'Lawmaker wants to punish educators who allow trans athletes to compete as they identify' & other Mon midday news briefs

Lawmaker wants to punish educators that allow trans athletes to compete as they identify - Don't these people have anything better to do?

United Methodist Church Announces Proposal to Split Over Gay Marriage - If you gotta split, you gotta split.

Remembering the queer voices and allies we lost in 2019 - We honor their memory by carrying on their work. 

Illinois schools to start teaching LGBTQ history - And it has begun. Deal with it.

Weak video opposing marriage equality demonstrates a good example of why conservatives lost

Though some folks have criticized me for it, I like going through past written words and videos of groups who oppose LGBTQ equality. I do it for three reasons - 1. to educate myself on their arguments because they generally get recycled and repackaged  2. keep myself from becoming slack in refuting them. 3. marvel at how simplistically idiotic they are.

And the above video by the group TFP Student Action is a doozy. TFP Student Action is an offshoot of the American Society for the Defense Tradition, Family, and Property  - a far-right Catholic group . Naturally, this means that another activity of the group is pushing the lie that the LGBTQ community is unhealthy to society. It was small, but very vocal, part of the conservative right's ultimately unsuccessful fight against marriage equality. And with arguments made in the video above, it's no wonder they lost.

All it contains is a hashtag of bad talking points backed by wishful thinking, religious entitlement, and deceptions (i.e. using President Obama talking about single parents to denigrate same-sex households and spinning the lie about the Massachusetts father who was jailed for allegedly trying to keep his son from being "exposed" to homosexuality in his school.) 

Yet, this video contained the general arguments of those opposing our right to marry. And what the opposition ended up arguing in the courts. A special highlight comes at 4:28 when the only black guy in the video is some random person they filmed on the street going on about "Adam and Steve" as he and his facial piercings draw so close to the camera that you think he's going to lick it.

But I shouldn't be too harsh. What points the video loses on facts and logic, the participants make up for it by being vigorous. Extremely vigorous.

The most enjoyable thing about watching this video is knowing that a few short months after it was made, the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality, thereby telling TFP - and other religious right and conservative groups - to go play with themselves. And after watching this video, can anyone really blame SCOTUS?

' 2019 LGBTQ pop culture countdown' & other Fri midday news briefs

Lil Nas X had a wonderful year.

2019 YEAR IN REVIEW: Pop culture countdown - Lil Nas X, the late Whitney Houston's friend Robyn Crawford, Jussie Smollett (ugh), and other LGBTQ moments of 2019. 

New Illinois law requires all public single-use restrooms be gender neutral - Good for Illinois!

Kevin Hart Admits He ‘Was Immature’ About Oscar Backlash Over Gay Jokes - No shit.

A transgender character is joining the MCU, which hasn't had the best record for LGBTQ portrayals - I'm not impressed yet.

Theologian lists 10 ways conservative evangelicals have transformed Christianity to 'TRUMPianity'

No matter what they say, conservative white evangelicals prefer the guy on the left more than the guy on the right.

I read this last week and found it so on point that I decided to post it at a later date. Then I lost it. But lo and behold, it popped right back up again when I was considering what post I would publish today.

Much has been said and will be said about conservative white evangelicals shamelessly embracing of a Trump presidency in spite of the fact that they are supposed to stand against every quality he has brought into the White House - lying, hypocrisy, adultery, corruption. etc. To me, it all about power. As long as he freely gives them access and the power to influence public policy, conservative white evangelicals will contort themselves to justify or ignore all of his vile qualities.

How they contort hasn't been spotlighted as much as it should, except by theologian, speaker, and author Benjamin L. Corey. In an absolutely wonderful piece,10 Signs You’re Actually Following TRUMPianity Instead of CHRISTianity, he breaks down the 10 ways conservative white evangelicals have twisted themselves up in knots to justify their support of Trump and in essence, replaced Christianity for 'Trumpianity.'

The entire piece deserves your attention, but I am to going list Corey's 10 points. For more details on each,  read how Corey broke them down:

10. You spent 8 years criticizing every move of Obama, but the minute Trump was sworn in you started telling everyone that “Christians should respect the president” and that being “divisive” is a sin. 

9. You think, “but we’re a nation of laws” somehow trumps biblical teachings on how immigrants are to be treated. 

8. Your church is planning a “patriotic worship service” for the 4th of July. 

7. You instinctively applaud when Trump threatens to “bomb the shit” out of people, but quickly push back if someone quotes what Jesus taught about violence and enemy love. 

6. You think that having a filthy mouth and boasting about sexual immorality is a sign of being unsaved, but when it comes to Trump you all of a sudden have a “Who am I to judge?” attitude. 

5. You think it’s God-honoring to refuse to bow to a national statue, but that you should be fired from your job, kicked out of the country, or even charged with treason for refusing to stand for the flag. 

4. You want the nation to return to “biblical values”… except for all those socialist sounding biblical things like caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, giving food to the hungry, etc. 

3. Your church spends one month a year celebrating the story of refugee family who fled their violent homeland and secretly crossed the border to safety, only to return home years later where their son became another unarmed person of color killed by the state’s violent security forces because they “felt threatened”… 

2. You claimed Barack Obama’s election was the result of evil forces, but the minute Trump was sworn into office you started quoting verses about how “God picks a nation’s kings and queens.” 

1. You spent the 90’s saying “character counts” but now say, “We don’t vote for a national pastor.”

'TERFs, right-wing media had a disgusting 'partnership' in 2019' & other Thur midday news briefs

TERFs are so desperate for attention that some engage in stupidly counteractive stunts,
such as kissing up to the right-wing media.

TERFs claimed they were being censored, but they found a safe space in right-wing media in 2019 - Any of my lesbian sisters who was involved in this madness, you need to wise up. Don't think for an instant that your "new allies" aren't going to plot to put your rights and safety into a grave next to the one you are helping them dig for our trans brothers and sisters. Knowing them, they are probably making measurements even now as they smile in your faces and direct your hands to jab the knives into the backs of your own people.

2019’s worst anti-LGBTQ meltdowns - And there was a lot. I should sue for battle pay when I covered that stuff. 

Here are New Year resolutions that all LGBTQ people can share - If I told you my resolution (s), people would get so shocked that they would put that wall back up in Germany. 

Here Are 20 LGBTQ Celebrity Coming-Out Stories That Moved Us In 2019 - Celebrity or not, people coming out is a good thing. And it will always matter. Particularly with our LGBTQ children. There is nothing wrong with someone publicly showing them to not be afraid to live their lives honestly.

Don't forget Donald Trump's lie to the LGBTQ community

Whether or not Trump is re-elected in 2020, the one thing the LGBTQ community simply has to do is demand more attention to how his Administration is undermining our equality and safety. Remember this 2016 tweet of his when he was running for president:

We now see that the above tweet is one of his biggest lies. Since taking office, his administration has been systematically eliminating any mention of our community from executive guidelines on discrimination

From NBC News:

With just over a year left in President Donald Trump's first term, another late-breaking news item barely made waves: The Interior Department — which manages the majority of the federal government's public lands — deleted "sexual orientation" from its anti-discrimination guidelines, as HuffPost first reported last week. The removal was just the latest in a nearly three-year-long effort to strip mention of LGBTQ people from the executive branch bureaucracy. 

Reports of such changes began the day Trump assumed office, when LGBTQ content was deleted from the White House, State Department and Labor Department websites within "minutes" of his having been sworn into office, according to GLAAD, a national LGBTQ advocacy group. 

Since then, drip by drip, other parts of the federal government have had their online content trimmed to omit mention of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.  

 . . . Indeed, the government's own civil rights watchdog group, the Commission on Civil Rights, in November found a systematic approach to dismantling LGBTQ rights protections. Karen Narasaki, a member of the commission's board, called it "truly unprecedented."

While the removal of these guidelines has been given less attention than they should have been, they underscore a reality too bothersome to ignore.  This isn't simply a matter of Trump making a promise and then not taking any action.  It's a matter of him taking the opposite action of the promise he made.

The group GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) has pointed to 133 negative activities committed against the LGBTQ community by the Trump Administration.

From banning transgender men and women from serving in the military to appointing anti-LGBTQ leaders (some who have falsely linked gay men to pedophilia) to supporting anti-LGBTQ discrimination by religious entities while giving them access to gay tax dollars, Trump has freely run roughshod without the media even asking once about what he's doing.

What Trump has been doing to the LGBTQ community is the equivalent of promising someone that you will help him cross the street  but then push him in the middle of busy rush hour traffic. His attacks on the LGBTQ community may not be as high-profile or obviously prejudiced as his attacks on immigrants and undocumented people, but they are equally egregious.

Pastor who claimed that gay men have sex with cellphones blows gasket over Buttigieg being hosted by church

NC pastor Patrick Wooden (second photo), who once falsely claimed that gay men have to wear diapers and stick cellphones up their rectums, is angry that openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg (first photo) was hosted by another church in early December.

I was too busy celebrating the holidays so I missed a very interesting item which took place last week. Apparently openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is bringing all of the homophobes out to condemn him. First Franklin Graham, then Don Boys.

Now this guy via an article from The Christian Post:

Outspoken North Carolina Bishop Patrick Wooden Sr., founder of the conservative Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, slammed William J. Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, for hosting gay Democratic presidential candidate, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and for arguing that Jesus didn’t speak out against homosexuality. 

“I’m a registered non-affiliate, so I don’t want you to think I’m in any party. I’m for the Lord and what is right, but it is a disgrace that we live in a country where, if a person of color dons a ‘Make America Great’ hat, people now, on MSNBC and other news agencies, they call that hat a trigger ... But you can invite a man married to man to a Christian church and there is no outcry,” Wooden declared in a message to his church earlier this month. “Something is wrong with that. And the only way to get you to buy into that, they’ve got to try and get you to ignore the Scriptures and to take Jesus Christ out of the public eye.”

Wooden was upset about Barber hosting Buttigieg at his church on Dec 1.  The Christian Post points out that during the event Barber addressed the so-called divide between the LGBTQ and black community. He called it a "false narrative." He also said we must address issues of poverty and social justice instead of being exploited by false narratives:

 “Just to clear the house, because I know it’s out there, we here to talk about poverty. Somebody sent me this question: ‘What are you gonna say to the mayor about being gay?’ I said, ‘Nothing.’ That’s not a Bible question. You don’t see Jesus raising that. It’s not a constitutional question. There’s no constitutional provision. I just got on a plane and flew four hours from Arizona here. I ain’t ask the pilot was he gay, but I did ask him could he fly the plane,” Barber said to applause.  

 “My surgeon, I don’t ask him if he’s gay. I want to know, can he do the surgery? And right now, what we’re looking at is, are there candidates who can have the political courage, wisdom to address the issue of poverty and the interlocking injustices. That’s the question before us. … We need to kill some of these false narratives,” he asserted.