When it comes to issues involving the trans community, it is important that those of us who support them demand parity. One thing that the religious right has done well is to hone in on incidents involving trans people and create a narrative which is beneficial to them. Often times, the narrative is altogether wrong or slightly distorted. And by the time the truth comes out, no one listens or cares because the religious right narrative has dominated the conversation.
Take, for example, this article one the Family Research Council's webpage entitled ‘My Blood Still Boils’: Father Recalls School’s Secret Attempt to Transition Daughter. In it, the father of a trans child says that the school is responsible for making his child trans and for the child's suicide attempts:
At the beginning of this year, Wendell Perez got a call that no father ever wants to receive — his elementary-aged daughter had attempted to hang herself in the school bathroom. Perez and his wife rushed to the school, where their daughter was whisked away by a police car to stay in a mental institution for a week. Searching for answers, the couple found out from school administrators that their “son” had been struggling with “his” gender identity.On top of that, the school had remained quiet about the issue as the student was concerned that “he” would not be accepted at home because of the family’s faith. It was only until the child’s second suicide attempt in a matter of two days that Perez and his wife were informed of the situation. The school was secretly transitioning the young girl into a male identity, without the parents’ knowledge or consent.
The parents claim that the administration of the Clay County elementary school their child attends overstepped its authority in discussing and supporting their child’s request to be referred to by a different name and gender and, in doing so, that the district violated the parents’ rights to direct the education of their child. After the child told the school counselor about two separate suicide attempts in early January, the parents were notified and later filed the lawsuit that month. The parents told News4JAX that the concept of changing one’s gender identity is inconsistent with the family’s catholic Christian beliefs and referred to the scenario as “a mental health problem.”
Many parents across the country have found themselves as plaintiffs fighting school administrations that have helped their children begin quietly transitioning, such as a mother in California and a couple in Tallahassee, Florida, with similar situations. Other instances across the country have included the emergence of “gender transition closets” in communities and schools.
A mother is suing the small Spreckels Union School District in California for allegedly convincing her 11-year-old child to change their gender identity. In the lawsuit, the mother, Jessica Konen, accuses two teachers, Lori Caldeira and Kelly Baraki, of engaging in “extreme and outrageous conduct with malice and the intention of causing, or reckless disregard for the probability of causing, emotional distress.”It claims Caldeira and Baraki, who ran the school’s LGBTQ equality club, “would coach” students on how to embody certain identities and as such “planted the seed” in Konen’s child’s mind that they are bisexual and transgender. The complaint says the teachers subsequently concealed the student’s changed gender identity from Konen and “attempted to deceive” her by using the child’s birth name and she/her pronouns when speaking with her.It also claims the teachers instructed the student to keep their identity a secret from their mother. According to the complaint, the meetings of the LGBTQ group, known as the UBU (You Be You) club, led Konen’s child to explore their gender identity and begin using a new name and pronouns – though the mother claims that the child is back to using their birth name and she/her pronouns. Eventually, the teachers had a meeting with Konen and her child to discuss their gender identity, and in response, Konen said she did her best to support her child.
“I literally was caught off guard. I was blindsided,” Konen said. “I didn’t even know what to feel like because I didn’t even know where it came from.” Konen said she began to cry. She said her daughter was also caught by surprise.
When schools went to remote learning during the pandemic in March 2020, Konen said her daughter began returning to her “old self” and now uses her given name. But it wasn’t until this fall that Konen began to question how her daughter got on the path to a different identity after the article by Abigail Shrier circulated around town.
The tone of Shrier's article was that teachers were 'recruiting' kids to become transgender. Shrier, who wrote a discredited attack on the trans community entitled Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughter, has made a career out of spinning nonsense against the transgender community. Her article consisted of a leaked recording of the teachers talking about how they created a group for LGBTQ students.
In a leaked recording from a California Teachers Association conference, Caldeira and Kelly Baraki were quoted discussing how they kept meetings private and “stalked” students online for recruits. “When we were doing our virtual learning — we totally stalked what they were doing on Google, when they weren’t doing school work,” Baraki said.“One of them was googling ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’ And we’re like, ‘Check.’ We’re going to invite that kid when we get back on campus.” Neither Caldeira nor Baraki could be reached by The Associated Press for comment. Caldeira told the San Francisco Chronicle the quotes were accurate but taken out of context or misrepresented. The stalking comment was a joke, she said.
Caldeira and Baraki, said that their school principal – who is a named defendant in Konen’s lawsuit – knew about the UBU club and its purpose and even attended some of the meetings. California law doesn’t prevent teachers from approaching students about joining LGBTQ clubs, and state law bars teachers from discussing students’ LGBTQ identities with parents without the child’s permission. Though monitoring students’ search terms is controversial, it’s a technical feature widely available to teachers, especially as virtual and online learning increased during the pandemic. Nevertheless, all of this information inspired Konen to take legal action against the school.
CNN obtained emails that show Littlejohn wrote the school in 2020 and notified a teacher that her child wanted to change pronouns. . . . Littlejohn also wrote that she would not stop her child from using preferred pronouns or name of choice at school. Littlejohn references these emails in her lawsuit against the school and they were reported by the Tallahassee Democrat in November.. . In an August 27, 2020, email to a teacher, Littlejohn stated, in part, "This has been an incredibly difficult situation for our family and her father and I are trying to be as supportive as we can. She is currently identifying as non-binary. She would like to go by the new name [redacted] and prefers the pronouns they/them. We have not changed her name at home yet, but I told her if she wants to go by the name [redacted] with her teachers, I won't stop her."The teacher thanked Littlejohn and asked if she should share with other teachers. Littlejohn explained it was difficult and confusing, and went on to write, "Whatever you think is best or [redacted] can handle it herself." In another email the same day, Littlejohn told the teacher, "This gender situation has thrown us for a loop. I sincerely appreciate your support. I'm going to let her take the lead on this."
"From the moment Mrs. Littlejohn first emailed her child's teacher to inform our staff of the situation, this has been handled together in partnership with clear communication. We understand that outside entities have now become involved, but the family clearly instructed the school staff via email to allow their child to 'take the lead on this' and to do 'whatever you think is the best,' " Chris Petley, Leon County Schools communications coordinator, said in a statement to CNN.
 |
| Anthony Edwards |
 |
| How odd is it that the Proud Boys are a homophobic group seeing that its founder, Gavin McInnes, stuck a dildo up his rear on live television. |
A recent story in Mediaite says that McInnes came up with the 'Proud Boys' name as sort of an anti-gay dig:
Huffington Post reporter Andy Campbell’s new book on the Proud Boys opens with the story of how the group got its name. Campbell reported that founder Gavin McInnes was once so appalled by a young boy singing a song from the musical Aladdin at a school recital he attended that he decided to mock the boy and name the group after a lyric in the song.“The Proud Boys name first came to Gavin McInnes while he watched, with disgust, as a twelve-year-old boy with brown skin sang a musical number onstage at a school recital,” Campbell writes in his book titled: We Are Proud Boys: How a Right-Wing Street Gang Ushered in a New Era of American Extremism.. . .“Fuckin’ musicals, man. My wife’s a fag hag so I had to sit there and just not laugh. I couldn’t say to my boys, ‘Don’t ever fucking do that or I will be the opposite of proud,” Campbell quotes McInnes saying on an early episode of his podcast The Gavin McInnes Show. “This little Puerto Rican kid comes out, and he goes, ‘I’ll make you proud boy! It was the gayest fucking song,'” McInnes added. “When I was watching I was like, this is obviously the Hispanic son of a single mom. He did high-five a grown man afterward, but it couldn’t have been the real dad.”
We've already seen bomb threats against children's hospitals, and far-right groups attacking drag shows. What else are we going to see when idiots like Carlson are openly demanding that people act outside the law. He's not saying the words per se, but his intent is definitely cleared. How many people are going to get hurt before someone gives a damn?
Tucker Carlson is openly calling for violence against teachers and LGBTQ+ people:
— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) September 20, 2022
"No parent should put up with this for one second, no matter what the law says. Your moral duty is to defend your children. This is an attack on your children and you should fight back." pic.twitter.com/dwMkO057Ne
The state of Montana was recently dealt a double loss in its attempts to undermine transgender rights. The first was announced on Friday and it is a big one.
From the Associated Press:
A Montana state judge has determined three laws passed by Montana’s Republican-controlled legislature to regulate activities on university campuses are unconstitutional, including one that sought to ban transgender women from participating on female collegiate sports teams. Montana’s Constitution gives the state board of regents full authority to govern public college campuses and precludes state lawmakers from imposing their own rules, District Court Judge Rienne McElyea said in a ruling issued Wednesday that was emailed to attorneys in the case on Friday. Her ruling noted that the Montana Supreme Court recently affirmed the same conclusion in a challenge to a bill that sought to allow more people to carry guns on campuses.
After months of defiance, Montana’s health department says it will follow a judge’s ruling and temporarily allow transgender people to change the gender on their birth certificates. In a written order Monday morning, the judge said state health officials had made “calculated violations” of his order earlier this year to temporarily stop enforcing a state law that would prevent transgender people from changing the gender on their birth certificate. The health department passed a rule saying no one could change the sex on their birth certificate unless there was a clerical error. Under the order, transgender residents can obtain a corrected birth certificate by submitting a sworn affidavit to the health department.
