All Things LGBTQ+ (5 Viewers)

GLENDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- Demonstrators clashed and fights erupted during a protest Tuesday evening outside a meeting of the Glendale Unified School District board, which was scheduled to vote on recognizing June as Pride Month.

Footage from AIR7 HD captured the chaos as punches were thrown in the parking lot. After the skirmishes, police in riot gear kept pro-LGBTQ+ protesters and conservative groups separated.

Three people were arrested for various charges, including allegedly using pepper spray and obstructing officers, according to the Glendale Police Department.

Close to 500 people showed up at the protest at GUSD headquarters.

"While most of the protest was peaceful, a small group of individuals engaged in behavior deemed unsafe and a risk to public safety," police said in a statement.

A dispersal order was given just after 6 p.m. and additional police resources were requested "to ensure the safety of the Glendale community would not be compromised."

The school board was set to adopt a resolution recognizing Pride Month, which has been done for the last four years. However, a shelter-in-place order disrupted the meeting as a brawl happened outside.

Board members later unanimously adopted the resolution to declare June as Pride Month.…..

President Biden on Thursday unveiled several new initiatives aimed at bolstering LGBTQ+ individuals at a time when the community’s rights are being rolled back by state legislatures and targeted by some Republican presidential candidates.

The actions came ahead of a planned Thursday night event on the South Lawn of the White House featuring singer Betty Who, which was billed as “the largest Pride celebration in White House history.” The event, however, was postponed to Saturday because of the hazardous air quality in the region.

Earlier Thursday, the White House announced executive actions aimed at protecting rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, addressing mental health and homelessness issues prevalent in the community and countering book bans at state and local levels.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday that Biden wants to “lift up a community,” including transgender youth, at a time when it is under attack in statehouses around the country.

“We believe that not only does this community need to be celebrated and continue to be celebrated … but we also need to make sure that we let the community know that the president has their back,” said Jean-Pierre, the first openly gay White House press secretary. “I think that it is important to be able to bring a couple of thousand Americans here to the White House to let them know that this president is going to continue to fight for them. And that’s the message that we want to make sure that gets out there.”

On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign, which bills itself as the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer civil rights organization, declared a “state of emergency” for LGBTQ+ individuals living in the United States. A report from the organization detailed more than 525 pieces of state legislation introduced this year that it considers hostile to the LGBTQ+ community, with nearly half the bills targeting transgender people. More than 75 such bills have been signed into law this year, a record, the HRC said.

Several Republican presidential candidates have also expressed support for such actions.........

Optimus Prime said:

GLENDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- Demonstrators clashed and fights erupted during a protest Tuesday evening outside a meeting of the Glendale Unified School District board, which was scheduled to vote on recognizing June as Pride Month.

Footage from AIR7 HD captured the chaos as punches were thrown in the parking lot. After the skirmishes, police in riot gear kept pro-LGBTQ+ protesters and conservative groups separated.

Three people were arrested for various charges, including allegedly using pepper spray and obstructing officers, according to the Glendale Police Department.

Close to 500 people showed up at the protest at GUSD headquarters.

"While most of the protest was peaceful, a small group of individuals engaged in behavior deemed unsafe and a risk to public safety," police said in a statement.

A dispersal order was given just after 6 p.m. and additional police resources were requested "to ensure the safety of the Glendale community would not be compromised."

The school board was set to adopt a resolution recognizing Pride Month, which has been done for the last four years. However, a shelter-in-place order disrupted the meeting as a brawl happened outside.

Board members later unanimously adopted the resolution to declare June as Pride Month.…..

Click to expand...

Just who are these people trying to march us back in time? Freedom? Live and let live? The progress that was made post WWII is evaporating, It was all just an illusion the touted Unite States of America is on the verge of being an illusion. .

On Wednesday, the governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, signed legislation to restrict gender-affirming care for minors, becoming the 20th US state in a nationwide wave targeting transgender healthcare.

To promote their legislation, Republican politicians have turned to a handful of controversial doctors, all of whom have ties to rightwing groups and little experience treating transgender patients.

Every major medical association in the country has come out against such bans, stating that gender-affirming care should be available to those who need it, including minors.

Drawing on existing reporting and investigations, as well as legislative and legal testimony, the Guardian identified a number of physicians who were repeatedly enlisted to craft and promote policies to limit youth access to gender-affirming care.

Of the four doctors profiled below, all are serving as experts in lawsuits currently moving through the courts, including in Alabama and Arkansas, where advocates are challenging laws banning youth access to gender-affirming care. These doctors have collectively testified in dozens of lawsuits related to trans rights.

All of these doctors have connections to organizations that oppose gender transition on religious or moral grounds. Experts say their views have contributed to the growing opposition across the US to youth access to such care, despite the medical consensus about its safety and efficacy.

According to Heron Greenesmith, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates who monitors anti-LGBTQ+ advocacy, these experts and the groups they are associated with have “absolutely contributed to the mis- and disinformation machine around gender-affirming care”……….

One of America’s oldest restaurant chains has stood by its decision to launch a new campaign to celebrate Pride Month amid a deluge of bigoted attacks.

Despite its infamous past of openly discriminating against its gay employees in the 1990s, Cracker Barrel has moved towards inclusivity and diversity over the past decade.

On Thursday, the company, which is headquartered in Lebanon, Tennessee, took many by surprise and shock after it posted an image on Instagram of one of its restaurants with a rainbow-coloured chair to announce the celebration of Pride Month.

“We are excited to celebrate Pride Month with our employees and guests. Everyone is always welcome at our table (and our [rainbow emoji] rocker). Happy Pride!” the post read……

Made this into a photo, it was bugging me that it came out so small:

Here's part of my take on the uptick in child transgender treatment, and of transgirl and transwomen athletes playing on teams once reserved for females and going into spaces once reserved for females:

There is legitimate debate on this, and it is far from settled. We need to talk it out.

What we don't need to do, and what we need to stop doing, is finding ways to be punitive to people who disagree with us. Examples of such punitive behavior happen on both sides. I doubt this list is complete and I'm deliberately trying to balance it.

- Going after parents as abusers for getting transgender treatment for their kids.

- Going after parents as abusers for not getting transgender treatments for kids.

- Firing or otherwise disciplining people for asking to be addressed by preferred pronouns.

- Firing or otherwise disciplining people for not using someone's preferred pronouns.

- Disciplining teachers or counselors for not telling parents that their child is taking steps to socially transition at school.

- Disciplining teachers or counselors for telling parents that their child is taking steps to socially transition at school.

- Any adverse action for posting opinions on social media regarding the topic regardless of which side the opinion falls on.

Any other way that people are not allowed to have an opinion or provide their child medical care as they see fit.

Maybe someday the pendulum will swing so far to one side that it won't be an issue. For now it is a legitimate topic for debate, not something either side should be robbed of free speech for.

unsurprising

In January, Donald Trump released a campaign video decrying “the left-wing gender insanity being pushed on our children.” He vowed that, in a second term, his administration would work to ban gender-affirming care for minors “in all 50 states,” officially recognize “male” and “female” as “assigned at birth” as the only genders, and reconfigure school curriculums to teach students “positive education about the nuclear family [and] the roles of mothers and fathers.”

Trump’s leading competitor for the 2024 nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has gone even further, making laws attacking LGBTQ inclusion, especially in schools, into a core plank of his “anti-woke” governing agenda. DeSantis’s campaign is part of a broader trend, with 2023 seeing a fresh wave of anti-trans legislation in Republican-controlled statehouses across the country — with over 530 bills proposed by late May, by one tally. Right-wing activists are leading boycotts against brands that celebrate LGBTQ identity and Pride month, like Target and Bud Light. Just this Tuesday, a school board meeting about teaching gender in Glendale, California, schools devolved into a fistfight.

A Roman Catholic mass to be held in western Pennsylvania this weekend in solidarity with LGBTQ Catholics has been canceled after flyers for the service switched the designation to a “Pride mass”.

The cancellation of Sunday mass at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh came at the request of the diocese after protesting emails and calls, some of them threatening, officials said.

While the exact nature of the protest messages is unclear, they come at a time when major brands like Target, Bud Light and Starbucks have faced rightwing backlash for using the Pride labeling.

The Pittsburgh mass had been organized by Catholics for Change in Our Church with the help of LGBTQ+ outreach ministries, said group’s president Kevin Hayes, and similar in nature to other outreach efforts toward Black or Hispanic parishioners……..

Optimus Prime said:

A Roman Catholic mass to be held in western Pennsylvania this weekend in solidarity with LGBTQ Catholics has been canceled after flyers for the service switched the designation to a “Pride mass”.

The cancellation of Sunday mass at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh came at the request of the diocese after protesting emails and calls, some of them threatening, officials said.

While the exact nature of the protest messages is unclear, they come at a time when major brands like Target, Bud Light and Starbucks have faced rightwing backlash for using the Pride labeling.

The Pittsburgh mass had been organized by Catholics for Change in Our Church with the help of LGBTQ+ outreach ministries, said group’s president Kevin Hayes, and similar in nature to other outreach efforts toward Black or Hispanic parishioners……..

Catholic ‘Pride mass’ in Pennsylvania canceled after protests

Cancellation came at request of the diocese after irate emails and calls, some of them threatening, officials say

www.theguardian.com

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Those Catholics who want to celebrate pride, might want to switch to a religion that is either non-heirarchical or that does not consider what what they take pride in to be a mortal sin.

They might be able to affect some grassroots change, I suppose. I don't know of any examples of that happening.

Why belong to a foreign headquartered church in that much need of change? Start your own, it's the American way!

But let ONE Drag Queen do it, and the the MTG, Boeberts, and Desantis types will be all over it, i guarantee you that...

A scheme to pardon people unjustly criminalised for alleged gay or lesbian activity has been expanded, the Home Office has announced.

For the first time, women will be able to apply for their records to be wiped if they have been convicted or cautioned under any repealed or abolished offences relating to same-sex activity.

Until now, only men have been able to apply to have convictions wiped under the government’s disregards and pardons scheme. These largely focused on offences of buggery and gross indecency between men.

From Tuesday, offences such as “solicitation by men” will be included. More army veterans will also be able to apply for convictions brought under service law to be erased. Under the plans, first announced last year, those who were unjustly criminalised will be pardoned and their convictions deleted from official records.

The minister for safeguarding, Sarah Dines, said: “The appalling criminalisation of homosexuality is a shameful and yet not so distant part of our history. Although they can never be undone, the disregards and pardons scheme has gone some way to right the wrongs of the past.”……..

Clear majorities of Americans support restrictions affecting transgender children, a Washington Post-KFF poll finds, offering political jet fuel for Republicans in state legislatures and Congress who are pushing measures restricting curriculum, sports participation and medical care.


Most Americans don’t believe it’s even possible to be a gender that differs from that assigned at birth. A 57 percent majority of adults said a person’s gender is determined from the start, with 43 percent saying it can differ.

And some Americans have become more conservative on these questions as Republicans have seized the issue and worked to promote new restrictions.

The Pew Research Center found 60 percent last year saying one’s gender is determined by the sex assigned at birth, up from 54 percent in 2017.

Even among young adults, who are the most accepting of trans identity, about half said in the Post-KFF poll that a person’s gender is determined by their sex at birth.

The Post-KFF poll was conducted in November and December, before state lawmakers introduced more than 400 anti-trans bills this year, up from about 150 bills in 2022, according to a Post analysis of ACLU data.

The Post reported initial findings on March 23 and took additional time for analysis and interviews with respondents and others.

It is not clear how the surge of anti-trans bills will affect public opinion or whether new laws targeting drag shows and gender-affirming care for adults will be popular…….

In the weeks leading up to June, Rose Montoya noticed something concerning. Pride is usually a busy time for the influencer, who has over 800,000 TikTok followers and posts videos about trans rights and issues. But this year, she says, fewer brands have reached out.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of my trans friends and colleagues, and we’ve all noticed less brands seeking partnerships and smaller budgets for Pride campaigns,” Montoya said. “It’s disappointing.”

After the legalization of marriage equality, Pride became a marketing opportunity for brands. Enticed by the spending power of the LGBTQ+ community – it reached over $1tn in 2021 – brands looked for ways to make their presence known at June events. But this year, some LGBTQ+ influencers say brands are showing less support than they have in the past……

The culture war has crept into advertising, especially after Bud Light tapped Dylan Mulvaney, a trans TikTok star, for an ad.

The backlash was immediate and lasting: sales of the beer have dropped by nearly 30%, and two ad executives were placed on leave. Politicians including Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley ruthlessly mocked Mulvaney.

Target scaled down its annual Pride collection after workers reported “confrontational behavior” from angry shoppers regarding certain items in the lineup.

The people behind the boycotts are in the minority: research from the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Glaad shows that 75% of straight people feel comfortable seeing LGBTQ+ representation in media.

That fact has not stopped Pride 2023 from turning into a marketing minefield. Experts have noted a quieter Pride on the corporate front, in no small part due to the Bud Light and Target case studies.

It wasn’t always this way. According to RILA Global Consulting, a company that studies consumers, brands, and trends, this time last yearthere were less than 400 social media posts calling for boycotts of Pride collections. In May 2023, that number jumped to 15,000.

“Moments like this really showcase the depth of commitment brands have to inclusive marketing,” said Sonia Thompson, an inclusive brand coach and strategist. “The brands that are the most afraid of backlash are the ones that were going at Pride on a pretty superficial level.”…….

The inevitable result of the smear campaign against trans people, especially kids. This child was publicly harassed and shamed, for no reason at all:

Serious question, what does it mean to be an ally in the workplace?

I ask because through small efforts at work, I was named “Ally of the Month”. I didn’t do much (attended a seminar, volunteered at a few events that my coworkers put together, minor things), yet I was still named the recipient of this award.

A week ago the region head of our DEI group reached out to me and asked me if I would put either my pronouns or a pride month decal in my emails, and I said “I’ll think about it (which really means “no”). I have no problem being inclusive, but I am in Texas. My clients are Texans. The people pushing pronouns and decals are coastal. Their clients might get it, but here in the flyovers that will cost you business more than it will win you business.

I am happy to work with great individuals from diversely backgrounds, and I am happy to help where needed, but don’t ask me to follow this soft push to use pronouns. If it becomes mandatory, then we will see, but for now, just let me be an ally that isn’t required to use my pronouns.

Coffee giant Starbucks is caught up in a row with a labor union over claims that workers at some of its stores in the US have been told they cannot put up Pride decorations this year.

The dispute comes as a rightwing backlash against many American businesses sweeps across the US, with conservative activists and consumers attacking expressions of support for LGBTQ+ Americans. Some of the biggest corporate names in the US – such as retailer Target and beer giant Anheuser-Busch – have been hit by boycotts.

It also comes as a wave of legislation has been passed in many Republican-run states eroding the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, especially around the teaching of gay or trans rights issues in schools. According to the Human Rights Campaign, over 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures in the US so far in 2023, a record high, including a record passage of 74 of the bills.……