Biden has no rallies because of social distancing. He has chosen to follow the advice of health officials because of the pandemic. A pandemic, by the way, which continues to get worse in this country thanks to Trump's piss poor leadership.
Trump did not have this rally because he wanted to "get out with the people." He wanted praise and adulation. He had not had a rally since March because of the pandemic. And by the way, eight members of his staff tested positive for the coronavirus. Six were announced to have tested positive on the day of the rally.
What issues are important to you, Mr. Graham? Putting people who burn the flag in jail for a year? Trump's ability to walk down a ramp or drink a glass of water? Or how about bragging that he told officials to slow down coronavirus testing, which is the absolute worse thing to do during this pandemic. Those "issues" were what he talked about. This rally was the same whining, griping, rambling and abject bullshit we have come to expect from Trump, but you go ahead and pass it off as poetry simply because he is putting conservative judges on the bench. By all means, please continue to jab your head up his backside.
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| Steven Universe - an LGBTQ tv show worth watching. |
Hope for Wholeness, a prominent ex-gay ministry that boasts one of the most expansive networks of conversion therapy offerings in the United States, is disbanding.
The Spartanburg, South Carolina-based organization, founded in 1999 as Truth Ministries, told members in an email Monday and obtained by NBC News that Hope for Wholeness would be closing its operations, citing the group’s difficulties in retaining a director to lead their efforts.
“It has been a tumultuous several years for us. We lost the founding director, searched for two years for his replacement, hired a new director and then lost that director as well,” the memo, which was signed by the group’s board, states. “After much prayer and discussion, we have made the difficult decision to dissolve the organization. This was not an easy decision. But we do believe it is the right decision.”
Hope for Wholeness, which is based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was initially formed in 1999 under the name Truth Ministries by founder McKrae Game. Truth Ministries would eventually expand to incorporate several satellite ministries throughout much of the Southeast region, Game told Newsweek. In 2013, Game had changed the organization's name to Hope for Wholeness following the dissolution of Exodus International—formerly known as the world's largest ex-gay ministry.
Conversion therapy — made up of various universally discredited and harmful methods of counseling and ministry meant to eradicate or suppress LGBTQ identities — has been banned for minors in 20 states and Washington, D.C. California was the first state to prohibit the practice in 2012, but over half of the bans have only been in effect since 2018. In June 2019, data from UCLA’s Williams Institute estimated that at least 698,000 adults in the U.S. have been subjected to some form of conversion therapy.
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| Sen Josh Hawley - point man for religious right tantrum. |
" blah blah blah, "unelected judges" , blah, blah, blah, "legislating from the bench," blah, blah, blah, "judges are not supposed to make laws. That's the job of Congress."
. . . I would just say it's not time for religious conservatives to shut up. We've done that for too long. No, it's time for religious conservatives to stand up and to speak out,” the senator said.
"It's time for religious conservatives to bring forward the best of our ideas on every policy affecting this nation. We should be out in the forefront leading on economics, on trade, on race, on class, on every subject that matters for what our Founders called the general welfare, because we have a lot to offer,” he said.
“It’s time for religious conservatives to take the lead rather than being pushed to the back. It’s time for religious conservatives to stand up and speak out rather than being told to sit down and shut up,” Hawley said.
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| Thank you Aimee Stephens. I wish you had been here to receive the fruits of your labor. |
The question now is, where do we go from here? Let's start by putting the ruling in context. Will it mean a ferocious fight on religious liberty from here on out? Almost certainly -- but to be fair, any result would have done the same. LGBT activists weren't going to surrender to the justices' opinion and abandon their cause no matter what the court decided. Nor should we. A positive ruling might have kept some of the fiercest questions at bay -- and given faithful Americans some much needed relief -- but let's face it: the waves of extremism never stop.
What about Gorsuch and President Trump? Can we trust them? While the Harris case has given Gorsuch fans cause for concern, we don't have to guess where this president stands. For three and a half years, his administration has taken every opportunity to protect religious freedom in executive orders, rules, and guidance that reaffirm the politically incorrect truth about sexual orientation and gender -- often at great political cost. Every agency from HHS, Defense, and Education to HUD, Agriculture, and Justice have stuck their necks out to roll back the radicalism of the president who first opened this Pandora's box.
As for Trump's judicial nominees, voters have to ask themselves: would they rather have some uneasy feelings about one -- or know with certainty that every single pick is a died-in-the-wool liberal activist, like we would under Joe Biden? This is a single, devastating judgment in what has so far been a stellar couple of years for Trump's first Supreme Court pick. It may confirm concerns that some had about Gorsuch, but this should set the stage for the next nominee to be beyond reproach when it comes to the meaning of words and adherence to the constitutionally defined role of the court.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, then-Republican candidate Donald Trump boasted his advocacy for LGBT Americans. "Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs," he wrote in a June, 2016 tweet.This tweet below as a matter of fact:
- He tried to reinstate a ban on trans people joining and openly serving in the military. The Obama administration in 2016 announced plans to reverse the ban in 2017. But Trump, in a series of tweets last July, announced he would bring it back, arguing that trans-related health care is expensive. (Research from the RAND Corporation indicates that it would make up “a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase in active-component health care expenditures.”) So far, Trump’s ban has been stymied by the courts — and trans people are now allowed to openly enlist and serve.
- Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court to replace the consistently anti-LGBTQ Antonin Scalia. Although Gorsuch had a vague record on LGBTQ rights when he was nominated, civil rights advocates argued that, based on some of his past writings on marriage equality and religious issues, he could be a big opponent for LGBTQ equality. In just a few months on the bench, Gorsuch has proven advocates right; for one, he dissented against a Supreme Court ruling that requires states to list same-sex parents on birth certificates.
- Nearly one-third of Trump’s judicial nominees have anti-LGBTQ records, according to Lambda Legal. These nominees, if accepted by the Senate, may rule on major LGBTQ issues over the next few years, from anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ workers to trans access to bathrooms.
- The Trump administration rescinded a nonbinding Obama-era guidance that told K-12 schools that receive federal funding that trans students are protected under federal civil rights law and, therefore, schools should respect trans students’ rights, including their right to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. The Trump administration took back the guidance altogether, arguing trans students aren’t protected under federal civil rights law.
- Trump’s Justice Department also rescinded another Obama-era memo that said trans workers are protected under civil rights law. This has enabled the federal government, including its army of attorneys, to now argue in court that anti-trans discrimination isn’t illegal under federal law. The courts are ultimately independent of the Trump administration, but the federal government can play a big role in legal arguments by throwing its people and resources behind a case.
- In a major Supreme Court case, Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Trump administration argued in court in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, a bakery that’s claiming First Amendment rights to discriminate against same-sex couples. The case could have potentially enormous repercussions — opening a big loophole in anti-discrimination laws, particularly those that protect LGBTQ people, by letting business owners cite religious or moral justifications to discriminate.
- Trump’s Justice Department argued that anti-gay discrimination is legal, filing a friend-of-the-court brief claiming that the federal Civil Rights Act doesn’t protect gay and bisexual workers. The lawsuit in this case was filed by Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor who says an employer, Altitude Express, fired him due to his sexual orientation. The Justice Department in effect argued that this was legal under federal law.
- The Justice Department has similarly taken anti-LGBTQ steps in other cases across the country, including one about North Carolina’s anti-trans bathroom law and one about discrimination against trans people in health care. “We’ve gone from a position where LGBT people are protected to one where we’re not,” Esseks of the ACLU said.
- The Trump administration sent out a “religious liberty” guidance to federal agencies, essentially asking them to respect “religious-liberty protections” in all of the federal government’s work. It’s unclear what kind of impact the guidance will have, but LGBTQ organizations worry that it will be used to justify discrimination against LGBTQ people within the federal government and its work.
- The Department of Health and Human Services enacted a new regulation and created an agency, the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom, that will purportedly work to ensure health care providers’ religious liberties aren’t violated. LGBTQ groups argue this agency will effectively give doctors, nurses, and other medical staff cover to discriminate against LGBTQ people, because providers will now get protection from the federal government if they cite religious or moral objections to refuse service to LGBTQ patients.
- Without explanation, Trump fired all the members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. “It’s outstanding,” Isaacs said. “HIV isn’t only in the LGBTQ community, but it largely is.”
- Trump failed to recognize LGBTQ Pride Month.
The changes at the Department of Health and Human Services represent "rapid destruction of so much of the progress on LGBT health," said Kellan Baker, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who worked with HHS on LGBT issues for nearly a decade. “It’s only a matter of time before all the gains made under the Obama administration are reversed under the Trump administration, for purposes that have nothing to do with public health and have everything to do with politics.”
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| Trump is trying to gaslight LGBTQ people again. |
. . . success is nothing without someone you love to share it with.
Some gay men sexualize human waste, including the medically dangerous practice of coprophilia, which means sexual contact with highly infectious fecal wastes.
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| Sen. Lindsey Graham |
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| Joe Biden |
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| Harry Jackson (top pic) Candace Owens (bottom pic) prove that VP Mike Pence isn't interested in having an actual discussion on race relations. |
Black conservative activist Candace Owens was included in Vice President Mike Pence's roundtable on race relations Thursday, despite being criticized for calling George Floyd a 'horrible human being.' Pence tweeted out that he had met with some black Americans, explaining that the group had disussed ' how we can move our Nation forward in the wake of the tragic death of George Floyd and the protests and rioting that have ensued.'
Pence did not tag Owens in the picture, but did tag three black conservatives: Heritage Foundation President Kay Cole James, Center for Urban Renewal and Education founder Star Parker and Elroy Sailor, who previously served on the Trump transition team. A DailyMail.com request for comment and more details about the meeting went unreturned.
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| Sen. Lindsey Graham |
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| If the Trump Administration gets its way, same-sex families will be undermined. |
I was asked if I was offended by the President walking out of the White House, which is his back yard, and walking over to St. John’s Church. Offended? Not at all. This made an important statement that what took place the night before in the burning, looting, and vandalism of the nation’s capital — including this historic house of worship — mattered, and that the lawlessness had to end.
And I’m not offended that he held up the Bible — as a matter of fact, I was encouraged! I appreciate it. I believe that God’s Word is the only hope for each individual and for our nation. The problem we are facing in this country is a spiritual and moral problem. New laws and more government give-away programs are not the answer. It’s a heart problem, and only God can change the human heart.
I’m disappointed that some of the President’s harshest critics about going to the church were clergy. They have publicly (to the media) criticized the President for walking to the church and for holding up the Bible. That’s unbelievable. They should be thanking him rather than criticizing him! They are nitpicking his gesture, also saying he should have prayed while he was there. So critical. Well, maybe they should invite him back and pray for him as he leads this country through a very difficult time in our history.
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| Evangelicals supporting Donald Trump, including MLK's niece, Alveda King (on the far left), have yet to fully comment on Monday's events in DC where unarmed protesters and priests were tear-gassed so that Trump could have a photo-op with a Bible. |
