No matter how Florida Gov Ron DeSantis and his supporters attempt to spin the 'Don't Say Gay' bill as something to protect children, reality smacks them in the face.
And on Tuesday, that reality came in the form - of all people - Franklin Graham:
In fact, he has.
In 2014, Graham praised Putin for signing a somewhat harsher law in Russia. The bill, passed in 2013, criminalized all positive LGBTQ speech and advocacy:
“In my opinion, Putin is right on these issues,” Graham writes. “Obviously, he may be wrong about many things, but he has taken a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda.” “Our president and his attorney general have turned their backs on God and His standards, and many in the Congress are following the administration’s lead. This is shameful.” With the caveat that “I am not endorsing President Putin,” Graham nonetheless praised Russia’s get-tough approach toward gay rights. “Isn’t it sad, though, that America’s own morality has fallen so far that on this issue — protecting children from any homosexual agenda or propaganda — Russia’s standard is higher than our own?”
I have met the president on several occasions. He’s a very nice person. But he supports and promotes policies that contradict the teachings of God. As a Christian I believe that abortion is murder, he supports it. Homosexuality and same-sex marriage — those are sins against God, and the president is promoting them. I’m not against homosexuals as people. But God commanded that marriage should be between a man and a woman. And I very much appreciate that President Putin is protecting Russian young people against homosexual propaganda. If only to give them the opportunity to grow up and make a decision for themselves. Again, homosexuals cannot have children, they can take other people’s children. I believe that President Obama (and I’ll repeat, he’s a very nice person) is leading America down the wrong road. He’s taking a stand against God.
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| President Biden |
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| Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hands out pens to children after signing the state's 'Don't Say Gay' bill into law. |
DeSantis is exploiting same delusionary mindset that Donald Trump has about the 2020 election, i.e. that he is on the side of good fighting evil and corruption. The fantasy would be amusing except for the reality it obscures. The 'Don't Say Gay' bill is a fraud. It attacks a 'problem' which doesn't exists. It exploits a fear which shouldn't exist. It scapegoats an innocent group of people, which includes children. And its benefits are also nonexistent.
The only thing which exists right now is the fact that DeSantis eagerly exploited children in his attack on LGBTQ kids and families. The bill was unnecessary. The photo op was simply evil.
And the most tragic thing is that it's all performance. DeSantis is a very calculating politician. He knows that his bill is red meat to feed the GOP base and get him closer to the White House. In the long run DeSantis doesn't care about protecting children; not LGBTQ kids and certainly not the kids he enlisted in his photo op.
Ron DeSantis only cares about Ron DeSantis and he has no problem building a road to the White House paved with the the bodies, wrecked self-esteem, and spiritual ruination of LGBTQ people. But now, he has invited children to help him pave that road.
Americans should be more concerned with what DeSantis is teaching our kids. He seems to be the one doing the indoctrination.
UPDATE - and what's more, the signing was rushed. So much for fanfare. Cowardice seems to be the order of the day for DeSantis.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't too bright from the get-go. But it's rather embarrassing for her to mix up her homophobia with her transphobia.
Marjorie Taylor Greene goes on a strange rant about Pete Buttigieg and says he “can stay out of our girls bathroom” pic.twitter.com/mflOliqc5R
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 26, 2022
From Business Insider:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband should stay out of girls' bathrooms while speaking at Donald Trump's rally in Commerce, Georgia, on Saturday. "You know what? Pete Buttigieg can take his electric vehicles and his bicycles, and he and his husband can stay out of our girl's bathrooms," Greene said at the rally. Greene seemed to be referencing ongoing debates about what bathrooms transgender people should use– but Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten are gay, not transgender.
It's both funny and exhausting. Funny because of obvious reasons. Exhausting because someone actually elected this woman to Congress, thereby elevating her power and voice. Every time you're tempted to laugh at her comment, pay attention to the folks in the clip cheering her on. They don't care what she said or how idiotic she sounds. As long as it reinforces their hatred.
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| Texas attorney general Ken Paxton |
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton seems to have a vendetta against the state's LGBTQ community. Weeks after issuing an opinion based upon distorted information which justified investigating affirming parents of trans kids for child abuse, he is at it again.
From The Hill:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a letter to the Austin Independent School District (AISD) this week that its Pride Week was "breaking state law." Paxton wrote Tuesday that by hosting pride week, the district "has, at best undertaken a week-long instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent. Or, worse [the] district is cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of [students] that not only fails to obtain parental consent, but subtly cuts parents out of the loop." The Texas AG also wrote that the Austin ISD's curriculum and lesson plans "deal head-on with sexual orientation and gender identity—topics that unmistakably constitute 'human sexuality instruction' governed by state law."
Paxton didn’t send the letter privately – he posted screenshots of it to Twitter with the message, “Liberal school districts are aggressively pushing LGBTQ+ views on Texas Kids! All behind parents’ backs! This is immoral and illegal.” He then referred to LGBTQ people as “sexual propagandists and predators” and demanded they be held “accountable.”
District’s superintendent Stephanie Elizalde responded to Paxton in a tweet, writing: “I want all our LGBTQIA+ students to know that we are proud of them and that we will protect them against political attacks.” District spokesman Jason Stanford told The Washington Post: “We’re going to react to this by doubling down on making sure our kids feel safe and celebrating Pride."
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| Prominent gay conservative Dave Rubin recently announced that he and his partner are going to become fathers. His colleagues on the right have been vocal with their disdain. |
I don't like the 'I told you so' narrative about this but just because I don't like it doesn't mean it isn't important.
Dave Rubin is a prominent gay conservative. Forbes describes his clout as such:
Rubin has been cultivating an intolerant audience for several years, with his talk show The Rubin Report functioning as a cushy platform for hate-mongers like Stefan Molyneux and Milo Yiannopoulos, a safe space where all the questions are softballs. According to Rubin, his show is "a hub for misunderstood or canceled people or to-be-canceled people to express themselves honestly." Rubin has previously compared progressivism to a “mental disorder,” and through his talk show, attempts to push the idea that leftists and liberals are the real bigots, and that conservatives are more accepting of dissent. However, Rubin has struggled to prove this notion, hindered by his own audience’s refusal to accept his sexuality.Rubin, a gay man in a socially conservative space, has never been been fully accepted by a vocal segment of his audience, or even his peers and supposed “friends.” This is underlined by an infamous conversation Rubin shared with fellow culture warrior Ben Shapiro, in which Shapiro flatly refuses an invite to Rubin’s anniversary party, citing Rubin’s sexuality as the reason he wouldn’t attend. Rubin passively accepts Shapiro’s intolerance as a reasonable reaction, calling his response ”interesting.”
"Passively accepting intolerance" shown towards him by his conservative colleagues seemed to have been a price Rubin willingly paid for the prominence and bank account which comes with being a "gay conservative." But as of recently, things have changed considerably. You see, Rubin and his partner announced that they are going to become parents. And many of his conservative colleagues have been, shall we say, not eager to congratulate him. On the contrary, some folks have been downright nasty towards him:
Edward Szall and Gillyan Christensen say that Dave Rubin and his husband adopting children "is the most evil thing that you could ever do" and call them "the spiritual version of neo-Nazis" for doing so. The only solution, obviously, is "to ban all gay people." pic.twitter.com/es8y8HgYP4
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 23, 2022
'Former gay' Milo Yiannopoulos, whose nonsense Rubin amplified, had this to say:
While people cheer the happy baby news, each step of the baby-making, having, and parenting process uses, abuses, and negates women. More than that, it denies the humanity and needs of the child. Less than a baby to nurture, the child is a commodity. The child is a product. The consumer is an adult who cannot obtain progeny by natural means and so must buy one by artificial means.
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| Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson |
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| Florida Gov Ron DeSantis is using his office to personally bully trans athlete Lia Thomas. |
He's being belligerently petty.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an official proclamation Tuesday declaring a Florida resident the “rightful winner” of an NCAA women’s swimming championship race over transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. Thomas — the University of Pennsylvania swimmer whose record-breaking season has sparked national debate over whether trans women should compete on female sports teams — became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA championship last week, placing first in the 500-yard freestyle race at the Division I finals in Atlanta on Thursday. DeSantis said he would "reject these lies and recognize" University of Virginia swimmer and Florida resident Emma Weyant, who came in second place, as the winner.
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.
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.
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.
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 |
| 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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
“Am I really a snowflake for not wanting to explain butt sex to my kids?”
