case involves religious entities receiving tax dollars while discriminating against LGBTQ families. Knowing how this court has acted against us in the past, there is no telling what it will do with this case.
Today, I saw a video in which some guy calling in to a talk show complained that gays are "influencing" kids. It was the standard junk that we've heard all of our lives i.e. the lie that children knowing that LGBTQ people exist will somehow "take away" their innocence. He also said that 18+ was the appropriate age learn that we exist.
Yet again, some fool reducing our lives to his fevered imagination of what he thinks we do sexually.
That's why I am reposting this video. It's a reminder of a simple fact that so many in this country want to ignore - the fact that LGBTQ children exist. They are not recruited, sexualized, groomed, nor any of the other adjectives used to create negative connotations of LGBTQ people. They simply are who they are.
Omitting their existence won't make them disappear. And as it has been proven countless times, all of the ex-gay therapy in the world won't change their gender expression or sexual orientation as if it's something which can be cured by antibiotics.
LGBTQ children exist, but how they exist is dependent on us. We can either embrace and guide them or act in deluded directions which won't change them one iota, but create self-hatred which will damage them spiritually, emotionally, and in some cases, physically.
Conservative parents claim that anti-trans ads against Senate candidate James Talarico are teaching their children that trans people exist.
Editor's note - In the final week before the midterm election, I have just one thing to say - get off your asses and vote. You can do it now during the early vote period or wait until next Tuesday. Just as long as you do it. Voting is our power and we should never waste it.
DOJ Offers $1M Grant To Study “Violent” Trans People - An attempt to create junk science started by our government. Let me help these idiots out - there is no link between gender dysphoria and violent crime. Now where is my million dollars?
The 30-second ad from the Progress Action Fund (PAF) depicts a white-haired man in a suit sitting inside a bathroom stall. A young girl trying to use the bathroom then opens the stall door and screams upon seeing him.
“I’m your Republican Congressman,” he tells her in a raspy voice. “Now that we’re in charge, I’m checking to make sure there’s no trans people in the wrong bathroom.”
The girl responds, “Bathrooms are private. Don’t you have anything better to do?”
“I won the last election, and this is my priority,” the Congressman replies. And in perhaps the most powerful moment, the ad ends with a close-up of the generic Republican’s face as he creepily says, “Now let’s make sure you’re really a girl.”
The ad will air on television in both Texas and Ohio as part of a broader $1 million ad buy.
“Americans want their elected officials to lower gas prices and end the war in Iran, not follow them into the f–king restroom,” Progress Action Fund executive director Joe Jacobson said in a statement. “Republicans are creepy as hell. Democrats need to grow a spine and call Republicans out for their creepy fetish of monitoring children’s bathrooms.”
Personally, I think the ad - which is being praised for its directness - should air in more places around the country.
A school sign makes fun of Donald Trump's lie that schools are conducting transgender surgeries on children.
How desperate is Donald Trump to change the possible huge defeat of Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections? So desperate that he is falling back on his lies about the trans community which some say helped him win in 2024.
At a recent rally in Georgia, Trump claimed that schools in six states are secretly conducting trans surgeries on children.
At a rally in Georgia on Friday, he said, “We got critical race theory and transgender mutilization (sic) insanity out of our schools. I mean, we have five states where your child goes off to school as Tim and comes back as Tammy, three or four days later. It’s true. And teachers make – somebody makes a decision. Can you imagine? ‘Goodbye, Timmy. I love you so much. I’ll see you later.’ And you say, ‘Where’s my son? My son is in the hospital.’ Can you imagine? Can you imagine? They don’t even need approval. It’s sick. You’ll have five – I think Minnesota and some others – I think it’s five or six states. You know that, right?”
CNN factchecked this claim and found it to be . . . wait for it . . . a lie.
There is no state in which schools would not need parental approval to send a child to a hospital for elective surgery. And just like in 2024, experts in gender identity care told CNN that they do not know of a single case in which a US school had secretly sent a child away for gender surgery.
The White House itself couldn’t provide one example proving Trump’s claim. Five conservative organizations we contacted in search of any examples did not respond.
The CNN article goes into more detail as to why this claim is a lie. I would suggest that folks read it.
This is not the first time this year that Trump has told wild stories about the trans community. In August, he claimed that hospitals were performing "reverse" trans surgeries at his orders. Of course, that comment was called out for the bullshit it is:
Adrian Shanker, who served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for health policy and senior adviser on LGBTQI+ health equity at the Department of Health and Human Services, tells The Advocate that Trump’s confusion demonstrates why politicians should not make personal medical decisions
.
“I don’t really know what President Trump means by reverse surgeries, but the reality is that he should leave medical decision-making up to the patient and their providers to discuss what medical care is right for a certain patient,” Shanker says. “These kinds of decisions really don’t have room for politicians in the middle of that conversation.”
Trump’s “wild statement,” Shanker says, is evidence that politicians do not belong in the “patient-provider dyad.”
Trump and the Republican wasted the two years they had full power. They did nothing for the American people except making our lives more difficult by not doing anything about high prices, inflation, or the poor economy. And then there is that unnecessary war Trump got us into with Iran; the war presently going on with no end in sight.
Eager to change the subject and scare Americans into giving them another two years in power, they are pulling ugly rabbits out of dark hats by labeling Democrats as communists and - as seen here - conjuring up the image of transgender boogeyman eager to snatch up children and do surgeries on them.
We've seen them do stuff like this before and the fact that the president of the United States is telling an absolutely ludicrous lie to what seems to be a desensitized public and press could be seen as shocking.
But is it?
People are constantly asking why their fellow Americans put up with Trump. Why do they bend over backwards to support or make excuses for his lies?
The answer is easy, you dummies.
It's because the power and prestige of the presidency. When members of his cabinet figuratively bend at the knee in meetings with him or when Franklin Graham debases his own alleged religious integrity by ignoring Trump's lies while overinflating his nonexistent virtues, it's not because they are devoted followers of Donald Trump. It's not because they love him. They are drooling, power-hungry sycophants eager to curry his favor for what he can dole out from his position as (ugh) leader of the free world.
Whether it be basic access for an article, a prestigious job in government, conservative judges, being photographed with him, publicity from being around him, or at the very least an inflated sense of self-esteem because you support him, the key to Trump's power isn't Trump. It's simply the old story about the lure of power.
Still, it's a sad realization that Americans gave virtually unlimited power to a geriatric moron. It's an even sadder contemplation that many of these same Americans are willing to make every lie he tells, every error he makes, and every death he causes look like the miracles of Jesus as long as they can feed off of his undeserving presidential teat.
It all proves that voting is not only the power we have, but also the power we give. That's something we should remember.
On October 17, Famously Hot SC Pride hosted its annual festival in downtown Columbia SC where LGBTQ folks and our allies enjoyed a day of fun, fellowship, and family. As usual, I had a good time and brought back pictures. No one should ever accuse me of being a professional photographer, but I enjoy taking pictures of pride events.
LGBTQ people are unfortunately inundated with stories about how our Pride events are exercises in lewd behavior where we run around naked and perform graphic sex acts in front of children. I don't know anything about that, and I have yet to see anything like that in the 20+ years I have attended and helped to organize Pride events in South Carolina. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen (in other places), just I don't where any of that happens and frankly, I don't care. These pictures below represent the LGBTQ community I am a part of, love, and will fight for with every breath of my body.
Because the LGBTQ community in general (and that includes ALL of us) is WORTH fighting for.
Usually, I am not one for trigger warnings, but a huge exception needs to be made for this one, particularly for my transgender brothers and sisters. The proper word to use for this caller to Isaiah Martin's show is psychotic. Martin can usually tear conservative Republican talking points to shreds, but I think he was left a little speechless over the caller's tirade.
Maybe the word "psychotic" was too polite of a word to describe the caller.
How about rabidly unhinged and basically stupid. What else can one call this man as he raged about transgender men using the women's restrooms (he didn't know the difference between trans men and trans women) or how the thought of a trans person using the restroom (which he described in very graphic terms) next to his three-year-old daughter (his direct quote was "his three-year-old f%king daughter.") scares him. And let's not forget when he mentions the 36 occasions which he can pull up proving that trans men use the women's restrooms (he continues to get trans men and trans women mixed up.)
On one hand, the interaction is funny. This man is nothing more than a guinea pig. He's the proverbial drooling dog of the Pavlovian experiment conditioned to see trans predators in the corners of every public restroom as if they are mythical monsters waiting in ponds to snatch children who venture to close to water's edge. On the other, it's both sad and scary when one realizes that this man is the type to attack trans women for simply using the restroom.
And then there is the question that so many in the comments section of the tweet asked:
Why would he allow his three-year-old daughter to use a public restroom by herself?
The right-wing social media ecosystem did their work to spread a lie about James Talarico's mental health. But then the lie was exposed, leaving them scrambling to backtrack.
I have my fingers crossed regarding the upcoming mid-term election because I refuse to take anything for granted. One thing is for sure at least right now - Trump and the Republicans are running scared and fearing a huge blue wave.
That is evidenced by an ugly rumor their ecosystem spread about one of the Democratic candidates giving them the vapors. It was a rumor which delightfully backfired.
The possible MVP of the midterms is James Talarico, the Democratic senatorial candidate for Texas. He has led the controversial and corrupt state attorney general Ken Paxton in the polls, and it has the MAGA influencers worried. So worried in fact that they recently started a rumor that Talarico took an absence from the campaign because of a mental health episode and checked himself into a mental health center in Ohio. They were full speed in pushing the lie until it blew up in their faces:
Over just a few days, it went from an admitted rumor; to some like former Los Angeles GOP mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt claiming they had actual sources; to winks and nods from Talarico’s GOP opponent Ken Paxton and President Donald Trump; to right-wing sites covering the still-baseless claims; to some attempted independent journalism that has been repeatedly promoted by Elon Musk.
By Sunday afternoon, a pair of right-wing influencers shared audio of what they said was a call with a mental health center in Ohio seemingly confirming that Talarico had just been released from its facility.
. . . The story then exploded on the right. But it just as quickly fell apart.
The Bulwark and others obtained the full phone call showing the apparent employee had previously and repeatedly flatly denied any record of Talarico being at the facility. She only said the above quote after being unable to locate any records for a person who told her Talarico was her cousin and had been staying there.
The timeline didn’t even match up. The influencer said the call was placed on Saturday evening, so that would mean Talarico would have been discharged Saturday evening. But Talarico had already appeared publicly in Texas the night before and did so again on Saturday night.
The mental health center, called the Lindner Center of Hope, has now denied Talarico was ever there: “Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.”
Talarico says he has never even been to Ohio.
The article goes on to point out which MAGA Republicans are either deleting their tweets, backtracking, or staying firm in an attempt to pick some sense out of the nonsense they started.
Then there are the attacks on transgender Americans. In spite of the fact that Americans are more concerned with affordability, healthcare, Trump's war with Iran, and other vital issues, Republicans are hoping visions of spooky transgender predators will get reap them as much success as it was claimed to have done in the 2024 elections.
With the help of Elon Musk, who has thus far spent $100 million (that's right - ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS) on anti-trans ads targeting Democrats, Republicans are trying very hard to distract voters from Trump's dismal record and their above and beyond the call of duty acquiesces to his madness.
Let me break down their attempts in three columns:
Failure - With the help of Soren Aldaco, an anti-trans activist, Republicans ran an ad accusing Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democratic senatorial candidate, of supporting trans surgery for minors. That attempt blew up in their faces when the certain facts - seen below - came out about Aldaco.
Maybe mixed success, but still tacky:
Donald Trump shared this absolutely ridiculous ad attacking South Carolina senatorial candidate Annie Andrews, while mocking her as "Annie 'Trannie' Andrews." Andrews responded back with an ad of her own, vocalizing anti-trans tropes:
“So I want you to hear me loud and clear: I don’t support biological men playing women’s sports and I don’t support — and haven’t ever performed — gender surgery for minors,” Andrews says.
Trump's attack was the latest in a barrage of anti-trans nonsense thrown at Andrews by ads from her opponent and the current Republican Senator Darlene Graham. The ad can be seen as a possible mixed success because it made Andrews respond in a way which affirmed anti-trans tropes and have gotten some of her supporters angry with her. Trust me when I say this because I am a South Carolinian and we are knee deep in this mess. Time will tell if Andrews' attempt to distance herself hurts her campaign.
Coming across as desperate:
California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is running this inane anti-trans ad in a bid to attract Spanish speaking voters.
Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is targeting Spanish-speaking voters with an AI-generated ad that shows a caricature of a trans girl playing soccer against high school girls.
. . . The ad is airing in Spanish, but the New York Post shared an English-language version. It appears to be entirely AI-generated, and it opens with a father kissing his high school-aged daughter on the forehead at a soccer game before she runs to the field. The father asks, “Who is that?”
“New starter,” a man says without even looking up from his phone. “Last week she declared herself a girl.”
The player, portrayed as a cis man with a mustache who appears to be around 30, is shown pushing the high school girls around on the field. While this person is supposed to represent a high school-age trans girl, the AI portrayal looks so much like a cis man that even the Post described the character as “a transgender man” twice.
“Who allowed this?” the father, who is now inexplicably standing in the middle of the field, asks as dramatic music plays.
“That? That was me,” AI-generated Becerra, who is also in the middle of the soccer field, responds. The name “Xavier Becerra” appears on the screen, even though this isn’t a clip of Becerra. “I fought for boys to play in girls’ sports, and I’ll keep doing it as governor.”
“What if they get hurt?” the father asks.
“Sorry,” AI Becerra says, smiling.
Hilton's ad can be seen as desperate because, as the article points out, Becerra is leading Hilton by double digits.
October is LGBTQ History Month and on an annual basis, Equality Forum spotlights 31 iconic figures of LGBTQ history. This year is no different, but I think the choices will be seen as controversial, particularly a former president of the United States and a senator who was assaulted on the Congressional floor because his stance against slavery.
In light of efforts by the Trump Administration and their allies to erase LGBTQ history, videos like this are vital to our community.
A Republican group is running a political ad featuring anti-trans activist Soren Aldaco. The ad accuses U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown of supporting trans surgery for minors and implies that Aldaco's transition was somehow Brown's fault. As seen by the graphic courtesy of a news report from ABC affiliate WEWS, the ad is highly deceptive on both accusations.
In the 2024 election, scapegoating trans people, particularly trans children, was deemed a winning issue for the Republican party.
Two years later people are slowly finding out that responding positively to spooky Republican ads about trans athletes, trans prisoners, or "trans surgeries for minors" didn't do anything to improve their healthcare, bring down prices, bring back jobs, or keep us out of war. This means conjuring up images of transgender boogeymen for the 2026 midterms doesn't seem to be having the same impact it did in 2024.
But Republicans continue go about this course of action and in Ohio, they just got publicly called out for lying
A reelection advertisement created by a Republican super PAC in support of Ohio Senator Jon Husted misleads viewers into thinking that a young person’s gender transition was somehow Democratic opponent Sherrod Brown’s fault due to failed state-level policies. There’s only one problem: the person in the ad is not from Ohio and was a legal adult when she transitioned.
On September 24, the Senate Leadership Fund, which bills itself as the “only outside organization solely dedicated to protecting and expanding the Republican Senate Majority,” debuted the ad, “Sherrod Brown Does Whatever Extremists Demand,” aimed at linking the Ohio Democrat with gender-affirming care for minors, an ongoing wedge issue in the upcoming midterm elections.
In the ad, 23-year-old Texan Soren Aldaco states that after a “20-minute meeting,” doctors told her parents that she was transgender, which led to “hormone shots” and a “botched double mastectomy,” which caused her “years of trauma.” She claims in the video that the surgery happened when she was a child.
After telling her story, Aldaco then links her personal situation to Brown’s alleged pro-trans policies, saying that Brown “supports sex change surgery for minors” and “admitted he would never oppose it.”
Aldaco closes the ad by saying that Brown does “whatever extremists demand,” including “anything to hold onto power.”
According to them, ABC affiliate WEWSand Politifact revealed that the ad is a highly deceptive. WEWS ran a news segment about it (see graphic above.) Politifact posted a segment about it.
When contacted by PolitiFact about the 2026 ad, Senate Leadership Fund spokesperson Chris Gustafson cited Brown’s July 19, 2023, interview with WSYX-TV in Columbus, Ohio. That was also the sole source cited in the group’s 2024 ad, and in its other 2026 Ohio ads.
The segment discussed legislation backed by then-Sen. JD Vance, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which Brown opposed. The measure would have made it a felony for doctors to provide surgery or prescribe puberty blockers to anyone younger than 18.
In the interview, Brown said, “A child’s health care decisions are between them, their parents, their families, their doctors — not politicians. I will never agree with anybody that wants to bring politics into the family situation with health care, period.’”
Gustafson said this means Brown “does not support any limitations on transgender or gender-affirming procedures on children.”
The wording of the 2026 ad goes further than the 2024 ad, which also mentioned “puberty blockers.” Nothing in Brown’s remarks to WSYX shows that he would force surgery on anyone.
The ad remains up on Youtube and in response, Brown ran his own ad:
#OHSen: Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) is up on TV with this response spot on the trans issue --
Warren from Johnstown to camera:
"Here they go again, those same attacks against Sherrod Brown"
Mary from Granville:
"With everything going on, that's what they're talking about?"
Mike from Richwood:
"In Ohio, it's against the law to perform transgender surgeries on kids. That's right, it's illegal"
A federal judge dismissed Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), accusing the organization of violating her Title IX rights, on September 28. This dismissal comes after U.S. District Judge Tiffany Johnson concluded that the evidence provided by Gaines’ team did not establish that the NCAA was a recipient of federal financial assistance, something that must occur in order for the Title IX law to apply.
The lawsuit in question was put forth by Riley Gaines and a group made up of both current and former female collegiate athletes back in March 2024 and centers their claim that the NCAA violated their Title IX rights by implementing trans-inclusive policies.
. . . Gaines and her legal team plan to appeal the decision in order to continue their pursuit of suing the NCAA, per Politico. They must file a notice of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit within 30 days to continue the lawsuit.
The evidence that Gaines’ legal team attempted to use in the lawsuit centers on money streams of the NCAA and the Department of Defense, both of which contributed money to the University of Indiana. Johnson maintained that the two organizations have separate funding streams, writing that “there is no evidence that the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds. Thus, Plaintiffs’ Title IX claims cannot proceed." According to Johnson’s order, “[the] department’s money went to the university and other research participants rather than to the NCAA.”
Riley Gaines is like a musician with subpar talent constantly putting out remixes of the one hit song she was lucky to have. Her attacks on trans athletes and the trans community are very pathetic, seeing that her claim to fame was tying for fifth place in a swimming meet with trans athlete Lia Thomas. It's obvious that her "concern" for women's sports is a huge con game in which she is playing culture warrior for that "wingnut welfare" money which is plentiful for those faking conservative activism.
When she's not portraying the virtuous white virgin tied to the railroad tracks of woke by dastardly trans villains, you will find her attempting to earn her coins by crying foul over so-called vital things such as Black Santas. That is when she isn't having verbal fights with more successful athletes such as Simone Biles in embarrassingly blatant attempts to catch the proverbial "hem of their garment" so that she has at least a brief flicker of fame. That sort of thing is always good for a generous five minutes on Fox News for Gaines.
Seeing that as the case, this loss she just suffered in court should be good for maybe 10 minutes of pandering from a Fox News host Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters, or Laura Ingraham. It really doesn't matter because I can't tell those folks apart. They are bad combinations of the Borgs from Star Trek and The Stepford Wives.
Editor's note - two leading items in this evening's news brief post should be a clue to transphobic LGBs, and women that their anti-trans hysteria is being manipulated by Republicans to distract them from the actual harm being done by their policies.
Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States With Abortion Bans - This is an issue from earlier this month. I don't think it got as much attention as it should with all of the nonsense about trans athletes and idiots causing problems with the WNBA. Republicans like to appeal to anti-trans hysteria by asking folks "what is a woman." Now you can tell them "A woman is someone whose rate of death from ectopic pregnancies have doubled while y'all distract us with transphobic bullshit."
A Different World returns with a refreshing take on a coming-of-age queer story - As a black gay man, I've always felt disconnected to the original iteration of A Different World because there were no LGBTQ storylines. In the show's defense, this was a period of time in which there were very few LGBTQ storylines on any shows because of the controversy it would cause. THANK YOU A Different World for addressing situations regarding LGBTQ students on HBCUs. And doing it rather well, I see.
According to LGBTQNation, a millionaire hedge fund manager and ally of Donald Trump is behind two Washington state anti-trans ballot measures in a scheme which could get him a tax cut and girl athletes subjected to genital tests.
Brian Heywood, a hedge fund manager and close ally of President Donald Trump, is the “villain we’re up against,” Libby Watson, campaign manager for No Hate in WA State, tells LGBTQ Nation. That organization is the collection of non-profits, parents, medical professionals, students and teachers arrayed against Heywood’s self-funded right-wing political action committee, Let’s Go Washington.
The group is behind two initiatives that Watson and No Hate are organizing against.
Initiative 638 would ban trans girls from school sports with a requirement for genital exams or other forms of testing to confirm the sex of every girl in the state who wants to play sports. Initiative 001 outs LGBTQ+ students to families, repeals records protections from the victims of child abuse, and opens confidential school meetings between students and counselors for inspection.
Together, they’re a one-two punch attacking what MAGA supporters of the anti-LGBTQ+ Let’s Go campaign characterize as “gender ideology” and the “transgender agenda.”
According to the article, there is a third component to the anti-trans ballot measures.
After qualifying the two culture war initiatives for the ballot, Heywood ran a separate signature-gathering campaign to qualify Initiative 645, which would repeal the millionaires’ tax recently passed by the Washington legislature that established a 9.9% tax on income over $1 million per year.
Let’s Go Washington is packaging all three together in their Yes campaign.
“Ultimately, what he really cares about is not being taxed, and so he’s using students, the trans kids, LGBTQ+ youth as a scapegoat to rile up his base with the hope that he can turn out enough conservatives and persuade enough voters to vote yes on all three initiatives,” Watson says. “It’s not about fairness in girls’ sports.”
JK Rowling and other transphobes are amplifying an anti-trans study as if it is new. In reality, it an old piece of nonsense which was called out in April for inaccurate conclusions and the author's problems with bias and objectivity.
The tweet above is from arch transphobe JK Rowling amplifying a study which claims that gender-affirming care does not improve the mental health of trans youth.
Rowling and others amplified this study last weekend while arguably implying that it is a new discovery. That implication would be a lie.
The study came out in earlier this year and when it did, many people called out its errors which can be summarized by the graphic below:
For those who want more intricate information other than a graphic, I wrote a blog post about it. My post included a wonderful critique of the study by Dr. Laura Targownik, who has been called "a prominent leader in advocating for gender equity and transgender health rights within the medical profession."
I also wrote a second post calling attention to the fact that the author of the study had a serious conflict of interest which put to question her objectivity. I said the following in the piece:
The study, published in the low-impact journal Acta Paediatrica, comes from Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a Finnish psychiatrist with extensive ties to at least one anti-LGBTQ+ hate group and a history of anti-trans political advocacy. The study uses Finnish registries and psychiatric visit data to support these conclusions. However, a closer examination reveals the study to be fatally flawed: it does not actually measure what it claims to measure, its headline finding is a massive artifact of surveillance bias, the clinics practices were abusive, and it operates within a system where its findings were essentially baked in from the start—regardless of what the actual mental health impacts of gender-affirming care might be.
The anti-trans hate group Kaltiala is connected to is SEGM - the same group which praised her study.
Importantly, members and associates of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) have recently played a significant role in the Cass Review, a supposedly “independent” review now being cited to crack down on transgender care in England and the United States. Recent investigations revealed that multiple SEGM members and associates were part of advisory groups to the review with secret memberships. One such person was Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a Finnish psychologist who prominently presented at the latest SEGM conference and has been closely associated with SEGM, which denies her membership due to the organization having “no official members.” Dr. Kaltiala facilitated a meeting between Dr. Cass and Dr. Patrick Hunter, a DeSantis medical board pick and member of Genspect. Dr. Cass later shared information with the team according a letter obtained exclusively by this publication. Dr. Kaltiala went on to “meet regularly” with the DeSantis appointees and even testified in favor of Florida’s ban on transgender care.
What's interesting about that particular post was the visceral reaction I received by some who read it and others who obviously did not. I don't think I have ever received such an ugly reaction from anything I had published before:
These comments didn't upset me because it was obvious that I struck a nerve amongst the wolves. That's why I am amazed at how some of the same individuals are attempting to polish up the study while ignoring its past controversies in a sad attempt to make it seem new and fresh.
Then again, I am amazed, but I really shouldn't be. Nor should I be completely shocked.
Vice President JD Vance reached for satanic panic Monday while campaigning in Kansas, falsely describing the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as devil worshipers and mangling the group’s name in the process.
Vance appeared at a MAGA Inc.-organized rally at Webco Manufacturing in Olathe to support Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, who faces the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a prominent United Methodist pastor and Democrat, in November. State Senate President Ty Masterson, the Republican nominee for governor, also attended, according to the Kansas Reflector.
Hamilton “proudly supported a drag group called Our Ladies of Perpetual Indulgence,” Vance claimed. No organization by that name exists. He apparently meant the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the 47-year-old volunteer network of queer and transgender nuns.
Vance called the Sisters “the devil worshiping group that was saying special blessings before LA Dodgers games” and an “anti-Christian hate group.”
The Sisters do not worship the devil. Their stated mission is community service, human rights advocacy, spiritual outreach, and combating shame and bigotry through humor. The organization has raised money for community nonprofits and became an early provider of sex-positive safer-sex information during the AIDS crisis.
The Dodgers did not invite the Sisters to bless baseball games. The team honored the Los Angeles chapter with a Community Hero Award before its June 16, 2023, Pride Night game, recognizing its charitable work. Catholic leaders and conservative politicians opposed the honor because the Sisters satirize Catholic imagery — criticism Vance inflated into a tale of devil worship.
Vance offered no evidence that Hamilton or his church contributed money directly to the Sisters or endorsed every PrideFest participant. He also claimed Hamilton considers being white and eating meat sinful. The Kansas Reflector reported that those accusations were assembled from old sermon excerpts stripped of context.
Bear in mind that this is the same JD Vance who, during the 2024 election, helped Donald Trump spread the ugly lie that Haitian immigrants were kidnapping and eating people's pet dogs and cats. '
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do."
During the same time frame of him lying on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Hamilton, Vance also filmed a plea begging voters to give Trump and the Republicans "another chance" as the midterm elections approach. He did this due to the strong possibility that voters, fed up with Trump's incompetence, will give control of Congress to the Democrats.
With his lie, Vance is giving voters good reason not to be taken in by his ridiculous begging.
As for this voter, I have only one thing to say to Vance - Pretend that I am a couch and kiss my ass.
In South Carolina, nine former chapter chairs of Moms for Liberty cosigned a letter claiming the group has lost its way. One of their complaints has to do with how they were allegedly advised to stay silent when ally and former state legislator Robert (RJ) May was convicted of distributing child pornography.
Moms for Liberty, which started in 2021 in Florida amid the COVID pandemic, grew nationally and grew to 21 chapters around the Palmetto State. Chapters held events to talk about child safety when it came to technology and to hear from candidates for the state House.
But frustration within the state, “internal disagreements,” a disillusionment with the national leadership, and alleged bullying by some chapters has taken place, those who left the organization say. Now only seven chapters in the state are listed on the group’s website and only three chapters with listed local leadership.
The State pointed out that in August, a group of nine former Moms for Liberty chapter leaders cosigned a letter claiming that the group "has lost its way." Part of the letter reads as follows:
“We are disappointed in the direction the national organization has taken in South Carolina,” the leadership team stated in a joint communication. The group identified several critical issues that led to this decision, including:
Conflicts of Interest: Concerns regarding the intersection of organizational goals and private interest.
Lack of Accountability: A perceived failure to enforce the organization’s own Code of Conduct, which these leaders helped establish to ensure ethical behavior and integrity.
The leadership team noted that they observed no consequences for behaviors that directly contravened the established standards of conduct intended to guide the organization’s decision-making and public presence. This departure follows a history of rigorous standards maintained by the South Carolina Legislative Committee, which required members to pledge themselves to the highest standards of ethical conduct, objectivity, and professional courtesy.
The State goes into great detail about internal pettiness and slights plague the organization. But what I feel is the most important part of the conflict has to do with former SC legislator and presently convicted sex offender Robert (RJ) May III. Before May got into trouble, he was an ally of Moms for Liberty and received the 2023 Legislator of the Year award from the group.
During his time in office May was outspoken against gender-affirming care, trans inclusion in sports and drag performances, and was listed as a speaker at Mom’s for Liberty’s Reclaiming Education in America event in 2022. Many of his concerns about LGBTQ+ topics were cited in regards to child safety.
In January, May was convicted of distributing child pornography and sentenced to 17.5 years in prison.
According to LGBTQNation in September of last year:
(May) — an anti-LGBTQ+ politician who has accused drag queens and transgender people of harming kids — pleaded guilty . . . to distributing child sex abuse material (CSAM) after first denying it, Newsweek reported — including images of adults sexually abusing seven-year-olds. . . . May used the screen name “joebidennnn69” to exchange 265 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts on the Kik social media network during spring 2024. Representing himself in court — despite not having a law degree — May had originally asked the judge to throw out the warrant used to search his home, laptop, and mobile devices, as well as evidence that he had flown to Colombia to film himself having sex with three underage girls.
According to the letter from the former Moms for Liberty chairs, how the group in general dealt with the controversy about May was a "breaking point."
For many of us, the breaking point was the RJ May scandal. Following the arrest and federal guilty plea of former Representative RJ May on charges of distributing child sexual abuse material, we expected absolute moral clarity. Instead, South Carolina leaders were instructed to remain silent. Protecting the organization’s image took precedence over speaking out against child exploitation.
“We wanted to speak out and say like we’re not aligned with him. We’re just as shocked as you,” said Dawn Pierce, who previously led the now defunct Lexington County Moms for Liberty chapter.
“They put out a very short, very short statement, and that’s it,” Pierce added about the national organization.
The national organization said it advised the local chapters not to engage on social media with people who were attacking the organization.
“Moms For Liberty issued an unequivocal condemnation of RJ May and his atrocious actions,” a Moms for Liberty spokesperson said. “On social media, we observed that anti-Moms For Liberty trolls were trying to attack our South Carolina members and goad them into social media commentary. To protect our members, we asked that they not play into the hands of those bad actors and allow the organization’s statement to stand for itself.”
The local chapters wanted to revoke the award given to May after his arrest and send a statement denouncing him. But they were encouraged not to say anything.
The situation in South Carolina wouldn't be the first time Moms for Liberty found itself embroiled in a sex scandal. In 2023, one of its founders, Bridget Ziegler and her husband (now former) GOP Florida state chair Christian Ziegler was involved in the middle of a huge scandal when Christian was accused of raping a woman with who he and his wife allegedly had a three -way consensual sexual relationship with in the past.
And then more details came out regarding the sexual habits of the Zieglers.
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.’”
Elon Musk (seen here saluting) and the Republican party are spending major dollars on AI anti-trans ads in hopes of distracting voters during the midterm election.
Two things are obviously clear on this day
The midterm elections are in full swing, and Republicans are freaked out at the thought of losing both the House and the Senate. This means they are going to lean in hard on the "transgender boogeyman" narrative in an attempt to get distract voters from their dismal governing.
America PAC, Elon Musk’s super PAC supporting conservative candidates and causes, is churning out dozens of digital ads vilifying transgender people and criticizing Democratic candidates over their past support for trans rights in the hopes of driving Republicans out to the polls in November.
In less than a week, the group, initially created to support President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign, has released at least 38 social media ads claiming Democrats in competitive midterm Senate races would “put our daughters in danger” and prioritize a “radical trans agenda” if elected. Most of the group’s ads focus exclusively on trans people, according to a review of America PAC’s ads in the Meta and Google libraries.
. . . The ads, which portray trans women as drag queens rather than as they are in day-to-day life, follow a recent pattern of AI-generated attack ads targeting Democratic candidates over their support for trans rights. It’s unclear whether these specific ads are AI-generated, but they fall in the uncanny valley of authenticity. At minimum, they present harmful stereotypes of trans women — that they are physically imposing and always wear overdone makeup — to an audience who may not have ever met a trans person.
In an ad against Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio, an image of a crossing guard with a blowout and dark eyeshadow, implied to be a trans woman, looms in the background as a voiceover declares that Brown “gave the green light to the radical trans agenda” while in office. Brown was ousted from the Senate in 2024, losing reelection to Republican Bernie Moreno, and is attempting a comeback against Sen. Jon Husted.
Will it work? I hope I'm not jinxing anything when I say I don't think so.
People are upset with Trump's inability (more like refusal) to better our economy or at the very least keep it from getting worse, his confusing war (don't you dare call it a war) with Iran, his preoccupation with ridiculous building projects, the killing of Americans by ICE, betrayals of Latino and other ethnic communities who supported him and are now seeing the TPS status of their relatives being revoked, and a multitude of various other scandals, failures and broken promises. All of these situations are adding up to a figurative form of the lingchi torture (slow death by a thousand cuts) of Trump voters who believed his promises during the 2024 election.
So, while the anti-trans ads described above are dangerous, they may also be seen as desperate attempts to distract voters from how Trump broke his promises and how the Republican party were more concerned about kissing his ass than providing decent governance.
