We shouldn't be bullied from saying the obvious about this hysteria concerning 'Don't Say Gay' bills.
It's a bunch of crap. And so is the phrase 'parents rights' which is fueling all of this garbage. It's all less about the children and more about adult fears of realizing that sexual orientation and gender identity are about more than sexual intercourse.
Let's be real. No school is instructing little children about sexual behavior. It's not happening. What is happening is that a bunch of adults are using children to cloak their own personal fears and animus about LGBTQ people and families.
And exercising their imaginary privilege.
Think about it. Whenever you hear things about 'parents rights,' you know those spewing the phrase aren't talking about same sex families or LGBTQ parents, even though between 2 million and 3.7 million children under age 18 have an LGBTQ parent, and approximately 200,000 of them are being raised by a same-sex couple. Many of these children are being raised by a single LGBTQ parent or by a different-sex couple where one parent is bisexual.
And more than a third of same-sex couples raising children are racial or ethnic minorities. That last part is very apt because these crusaders of parental rights aren't necessarily in the corner of parents of color no matter what sexual orientation they may be. But that's a subject which I can go on at length. at another time.
To the point, the idea of 'parents rights' is in the same vernacular of 'real America' or 'middle America' in that it's the co-option of a phrase which sounds perfectly sane but masks deep and ugly prejudices It's sending semantics not about who's included, but who is deliberately being excluded from mainstream society.
In other words 'parents rights' means mostly white and all heterosexual parents. The supporters of the concept will attempt to deny it, but trust your own eyes and ears on this matter. No parents of color (except for maybe one or two who are visible for appearance sake but have no real power) and certainly NO LGBTQ parents. It's about maintaining an inaccurate status quo in which certain type of parents are hustled to spotlights and intense visibility in order to present an image of mother bears and father grizzlies protecting their innocent and fragile young.
But these mother bears and father grizzlies and their children are almost always white and heterosexual, fostering image which has nothing to do with reality. And when they get spotlighted or amplified, they aren't protecting their children. They are protecting the mythology of their privilege. They don't represent all parents. They represent a pecking order which puts them on the top and anoints them as a sort of gold standard. And most of all, that imaginary pecking order gives them the right to undermine and shut down any other type of parenting which doesn't fit their qualifications.
In their world, no matter how LGBTQ parents love, do for, and care for their children, they don't count. They are imperfections which can be at the very least can be ignored, kicked aside, or erased. Their voices don't matter and their children don't matter as well. They are ever so slightly but firmly pushed to the outskirts of the mainstream That is until another right-wing astroturfed grassroots group can draft a new law or create a new court case to stomp them out.
It's not fair nor is it right, but people seem to be more involved in protecting that image than presenting the reality in which all families matter and the concerns of all parents should be seen as equal.
That's real harm being done to children.
Statistics on same-sex families come from Family Equality Council. You can read more here.
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| Vladimir Putin |
The tweet above is courtesy of me calling out a Twitter address called Libs of Tik Tok.So stupid how this homophobic Twitter address is trying to make this into some kind of outrage. So what. When I was in school, we acted wilder during spirit week. The people outraged by this are the ones being 'groomed.' https://t.co/gwFXXB7icq
— Holy Bullies (@holybullies) April 12, 2022
Started on TikTok in April 2020 (where the account has since been removed) the Libs of TikTok account moved to Twitter in November 2020, where it soon gained momentum following a series of popular tweets and promotion by conservative influencers Joe Rogan and Meghan McCain. A self-proclaimed “mini Project Veritas,” the Libs of TikTok account has amassed over 500,000 followers, growing into an influential online marketplace for right-wing attacks.Many of its viral posts feed into the full-fledged moral panic on the right about LGBTQ+ issues being taught in public education, accusing “groomer teachers” of using schools as “government run indoctrination camps” for conversations about gender and sexual identity. The account has also tweeted examples of teachers supposedly promoting critical race theory in the classroom, a major obsession in right-wing media, and suggested that transgender people are part of a “serious mental health crisis.” As the right-wing media increases their defense of the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida, the Libs of TikTok content has become ammunition for their arguments.
Dear Republican Party, I would suggest that you make sure your closet is squeaky clean before you and your goons continue to designate LGBTQ people as 'groomers' and 'pedophiles.' According to this video from Meidas Touch, your glass house has got huge cracks.
Someone called me a groomer today.
If you've been keeping up with things, you would know that conservatives and others on the right are using the word 'groomer' to imply that gays are pedophiles. It's no different than when they used to say that we 'recruit' children.
Before deciding whether or not to respond, I took a moment to think about what being called a 'groomer' meant. I thought about how when I was younger, it would have deeply hurt my feelings.
How it would have reminded me about how alone I felt and how society despised who I was.
How it would have reinforced the notion that my life had been decided for me by people who wanted to box me up in accordance to their beliefs and prejudices. People who didn't care about my worth because the only thing they knew was that I was gay and therefore to them, I was a less than; a diseased, pitiful sinner trying to go after their children and infect everyone with AIDS.
And how I was probably doomed to a sad life filled with misery, loneliness, and self-hatred because of all of the hate thrown at me.
All in all, it was the saddest five seconds of my life.
That is before I said f@ck it and responded back with an immature but very satisfying comeback:
I'm in no mood to apologize, capitulate, or play nice with anyone trying to take away the rights and peace of mind I've earned. And neither should you. Whether it be on Twitter or when it comes to legislation designed to take us down, we shouldn't sit back and allow things to be taken from us. No matter what you hear, always remember that you have a voice and an ability to fight.
Use them, albeit not being as petty as I was.
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| Florida Gov Ron DeSantis misled people about an incident he claimed was a reason for the 'Don't Say Gay' bill. |
And here we go again with a scenario so old that I can recite it with my eyes closed.
An alleged incident takes place which puts LGBTQ people in an awful light. The religious right and its allies amplify the incident in the media, Twitter, etc. and that causes LGBTQ people to play defense. After all of the hoopla and the controversy, we discover that said incident was A. not as drastic as the religious right and its allies portrayed it or B. extensively distorted. And when the truth comes out, it's ignored because folks are too exhausted to care.
For this particular episode of the scenario, I present Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his reasoning behind the state's 'Don't Say Gay' bill he recently signed into law.
From CNN:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has repeatedly pointed to the case of a family in the state's Leon County to explain the need for a controversial new law, dubbed by critics the "Don't Say Gay" bill, that bans schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity, particularly to young children.
On several occasions since signing the bill into law, DeSantis has highlighted the story of a woman named January Littlejohn, a registered Republican, who says she was not fully consulted about the school's gender-affirming plan for her child.
"We had a mother from Leon County, and her daughter was going to school and some people in the school had decided that the daughter was really a boy and not a girl. So they changed the girl's name to a boy's name, had her dress like a boy and on doing all this stuff, without telling the mother or getting consent from the mother. First of all, they shouldn't be doing that at all. But to do these things behind the parents' back and to say that the parents should be shut out. That is wrong," DeSantis said during a news conference in Jasper, Florida, on Tuesday.
CNN obtained emails that show Littlejohn wrote the school in 2020 and notified a teacher that her child wanted to change pronouns. Contrary to the governor's portrayal of the story, 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.
All of these accusations of pedophilia against Disney by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, Fox News, and the rest of the loony right are dangerous on so many levels. Especially how it encourages copycat behavior like below, courtesy of Right Wing Watch:
"Do you see Minnie (Mouse) in a dress?" asks Oklahoma GOP state senate candidate Jarrin Jackson. "Or do you see Mickey holding a penis?": "The people at Disney are pedophiles." pic.twitter.com/QTNhVnr4xD
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) April 5, 2022
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| Tyler O'Neil, the Fox News editor covering LGBTQ issues has a HUGE anti-LGBTQ bias. |
I love me some Randy Rainbow. As everyone reading this blog knows, I focus on anti-LGBTQ lies and smears. But what you don't know is how taxing it gets to post things like that on a daily basis. It gets depressing so much that sometimes you feel your spirit rotting. Then someone like Randy Rainbow comes along and gives me something to smile about. He calls out the liars in a hilarious manner while simultaneously reminding folks to not allow the hatred and lies get to them. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate that. And how I appreciate the below video of him taking Florida governor Ron DeSantis to task for that awful 'Don't Say Gay' bill.
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| The first half of the 2022 GLAAD Awards were held Saturday night. |
So now in defense of Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law, folks are labeling LGBTQ people as 'groomers' who are targeting children for sex talk. It's an ugly claim, but it's hardly new. In fact the most potent weapon in the arsenal of the anti-LGBTQ industry for decades has been the accusation that gays are 'indoctrinating children,' 'recruiting children,' or (as it is spoken now) 'grooming children.'
It's powerful because it touches on the most primal fear of parents - that their children are going to be harmed. That fear coupled with the continued ignorance about LGBTQ lives and our families (some people aren't even aware that we are raising children) becomes a powerful weapon which can be used to undermine our equality time and time again.
Below are just a few examples of conservatives and religious right playing the 'gays want your children' card over the years. Some go as far back as the mid 1980s
