'4th grader will sue after not being allowed to write about her gay grandfather' & other Fri midday news briefs

S.C. mom is suing her daughter's school, claiming the principal made her re-write pro-LGBTQ essay - This is WONDERFUL!  I hope it works out for the family.

Religious Right Radio Segment Blames Social Media for Children Coming Out as Transgender - They say it like it's a bad thing. If true, it is a good thing. And not just transgender kids but LGBQ also. Being true to yourself is a good thing.

Trump’s proposed 2020 budget would seriously harm the LGBTQ community. Here’s how. - Again, we seem to be Trump's punching dummy.

The military says that the trans military ban isn’t discrimination against trans people - The hell it ain't! 

147-8: Mass. House Overwhelmingly Votes To Ban Conversion Therapy For Minors - Way to go!

'Christian' Trump supporters spew nasty rage at presidential candidate who called out Mike Pence's hypocrisy

Sunday night, openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg called out the hypocrisy of VP Mike Pence. Buttigieg called Pence a "cheerleader of  the pornstar presidency" because Pence's reputation of being an evangelical Christian conflicts with Trump's less-than Christian attitude and exploits.

Pete Buttigieg on Pence's support of Trump: "How could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency. Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump?" Via CNN pic.twitter.com/qH1WnXUHrj

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 11, 2019

Buttigieg's comments got a lot of attention, but not all of it was positive. Readers of the religious right "news source" One News Now (courtesy of hate group the American Family Association) abandoned all pretenses of  a Christian attitude as they defended Pence by viciously attacking Buttgieg. I don't know what was more interesting - the way some of them sidestepped Buttigieg's point, or how some of them went right at connecting his name with anal sex.

Conservatives throwing all of the usual anti-LGBTQ tropes at The Equality Act

On Wednesday, the Democrats unveiled The Equality Act, legislation which would ensure LGBTQ equality and safety on a multitude of levels by amending existing civil rights law to include our community. As of now, The Equality Act, is enjoying diverse popularity. But, according to The Advocate, conservatives and others in the anti-LBTQ industry have opened the floodgates of fear and lies in hopes of scaring people against it

The Equality Act “would undermine women’s equality and force women and girls to share private, intimate spaces with men who identify as female, in addition to denying women fair competition in sports,” said a statement released by Kristen Waggoner, senior vice president of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s U.S. legal division. “Like similar state and local laws, it would force Americans to participate in events and speak messages that violate their core beliefs.” 

 . . . Terry Schilling, executive director of American Principles Project, appealed to transphobia in his statement on the bill. “Forcing young girls to shower with men. Telling abused women they have to room with men in battered women’s shelters. Allowing men to compete against — and typically beat — women in women’s sporting events. This is what ‘equality’ looks like as defined by the radical Left. This is what ‘equality’ would look like under the so-called ‘Equality’ Act,” he said.  “The reality is that this bill isn’t about equality — it’s about enshrining supremacy into the law for one ideology over another,” he continued. “And the result will be the widespread erasure of women, prohibition of dissent, and sexualization of children.”

 . . . There’s no word yet from some of the biggest names in anti-LGBTQ activism, such as Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. However, the FRC did tweet a link to an article published online Monday by the Gospel Coalition, an association of churches in the Christian Reformed faith, in anticipation of the Equality Act’s introduction. The article, authored by Andrew T. Walker, contended that the bill “represents the most invasive threat to religious liberty ever proposed in America.” It “would forever cement the legitimacy of sexual-revolution ethics into federal law,” “accelerate the number of conflicts pitting Christians against their conscience,” and “accelerate the pace of anti-Christian bias in society.”

That's always the key with these groups - grab a narrative of fear and continuously repeating it, drowning out the truth and reasonable debate.

Ohio high schooler suspended for trying to 'heal' LGBTQ students with Bible verses & other Wed midday news briefs

Christians outraged after Ohio high schooler suspended for trying to ‘heal’ gay students with Bible verses - So apparently religious liberty entails harassing your fellow LGBTQ students? I don't think so. BTW, the word 'Christians' should be in parenthesis. Not as a grammatical correction, but a situational one.

Donald Trump is fighting HIV by cutting funding for global AIDS initiatives - The latest thing he is being two-faced about.

DeVos opens door to taxpayers funding religious orgs by stopping enforcement of church-state separation rule - Lovely. Who will it bite in the butt first. The LGBTQ community or those pushing it? You know what I'm hoping for.

Meet the Creator of the World's Largest Trans Career Fair - It's sometimes difficult to remember that there is still good going on in the world.

Pentagon signs directive to push Trump's transgender military ban

You do not treat soldiers the way the Trump Administration has treated our transgender troops

The Trump Administration just announced the new guidelines to ban transgender men and women from serving in the military. The Pentagon claims that this is not a ban. Whatever it is labeled, this is still some mess and not the way to treat people who fight for your freedoms.

The Pentagon announced Tuesday night that a directive has been signed to implement President Trump's policy barring most transgender people from serving in the military.
Under the policy, transgender people would have to serve in the gender they were assigned at birth. Service secretaries would be allowed to grant waivers on a case-by-case basis. The policy will go into effective in 30 days, according to the memo signed by acting Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist. The directive is being issued after a court last week lifted the last of the orders preventing the transgender military policy from taking effect. 

A federal judge in Maryland ruled he had no choice but to lift the injunction after the Supreme Court in February ruled 5-4 to lift two other holds. The Trump administration said it planned to move forward with the policy following the judge's ruling last week. Still, advocates for transgender troops have argued the Pentagon is still constrained by a fourth injunction, pointing to a stipulation in the order that allows for a period of time for the plaintiff to decide whether they want a rehearing in front of the court’s full bench. That 21-day period, though, ends before the memo signed Tuesday says the new policy takes effect. 

 . . . The Pentagon denies the Mattis policy is a ban, but advocates argue it effectively is, comparing it to the defunct “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.

You can read more here and check out the links below about those who "crafted" and then pushed this hot mess. It is not over by any means:

Don't forget what Mike Pence and the religious right are doing to transgender soldiers

Family Research Council exposes own lie about cost worries in latest attack on trans soldiers

'Trump invites anti-LGBTQ Brazilian president to the White House' & other Tue midday news briefs

Trump send another negative message to the LGBTQ community.

Trump Invites Homophobic Brazilian President to White House - Trump slaps the LGBTQ community in the face again.

South Carolina school rejects 4th grader’s essay supporting LGBTQ rights - Unbelievably homophobic crap from my state, unfortunately. 

The LGBTQ Equality Act heads back to Capitol Hill, this time with massive corporate support - Keep your fingers crossed, although extremely problematic. 

Iowa Supreme Court sides with two trans women fighting for Medicaid coverage - Wonderful news! 

Seth Owen: Gay teen shunned by Florida parents starts college fund for others - Several days old but still a wonderful story.

Family Research Council exposes own lie about cost worries in latest attack on trans soldiers

Don't be fooled. When it comes to Trump's attempt to ban transgender men and women from serving in the military, groups like the Family Research Council will say their support of this ban has to do with caring about costs. But it's actually about bigotry.

It's amazing how FRC continues to push the lie that the amount of money devoted by the military to trans health care is extreme:

Already, as of February 1, the Pentagon has forked over $7,943,906.75 to gender reassignment surgeries, hormones, and psychotherapy. That’s millions of dollars it could have spent equipment, salaries, and training. Instead, we’re blowing through taxpayer dollars so that troubled service members can use the military as their free ticket to elective surgery. Not a penny of that is going to the DOD’s real mission: fighting and winning wars. 

As usual when it spins an anti-LGBTQ narrative, FRC omits certain facts. From PBS News Hour:

According to new data from the Defense Department provided to the House Armed Services Committee ahead of the hearing, the military has spent about $8 million on transgender care since 2016 out of its $50 billion overall health care budget. The Associated Press obtained the data Wednesday.

Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg calls Mike Pence 'cheerleader for porn star presidency'

Pete Buttigieg 

Openly gay Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg may be a long shot for the White House but at Sunday's CNN Town Hall meeting he nailed a hole-in-one when it comes to calling out the hypocrisy of VP Mike Pence in supporting Donald Trump. It only took him 59 seconds to state what so many Christians should be stating with regards to not only Pence but also other evangelical conservative Christian support of Trump. Like I said, sometimes it takes a gay man to state the obvious. Two snaps up and rewind!

Pete Buttigieg on Pence's support of Trump: "How could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency. Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump?" Via CNN pic.twitter.com/qH1WnXUHrj

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 11, 2019

Don't forget what Mike Pence and the religious right are doing to transgender soldiers

With a recent ruling on Trump's ban of transgender troops in the military throwing everything into bizarre chaos (the ban will be implemented sometime unannounced or may be it won't), it's easy to forget that that mess we are presently in is because of Mike Pence's anti-LGBTQ prejudice and those who helped him subvert fairness and accuracy.

But we won't forget. We will never forget and we will bring it up until no one will ever forget it:

From ThinkProgress, March 25, 2018:

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern reported Friday night that, according to multiple sources, Pence played “a leading role” in creating the report, along with Ryan T. Anderson of the Heritage Foundation, which has been dubbed “Trump’s favorite think tank,” and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (FRC), an anti-LGBTQ hate group. Both Heritage and FRC praised the report Friday. According to Stern’s reporting, it was true that Mattis favored allowing transgender military service, but Pence “effectively overruled” him. 

A separate source independently confirmed to ThinkProgress Saturday that Pence was involved, characterizing him as forming his own ad hoc “working group,” including Anderson and Perkins, separate from the panel of experts Mattis had assembled. Though it bears Mattis’ signature, the report released Friday appears to reflect the findings of Pence’s working group and not the committee report that Mattis submitted to Trump last month. Mattis’ original document was not currently publicly available at the time of the recommendation, but it was widely reported that Mattis favored an inclusive approach that resembled what had originally been proposed by Defense Secretary Ash Carter under President Obama in 2016. His February recommendation, also released Friday, jibes with the new report, contradicting reports at the time. 

How exactly Pence overruled Mattis’ recommendation over the past month the source did not know. But his working group’s influence is apparent. In particular, the report features numerous anti-trans talking points that FRC and other anti-LGBTQ groups have used in various campaigns favoring discrimination against transgender people. It also attempts to distort the research on transgender health in ways that directly parallel Anderson’s recently released book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. Anderson likewise argued in his book against supporting trans people in their gender transitions, and the recommendations in the report rely on a strikingly similar framing.

Watchdog site Media Matters had this to say about Pence's "experts" on the same day

Family Research Council has a history of pushing anti-trans misinformation to justify harmful and discriminatory policies. When the transgender military ban was first announced in July 2017, FRC senior fellow Peter Sprigg published a report with the false claim that over the next ten years, allowing transgender people to serve in the military could cost “as much as $1.9 to $3.7 billion,” an estimate significantly higher than those from the Pentagon-commissioned Rand Corp study and research from the Palm Center. In the past, FRC and its representatives have also spread misinformation about transgender-inclusive restrooms, promoted conversion therapy, claimed that LGBTQ youth suicide rates would drop if the teenagers were “discourage[d] from self-identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual,” and suggested that being transgender is a “cultural phenomenon.”  

 In July, FRC president Tony Perkins admitted that FRC worked with the White House on the transgender military ban, and in August, Foreign Policy reported that FRC was lobbying Congress to keep the Pentagon from using government funds to “provide medical treatment related to gender transition.”  

 Another of Trump’s “experts,” anti-trans extremist Ryan T. Anderson, has repeatedly used biased and junk science to justify bigotry against the transgender community. In February, he published When Harry Became Sally, an entire book dedicated to discrediting the transgender experience. The book falsely argues that transgender people are mentally ill and would have better outcomes if they did not transition.

Men and women fighting to defend out freedoms don't deserve to have their careers and livelihoods stolen because of other people's bigotry and the lies they tell. The truth will come out and those who have lied will have to defend what they have done.

Related post - Let Us Serve: These Brave Transgender Troops Just Made History in Congress

Anti-LGBTQ hate group possibly gains foothold in judiciary

Former Alliance Defending Freedom intern Allison Jones Rushing just became a federal judge.  As the chart below shows, the LGBTQ community cannot ignore this group nor what it is attempting to do to the country's judiciary or our equality.

The news that Allison Jones Rushing, a lawyer affiliated with anti-LGBTQ hate group the Alliance Defending Freedom, was just appointed a federal circuit judge should open the door for more scrutiny about the group and its former behind-the-scenes exploits against the LGBTQ community. The following news briefs should be your guide. As some show, Rushing isn't the only lawyer affiliated with ADF invading our courts and federal government. This is not to predict that Rushing would be a biased justice. But based upon who she has chosen to associate herself with in the successful advancement of her career, the LGBTQ community should keep an eye on her and ADF in general:

The extremism of anti-LGBTQ powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom - This is the definitive guide to the group. From how it worked to criminalize homosexuality, to its advocating sterilizing trans men and women in foreign countries, to its legislative attacks on the LGBTQ community - specifically trans youth, to its false linking of homosexuality and pedophilia. It's all here.

No Gays Allowed - A webpage set up to educate about ADF


ADF and friends: Hate group Alliance Defending Freedom is at the center of an anti-LGBTQ industry 

Alliance Defending Freedom Through The Years

Masterpiece Cakeshop was just the beginning. ADF is pushing several other license-to-discriminate cases through the courts.

These anti-LGBTQ group alumni work in federal agencies that will interpret potential anti-trans definition of gender

Here are 300 of extreme anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom's reported 3,300 allied attorneys

We stop ADF by making it and its exploits public. Groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom operate expertly in the shadows. They don't like spotlight. So we should give them as much spotlight as we can.

'Pentagon accused of deceiving Congress to justify Trump's trans military ban' & other Thur midday news briefs

Former military chiefs accuse Pentagon of deceiving Congress about transgender troops -

The former military leaders say Department of Defense officials ignored internal data to make the claim that medical treatment for trans troops keeps them out of service for longer than other personnel. “In seeking to justify President Trump’s wrong-headed ban on transgender service members at a congressional hearing last week, Defense Department officials made misleading claims,” Deborah Lee James, Ray Mabus and Eric Fanning, who ran the Air Force, Navy, and Army respectively, said in a statement.

‘Religious freedom’ arguments kill Nebraska’s LGBTQ employment protections bill - Religion used as a weapon to justify discrimination.

LGBTQ conversion therapy bill is dead in the Utah State Legislature - Well shit. 

New U of L Scholarship Will Serve Catholic LGBTQ Students - Some good news to end the day.

Randy Rainbow puts explanation point on failure of Trump's North Korea Summit

It's basically agreed all around that Trump's latest attempt at a Nobel Peace Prize  . . . I mean his latest summit meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un was a huge failure.  However, let's leave it to Randy Rainbow to put an explanation point on it. Sometimes, "it simply takes a queen."

'Lawyer affiliated with anti-LGBTQ hate group becomes federal court judge' & other Wed midday news briefs

Allison Jones Rushing just became a federal judge. 

Republicans are about to make a hate group’s lawyer a federal appeals court judge - Makes the job of attaining our equality difficult, but not impossible. The thing we can do now is tell folks and make the noise.

The Senate confirms Allison Rushing, a judicial nominee who once interned for a hate group - More details.

Duck! "Ex-gay" uncovers a vast conspiracy - There they go again. 

An LGBTQ-friendly church covered up ‘United Methodist’ in its sign in protest of anti-LGBTQ ban - Good for them! 

Nebraska bill to ban LGBT job discrimination stalls - bruuutherr!

American Family Association showcases those not supporting its campaign against Walmart

Hate group the American Family Association is angry at retail giant Walmart for its ad featuring a gay couple. The group is mobilizing its supporters to sign a petition demanding that Walmart remove the  ad because it supposedly "normalizes" same-sex relationships and to "stay neutral" in issues such as these.

Whether this campaign is gaining traction unknown, but AFA seems to be desperate in attempts to goad its followers.

 From an email:

It's a comical tactic, but not necessarily a dumb one. On its fake news source, One News Now, AFA can always count on its supporters to rail against the LGBTQ community as shown below:

The biggest problem is that normalizing abnormal behavior gives permission to do the behavior which by God's standards is sin, abominable sin. It leads to NO eternal life with Christ. I thought our place on earth as His ambassadors was the same as Jesus - be the best Christ we can be, explain our reasoning, and bring them to wonderful gift of eternal life with their Messiah. Walmart will now be under judgment for leading "the little ones" to sin and the Bible says the penalty for that is: it would be better that a millstone be put around their neck and be quickly thrown into the sea - to drown. I pray the gift of repentance be given to the Walmart officials that made this decision and to those who trusted them and followed it. 

"normalizing abnormality"....the ultimate oxymoron, eh? But the left, dims, alphabet people will never 'get it ' until they truly experience God's love and His grace and mercy! I KNOW people in the homosexual "lifestyle' CAN Change....their hearts are hardened for now!

To see if love is in the aisle? I tell you what IS in the aisle... VOMIT!!! Clean up on aisle 6!!!! Seeing all of these commercials and shows anymore being what I called "gayed up" makes me sick!! If the gay community was as large as hollyweird makes it appear in their shows and commercials, one would think that 50% or more of America was gay. That is simply not the case, it is a small percentage, but they are trying to make it seem so much larger than it is by using this tactic. The progressive left is SICK!!!!!!

I guess AFA thinks that showing how some are making fun of its campaign will galvanize its supporters even more. Maybe. Or maybe not.

''Gay bunny' book causes controversy at Florida school district' & other Tue midday news briefs

Teacher should have checked before reading book about gay bunnies but caused no harm, Seminole schools say - Amazing. When I was a child, I was read stories about wolves eating little girls dressed in red, witches in gingerbread houses attacking children, little boys climbing beanstalks and avoiding hungry giants. And let's not even get into the violence of Biblical stories. This bunny is simply gay and folks get scared.

These prominent Americans are speaking at far-right Russia conference linked to sanctioned oligarchs - There are so many of them out there. Ugh!

Study highlights differences between gay, straight suicides - A much needed study. 

Terry Crews apologizes for calling children of same-sex parents ‘severely malnourished’ - Yes you should apologize and do better, Mr. Crews. And we need to have a conversation about same-sex parenting in the African-American community. 

Cynthia Nixon Comes for Mike Pence in a Blistering New Op-Ed - Get him, girlfriend!

FRC's Tony Perkins takes time out of his LGBTQ-bashing schedule to lecture Democrats about being civil

Family Research Council's Tony Perkins

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins last week:

If Democrats kicked off their 2020 campaign today, they'd have some pretty interesting bumper stickers. "I heart socialism!" "Killing newborns is a choice!" "Non-binaries for Bernie!" "Friends don't let conservatives become friends!" They're the party of no babies, no borders, no God, and now -- as Joe Biden so painfully reminded everyone -- no decency. 

A day after Congressmen Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) surprised everyone with their unusually close friendship, the former vice president made it clear that there's no room in his party for mutual respect. Hours after referring to Mike Pence as a "decent guy" during a forum in Omaha, the man who may have been the party's best shot at moderate voters, walked his comment back. 

LGBT activists like Cynthia Nixon were furious, tweeting that Pence is "America's most anti-LGBT leader... Please consider how this falls on the ears of our community." Chastened, the former VP apologized. "You're right, Cynthia. I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn't be given a silent reaction on the world stage. But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the vice president." 

This is the man who was supposed to be the party's counterweight to liberal fanaticism. The grown-up in the room who's likeable and understands the value of bipartisanship. As far as most people were concerned, that was Biden's only path to the nomination -- distinguishing himself from the party's extremism, not embracing it. Now even he's exposed as just another pathetic puppet of the radical Left. "If Biden enters the race only to spend the next year apologizing for being insufficiently 'woke,'" the Washington Examiner's Philip Klein writes, "he'll just look like a complete buffoon, without convincing any skeptics who will have plenty of alternatives to choose from who are younger and more in touch with contemporary sensibilities on the Left."

Perkins at any other time:

'Feminists take a true stand for trans community' & other Mon midday news briefs

They do not speak for us: Feminists hit back at trans-exclusionary activists in open letter - This took place in Scotland but I hope feminists around the world copy the action.

Congressional Democrats reintroduce the Do No Harm Act - A good step in combating that "religious liberty" mess.

Georgia Republicans are trying to pass an anti-LGBTQ “religious freedom” bill - Speaking of which, here we go again in Georgia. 

Elizabeth Warren Differs With Joe Biden: Mike Pence Is No ‘Decent Guy’ - A man who has made his political career denigrating and undermining LGBTQ equality and safety is not a 'decent guy.' Joe Biden should know better than calling him that. I'm glad Elizabeth Warren is doing the right thing.

NYC Pols Propose Boosting LGBTQ-Owned Businesses - Other places need to follow suit.

Family Research Council's latest dishonest attack on trans soldiers omits dollars, lacks the sense

To attack transgender troops, Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council are using a familiar strategy - DISTORTION

A few days ago, the Family Research Council and its head, Tony Perkins, were all fired up concerning news about how much does trans health care costs the military:

At $8 million, gender-free isn't free. According to the Pentagon, that's the tab U.S. taxpayers are being stuck with thanks to Barack Obama's extreme military makeover. As of February 1, the Defense Department has forked over millions of dollars that it could have spent on equipment, salaries, and training to gender reassignment surgeries, hormones, and psychotherapy. And liberals are complaining that the border wall is a diversion of DoD funds? 

In the two years since Barack Obama decided to make the military his petri dish for LGBT experimentation, the costs have been significant -- and not just in dollars. More than 1,500 troops have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the ranks, and the latest report shows how many resources they're syphoning away from actual warfighting. For just those servicemembers, the Pentagon says the military has paid for 22,992 psychotherapy visits, 9,321 hormone prescriptions, and a whopping 161 surgeries (ranging from hysterectomies and breast augmentation to "male reproductive" construction). 

Surgeries alone racked up an eye-popping $2 million -- an average of $12,422 a person. Add that to the $5.8 million in therapy, and we're talking about a significant cash drain. Try telling that to the far-Left, who's already planning a series of House hearings objecting to the president's policy -- which is that our military "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgenders in the military would entail." Liberals argue that his stance is "ignorant" and "mean-spirited." But they're ignoring the fact we're wasting money on gender reassignment instead of the troops' own assignment: fighting and winning wars.

Oh the horror it all . . . not so fast.

Transgender soldiers testify in Congress while hate group rewards leader trying to take away their careers

While trans soldiers fight for their military careers on Capitol Hill, hate group Family Research Council again rewards Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler its 'True Blue' award (second picture). She received the award in 2018 (see first picture) in part for her efforts to push Trump's trans ban, including providing inaccurate statistics about transgender healthcare.

An interesting and sad juxtaposition took place recently in Congress.

While everyone was fixated on the Michael Cohen hearing, five transgender soldiers testified in another hearing regarding Trump's attempt to ban them from service.

From the Daily Beast:

For the first time, five transgender service members gave evidence to the House of Representatives about their experiences of military service, transition, and why they consider President Trump’s proposed ban on trans service members to be unfair and unjust, alongside his administration‘s latest suggestion that trans people can serve as long as they don't transition. 

Navy Lieutenant Commander Blake Dremann, who is also president of trans servicepeople group Sparta Pride, sat alongside Army captain Alivia Stehlik, Army captain Jennifer Peace, Staff Sergeant Patricia King, and Marine Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Akira Wyatt. All delivered measured, illuminating, and powerful testimonies.
The five service members and, later in a second panel, Defense Department officials were giving evidence to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

 Of course the testimony was riveting:

Dremann told the sub-committee that each time a barrier had been raised to his service—whether it was the gender assigned to him at birth, his sexual orientation prior to transition, then his gender identity—he had “risen to the occasion” and succeeded as a submariner. 

To be openly transgender at work, as he has been since 2016, has afforded Dremann the opportunity “to not only be who but also act as an educator and advocate” on behalf of the 800 members of Sparta Pride. He said that the notion that trans service members damaged unit cohesion and morale was “myths and completely without merit… It just so happens the best and brightest we have to offer happen to be transgender.”

And according to Zack Ford of ThinkProgress, the hearing was not without fireworks. Trump Administration officials attempted to justify the ban and got justifiably blasted by Congressional leaders as their explanation were refuted one after the other.

The juxtaposition is due to the tweet below:

'Right-wing and fake feminists teaming up to attack trans community' & other Thur midday news briefs

Right-wing media and think tanks are aligning with fake feminists who dehumanize trans people - Media Matters breaks this travesty and team-up from hell down rather nicely.

Witherspoon provides an outlet for five anonymous trans parents - Anti-trans parents, you mean. The same nonsense they used to attack marriage equality - trot out "witnesses" from supposed same-sex households.

Jussie Smollett cannot become an excuse to ignore hate crimes - AMEN! 

Pence’s New Chief Of Staff Apologizes For Blaming AIDS Crisis On ‘Repugnant’ Gay Sex - Sorry he had to answer for it, I bet.