Other states trying to ignore Florida 'Don't Say Gay' backlash as they work to muzzle LGBTQ people. They will not be successful.

We knew this would happen. From The USA Today:

 Florida's "Parental Rights in Education" bill, which would restrict classroom discussions about LGBTQ people, is just the tip of the iceberg for similar legislation across the country, data shows. Florida's bill has inspired national backlash, but it contains language similar to many other bills – branded "Don't Say Gay" legislation by critics. Those proposed laws are currently in various stages of moving through state legislatures. The barrage of legislation represents a widespread attack against LGBTQ people and their allies, according to policy experts. Young people, who identify as LGBTQ at higher rates than older generations of Americans, stand to be harmed the most by the bills, experts said.

One bill in Louisiana is downright scary because the person behind it is up front about what she wants to accomplish. The bill not only seeks to shut down any discussion of LGBTQ issues from elementary school to the 8th grade. It would criminalize teachers for even mentioning sexual orientation and gender identity:

A bill that would bar discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in K-12 schools has been filed in the Louisiana Legislature. It follows similar efforts in Florida and more than a dozen other states referred to as “Don’t Say Gay” proposals. Filed by Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, House Bill 837 would make it illegal for schools to incorporate “classroom instruction or discussion relative to sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through eight-grade classes and for teachers and other school employees to discuss “personal sexual orientation or gender identity” with students in grades K-12th grade.

Horton inanely insists that her bill isn't a 'Don't Say Gay' bill despite what it does. She also said her bill is to 'protect children.'  

Again with the claims about wanting to 'protect' the children. It's an old but successful card. It's the close cousin to the 'protect marriage' and 'protect religious liberty' card. And LGBTQ Americans know it well. Every time the religious right get on a jag about 'protecting' something, we are the ones who end up needing bodyguards.

The USA Today article continues:

Eighteen other states have seen the introduction of bills similar to Florida's this year alone, according to MAP and the Equality Federation, which released a report Wednesday documenting hostile school and curriculum bills. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma already have similar policies on the books from the 1990s. 

 Many of this year's pieces of legislation are called "parental rights" bills, but critics said the name distracts from stipulations that would harms kids for whom school is the only place they feel comfortable talking about LGBTQ issues. Among those bills are ones requiring parents to "opt-in" for students to learn about certain topics, giving families power to make decisions about learning that are typically made by certified educators and counselors, Goldberg and MAP policy researcher Logan Casey said. 

 “We end up in a situation where you have politicians who are not educators making decisions about what happens in the classroom, and it really does tie the hands of local school boards as well as state school boards to make those decisions in an informed and public way," Goldberg said.

So what do we do about it? Well sitting on our asses and twiddling our thumbs in abject fear won't get us anywhere. Truth be told, no matter how dire things look, we aren't defeated. Not by a long shot. They can try to shut us out, but they can't ever shut us down.

And that's the key. No matter how many bills they try to pass, the haters can't shut us down. They can make things incredibly difficult for us, but they can't shut us down because quite simply, they can't shut us up. They can't shut up our creative, our determination, and especially our dogged determination to have the last word each and every time one of them crawl out of their fraudulent ecclesiastical and fake ivory towers to come after us.

They want no one 'say gay?' We will have America saying it so much than even the haters will say it in their sleep. They want to erase our kids and families from the schools and libraries? Then we will go everywhere INCLUDING those schools and libraries. Every action they take to shut us down is an opportunity for us to raise the noise and conscious levels as to who were are. 

It's not like we haven't done it before. Hate may be their brand, but overcoming their hate is our brand.

You see the oppositions acts under the illusion that a few bills and laws can eradicate us. That's their belief, but it ain't reality.  And everything they do to force that belief on us is an opportunity for us remind them of what reality actually says.

'Nearly 240 anti-LGBTQ bill filed in 2022 so far, most of them targeting trans people' & other Mon midday news briefs

Nearly 240 anti-LGBTQ bills filed in 2022 so far, most of them targeting trans people - This is simply evil. You cannot tell me that these bills are necessary. LGBTQ people are the only Americans specifically targeted by name. Folks don't even try to hide it. There is something really wrong here. 

These billboards are going up across America to show love to transgender people​ - It's a step but those of us who aren't trans should do more. What we can. 

Watch First Video Footage of Brittney Griner Since Russia Detention - We have to keep this sista in our prayers, hearts, and minds. 

Iszac Henig 5th, Lia Thomas 8th in 100-free final, two trans All-Americans in women’s swimming - Two trans athletes went in and did their best in spite of all of the media attention, both good and bad. At the end of the day, their commitment wins it all.

Carl Nassib released by Las Vegas Raiders - Turns out it was a financial decision. At the end of the day, money talks. Always. 

Attacks on transgender kids and their families prove that Republicans don't give a d@mn about 'parental rights'

This excerpted piece below was published five days ago in The Los Angeles Times, but it underscores a fact which needs consistent highlight in the war against trans Americans. In the mouths of the Republican party and their religious right cohorts, the phrase 'parental rights' is nothing more than a prop; a weapon used to wreak havoc for the sake of political power and to remind certain people how they are hated. It's the same manner the Republican party and their religious right cohorts exploit religion.

It's sad how certain people who are always going on about values, morality, and safety can easily convert these very same concepts into weapons of destruction. Almost as if it's a sociopathic tendency.

It's despicable that politicians would threaten medical care that has been vetted and peer-reviewed by mainstream medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, and pretend they are acting to protect the health of young people. They ignore current medical and psychological thinking and are making families and transgender teens feel singled out for hatred. 

These measures might well be struck down in court, but in the meantime, they make it hard for transgender youth to receive or continue receiving the medical care they need. According to a 2017 report by the Williams Institute at UCLA, less than 1% of teenagers identify as transgender and many of those don't get medical treatment related to their sexual identity.

 Such moves by Republican politicians are also hypocritical. When it comes to masks and COVID-19 vaccine mandates for kids, those politicians say those are matters for families to decide. But they seem fine with stripping parents of their right to help their children with a complicated medical decision that, unlike COVID-19, has no effect on the health or safety of others.

 . . . Deciding whether to seek gender-affirming care for teens should be done in consultation with doctors and and psychologists, who require certain criteria to be met before they will provide treatments for transitioning kids. The last thing parents need is politicians telling them that supporting their children is wrong or threatening to take their kids away.

 . . .Singling out a vulnerable group — and attempting to restrict its members' movements out of state, as Idaho would, or encouraging McCarthy-era spying and tattling on neighbors, as Texas’s governor wants — is a contemptible way to score points with voters. Even if all of these efforts eventually lose in court, it could still take years to resolve and still do untold damage to today’s transgender teenagers and their families. 

 

'Bigots move from 'recruit' to 'groomer' card against LGBTQ community' & other Fri midday news briefs

The anti-LGBTQ industry used to accuse us of 'recruiting' children. Now the word is 'grooming.'

“Grooming” Is Republicans’ Cruel New Buzzword for Targeting Trans Kids

‘Grooming’ narratives return to the forefront of anti-LGBTQ2S+ campaigns 

Unoriginal but effective. We always fight these lies and beat them. 

Hate group ADF to review Hanover Virginia School Board education policy - The Alliance Defending Freedom has defended sterilizing trans people and putting people in jail simply for being LGBTQ. Oh this was smart (sarcasm) 

Related posts - Information on the Alliance Defending Freedom from SPLC and Media Matters for America: 

ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM - SPLC report. 

The extremism of anti-LGBTQ powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom - Media Matters report.

Anti-LGBTQ industry relying on fake expert to amplify medical anti-transgender lies

The anti-LGBTQ industry is relying on 'professionals' such as Michelle Cretella to give out false information about trans people.

Like I've shown many times, when it comes to gay men, the anti-LGBTQ industry generally amplifies false experts in their attacks. A recent article in the American Family Association's American Family News shows how this tactic is being used against the transgender community.

The article Christian doc: Biden's 'mimicking' of lies endangering kids cites a physician by the name of Michelle to criticize President Biden's support of transgender Americans:

Biden, a long-time supporter of transgenderism, went so far as to mention it in his State of the Union message on March 1. Specifically, he used the occasion to promote the Equality Act, which has lost support even among Republicans who had backed it. 

 . . . Dr. Michelle Cretella of Advocates Protecting Youth tells AFN that she's convinced the president was simply mimicking what others are saying. "He's just parroting the lies of many public institutions that really are placing children at grave physical risk. No child is born in the wrong body," she argues. Cretella says the president proclaimed his support despite the growing evidence that transgender treatments are dangerous, irreversible, and divisive. 

"When someone like President Biden stands up there and actually gives credence to the lie that children could be trapped in the wrong body, that's psychological abuse," she states. In a recent interview, Cretella – a past president of the American College of Pediatricians – made the same charge against educators. School staff who encourage a transgender self-identification, she said, are "guilty of psychological abuse" for putting children at risk for embarking on a medical path that includes such long-term consequences as permanent sterility, depression, impaired memory, strokes, and heart attacks.

There are two things you should know about Cretella. 

First of all, the group she led as past president, the American College of Pediatricians,  has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) is a fringe anti-LGBTQ hate group that masquerades as the premier U.S. association of pediatricians to push anti-LGBTQ junk science, primarily via far-right conservative media and filing amicus briefs in cases related to gay adoption and marriage equality.​ ACPeds opposes adoption by LGBTQ couples, links homosexuality to pedophilia, endorses so-called reparative or sexual orientation conversion therapy for homosexual youth, believes transgender people have a mental illness and has called transgender health care for youth child abuse.

In 2017, Cretella herself was called out by the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) for a piece she wrote criticizing trans health care. SAHM said that the argument she made was based on medical omissions, circumstantial facts, hateful interpretation and peripheral context: 

Earlier this month, the Adolescent Health News Roundup, compiled by Multiview and distributed by SAHM, included the article “I’m a Pediatrician. How Transgender Ideology Has Infiltrated My Field and Produced Large-Scale Child Abuse”. While SAHM welcomes opposing views and tries to include other perspectives in its weekly digest of news culled from around the internet, SAHM does not condone misinformation and hurtful, ideological opinion, not rooted in science or evidence-based medicine. 

The above-referenced article does not meet these standards and was included as “news” in error. It not only promotes a biased agenda, but does so with outright disregard for the facts. We sincerely apologize for including this alongside legitimate news stories and are currently revising our procedures to ensure this does not happen again.

SAHM refuted all of the points Cretella made in her piece and showed how she may have deliberately played loose with the facts. It also ended its piece with words Cretella and the entire anti-LGBTQ industry should take to heart:

One cannot claim to be an unbiased medical professional writing for the greater good when one’s entire article is predicated upon gender dysphoria as a choice. It is time to listen to our young people and help them be who they are.

(Editor's note -  SAHM's refutation deserves a read and a save for more than one reason. I have no doubt that Cretella's distortions have been copied by other transphobic groups and personalities. One thing about the anti-LGBTQ industry which I know for certain is their constant repeating of  the same lies and cherry-picked points.)

'Hate group leader Tony Perkins links LGBTQ people with 'rebellion against God' and 'demonic spirits' (again)' & other Thur midday news briefs

 

Tony Perkins Says ‘LGBT Is the Zenith of Man’s Rebellion Against God’ - We can always count on Tony Perkins for good old fashioned homophobia. 

Speaking of which, how can we forget when Perkins called us pawns of the devil in 2011:

 

In other news

For Too Many Straight, Cisgender Parents, Queer Is Their Worst Fear - This is true. They are scared of us. 

Disney workers stage daily walkouts to protest ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and demand protections for LGBT+ staff - Disney, you are in a doghouse. 

 How you can help LGBTQ Ukrainians right now - Amen.

After attempting to erase LGBTQ mentions in schools and trying to jail affirming parents of trans kids, what is next for the anti-LGBTQ industry?

I'm wondering whether or not people will be smart enough to connect the transphobic drama in Texas, the 'Don't Say Gay' bill debacle in Florida and the several other instances of LGBGTQ Americans being targeted and undermined via the governmental and legislative process this year.

On the risk of sounding like a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I refuse to believe that these things sprang up spontaneously. These legislative and governmental processes are too meticulously crafted. Certain groups and persons took the utmost care in creating these bills with the goal of undermining LGBTQ rights.  It's certainly something to think about, as is their possible next step. Whoever they may be, my guess is that these folks won't stop with trying to erase mentions of LGBTQ people in elementary schools or trying to take trans kids away from their affirming parents. 

Perhaps this, maybe:

For the luckily uninitiated, this is Terry Schilling, head of a group called the Americans Principles Project. And as so many of us know, when any right-wing group comes on the scene with a name bragging about how pro-American or pro-morality it is,  LGBTQ folks just gained another enemy.

Terry and his group have been busy, if he is to be believed. Recently, he was bragging about how his group was instrumental in getting Abbott to issue his transphobic directive. In fact, Schilling claimed that his group spent $750,000 on the effort

“We put together a $750,000 grassroots advocacy campaign with the War Room support, and we put pressure on him right before the election,” Schilling said. “It wasn’t a coincidence that he did this. And Abbott basically instructed all of his state agencies to treat this as child abuse, and it’s now criminal to do this.” 

 Abbott, a champion of the conservative movement, has been accused of not being right wing enough by the Republican Party’s extreme fringes. Such attacks escalated ahead of Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial primary, which Abbott easily won. In Schilling’s telling, Abbott has been insufficiently harsh on the LGBTQ community.

 Under Schilling’s leadership, APP—a religious-right organization that has made discriminating against trans kids its main endeavor—launched a Texas state chapter last year and targeted Abbott and other Republicans for not going far enough with the anti-trans legislation they passed. In February, APP released two ads attacking Abbott for failing to “protect our children.”

So if Schilling is to be believed, Texas families with trans children have literally been fearing knocks on their doors because of him. But it's not just about trans people. According to Media Matters, Schilling made the following remark about gay men

“Am I really a snowflake for not wanting to explain butt sex to my kids?”

I suspect that Schilling and his group will be appearing on a future SPLC listing of anti-LGBTQ hate groups. But for now,  I would pay at least a little attention to his attack on LGBTQ people who realize after they have entered heterosexual marriages that they need to be honest with themselves and their families.

Don't be surprised if what he wrote ends up in a less hysterical form on some state legislative bill.