Eight reasons why the LGBTQ community cannot trust Mike Pence

Now that we know that it was Vice President Mike Pence who was behind this newest ban against transgender troops and we know how he pushed for it (overruling Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis who thought that transgender troops should serve, gathering together his own committee filled with anti-LGBTQ activists to create reasons for the ban, and ignoring the committee who was set up to look at the issue), this supercut of a 2015 interview when he was governor of Indiana has a new poignancy. 

Pence at the time had signed an anti-gay "religious freedom" bill and eight times during the interview, he refused to say if he was opposed to anti-LGBTQ discrimination. I think it's safe to say based upon his actions regarding the transgender troops ban, we now have our answer.

I personally never felt for the "aw, shucks" bullshit Pence tried to project throughout his political life. While he does it better than Mike Huckabee, his soft-gloved approval of homophobia is still there. And this case, more dangerous. Let's not get so distracted by Trump's antics that we don't keep an eye on this charlatan.

The Slate reports that Trump's newest trans troops ban was developed in part by anti-LGBTQ actIvists

According to The Slate, Tony Perkins of FRC helped develop Trump's newest trans troops ban.

Friday night, the Trump Administration released a new policy which bans most transgender men and women from serving in the military.

In a memo released Friday night, the White House said that transgender individuals are “disqualified from military service except under limited circumstances.” The full ban was set to officially take effect Friday, though a pair of federal courts in December ordered the U.S. military to allow the recruitment of transgender citizens into the armed forces despite Trump’s declaration. “Transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria ― individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery ― are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances,” the memo says.

 Critics of this ban were caught by surprise but quickly voiced their opposition. The White House, however, insisted that;the policy was “developed through extensive study by senior uniformed and civilian leaders, including combat veterans."

This would be a departure from last year when Trump tried to implement a trans ban via a tweet message.

One group pleased with the new ban was  the Family Research Council. In a statement, the FRC president Tony Perkins said the following:

President Trump is moving the military away from the crippling policies of the Obama era that left our nation’s defenses at its lowest levels of readiness since before WWII. He recognizes that the last thing we should be doing is diverting tax payer dollars from mission-critical training to funding for controversial gender reassignment surgeries and transgender sensitivity training for service members. The president is keeping his promises and advancing policies essential to keeping our military strong and our country safe.

Perkins conveniently forgot to mention something about the new ban. According to The Slate, he and other anti-LGBTQ activists helped to write it.

 . . .behind the scenes, a “panel of experts” has been crafting a report, also released on Friday, designed to provide pretextual justification for Trump’s ban. According to multiple sources, Vice President Mike Pence played a leading role in the creation of this report, along with Ryan Anderson, an anti-trans activist, and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBTQ lobbying group. Mattis actually supports open transgender service, but he was effectively overruled by Pence, and chose not to spend his limited political capital further defending trans troops. In a memo released on Friday, Mattis encouraged Trump to ban transgender people from enlisting in the military, and to discharge those service members who wish to transition. Trump has now formally adopted these suggestions.

In other words, a policy regarding transgender men and women serving in the military was written in part by folks who are known to have a bias against transgender men and women, even to the point of spreading and relying on false information:

Tony Perkins - head of an anti-LGBTQ organization which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group because of the distortions and lies it has spread against the LGBTQ community.

Ryan T. Anderson - an anti-LGBTQ activist with the Heritage Foundation and author of a recent book attacking the transgender community; a book which was criticized for its numerous errors and distortions.

Mike Pence - who has a long history of anti-LGBTQ actions. Last year, Trump caused a firestorm by "jokingly" claiming that Pence wanted to hang gay people.

These three men on any committee developing LGBTQ policy is akin to Richard Spencer and David Duke on a committee developing policy about racism.

The Slate pointed out:

Given its authors, the Trump report’s conclusions are unsurprising. It claims transgender service members “undermine readiness,” which is demonstrably false. The RAND study carefully analyzed the armed forces of Australia, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom after each country legalized open trans service, and it found these policies had no impact on “readiness.” Yet the Trump report disavows this conclusion by pointing out that each country reported some initial “resistance in the ranks”—which, it argues, “is a strong indication of an adverse effect on unit cohesion.”

For now, Trump's newest ban is irrelevant. Court injunctions are in place allowing trans troops to serve in the military. Still, it is very bothersome to find out that Trump consulted with people like Anderson and Perkins to create policy on members of the LGBTQ community.  And also that Pence is allowing his homophobic bias to taint the same process.

It's scary to ponder what other policies about our community these three may be involved in undermining.

UPDATE:Pence secretly drafted Trump’s latest transgender military ban - Zack Ford of ThinkProgress has just published a more detailed article of how this newest trans troop came to be and it is scary. Pence is behind the entire thing, even to the point of overruling Mattis (who wanted transgender troops to be able to serve in the military) and creating his own committee comprised of anti-LGBTQ activists while ignoring the committee already created to look at the issue

'Sen. Warren takes HUD secretary Carson to the woodshed for not properly doing his job' & other Fri midday news briefs

Elizabeth Warren Tells Ben Carson To His Face: You Should Be Fired - Yes, gurl! Reeead his ass!

Anti-Gay Hate Group Pulls Support From Anti-Gay 'Religious Freedom' Bill Because It's Not Anti-Gay Enough - Mercy! Now I've heard almost everything.

Betsy DeVos is a danger to transgender children - From the mother of a transgender child 

In Rare LGBTQ Rights Win, Kenyan Court Rules Forced Anal Exams Illegal - Our struggle for dignity and equality is worldwide.

I Was So Inspired By The Film ‘Love, Simon’ That I Came Out To My Parents - Wow!

First it was about bakeries, now it's about families and children. 'Religious liberty' is a homophobic sham

From Lambda Legal

Fatma Marouf and Bryn Esplin have been married for nearly three years. They have long wanted to have children, and decided they wanted to become foster parents for a refugee child and asked to start the licensing process. However, when in their first interview they revealed that they were a married same-sex couple, the affiliate’s Director of International Foster Care informed them that they would not be permitted to apply to be foster parents because their family structure did not “mirror the Holy Family.” Fatma and Bryn’s humiliating rejection as foster parents illustrates how one of our most cherished rights is being tuned into a weapon to discriminate against LGBT people – and further, how opponents of LGBT equality are attempting to put discrimination beyond legislative or judicial remedy by wrapping it in the language of “religious freedom.” Lambda Legal has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on their behalf. Learn more about the case here. 

 This could be any of us, folks. When we said that the fight against the religious right bastardized concept of religious liberty was more than about baking cakes and buying flowers, the case of Fatma and Bryn is what we were talking about.

 Lambda Legal also said:

 We are facing a nationwide crisis: over 100,000 children in child welfare systems nationwide are currently in need of loving, stable homes, but there is a shortage of available foster homes. As tax-payer funded child-placing agencies struggle to find care for these children, seven states have allowed them to refuse to place children with LGBTQ families or people of different faiths. In states like Oklahoma and Kansas, waves of discriminatory, anti-LGBTQ bills are threatening to become law. A similar law in Texas, which went into effect last fall, not only allows these government-funded providers to turn away loving families, but permits them to engage in religious education, opening the door to “conversion therapy” or to refuse to acknowledge a transgender youth’s identity and deny services — including medical care — the child may need.

It was never about cakes or flowers. It was always about keeping the LGBTQ community under heel, as well as undermining our rights and ability to function as regular human beings, complete with having families.

'Trump Administration trying to walk away from upholding rights for women & trans people' & other Thur midday news briefs

Carson and DeVos both admit their departments are abandoning transgender people - IF we let them. And we won't.

Trump administration scrubbed lesbian & bi women’s health info from government website - They think they are being slick, but we see them. 

Texas bombing suspect compared ‘unnatural’ homosexuality to paedophilia and bestiality - Not trying to be "that guy," but I seem to remember when that awful man shot Congressman Steve Scalise, certain people made a note of how he was a fan of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Just noting that in the silence over this guy.

Same-sex couple rejected from wedding venue because they’re gay – and it’s legal - UGH!

Teens Who Hide Their Sexuality Have Higher Suicide Risk, Study Finds - Confirmation of past research which puts the blame on homophobia for negative behaviors in LGBTQ youth.

Throwback Thursday featuring the three killer lesbians - 'The Bitch,' 'The Butch,' and 'The Femme'

Let's throw in a change of pace for 'Throwback Thursday.'

Years ago, I had a segment on this blog entitled 'Know Your LGBT History.'  Featuring scenes from past movies and television shows as well as featuring biographies on famous LGBTQs, the segment focused on how our community was featured in the media at times when we weren't able to come out as well the times in which we were more embraced by society.

The segment came about because of positive feedback I had from posting an episode of The Jeffersons featuring a story line about the transgender community.   The next segment officially began the 'Know Your LGBT History' cavalcade and it was controversial:

This is what I said in the blog post about the episode:

 In the 1970s, actress Angie Dickinson starred in the successful Police Woman television series. This particular episode, 'Flowers of Evil,' was so controversial that it was only shown once due to protests by the lgbt community. It dealt with Dickinson getting to the bottom of a case in which three lesbians running a retirement home were stealing money from their residents, drugging them, and then gruesomely murdering them. As this minisode (an abridged version of a television episode)shows, there is a lot to be desired from this particular episode.

Trust me when I say that the full episode is much worse, specifically the stereotypical portrayals of the three villains:  

 The Bitch (Gladys) - The ringleader of the trio. Beautiful and sleek enough to supposedly "fool" men about her sexual orientation. She is the one who commits the only murder shown in the episode and it's not a nice scene. Her sadism is matched only by her lust; a quality that leads Dickinson to successfully go undercover at the retirement home.  

 The Butch (Mame) - Coarse, crude, and detached to a fault. She enjoys watching Gladys commit the murder.  

 The Femme (Janet) - The supposed "true woman" of the trio and as such, the one with a conscience and the "weak link." While Gladys strangles the victim and Mame watches, Janet stands outside in the rain crying in guilt. She can be prodded with kind words or a hard slap by Gladys.

Needless to say this post was a huge hit and enabled me to run 'Know Your LGBT History' posts from 2009 to 2014.

Y'all think I should begin running them again?

'Ben Carson plays divide-and-conquer on LGBTQ rights by attacking trans people' & other Wed midday news briefs

Ben Carson

Ben Carson Said Trans People In Homeless Shelters Make Others ‘Not Comfortable’ - First rule of life - NEVER buy the horseshit. And this is grade A horseshit. A divide-and-conquer tactic. Carson makes a judgement which could negatively affect the ENTIRE LGBTQ community and then tries to put the transgender community front and center as part of the blame for his actions. No doubt, the anti-transgender folks and the TERFS will say "this is why the transgender community is dragging us down." I say it's bull. The problem Carson referred to is one which can be taken care of without pointing fingers or playing us against one another. Don't fall for the horseshit.

And to answer whatever questions there may be regarding the above news brief, there are a series of articles on transgender men and women in homeless shelters:

New Housing Rule Requires Shelter for Transgender People Based on Identity  

Discrimination Against Transgender Women Seeking Access to Homeless Shelters  

Know Your Rights|Housing and Homeless Shelters 

Civil Rights Chief At HHS Defends The Right To Refuse Care On Religious Grounds - Vague interview with a man I still don't. Nothing is mentioned about the LGBTQ community.

LGBTQ people need to be condemned just like ISIS, Christian university president argues - Reposting a reiteration of this to remind folks that those who say the LGBTQ can sometimes be too sensitive and defensive can kindly go and fuck themselves.