Sunday, July 10, 2022

Haters tried. Haters failed. Paltry protestors doesn't stop popular TX drag show

 



Haters tried. Haters failed.

From MSN:

About 100 activists lined the sidewalk outside of Hamburger Mary's, an LGBTQ-friendly restaurant in downtown, Sunday to stand against a handful of anti-transgender protesters from North Texas who came to demonstrate outside a drag show at the restaurant. 

 The dozen or so protesters with Protect Texas Kids, a group that claims children are being “indoctrinated” by gay and transgender activists, were largely drowned out by boos and chants from the counter-protesters who vastly outnumbered them. “Stop the hate, stop the fear, everyone is welcome here,” the crowd chanted. Soon after the protest started, a small group of men, some of them wearing Nazi regalia, arrived to join the anti-trans protesters, shouting homophobic slurs and Nazi slogans across Prairie Street. 

 . . . Outside the restaurant on Sunday, the 100 or so counter protesters danced along to the disco and funk music booming from Hamburger Mary's, holding up large cloth banners to protect patrons from view and cheering when some of the performers came out to take pictures. The anti-trans demonstrators and counter-protesters lobbed insults at each other from across Praire Street, but the standoff never amounted to a physical confrontation. 

(Kelly) Neidert, a well-known conservative activist, said her group traveled from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, to denounce a performance that she acknowledged was taking place at a privately-owned business, but one that she said was “inherently sexual.” “I don’t think parents should be allowed to take their kids to these events, and I think that there should be a law banning it from happening,” Neidert said. 

 The anti-trans demonstrators left Hamburger Mary’s after about three hours, followed shortly after by the counter-protesters. For the counter-protesters, their large turnout, compared to the paltry showing from the anti-trans demonstrators, was proof that Houstonians would not abide hate.

Friday, July 08, 2022

'Far-right pushing lie that Highland Parker shooter is transgender' & other Fri midday news briefs



Far-right falsely says that the Highland Park shooter is transgender to stop gun control push​ - Here we go again. They did that the last time. And I am aware of how spooky it is for me to say 'the last time.'

Texas trans activist, 11, flees the state after years of advocacy - The family did what it had to do, but it's wrong that they have to go.



New anti-LGBTQ group has me 'GAG'ging with laughter - My post from last night because sometimes the best way to combat homophobia is to point out how ridiculous it is.

Thursday, July 07, 2022

New anti-LGBTQ group has me 'GAG'ging with laughter

Have y'all heard of this new anti-LGBTQ group called 'Gays Against Groomers.' The group will have you to believe that it is a coalition of gays who think that the 'radical gays' are making us all look bad supposedly sexualizing and indoctrinating kids. It's the old "America would accept and tolerate LGBTQ people if we didn't try so hard to be outrageous' argument on steroids combined with the even older lie that LGBTQ people are 'recruiting' children.

We know nothing about this group except for how it conveniently sprang up on Twitter out of nowhere, appropriates right-wing lies against LGBTQ people, and that the conservative propaganda industry is trying hard to make it seem legitimate.

I say it's all astroturfed bullshit, probably from the same grimy political crevice which created and funds that droll Libs of TikTok. And like Libs of TikTok, 'Gays Against Groomers' uses the modus operandi of mischaracterizing tweets and slandering people as examples of LGBTQ people supposedly sexualizing children.

Or, as the tweet below shows, making up all sorts of nonsense about LGBTQ people, teachers, and drag queens which borders on parody.



Even the name is a joke. 'Gays Against Groomers' or 'GAG' for short? Does the group even know the irony of it all? It claims to be against sexualization while reeking of sexualization.

 If the group isn't legitimate, it wouldn't surprise me. Far right conservatives have a tract record of making fools of themselves when they attempt to portray themselves as  "appropriate gays." Of course if this group is in any small way legitimate, then it's obvious that its either telegraphing some serious internal homophobia or some serious carnal desires which I suggest its members need to take care of instead of pushing up on the rest of the LGBTQ community.

Hating on us ain't gonna get you laid.

'Facebook, Instagram allowing anti-LBTQ rhetoric to flourish on platforms' & other Thur midday news briefs



Facebook allowed dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to spread across the platform during Pride Month​ - Bombarding us with madness. 



Out pro wrestlers racked up titles during Pride month - Not bad. This is significant because it means that pro wrestling groups see LGBTQ wrestlers as money makers. That's why they booked them to win titles.

Wednesday, July 06, 2022

Rolling Stone article calls out possible ethical breach between SCOTUS justices and anti-LGBTQ hate group

 

SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas wants to revisit decisions favoring LGBTQ Americans. Rolling Stone magazine just pointed out a possible breach of ethics between him and an anti-LGBTQ hate group.


This article from Rolling Stone magazine needs more attention. It underscores just how brazen far right conservatives and some SCOTUS justices are:


At an evangelical victory party in front of the Supreme Court to celebrate the downfall of Roe v. Wade last week, a prominent Capitol Hill religious leader was caught on a hot mic making a bombshell claim: that she prays with sitting justices inside the high court. “We’re the only people who do that,” Peggy Nienaber said. 

 This disclosure was a serious matter on its own terms, but it also suggested a major conflict of interest. Nienaber’s ministry’s umbrella organization, Liberty Counsel, frequently brings lawsuits before the Supreme Court. In fact, the conservative majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights, cited an amicus brief authored by Liberty Counsel in its ruling. 

 In other words: Sitting Supreme Court justices have prayed together with evangelical leaders whose bosses were bringing cases and arguments before the high court. Nienaber is Liberty Counsel’s executive director of DC Ministry, as well as the vice president of Faith & Liberty, whose ministry offices sit directly behind the Supreme Court. She spoke to a livestreamer who goes by Connie IRL, seemingly unaware she was being recorded. 

“You actually pray with the Supreme Court justices?” the livestreamer asked. “I do,” Nienaber said. “They will pray with us, those that like us to pray with them.” She did not specify which justices prayed with her, but added with a chortle, “Some of them don’t!” The livestreamer then asked if Nienaber ministered to the justices in their homes or at her office. Neither, she said. “We actually go in there.”

Here's something which makes it worse. The Liberty Counsel has been called an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

With the expansion of equal rights for LGBT people, especially, the Liberty Counsel has come into their own, working to attempt to ensure that Christians can continue to engage in anti-LGBT discrimination in places of business under the guise of “religious liberty.” 

Through lawsuits and its annual Awakening conference in Orlando, the Counsel attempts to enforce the idea that Christian beliefs and law trump all other law. Staver has warned about homosexuality, abortion, and the consequences for Christians who oppose homosexuality and marriage equality, saying they will be targeted for their views. He even went so far as to call for a new revolutionary war as marriage equality advanced. In March of 2015, Staver stated that he would personally advocate disobedience to any U.S. Supreme Court ruling that favored marriage equality, and that “collectively, we cannot accept that as the rule of law.”

 During the 2015 brouhaha over Indiana’s religious freedom law, Staver likened “the homosexual lobby” to terrorists, claiming that “it’s hard to negotiate with people who are irrational and who are inventing things that simply don’t exist.” He has also supported the criminalization of homosexuality both in the U.S. and in other countries, stating in one instance that Malawi’s anti-homosexuality laws were in its “own best interests” after the U.S. reportedly withheld monetary aid to the country because of its efforts to outlaw homosexuality.

 In the Counsel’s amicus curiae brief in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas lawsuit in which the Supreme Court decriminalized sodomy, the attorneys writing (including Staver) called for the court to uphold anti-sodomy laws, stating that “This Court again should decline to deprive states of the power to enact statutes that proscribe harmful and immoral conduct.” The Liberty Counsel went on to say that statistical evidence “demonstrates, however, that those who engage in homosexual conduct are at increased risk for numerous diseases as compared to heterosexuals.”


What the Liberty Counsel has done in the past to attack LGBTQ rights deserves special attention, particularly in light of recent comments by Justice Clarence Thomas that the court should revisit decisions made for LGBTQ people, including the outlawing of the sodomy laws. According to the Rolling Stone article, Thomas was as one of the justices the group prayed with. 

'Gay Missouri legislature candidate refuses to back down from homophobes' & other Wed midday news briefs



This gay Missouri legislature candidate refuses to back down from homophobes - Good for him!

Conservative Dominance of Talk Radio is a Threat to Democracy​ - Yep. And you just know they are manipulating the engine. 

Macy Gray goes on anti-transgender rant: Changing “your parts doesn’t make you a woman” - Just too damn simplistic. That's the problem. Folks don't want to listen because they are too busy trying to simplify a complex situation. 

SCOTUS ruling on abortion has LGBTQ families concerned about their rights - Somewhere that bitter old Clarence Thomas is wetting his pants in glee.