Trump Administration delays anti-LGBTQ conscience rule because of various lawsuits

A bit of good news is being obscured while everyone is barking about the first Democratic primary debate or noting Trump's latest general insanity.

From The Hill:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is delaying the implementation of its “conscience protection” rule until November to give the administration more time to deal with a lawsuit over the policy. 

HHS announced in a court filing Saturday that the rule, which was originally scheduled to take effect July 22, would not be implemented until Nov. 22 at the earliest.
A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit against the administration in May saying the policy, which would allow health care providers to refuse to provide services on the basis of their religious beliefs, is unconstitutional. 

 . . . Another coalition, which includes Lambda Legal, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed a suit with Santa Clara County, arguing that the rule will result in “mass confusion among health care providers and is completely infeasible to implement” and could lead to health care facilities scrapping their reproductive and LGBTQ services altogether.

The Advocate had this to say:

Many fear the new rule will not only engender confusion but encourage conservative doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health professionals to deny contraception services, transition-related care for transgender people, and even drugs like PrEP, an HIV prevention regimen. The situation could be incredibly dire for women and LGBTQ people in rural areas, where there are much fewer service providers than in urban areas.

“In the Obama administration, we were focused on expanding access to health care through the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the full and balanced enforcement of anti-discrimination and provider conscience laws,” Jocelyn Samuels, Executive Director of UCLA's Williams Institute, a think tank on LGBTQ issues, said in a statement in May.

“By contrast, this administration is simultaneously trying to restrict universal access to care through attacks on the ACA and expand the authorization for denials of care by religious providers. These actions stand to undermine the health and wellbeing of vulnerable communities, including LGBT people.”

Former 'ex-gay' leaders call for national ban on dangerous conversion therapy

This is awesome. Good for them. Granted, it is probably going to take a while, but something like this is worth fighting for.

Hat tip to TruthWinsOut.org

Drag Queen Story Hour is harmless. See for yourself.

I've noticed that a lot of people who rage about Drag Queen Story Hour have probably never attended the event. That's why I am featuring these two videos. Granted, I know that a lot of those who have raised a ruckus over the event aren't interested in seeing these videos. But I think putting them out there would do some good because they clear up a lot of misconceptions.

The opponents of Drag Queen Story Hour rely on  inferences and ugly stereotypes about  gays supposedly "sexualizing" or "recruiting" children. That's a lie. Nothing is done secretly or sneakily.  It has nothing to do with harming children in any way, shape, or form. Drag Queen Story Hour is comedy, a farce, no different than a clown show or children being read to by adults dressed up like superheroes. No one has ever accused someone reading to children while dressed as Superman of tricking them into thinking they could fly.

''Straight pride' parade moves a step closer to becoming a reality' & other Thur midday news briefs

NOT the official Straight Pride flag, but would it surprise you if it were?

Boston Approves Application For ‘Straight Pride Parade’ - I have no problem with straight people. I just wish they stop "promoting that lifestyle" in public with their hand-holding, walking as couples with their children, going to movies and such together. Keep it in the bedroom. Yeah, I am a sarcastic bitch.

LGBTQ+ History Should be Mandatory in Schools - Inclusion with other facets of history, yes.

Trump observes marriage equality anniversary by speaking to anti-LGBT crowd - Because he is a jerk. 

Out soccer star Megan Rapinoe says she’s ‘not going to the f–king White House’ after World Cup - This sister don't play. I like her.

Homophobes have organized tantrum denouncing legalization of marriage equality

 'Porno' Pete LaBarbera and his merry band of bigots held a rally in front of the United States Supreme Court to protest the fourth anniversary of the Obergefell decision, which legalized marriage equality. They've done it before and it is always sparsely attended, except for hecklers, curious onlookers, and the intrepid monitors from groups like People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch.

As a matter of fact, Pete Montgomery, Senior Fellow from People for the American Way, are responsible for the tweets and pictures (except for the one I include. When you see it, you will know):

The attendees of today's sour grapes rally via Peter Montgomery, none of which are deserving of identification, but I think you can recognize one or two.

La Barbera denounces marriage equality, the Equality Act, and the in-your-face gay-rights activism of the post-Stonewall era pic.twitter.com/WjWCNNEl1o

— Peter Montgomery (@petemont) June 26, 2019

Let me give 'Porno' Pete a compliment. He seems to have lost weight since the last time he attended one of these "rallies."  He used to give new definition to the phrase "baby got back!"

(Editor's note - I am only playing, folks. I am not "fat-shaming." I think his tushy is rather adorable.) 

But I digress. As you can see, Wednesday's rally was filled with the same "gays are immoral, evil hedonists want to recruit children, silence Christians, rebel against God and destroy American society while engaging in all sorts of disgustingly wild, and passionate sex" rhetoric we have come to expect from LaBarbera and his type:

'Fox News has a problem with the LGBTQ community' & other Wed midday news briefs

Shannon Bream

Fox guest says that drag queens and LGBTQ people are grooming youth “into their unhealthy lifestyle” that includes “HIV and AIDS"

Fox News anchor Shannon Bream serially misgenders trans folks 

We got a problem with Fox News. It claims to have debates about LGBTQ equality, yet its personalities control the debates in such a way that anti-LGBTQ industry voices are elevated while our voices are omitted. And I have a feeling that this is deliberate.

Paul Watkins worked for a hate group – and now he’s in charge of Consumer Protection - Meanwhile, we got other problems. 

Trump administration gives away public land so they won’t have to fly a rainbow flag for LGBTQ pride - Simply petty. 

Private Catholic School That Fired Gay Teacher Received Over $1 Million In Public Money - Stealing our tax dollars.

The Family Research Council wants the government to be hypocritical with your tax dollars because of Jesus

The gay wedding in the PBS animated series 'Arthur' continues to give the anti-LGBTQ industry fits.

The Family Research Council is now saying that PBS should have its tax dollars taken away because it featured a gay wedding in the animated series 'Arthur.'

Public media programming is becoming more antagonistic toward conservative and religious viewpoints. Parents & churches should be the ones discussing marriage and family with their children—not PBS.

It's time to defund them. @RepDLamborn @dailysignal https://t.co/CR9jO7pp6Q

— FRC (@FRCdc) June 25, 2019

Even if you ignored FRC's chutzpah to think that it speaks for all conservatives and Christians (some conservatives and Christians actually support marriage equality), you still have to give the group style points.  FRC has been a vocal supporter of  religiously based foster care and adoptions agencies receiving tax dollars while discriminating against the LGBTQ community.  It's an almost enviable skill to speak out of both sides of your mouth while implying that you are doing it in the name of God.

'114 times Trump threw the LGBTQ community under the bus' & other Tue midday news briefs

114 times Trump threw the LGBTQ community under the bus - Trump loves to screw us over.

Activists: State Department ‘has abandoned full support of LGBTI people’ - So much for that decriminalization of homosexuality worldwide.

Straight people are getting more uncomfortable with LGBTQ people each year - Another negative side effect of the Trump years.

Kansas to allow transgender people to change their gender on birth certificates - Good for Kansas!

It's 2019 and some people still believe that gay men eat poop

Openly gay presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg continues to be targeted by a nutty Baptist preacher from Indiana.

Baptist preacher and former Indiana legislator Don Boys continues to obsess over presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and gay sex. Last month, Boys invoked all sorts of ugly refuted lies about gay sex habits in his attack on Buttigieg.

Friday, he outdid himself in complaining that there certain questions journalists won't ask Buttigieg:

Since a “gay” Indiana mayor is running for president, journalists should ask him some questions that bear on that office; however, their cowardice and fear of being politically incorrect will keep them from asking these very legitimate questions of Pete Buttigieg.
Pete needs to say if it is possible to believe that homosexuality is a diseased, dangerous, even deadly lifestyle without being a hater? If it is true, as experts have concluded, that homosexuality is dangerous, then is it not true that Pete’s critics are showing love not hate? 

 . . . Since homosexuals are seven times more likely to use illegal drugs, will Pete repudiate their illegal drug use to heighten sexual pleasure, and will he demand prosecution for those who use illegal drugs? 

Since many homosexuals have a urine and feces fetish bringing them into contact with numerous lethal bugs, will Pete repudiate that unhealthy practice to save lives? And possibly save the health care system from bankruptcy? 

Advocates for perversion refuse to accept the current stats that refute their narrative but they can hardly say homosexuality is normal. It is abnormal to get pleasure from contact with body waste and in spades when that involves another person. Homosexuals use human organs in an abnormal way so no one should be surprised when the results are tragic. They insist on trying to get out of life what God never intended to be there, thus contracting many more diseases. Usually, the taxpayers are expected to pay their medical bills.

Yes, it's 2019 and people still believe that gay men do all sorts of nasty things such as eat poop. This stuff have been refuted constantly, but people like Boys continue to spew it. And quite recently, another idiot promoted this mess on Fox News.

As a black man in America, I have to deal with people who, no matter how many times it's been shown to be false, think I am lazy, unintelligent, or downright criminal. And as a gay man, I have to deal with folks like Boys who think that I am a diseased predator who probably tortures small animals when I'm not plotting to recruit children or planning some extremely gross sexual encounter.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if both the LGBTQ and African-American communities can come together in some sort of confab to discuss their unfortunately mutual role as scapegoats? Of course if this happened I can just picture Don Boys telling African-Americans to not eat the food and infamous racist David Duke telling the LGBTQ community to count their silverware.


Hat tip to Right Wing Watch

Franklin Graham chooses to attack trans children instead of speaking up for migrant children

Franklin Graham 

During this weekend in which we are hearing all sorts of awful stories about the bad treatment of migrant children in border facilities and the illnesses they are suffering because of it, one would think some who have designated themselves as the nation's religious leaders would speak out.

Not so with prominent right-wing pastor Franklin Graham. He is too busy forwarding the probably soon-to-be newest religious right attack against the transgender community, ie. the false belief that transgender girl athletes have an unfair advantage over other girls in sports:

I am aware that it is easy for folks to get distracted and go off on a tangent about transgender athletes. And I am sure we are going to be hearing more about it. I would suggest that people educate themselves on this matter before allowing themselves to get sidetracked. There is information out there.

And basically, the issue itself regarding transgender athletes isn't the point. This is the point:

1. Four toddlers were so severely ill and neglected at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, that lawyers forced the government to hospitalize them last week. The children, all under age 3 with teenage mothers or guardians, were feverish, coughing, vomiting and had diarrhea, immigration attorneys told HuffPost on Friday. Some of the toddlers and infants were refusing to eat or drink. One 2-year-old’s eyes were rolled back in her head, and she was “completely unresponsive” and limp, according to Toby Gialluca, a Florida-based attorney.

2. A 2-year-old boy locked in detention wants to be held all the time. A few girls, ages 10 to 15, say they’ve been doing their best to feed and soothe the clingy toddler who was handed to them by a guard days ago. Lawyers warn that kids are taking care of kids, and there’s inadequate food, water and sanitation for the 250 infants, children and teens at the Border Patrol station.

Graham's voice was and still is needed here. Throughout history from Martin Luther King, Jr to Oscar Romero to Bishop Desmond Tutu, prominent religious leaders have used their platforms and risked their very lives to give voice to those abused by the system. But Graham hasn't.  Not at this time in which his voice would be so vital. And I don't understand why.

Why did he chose to bully other children instead of speaking out for migrant children. Speaking out for these children wouldn't have cost him anything, except maybe  to lose favor from Donald Trump.  And here I thought Graham sought the approval of a higher power than Donald Trump. Obviously not.

The Family Research Council picks the wrong day to gloat about Trump's trans military ban

On the day that Donald Trump has been accused of rape

The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips. I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again. He seizes both my arms and pushes me up against the wall a second time, and, as I become aware of how large he is, he holds me against the wall with his shoulder and jams his hand under my coat dress and pulls down my tights. I am astonished by what I’m about to write: I keep laughing. The next moment, still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat, he opens the overcoat, unzips his pants, and, forcing his fingers around my private area, thrusts his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me.

 we nearly got into a war with Iran because of his incompetence

Questions are being asked about outside influence on Donald Trump after the US president called off air strikes against Iran at the last minute. Having initially said he believed Iran made an error when it shot down a US drone on Thursday in the Strait of Hormuz, the president nonetheless reportedly approved military strikes against the Islamic Republic later that day. The operation to hit targets such as radars and missile batteries was in its initial stages, the New York Times reported, and planes were in the air and ships had been moved into position. But before any missiles were fired the operation was cancelled.

and articles are released relating that immigrant children are becoming ill in border camps with  no decent food, water or sanitation:

1. Four toddlers were so severely ill and neglected at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, that lawyers forced the government to hospitalize them last week. The children, all under age 3 with teenage mothers or guardians, were feverish, coughing, vomiting and had diarrhea, immigration attorneys told HuffPost on Friday. Some of the toddlers and infants were refusing to eat or drink. One 2-year-old’s eyes were rolled back in her head, and she was “completely unresponsive” and limp, according to Toby Gialluca, a Florida-based attorney.

2. A 2-year-old boy locked in detention wants to be held all the time. A few girls, ages 10 to 15, say they’ve been doing their best to feed and soothe the clingy toddler who was handed to them by a guard days ago. Lawyers warn that kids are taking care of kids, and there’s inadequate food, water and sanitation for the 250 infants, children and teens at the Border Patrol station.

the so-called Christian group the Family Research Council has decided to gloat about Trump keeping transgender men and women out of the military:

We have seen many victories in the last few years for #religiousfreedom in the #military, including the Trump admin. reversing the Obama era-social experimentation policy of allowing individuals to serve who openly identify as transgender. Thank you: https://t.co/IyiW3FIPok pic.twitter.com/xrrdT2mKRg

— FRC (@FRCdc) June 21, 2019

Ah yes. Priorities.

'College makes library take down Lady Gaga pro-LGBTQ sign' & other Fri midday news briefs

A pro-LGBTQ quote from Lady Gaga on a sign has a college running scared.

A college found this Lady Gaga quote so dangerous the library had to take it down - Too late! The kiddies are already ours MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!

California Joins States Raising Pride Flags At Their Capitols, Defying Trump - I love it!! 

Lawmakers form group to fight anti-LGBTI discrimination around the world - Lawmakers from two dozen countries, that is. It is sorely needed. 

LGBTQ Media Matters staff speak about representation in the media - I've admired members of this group for a long time. It's nice to see them in real form. Good video! 

Thousands of teens spared conversion therapy due to state bans, report finds - Something to cheer about.

Texas adoption agency wants LGBTQ tax dollars, just not LGBTQ potential parents

Religious-based adoption agencies want LGBTQ tax dollars and the right to discriminate against the LGBTQ community.

This is going to come to a head soon and I think it may be in our favor. At least I hope.

From Raw Story:

A Texas adoption agency that receives federal taxpayer funds is refusing to allow a lesbian couple to become foster parents, and they’re citing their religious beliefs to support their discriminatory decision. 

Bryn Esplin and Fatma Marouf, who are married and are both professors at Texas A&M University, were told by the agency because they’re a same-sex couple they don’t “mirror the holy family,” and thus would not allow them to foster some of the thousands of migrant and refugee children the federal government is detaining.

The women pressed, saying that surely some of the 700 children under the agency’s care were LGBT and would benefit from being placed with a married lesbian couple, as The Daily Beast reports. 

Catholic Charities told them not a single child, out of 700, were LGBT. Statistically, that’s impossible.

 . . .they decided to sue the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which runs the agency, Catholic Charities of Fort Worth. The couple just won an important initial victory. The court says they have standing. They are suing charging violations of their First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as Metro Weekly reports. 

Anti-LGBTQ group claims rugby player sacked for condemning gays to hell is the victim

Isreal Folau

On Wednesday, the hate group Family Research Council claimed that the "religious liberty" of athletes should is under attack:

In today's hyper-politicized climate, it seems that nothing can escape the relentless black hole of "woke" political correctness, not even sports. In a Speaker Series event at FRC, Dr. Jennifer Bryson gave example after example of how the LGBT agenda has strong-armed its way into sports, particularly soccer, where rainbow flags are featured on the jerseys of the U.S. men's and women's national teams, on team captain armbands, on shoelaces, and even on the ground where players are required to walk.  

 Are the athletes who make sports possible allowed to object to their jobs and religious beliefs being co-opted by a political cause? Nope. Just ask Jaelene Hinkle, who faced immense harassment after declining to wear an LGBT-themed jersey for the U.S. national team. Or Josip Brekalo, who was required to wear a rainbow-themed arm band as a team captain, but declined to. Or Isreal Folau, who was sacked by both the Australian national rugby team and his professional team for expressing his religious beliefs on Instagram.

Let's focus on one of their examples - the case of Isreal Folau. Below is the Instagram post he sent which got him into trouble.

As FRC related, he was dismissed for not only this but other past incidents of him making homophobic remarks.  He is now not only suing Rugby Australia but continuing to make homophobic remarks, such as claiming that Satan is behind transgender children.

These reasons are why his case is a bit more problematic to defend. Folau is talking about people. This isn't a case where someone is encroaching on his beliefs to believe. It is rather someone taking him to task for attacking groups of people. The first two examples FRC listed involve possible encroaching on someone's personal space (we don't know the entire story regarding those examples and FRC does have a history of playing loose with the truth for the sake of its narratives) in order to send a message their religion does not condone.

But in the case of Folau, this is someone sending out a message targeting a group of people. No one was forcing him to make a statement or take a position contrary to his beliefs.  But yet FRC - while careful not to detail what he said - claims that he is a victim of anti-religious discrimination. Would FRC feel that way if he had posted something which said Jewish people, Muslims, or people of other ethnicities are going to hell.

Doubtful. In fact, I doubt anyone would be attempting to defend his comments as expressions of  "religious freedom."

Folau's case underscores questions we are not asking about the concept of "religious liberty" as pushed by the conservative right and anti-LGBTQ industry. Other than supposedly protecting religious businesses, should it be used to protect people from the consequences of abusive speech? And if so, should it pertain to solely homophobic speech or would racist or even anti-Semitic speech be included ? And if not, then why?

I don't think FRC or anyone else on their side of the issue are willing to answer the question.

'GOP advancing another anti-LGBTQ nominee as potential judge' & other Wed midday news briefs

Republicans advance anti-LGBT pro-discrimination Christian extremist nominee for lifetime appointment - Well this is depressing.

How A Trans Woman Defied A Crime Family To Become Italy’s Leading LGBTQ Activist- Wow, this is an interesting story. 

Defending a Lie With More Lies Has Become Essential Doctrine - The blog The Slowly Boiled Frog has been doing some excellent work lately in calling out the anti-LGBTQ industry.

Joe Biden visits historic Stonewall Inn gay bar - Not bad, Mr. Biden.

Fox News omits LGBTQ voices while rolling out red carpet for anti-LGBTQ hate group.

Fox News personality Shannon Bream routinely misgenders transgender women while allowing her show to be a propaganda engine for the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom

When it comes to LGBTQ issues, Fox News Network doesn't seem to want to give us a voice. For all of the talk by its personalities of having a "debate," the network has always rolled out the red carpet for groups, such as hate group the Alliance Defending Freedom, working to undermine our equality while omitting our voices.

From Media Matters:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson hosted extreme anti-LGBTQ group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and its client Selina Soule, a high school athlete in Connecticut, during a segment in which ADF revealed that it has filed a Title IX complaint with the Department of Education on behalf of Soule and other students who object to competing against trans athletes. 

ADF’s decision to file a Title IX complaint is particularly troubling given that the organization has allies throughout the federal government, including within the Department of Education. The group’s former director of litigation projects, Thomas W. Stack, worked for ADF for two years before becoming a senior attorney at the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), the office that “evaluates, investigates, and resolves complaints alleging sex discrimination.” Records indicate that Stack has previously been assigned to investigate complaints filed with OCR. 

Soule has been interviewed on both Fox & Friends and The Ingraham Angle last February, and she was highlighted on right-wing sites including The Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal. Soule’s mother, Bianca Stanescu, also recently participated in a panel discussion at the Heritage Foundation advocating against transgender athletes. Heritage has hosted several panels advocating against transgender rights this year. 

ADF has repeatedly used Fox News to promote its cases and policy positions; the Carlson interview was at least the sixth ADF appearance on Fox this year. The reality is that Fox is the perfect place for groups like ADF to introduce their anti-LGBTQ work, because its standards for LGBTQ coverage are out of step with standard journalistic practices. The network frequently hosts anti-LGBTQ guests who work for or are associated with extreme groups, including Heritage Foundation, MassResistance, and Liberty Counsel. Fox hosts allow these guests to push extreme rhetoric and sometimes mirror their language. “Straight news” host Shannon Bream has repeatedly misgendered trans people in coverage, recently calling a trans women a “biological male who now identifies as a woman,” and Fox reporter Greg Palkot misgendered Chelsea Manning. Additionally, reporter Carley Shimkus incorrectly identified Olympic champion Caster Semenya as trans, feeding into the network’s fearmonger tactics about trans athletes.

The entire article and video deserves a read and you can do that here. When the most watched cable news network deliberately works to shut out the voices of the LGBTQ community while elevating voices determined to make us second-class citizens, you know we got problems.

'Hate group leader Tony Perkins becomes chair of US Commission on International Religious Freedom' & other Tue midday news briefs

We see you, Tony Perkins. You can't sanitize your homophobia.

FRC’s Tony Perkins Becomes Chair of U.S. Commission on International Freedom -Oh yeah. THIS is a mistake. 

Tony Perkins's history of homophobia part 1

Tony Perkins's history of homophobia part 2

Supreme Court Sends Oregon Wedding Cake Case Back to State - A very good and detailed article about the latest "religious liberty" case  SCOTUS dealt with.

50 years after Stonewall, NC town declares first LGBTQ Pride Day. Not everyone’s happy. - Sometimes you gotta change things one step at a time.

How to spot Real vs. Fake corporate support for the LGBTQIA+ community - Mark it down.

Pete Buttigieg part of a gay plot to destroy women . . . or something like that

Pete Buttigieg

Pete Buttigieg's run for the White House has really gotten the homophobes riled up all over America. And one of the best examples of that is the comments at the viciously far-right commentary and message board Free Republic.

Free Republic, a place so homophobic that I spray myself with a mixture of holy water and Lysol before going there, has more than once attacked Buttigieg for his sexual orientation and his "nerve" to run for president via the most awful and homophobic language regarding him his husband Chasten, parts of his anatomy, his bathroom habits, etc.

Buttigieg recently set the wolves off at Free Republic  this time via an article about how he and his husband would start a family at the White House should he get chosen as the Democratic nominee and win the election. I would caution folks (even those with strong stomachs) not to read the comments made about this, but one caught my eye because it simply had to be the wildest, simplest insane thing I have ever read. Just reading it made me dizzy:

What isn’t being stressed enough here, is the fact that homosexual men despise women & want to destroy them. They consider women’s vaginas & reproductive organs repugnant. They resent being characterized as effeminate, insisting that homosexual “love” is so hyper-masculine as to be beyond the comprehension of heterosexuals. (”Only a man knows how to make love to a man” yada yada.) 

Then in pretzel-logic, they are able to reconcile their revulsion for women with a bizarre insistence that they can BE women —even better women, in fact, than women— by mocking and mimicking women as they choose. 

Homosexual men feign friendships with extremely promiscuous women— in order to study & mimic them— yet are invariably hostile & conflicted toward their own mothers & mothers in general. 

This goes back to their hatred/envy of the woman’s life-giving ability. Transvestites & transsexuals are merely the extreme projection of these rationalizations.

As a woman, I find this personally insulting & even threatening, akin to fear of rape. My very sense of self & dignity is being taken from me and REDUCED, regarded as insignificant, not unique.

Damn, I want her drugs. Just not the dosage she is taking. Don't even try to make a logical argument out of this. This is not to say that misogyny doesn't exist in the gay community. It is yet another thing we need to combat.  But there is no logic in this mess. It's basically homophobia mixed with pseudoscience and bad theorizing. Or better yet,  "TERFs-on-acid" insanity.

 It just goes to show that whenever there is progress, someone is always attempting to impede it. We may scoff at this woman, but we should also remember that people like her vote. And enough people like her voting would put the LGBTQ community in a bad position.

Kind of like where we are now.

'Dads offer free hugs at Pride parade for kids rejected by their parents' & other Mon midday news briefs

Dads Offer Hundreds Of Free Hugs At Pride Parade For Kids Whose Parents Rejected Them - This was pretty cool.

Queer disability activist Andrew Gurza says a March of Dimes caregiver abused him in his own home - An important question needing to be asked. Are our disabled people being taken care of in a respectful manner? 

Homophobic Attack Victim Condemns Response To Photos Of Her - This is powerful. My heart goes out to these ladies for their bravery and decision to make a positive impact out of this ugly incident. 

17 Senate Dems demand answers from State Dept. on Pride flag ban - Voting counts. Getting people in who have your back means a lot.

A short history of homosexuality on film

Be forewarned that this video was created in 2015.

However, it is a short, but excellent look at  past LGBTQ images from the motion picture industry. All of the ways Hollywood slurred, smeared, or dodged our community in the past and it is very educational. Not to mention fun to watch. I rather enjoyed the clips of movies like Dracula's Daughter, The Maltese Falcon, and Rope (Even though the clip from Rope is just a bit disconcerting)

Generally speaking, we simply must do better as a community of learning and remembering all aspects of our history. If we try to forget where we came from, we won't know where we should go.