State lawmakers working with anti-LGBTQ groups on bills targeting transgender children

Media Matters has just come out with a wonderful article which exposes who is behind the large number of state legislative bills targeting transgender children:

On January 22, a South Dakota legislative committee moved forward HB 1057, a dangerous bill that would make it a misdemeanor for medical professionals to provide trans youth with affirming medical care, such as prescribing lifesaving hormones or puberty blockers. While drafting the measure, the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Fred Deutsch (R), reportedly consulted with an anti-trans group called the Kelsey Coalition that has ascended with the help of right-wing media. 

Anti-LGBTQ groups the Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Liberty Counsel also reportedly influenced the measure, which is expected to be voted on by the full South Dakota state House on January 29.

The Kelsey Coalition is a group of medical professionals, parents, and others who reject the identities of trans youth and advocate against affirming care. The Heritage Foundation gave the Kelsey Coalition its first major platform by featuring a member at a panel advocating against affirming the gender identities of trans youth.

According to The Washington Post, Deutsch attended a separate anti-trans event at the Heritage Foundation, at which organizations involved -- including the Kelsey Coalition -- released a co-branded parent resource guide on how to reject transgender children and advance policies to attack the trans community. Deutsch is also reported to have worked with extreme anti-LGBTQ groups Alliance Defending Freedom and Liberty Counsel on the bill.

'Drag queens will appear in a Super Bowl ad for the first time ever' & other Tue midday news briefs

Drag queens will appear in a Super Bowl ad for the first time ever - And I am HERE for it.

Bowen Yang Opens Up About His Experience In ‘Gay Conversion’ Therapy - Wow! An SNL cast member gets real about that awful "therapy." 

Darrell Issa slammed by fellow Republicans for running “gay-baiting” political attack ad - You know it's serious when other members of the GOP are bothered by it. 

This Is How U.K. LGBTQ Rights Change After Brexit This Week - The struggle is real and worldwide.

Dear conservative evangelicals leaders, when Trump goes down, you need to go with him (and here are just a few of the receipts to pay your ticket)

Conservative evangelical leaders embraced Trump because he was giving them power, access, laws and the judges they wanted. Let's not allow America to forget how they went knee deep with full knowledge in his corrupt administration.  And let's not allow America to forget how they either ignored or made excuses for his behavior. 

As we watch Trump's impeachment trial with all of its twists and turns, one thing is clear. Even if he does get away with what he has done, there is enough proof to show that Trump has tarnished himself the presidency, the GOP and especially folks who claim to have a mindset which should have elevated them to know better.

I'm talking about Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and the rest of the evangelical right/anti-LGBTQ industry who freely and wantonly sacrificed all of the values they claimed to uphold for a little political power. They got a president who gave them access to policy, gave them some judges and laws which attacked the LGBTQ community and women's health while giving their religious beliefs an unfair advantage and an elevated status.

 In return, conservative evangelical leaders sacrificed the integrity they claimed to have, the values they claimed to uphold, and the mask they wore when they claimed to uphold that integrity and those values.

And no one should forget their real faces - that of hypocritical, self-righteous, power-hungry bloodsuckers who would find a Biblical verse to defend the devil if it meant more power and more access to White House policy.

To hopefully make sure that people don't, I've been saving a few receipts to serve as reminders of how low conservative evangelical leaders stooped. To their supporters, these receipts don't mean anything. But to the rest of America, especially those who aren't aware of them, don't exactly care for them, and will be here after we are all gone, they are a perfect representation of  the true face of America's evangelical right.

Here are just demonstrating how they drolled and fawned over Trump while in full knowledge of his incompetence and corruption.

'Statewide anti-LGBTQ measures part of religious right playbook' & other Mon midday news briefs

State legislatures are filled with anti-LGBTQ measures, thanks to a religious right playbook - FINALLY, some recognizes it and calls it out.

Project Blitz Is Producing Model Legislation For Christian Nationalists - The name of the group in the article above is Project Blitz and they have something especially nasty in store for us. It's an old anti-LGBTQ lie that we buried in our pursuits of marriage equality. But homophobic lies never die. That's why they are headless monsters. They are dead beliefs propped up by living hatred. 

Sanders campaign defends accepting Joe Rogan support amid LGBTQ backlash - Joe Rogan is a homophobic jerk and we shouldn't . . . well end of story. 

Who's the 'Q' in LGBTQ? Study shines light on 'queer' identities. - Definitely a needed discussion.


Graphic courtesy of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The organization has extensive information on Project Blitz

How some gay conservatives attempt to exploit the LGBTQ community for personal gain.

Rob Smith

The guy on the right is Rob Smith. He was one of the activists who chained themselves to the White House fence almost 10 years ago in protest of the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy. These days, he considers himself an openly gay conservative Trump supporter.  He is even affiliated with the group Turning Point USA  in spite of its racist history.

If you ask me, he's in it partly (probably mostly) for how the novelty of being a contrarian gay man (i.e. one who is openly gay and claims to have been once a liberal, but now sets up straw man arguments to attack the community) can reap lots of press and acclaim.  Just ask Brandon Straka or Chadwick Moore.

For the purpose of this post, I want to show how some gay conservatives attempt to work our community for their own benefit. See the tweet below by Smith:

It's both rude and seemingly innocuous, but let me add my perspective:

In other words, the purpose of  the tweet was to inflame emotions and push up a vicious war with the LGBTQ community. And if it's big enough, guess who gets articles in right-wing publications (such as The Federalist or The Daily Caller) and invites on Fox News (because the only LGBTQ people invited on that network are the ones who attack their own community)?

Rob Smith.

And the end is basically this - Smith's profile is raised in the conservative world and he is lauded as being "brave" and a "hero" for supposedly speaking against the "radical gay community" (that's us). He is anointed as a "free thinker" while we are portrayed as "intolerant of others in our community with different points of view."

Worst of all, some members of our community, who are either too egotistical or gullible to realize  how they are being manipulated, will take his side and attempt to generate a wrong-minded debate which will do nothing but divide and inflame us further while making Smith's profile grow and grow.

And that, brothers and sisters, is how the game is played on us. Our community may have differences, but we should all come together to recognize when someone is exploiting us to gain fame. Even if that person is "family."

'Virginia could become 20th state to ban 'ex-gay therapy' for minors' & other Fri midday news briefs

Virginia could become 20th state to ban 'ex-gay therapy' for minors - Go Virginia!!

Someone tried to destroy Nikkie de Jager’s life by outing her as trans. Now she’s on Ellen and more famous than ever. - Eat it, haters.

Hallmark Media CEO Bill Abbott Resigns After Lesbian Ad Backlash - Hmmmm 

How This Acting Coach Turned His Studio Into An LGBTQ Star Factory - This is a fascinating article.

Latest attack on Target's trans inclusive policy means the American Family Association is getting mighty desperate

For the past few years, hate group the American Family Association has been trying to initiate a boycott of  Target because of its policy of allowing customers to use dressing rooms and restrooms which match their gender identities. AFA claims (without proof) that this policy allows predators to harm women while they are in dressing rooms and restrooms. The boycott began with a petition and it got lots of traction. It even encouraged some people to march into Target and make complete asses of themselves.

As the years passed, attention and support for AFA's fight have petered down because basically people saw that the group was doing nothing more than lying and causing hysteria. Of course that doesn't stop AFA from attempting to "stir up the troops," so the speak.

Even if it has to be creative when attacking Target and the transgender community, such as this recent article in its affiliate "news site" One News Now demonstrates.

The American Family Association continues to sound the alarm about Target's policy that allows men in women's restrooms and changing areas. 

Target says the policy is meant to be inclusive and benefit transgender customers and employees, but the American Family Association (AFA) has long warned it will result in sexual predators taking advantage of the policy, thereby putting women and children at risk. 

In an Action Alert this week, AFA points to an incident at a Target store in Harris County, Texas, where a woman told law enforcement that a man was taking pictures of her in a fitting room while she was changing clothes. 

"It's an invasion of privacy," she told news station KTRK. "No one should go through that. It was horrifying." "Because nobody will stop a man from entering these areas, what these sexual predators do is they watch for a woman or girl to go into a fitting room, for example, and they go into the one next to it and then put their phone camera either up above the partition or below it," Ed Vitagliano, AFA executive vice president, told on American Family Radio's "Today's Issues" program. "That is what happened in this case in Harris County, Texas."