Biden wanting to undo damage Trump did to LGBTQ rights

President-Elect Joe Biden

According to the Associated Press via  Talking Points Memo, President-Elect Joe Biden is planning to repair the damage done to LGBTQ rights and equality by the Trump Administration. Two acts he may be looking into are the passage of the Equality Act and removing Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military. 

Any action Biden undertakes promises be a fight and no doubt the religious and anti-LGBTQ right will be ready to fundraise and spread lies about gays "recruiting" children, gays wanting to "imprison" or bankrupt" Christians, "men using bathrooms with little girls," or whatever horror story they work up.

Goodness knows, there is no end to the boogiemen and horror scenarios they will spew should Biden be prepared to do these things:

Appoint an array of LGBTQ people to federal government positions. There’s wide expectation that Biden will nominate an LGBTQ person to a Cabinet post, with former presidential contender Pete Buttigieg among the possibilities.

Reverse Trump administration policies carving out religious exemptions allowing discrimination against LGBTQ people by social service agencies, health care providers, adoption and foster care agencies and other entities.

 Reinstate Obama administration guidance directing public schools to allow transgender students to access bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams in accordance with their gender identity. The Trump administration revoked this guidance. 

 Allocate federal resources to help curtail violence against transgender people, particularly transgender women of color. Rights groups say at least 38 transgender or gender-nonconforming people have been killed in the U.S. this year.

 Support legislative efforts to ban so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors.

 Bolster federal efforts to collect comprehensive data about LGBTQ people in the U.S. by adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to national surveys. 

Ensure that LGBTQ rights are a priority for U.S. foreign policy and be prepared to use pressure tactics, including sanctions, against foreign governments violating those rights.

As the article further points out, Trump's ability to create a conservative-majority SCOTUS and place conservative judges on the bench in general  could mean that any legal fight LGBTQ people have will be brutal and any victory we receive will be hard-won.

People are angry about Hallmark's gay Christmas movie. Good. Let them stay mad.

Hallmark gay holiday movie, 'The Christmas House' has some people upset. Let them stay mad.

The Hallmark Channel recently made LGBTQ history:

The festive card company, which has released a slew of holiday-themed films through its TV network, the Hallmark Channel, has previously faced criticism for a lack of diversity. The Hallmark Channel showed its first same-sex wedding earlier this year, in the film Wedding Every Weekend, which debuted in August. The Christmas House follows Brandon Mitchell (played by Mean Girls’ Jonathan Bennett) and his husband Jake (Brad Harder) as they try and adopt their first child

The movie premiered Sunday and, as Heidi Stevens of the Chicago Tribune put it, "the Earth continued to spin on its axis."

That is with the rest of us. Amongst the anti-LGBTQ right and its supporters, it struck like a calamity of Biblical proportions. The usual cast of characters threw a fit. They made sure to treat the situation like a case of LGBTQ people acting like the zombies of World War Z, albeit better dressed and with a more festive attitude, while we "forced" Hallmark to cater to our supposed agenda. 

One anti-LGBTQ activist said the following:

Monica Cole of One Million Moms says she saw it coming. Hallmark executives began feeling the pressure last year, she recalls, when powerful LGBT groups pushed for more “inclusive” content after the channel, owned by Crown Media, stirred up their anger by caving to Cole's group over a TV ad. In a two-week tug-of-war, Cole and One Million Moms had convinced Hallmark to pull a Zola ad featuring kissing lesbians only to watch the other side howl in protest. Hallmark reinstated the ad and apologized for the "hurt and disappointment" it had caused.

But Cole's objections can't even begin to rank to the anger expressed by those sending in comments on the same site which quoted her (click on the graphics to read them):

'YouTube removes anti-trans PragerU videos' & other Tue midday news briefs

 

YouTube removed anti-trans PragerU videos for violating hate speech policies - YouTube does something right. 

Kristen Stewart on 'gray area' of only gay actors playing gay characters - It is a very gray area and I don't feel just one way about it. I do, however, recognize the need for gay actors to have more opportunities. 

See the Full 2020 Out100 List Here - Congratulations to all of those who made the list, which I one day hope to be a part of. 

Trump’s Anti-LGBTQ Agenda Has Been Hidden in Plain Sight - So true. Amen.

Bye Don - Video recreates the sweetness of Donald Trump's election loss

 Editor's note - I apologize for not posting today. A medical situation happened in my family. It's not big deal and everything is fine.

While posting this video may seem petty to some, it's just a reminder of what Americans can do when we work together. Trump will most likely be remembered as the worst president of all time and a scourge on the greatness of this country. In addition all of his sour grapes lawsuits are failing, thereby creating an even sadder legacy.

But as of now, he won't be remembered for having two terms. We caused that to happen.

Anti-LGBTQ religious right pushing passive-aggressive support of Trump's attempted election coup

Gary Bauer (top pic) and Tony Perkins (bottom pic) are just two members of the anti-LBGTQ religious right giving passive-aggressive support to Trump's attempt to steal election from Joe Biden.

How does the anti-LGBTQ religious right stand on Trump's attempt to cheat his way to second term in spite of the fact that he clearly lost the election to Joe Biden?

Do I even have to ask? 

On Thursday, Trump's legal team, led by former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, held a press conference about the matter. It was panned as bizarre and surreal but totally devoid of any proof that Trump had been cheated out of a second term.

According to one Mediate article:

Not even Vincent LaGuardia Gambini could successfully litigate the groundless voter fraud cases being brought to various state courts by President Donald Trump’s campaign. But that isn’t stopping Rudy Giuliani from trying — by summoning the spirit of the titular lawyer from the ’90s comedy classic My Cousin Vinny, no less. In an utterly bizarre sequence during a Thursday news conference in Washington, the former New York mayor channeled his Big Apple compatriot, actor Joe Pesci, in an effort to claim that Trump campaign representatives were stationed too far away to meaningly observe the ballots being tallied. (The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected this claim on Tuesday.) 

 And Giuliani wasn't the only one called out for oddball behavior:

Rudy Giuliani got things off to a wild start at the press conference held by President Donald Trump’s legal team, but Sidney Powell was next up to speak, and she cranked things up a notch…or several. Powell, known for representing Michael Flynn before Trump, spoke days after after claiming that the CIA is involved in the Dominion voter fraud conspiracy theory, which has been embraced by Trumpworld since the 2020 election ended. She began by claiming that the “massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China” is the reason why Joe Biden won.

And besides Twitter, several members of the media were highly critical. CNN's Jake Tapper called it a "hot mess" while Fox News's Kirsten Fisher played fact-checker supreme by pointing out the many lies Giuliani and company told

However at One News Now, a "news source" run by anti-LGBTQ hate group the American Family Association, the reaction to the press conference was, shall we say, a bit more positive to Trump's point of view. Not only that, but the article included comments from various religious right figures which left me wondering just what press conference had they viewed:

"I just found myself hoping and praying that enough Americans were hearing [this new conference] because through the filter of the news, many of them will never know any of that. And I think no matter what side you're on, you're going to be concerned if you hear the evidence that Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell laid out about the corruption in this election." - Sandy Rios, American Family Association 

 "We haven't seen the evidence yet – we today heard it described and it's very troubling … and I certainly believe that Donald Trump and Mike Pence won the presidential election. But courts are going to be very reticent to take the risk of throwing out legitimate votes because other votes were illegal or produced from fraud." - Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families 

 "The Trump campaign conference this morning gave me hope: hope that there are still some truly great Americans who love this country enough to go to the mat to save it." Janet Mefferd, Christian radio talk-show host

And it gets more interesting. 

'Karine Jean-Pierre is 'top candidate' to be Biden's press secretary' & other Thur midday news briefs

 

Karine Jean-Pierre

Lesbian political powerhouse Karine Jean-Pierre is the “top candidate” to be Biden’s press secretary - Oh that would be sweet! Representation matters.

Two terrifyingly anti-LGBT+ candidates running for Virginia governor want to make queer people ‘second class’ citizens - This is bad. Really bad. 

New York to Offer ‘X’ Gender Marker on Driver's Licenses - Good for New York! 

LGBTQ advocates call 1st Islamic school for transgender students in Bangladesh a "positive step," but not enough - The struggle is universal, y'all.

Catholic League's Bill Donohue falsely claims Biden is launching 'assault on life, marriage, the family, and sexuality'

Catholic League head Bill Donohue isn't smiling when he thinks about Joe Biden as president. Maybe that's not a bad thing.

While some members of the religious right may be holding out for the ridiculous notion that Donald Trump's frivolous lawsuits will give him a second presidential term, the Catholic League isn't taking any chances.

The Catholic League, rumored by many to be only one guy - Bill Donohue - and a fax machine, recently went all out in attacking President-Elect Joe Biden.

From The New Civil Rights Movement:

A Catholic lobbying organization with close ties to the Catholic Church in America has just issued an attack on President-elect Joe Biden. The Catholic League says Biden’s policies will “create confusion” among the Catholic faithful, and his religion – Biden is a devout Catholic – “complicates matters” for the Roman Catholic Church. The group doesn’t even assert that Biden is President-elect, a jab at the top Democrat who has served his country as an elected official for 44 years. “Assuming Joe Biden is chosen as president next month by the Electoral College, he will pose a problem for the bishops,” Catholic League President Bill Donohue says in his latest press release. He adds that “the head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Archbishop José Gomez, indicated this week that the bishops are already beset by Biden.”

Donohue claimed that Biden's position is an “scheduled assault on life, marriage, the family, and sexuality [which] looks to be on automatic pilot.”  By this, Donohue meant Biden's stance on abortion. And, of course, LGBTQ equality. Particularly that of the transgender community:

(Donohue) goes on to attack transgender people as engaging in a “fictional quest,” and calls the LGBTQ Equality Act “the most serious assault on religious liberty ever countenanced.” He warns it “would lead to an assault on the autonomy of Catholic hospitals and ensure that boys who think they are girls can compete against biological girls, sharing locker rooms and showers with them.” 

So that's the second false accusation against Biden with regards to the transgender community in two days. The first was from former Focus on the Family head James Dobson.

I think we can predict a pattern of possibly how the anti-LGBTQ industry will go after Biden here/.