Under the Tennessee anti-drag law, this pro wrestling segment is now a felony

Just something short to put things in perspective. How ridiculous is the new Tennessee law which bans drag in the presence of minors and public places?  If this the pro wrestling segment below, taped in 1992 in Tennessee took place today,  Jerry Lawler (a pro wrestling legend in the state) could be charged with a felony

'Tennessee issues trans healthcare and drag show bans. Now come the lawsuits' & other Mon midday news briefs

Tennessee issues trans healthcare ban & nation’s first drag ban. Now come the lawsuits​ - And you better believe it. We're coming for that mess. 

Students switch up college plans as states pass anti-LGBTQ laws - The fallout continues. Some states are going to have to learn the hard way. 

CPAC Speaker Michael Knowles: ‘Transgenderism Must Be Eradicated’ - The controversy which raged the entire weekend. Let Knowles and his "friends" complain. We all KNOW what he actually meant. 

10 years after “Kill the Gays,” Uganda introduces a new rabidly anti-LGBTQ+ bill - Here we go again.

Lawsuit by 'willing patsy' is latest attempt by conservatives to undermine trans health and safety

Chloe Cole is the anti-LGBTQ industry's latest willing patsy against LGBTQ equality and safety.

 Earlier last week, I posted about the now refuted claim of "whistleblower" Jamie Reed against a St. Louis transgender center. On the heels of that comes a "lawsuit" whose goal seems to be not winning but creating an incentive to justify more anti-trans laws across the country. 

From The Los Angeles Times:

California teenager Chloe Cole has become something of a star in the movement to deny treatments to transgender youth. She has given testimony or made public statements in support of anti-treatment bills in Florida, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Idaho and North Dakota; appeared on Fox News; and shared a Washington platform with right-wing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). That’s useful for you to know in assessing Cole’s latest moment in the spotlight: her filing of a lawsuit against the giant Kaiser Permanente healthcare system. 

 . . .The context of Cole’s lawsuit bears close scrutiny. It’s part of a concerted right-wing attack on LGBTQ rights, in which the health of transgender youth is exploited as a pretext for bans on gender-affirming care. It resembles the right-wing attack on abortion rights, another movement that cynically masquerades as an effort to improve healthcare but actually exposes millions of Americans to injury and death for strictly partisan purposes. 

 . . . Cole is one of a handful of self-described detransitioners who have been flown around the country by anti-transgender activists to speak in favor of treatment bans. Their presentations aim to convince legislators that second thoughts are common among transgender patients, as though to suggest that gender-affirming treatment is a sham. 

 The Los Angeles Times piece further points out how Cole aligns herself with anti-trans groups while going from state to state giving lawmakers the false impression that 'destransitioning' is a large facet of the trans community when it is only one to two percent motivated by discrimination and societal pressures. The piece also points several errors in her complaint: 

 Cole’s legal complaint incorporates what seem to be misleading or inaccurate descriptions of developments in the gender dysphoria treatment field. The complaint states that “negative results” from the use of puberty blockers and hormones “caused” the shutdowns of a transgender clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1979 and Britain’s Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service more recently. 

Neither assertion is quite accurate. 

 The Johns Hopkins clinic was closed by the hospital’s chief of psychiatry, Paul R. McHugh, on ideological and religious grounds; a devout Catholic, McHugh opposed gender reassignment treatments in principle and maintained, as he put it in a 2016 Wall Street Journal opinion piece, that “‘sex change’ is biologically impossible.” Johns Hopkins shed McHugh’s four-decades-old judgments and reestablished its gender identity clinic in 2017. 

 Tavistock has not been shut down, though it is slated for closure by Britain’s National Health Service later this year. Its problems were not related to the medical issues with the treatments themselves, but rather with its being overwhemed, as Britain’s lone treatment center, by a torrent of new gender dysphoria cases. The NHS plans to replace Tavistock with several regional centers to improve access for all such patients. 

 Cole’s complaint also describes the conclusion of a 2011 Swedish study it cites as having found that “transition treatment does not improve long-term mental health for transgender individuals.” That’s not what the study concluded, however. 

 In propping up Cole, the anti-LGBTQ industry is following the same playbook used when it propped up the "ex-gay" movement and the narratives against marriage equality and LGBTQ people raising children.  They manufacture false theories and then use a willing patsy give those theories credibility when they don't stand up under scrutiny. Instead of having spokesperson spew cherry-picked and false data which demonizes LGBTQ people, it's easier to prop up a willing patsy to give "personal narratives" supposedly proving the accuracy of this data. 

That person will then be taken on speaking tours in front of conservative groups and particularly in front of legislative bodies looking to justify their anti-LGBTQ bills. And while that person gets praise, scrutiny seems to always be missing when it comes to their story. Cole is no different. To this day, there are several holes in  her story (such as the actions of her parents when the situation was alleged to have happened) which have not been sufficiently addressed.

This use of a willing patsy is a consistently successful endeavor for the anti-LGBTQ industry because there seems to always be one ready to jump into the spotlight.  In the past, there was Michael Johnston, Dawn Stefanowicz, Robert Oscar Lopez, as well as so many others.

This time, it's Chloe Cole's turn.

'Anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik does bizarre CPAC talk ' & other Fri midday news briefs

Chaya Raichik

Anti-LGBTQ+ Libs of TikTok Creator Chaya Raichik Does Bizarre CPAC Talk​ - Trash is as trash does.

Black Trans and Nonbinary Youth at High Risk of Suicide - We simply have to do better by our kids.

Bisexuals are the ‘invisible majority’ in LGBTQ America - The article makes a good point. 

LGBTQ+ museum attacked, damaged by gunfire - Sickening.

Missouri Republican pushing bill banning most LGBTQ education subjects for all grades in schools, including in history

Under a Missouri bill, learning about these LGBTQ historical figures could be banned in schools.

When it comes to undermining LGBTQ people, Republicans have a talent for making their positions sound reasonable at first. But they always go too far and the masks drop. We are then left with what was there all along - hysterically raging bigotry.

From NBC News:

 Missouri lawmakers argued Wednesday over a bill that would ban most LGBTQ education subjects for all grades in the state’s public schools. The proposal is modeled after a Florida education law passed last year, touted by supporters as protecting “parent’s rights” and dubbed by opponents as a “ Don’t Say Gay ” law. 

The Missouri bill debated in a state House committee hearing would ban K-12 public school staff from teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation. The Florida law only prohibits teaching those subjects from kindergarten through third grade, although any lessons on those topics for students of any grade are also banned if they are not age-appropriate. 

 “Exposure to such topics is inappropriate for children, creating confusion which may then cause doubt in their identities,” said Rep. Ann Kelley, a former teacher and the Republican sponsor of the Missouri bill. “It is not the place of the school to indoctrinate our children by exposing them to gender and sexual identity curriculums and courses.” 

This would possibly include any talk about LGBTQ American history. No Stonewall, no AIDS crisis, and especially no SCOTUS ruling which legalized gay marriage:

In response to a question from a committee member, Kelley said she assumes that under her bill, educators would be banned from explaining the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage. 

 “It seems like the things that you want to prohibit are targeted to one particular group that you find disfavorable,” Republican Rep. Phil Christofanelli told Kelley. 

Democratic Rep. Ian Mackey, a former teacher who is gay, asked Kelley if him “being gay in the classroom” and not hiding that from students would be limited under her bill.

“Did you ever inform your students on your beliefs?” Kelley asked Mackey. “They did know I was gay,” Mackey said. “They would see my wedding ring and they would ask about it, and I would say I have a husband.”

 A committee vote on the bill was not scheduled as of Wednesday afternoon.

These actions against LGBTQ Americans perpetrated by Republican legislators were never about protecting children. It was and continues to be all about rendering us invisible as well as undermining our health and well-being

Parents push back on allegations by 'whistleblower' against St. Louis transgender center' & other Thur midday news briefs

Parents push back on allegations against St. Louis transgender center. ‘I’m baffled.’ - When this situation originally came out, I didn't post anything on it because I wanted to wait. My experiences with religious right claims when it comes to the LGBTQ community taught me well yet again.

Michigan will soon pass “historic” law banning anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination - Voting matters, folks. 

U.S. Labor Department axes Trump-era expansion of anti-bias exemptions​ - Yet more proof that voting matters.

Nebraska Lawmaker Filibusters to Stop Ban on Gender-Affirming Care - Get it, girlfriend!

Iowa students stage “We Say Gay” walkouts across the state - Way to go, kids! 

Trans powerlifter JayCee Cooper wins discrimination suit against USA Powerlifting - Good for her!

Georgia version of 'Don't Say Gay' bill dies in committee. Done for 2023 legislative session

Will wonders ever cease?

From The Georgia Recorder:

A watered-down version of a bill opponents called Georgia’s version of “Don’t Say Gay” legislation appears dead in the water after failing in a crucial Senate committee Wednesday. The first version of the bill would have restricted schools, camp counselors and other authority figures from answering children’s questions about gender identity or sexual orientation. 

The latest version would have required all local boards of education to develop a policy for dealing with parental involvement and child privacy related to issues of gender identity. It also would have required all private schools or camps that planned to instruct children on issues of gender identity to get parental signatures first, with exemptions for religious schools or camps. A violation could have led to withholding of funds for a public school or loss of accreditation for a private school.

 . .  .Even the Georgia Baptist Convention opposed the bill. Lobbyist Mike Griffin said he appreciates the goal of encouraging parental involvement. “However, we have heard from many folks including our legal partners and activists from around the state on this issue with this bill, and we believe that this bill has dramatic unintended consequences for parental rights and for children in public schools as well,” he said. “Those concerns have not all been addressed, and so as it stands, we’re concerned with this bill, although we certainly share the motivation of the sponsors.” 

 Members of the Republican-controlled committee appeared to feel the same way. A motion to table the bill passed nearly unanimously, with Majority Leader Steve Gooch of Dahlonega the only one opposed.