Mike Pence would rather attack trans kids than testify about the Jan 6 insurrection

 

Former VP Mike Pence sent out this tweet earlier on Wednesday:

According to The Advocate:

He spoke at the downtown event as GOP presidential candidates are beginning to throw in their hats for 2024, with Nikki Haley announcing her run this week. Former President Donald Trump announced his candidacy in November. 

 “The truth is the average American today is being dragged into a left-wing culture war that’s invaded our schools, our colleges, and our workplace,” Pence lamented. “Every day we’re told that we must not only tolerate the left’s obsessions with race and sex and gender, but we must earnestly and enthusiastically participate or face severe consequences. And nowhere is the problem more severe or the need for leadership more urgent than in our public school classrooms,” the conservative Christian former vice president warned. 

 Pence has yet to declare himself a candidate despite traveling the country and releasing a new book a few months ago. After his Minneapolis appearance, Pence was on his way to Iowa, which remains the first stop for Republicans in the presidential race. 

 It's the usual junk we've come to expect from Pence, who has made a political career on weaponizing religion to smear LGBTQ Americans. 

This time however, has an ironic feel to it.

Last week, Pence was subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith. Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Donald Trump's attempts to stay in the office after losing the 2020 election. Trump and his allies pushed the continuously proven-to-be-false belief that the election was "stolen." This constant pushing of this false narrative ultimately led to the infamous January 6th riot/insurrection at the Capitol in DC where - among other things - participants called for executing Pence for not being more helpful in pushing the 'stolen election" story.

Aside from making those vile statements against trans youth, Pence said he would fight the subpoena. According to CNN:

“My fight is on the separation of powers. My fight against the DOJ subpoena very simply is on defending the prerogatives that I had as president of the Senate to preside over the Joint Session of Congress on January 6,” Pence told reporters in Minneapolis. “For me this is a moment where you have to decide where you stand and I stand on the Constitution of the United States,” he added.

 . . . Sources previously told CNN that Pence will raise claims under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which protects legislators from certain law enforcement actions if the conduct in question is linked to their legislative duty. Pence is expected to point to the role he played, when he was vice president, as president of the Senate. In that role, he presided over Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results on January 6.

 Other witnesses have raised Speech or Debate Clause arguments in efforts to resist subpoenas in the DOJ probe and in the other investigations into January 6. But Pence’s plans to invoke the clause in his role as president of the Senate is believed to be untrod legal ground.

Washington DC online publication, The Hill, points out that several attorneys called Pence's strategy a "stretch." One of them said the following:

“I’m a skeptic,” said Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel under President Obama. “Although the Constitution gives the vice president a role in vote counting, the Constitution does not make the vice president a senator. Senators are defined in Article One. The vice president is not a senator. And I read the speech and debate clause as only applying to senators and representatives. … I don’t think the language of the Constitution permits any other reading.”

The entire situation merely underscores the basic hypocrisy and cynicism in that "Bible-thumping heart" Pence claims to have. He's attacking trans kids for the same reason he doesn't want to testify against Trump. He will no doubt run for president and is trying to appeal to the Trump base by throwing out red meat while the same time not trying to alienate them (something he would do if he did in fact testify.)

Don't be fooled by his entreaties. Pence isn't eyeing a place in Heaven by his words and actions. He has his eyes completely on the White House

'Anti-LGBTQ+ bills in 2023 already surpassed amount proposed in 2022' & other Tue evening news briefs

Editor's note - working on a personal project so just news briefs tonight

Anti-LGBTQ+ Bills in 2023 Already Surpassed Amount Proposed in Entirety of 2022 - It's been war these past two years. But we know HOW to win wars. 

Court to reconsider Connecticut's transgender athlete policy - An unexpected reconsideration of a case in which our side won. Don't get spooked just yet. 

20 Gay Celebrity Couples Who Make Us Believe in Love - This is sooo sweet. 

Colorado Springs nightclub Club Q announces plan to reopen after deadly mass shooting shuttered the LGBTQ ‘safe space’ - Good for them!

'Wyoming GOP defends child marriage while claiming that trans rights will harm children' & other Tue midday news briefs

Wyoming GOP defends child marriage while claiming it’s trans rights that harm children​ - Lawd hammercy. 

Florida Medical Boards Tighten Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Minors - And they simply continue to get worse. 

Jesus Super Bowl Commercials Funded by Group With Anti-LGBTQ+ Ties - Not surprising at all. 

Czech footballer Jakub Jankto becomes first active international men’s player to announce he is gay - Good for him!

Trans pharmacist questioned about her 'genitalia' by state senator during Arkansas judiciary hearing

At first I didn't want to post this but I decided otherwise because I felt it was necessary. 

I think a lot of us don't understand the plight of transgender Americans as they are hit with an onslaught of bills attempting to erase their basic gender-affirming care and their very lives. This onslaught are attacks on their dignity and person. Republican and their cohorts behind these efforts aren't even attempting their basic hatred anymore.

Decorum flew entirely out the window Monday, as Arkansas senators insulted, attacked and silenced transgender people and their supporters who’d shown up at the Capitol in hopes of stopping yet another bill targeting LGBTQ+ youth. Republican lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, all of them white men, compared gender-affirming care to frontal lobotomies and child abuse. They dismissed testimony from doctors and therapists, and suggested lawmakers are the ones who know best when it comes to medical decisions. Freshman Sen. Matt McKee (R-Pearcy) made it all quite personal when he asked a transgender pharmacist who came to testify against the bill if she has a penis. 

I would have some very choice words to say. To her credit though, the pharmacist refused allow this humiliating question to throw her off. She handled herself rather well in spite of the circumstances.

Arkansas State Senator Matt McKee is a disgusting horrible man who does not deserve to be a state senator and this question he asks proves he has poor judgement on top of being #transphobic #arkansas #senmattmckee #TransRightsAreHumanRights #Equality pic.twitter.com/8D4pkyP3Ya

— Lance J. Gosnell (@lancejgosnell) February 13, 2023

Unfortunately but not surprisingly, the bill made it out of the hearing:

The bill being discussed (and eventually passed Monday morning, with only the one Democrat at the meeting voting against it) is Senate Bill 199 to open up doctors who provide gender-affirming care to youth to significant new loopholes and additional malpractice liabilities far beyond the standard for doctors in other fields. 

It's ironic that these people who claim that they are "protecting children" won't treat their adult constituents with basic dignity and respect. 

'Right-wingers falsely label peaceful protest as 'trans mob'' & other Mon midday news briefs

Peaceful protest or a trans 'mob'? Oklahoma demonstration riles the right - Of course the right lied about this protest. It's their brand and sometimes they do it so much that it's difficult to keep up with them.

Out, Black, and Proud, Ernestine Eckstein Fought For Us Before Stonewall​ - Another example of how Black and LGBTQ history intertwines. 

Utah's GOP governor defends new ban on gender-affirming care - He tried so hard to thread the needle here. It simply doesn't work for him.

Meet the 4 known gay players to appear in a Super Bowl - I certainly didn't know this. 

30 Football Players Who Came Out of the Closet - While we're on the subject . . .

Reminder - Black history is LGBTQ history and LGBTQ history is Black history

  

Some words are worth repeating and some videos are worth reposting. We are unfortunately living in a time in which certain attempting to erase the intersection between Black and LGBTQ history. They will not succeed.

Anti-trans 'influencer' Matt Walsh exposed and humiliated during Tenn legislative hearing

Matt Walsh is an anti-trans, homophobic "influencer" at the forefront of the statewide attacks on trans Americans.  He has done things like creating an anti-trans propaganda documentary film, authoring an anti-trans children's book, and amplifying lies about gender-affirming care for trans kids. These lies have led to bomb threats against Boston Children's Hospital, which Walsh initially claimed was a hoax. In September of last year,  a Boston woman by the name of Catherine Leavy, was arrested for making one of those threats.

Walsh claims that his actions are all about saving children from "mutilation." In reality, he has created a successful business model built upon fear and scientific distortions hiding behind a flimsy veneer of "common sense."

People like Walsh are always troublesome but eventually amusing to watch. You get angry watching the havoc they create and the lives they disrupt. Sooner or later, though, they always get some sort of comeuppance because their egos blind them to their limitations. For Walsh, this took place on Thursday during a legislative hearing on an anti-trans bill in Tennessee.

🏳️‍⚧️ WATCH: “YOU HAVE NO MEDICAL BACKGROUND, CORRECT?”

Using his own words, TN Dems @VoteBo @JRClemmons @CalebHemmer grill Matt Walsh about the #TransYouthHealthCareBan his fearmongering pushed @WilliamLamberth @SenJohnson @GovBillLee to prioritize this session (over kids’ lives) pic.twitter.com/4DYEKZsQMV

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) February 9, 2023

This video was highly embarrassing for Walsh's brand and he knows it. Subsequently, he has been posting tweets of other parts of the hearing in an attempt to claim that he actually got the best of the Democrats. One tweet features a video of Walsh supposedly creating awkward silence from the panel by asking an inane question. In reality, the silence was because Walsh broke the protocol by interjecting that nonsense when they were asking him questions. Perhaps he was channeling  Mellissa Carone, the woman who became a comical meme sensation after the 2020 election hearing in Michigan.

Like I said before, people like Matt Walsh are always amusing to watch as they climb a peak of relevancy to the point in which their egos cause the bottom to drop from under them. Unfortunately, while Matt's present humiliation underscores his dishonesty, people are still being led to believe the worst about trans Americans and the healthcare they need to survive. They are still seen by people like Walsh as a commodity for wealth and influence.   Trans Americans, particularly our trans kids, continue to be bombarded by messages that people hate them and want them dead simply for attempting to be their authentic selves. 

Taking all of that into account, the situation becomes less amusing and instead, increasingly infuriating.

Hat tip to The Tennessee Holler