All Things LGBTQ+ (3 Viewers)

[Farb]

Didn't really see a place for this so I thought I would start a thread about all things LGBTQ since this is a pretty hot topic in our culture right now

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/17/sup...y-that-refuses-to-work-with-lgbt-couples.html

• The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a unanimous defeat to LGBT couples in a high-profile case over whether Philadelphia could refuse to contract with a Roman Catholic adoption agency that says its religious beliefs prevent it from working with same-sex foster parents.
• Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion for a majority of the court that Philadelphia violated the First Amendment by refusing to contract with Catholic Social Services once it learned that the organization would not certify same-sex couples for adoption.

I will admit, I was hopeful for this decision by the SCOTUS but I was surprised by the unanimous decision.

While I don't think there is anything wrong, per se, with same sex couples adopting and raising children (I actually think it is a good thing as it not an abortion) but I also did not want to see the state force a religious institution to bend to a societal norm.

 

[brandon]

Hypotheticals?

You can’t even tell when you’re obviously being trolled.

 

[el caliente]

You can’t even tell when you’re obviously being trolled.

I was not aware that that was fake. I will delete it now.

 

[Snarky Sack]

Tran

It does get tiring and those who don't accept transgenders, always complain about transgender woman. They never have any issues with transgender men. All the wailing against transgender women has The Crying Game vibe to it.

Transgender men, who are biological females, rarely insist on competing in men's sports.

If they do, it is less problematic because they have no physical advantage over biological males.

If transgender men, who are biological females, insist on using men's private area, it is themselves that they endanger far more than the biological males / men who use the male bathroom.

I wish they would not take that risk.

No doubt many men, particularly Muslim men, or orthodox Jewish men, would object to having a biological female in their changing room, and I think that should be honored as well. But it almost never happens, so we almost never hear about it.

I would ask you to clarify what you mean by a crying game vibe. I enjoyed that movie as a viewer and I admire it as a film buff with a bachelor's in RTF. I analyzed it in comparison with the Bogart movie African Queen in by far the longest undergrad paper I wrote.

Does that movie, and/or my appreciation for it give you some insight into my motivations for wanting female private areas to be private? Please respond in as much detail as you can, referencing parts of the movie if relevant. I will definitely be reading all that you write on that topic.

 

[samiam5211]

It's so silly.

People act like bathrooms are sex dens or something.

No rapist ever decided not to rape someone because of a sign on a restroom door.

There are absolutely NO safety concerns about just having unisex bathrooms.

 

[MT15]

It does get tiring and those who don't accept transgenders, always complain about transgender woman. They never have any issues with transgender men. All the wailing against transgender women has The Crying Game vibe to it.

It’s not an accident, IMO.

 

[zztop]

I always find it interesting that when it comes to gays/trans issue and schools it's a "scourge that must be stopped, the children must be protected at all and any costs"

But when it comes to school shootings and gun violence the same people just shrug their shoulders and say, “nothing we can do, cost of freedom"

yes, republicans conjure this hypothetical predator, do nothing about gun control. You know, the thing that actually harms people. It is really sad. I think there have been some 500 bills introduced by states to combat this plague on humanity aka LGBTQ people. This 1%(?) of the population poses such a huge threat to people and must be stopped before the worst imagined scenarios happen!

*Imagine in republicans had that much initiative with gun legislation*)

Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures

In the last few years states have advanced a record number of bills that attack LGBTQ rights, especially transgender youth. The ACLU is tracking these attacks and working with our national network of affiliates to support LGBTQ people everywhere.

www.aclu.org

Roundup of Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation Advancing In States Across the Country

The Human Rights Campaign — the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights organization — is providing the a snapshot (updated weekly) to illustrate the hostile legislative climate facing LGBTQ+ people, and the scale and scope with which the ongoing...

www.hrc.org

 

[Snarky Sack]

Question for all on the topic of restrooms segregated by gender: Why do we do it in the first place?

Is it merely an outdated custom from a less enlightened time that we could just do away with?

Should we just remove all bathroom gender or sex segregation signs and let each bathroom simply be labeled "Restroom?"

 

[MT15]

Question for all on the topic of restrooms segregated by gender: Why do we do it in the first place?

Is it merely an outdated custom from a less enlightened time that we could just do away with?

Should we just remove all bathroom gender or sex segregation signs and let each bathroom simply be labeled "Restroom?"

I’ve seen that in several places already. Single use, not labeled for either gender. Today, in a coffee shop the woman’s room was occupied and for a while. I wasn’t looking forward to going in there as I waited, lol. My husband said - just use the men’s room. So I did. And I was a bit surprised to find out it was exactly the same as the typical women’s single use room, down to 2 hooks to hold your bags.

 

[Snarky Sack]

I’ve seen that in several places already. Single use, not labeled for either gender. Today, in a coffee shop the woman’s room was occupied and for a while. I wasn’t looking forward to going in there as I waited, lol. My husband said - just use the men’s room. So I did. And I was a bit surprised to find out it was exactly the same as the typical women’s single use room, down to 2 hooks to hold your bags.

Right, there is nothing different in the plumbing other than urinals which don't prevent women from using the commode.

But why wait for all of them to be single use?

Why not just take down all the signs immediately and let people go into whichever restroom is the closest? There are stalls, after all, and most public urinals have a privacy panel between them.

That's the cheapest and fastest answer.

 

[MT15]

These are the guys you have to watch out for. Not trans women.

 

[CoolBrees]

Literally every accusation is an admission.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I’ve been impressed with him in the interviews I’ve seen
===========
As one of the first openly gay Black members of Congress, Rep Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has a simple characterisation for recent Republican attacks on transgender rights.

“The right wing crusade against LGBTQ equality should be seen for what it is – as bullying, of LGBTQ youth, systematic bullying of trans youth in particular,” Mr Torres, a co-chairman of the Equality Caucus in the House of Representatives, said in a phone interview with The Independent.….

“There are Republicans who are accusing members of the LGBTQ community of mutilating children and sexualizing children, or grooming children,” Mr Torres said. “So I would submit to you that the far right has never been more radicalized against the LGBTQ community than it is in our present moment.”…..

“As a gay man, I will go on the House floor and state unequivocally I’m here, I’m queer, and I’m not going anywhere,” Mr Torres said. “A wise person once said, if you don’t have a seat at the table, then you’re probably on the menu. And we in the LGBTQ community are sick and tired of being on the menu. And we insist on a seat at the table.”

Mr Torres said that the Equality Act remains the best avenue for LGBT+ equality. Mr Torres said that the next time Democrats win the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate, the legislation must be a top priority.

But that alone won’t be enough: Mr Torres said that the Democrats must get rid of the filibuster, the threshold that requires 60 votes for legislation to pass in the Senate.

Despite the fact Democrats had a majority in the last Congress, Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), the first openly bisexual Senator, both opposed getting rid of the barrier……

Ritchie Torres, only openly gay Black man in Congress: GOP ‘bullying’ LGBT+ people

The New York Democrat talks with Eric Garcia about how he deals with homophobes in Congress, his battle with depression and why getting rid of the filibuster is necessary for LGBT+ rights

www.independent.co.uk

 

[LA - L.A.]

Does that movie, and/or my appreciation for it give you some insight into my motivations...

My post was not directed at, about or in response to you personally. My post was directed at, about and in response to the backlash against LGQBTIA+ people as a whole.

It wasn't intend to apply to you. If it doesn't apply to you, then it doesn't apply to you.

 

[Optimus Prime]

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new Kansas law requires the state to reverse any previous gender changes in its records for trans people's birth certificates and driver's licenses while also preventing such changes going forward, the state's conservative Republican attorney general declared Monday.

Attorney General Kris Kobach also said public schools' records for students must list them as being the gender they were assigned at birth, whether or not teachers and staff recognize their gender identities.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's office said she disagrees with Kobach's views, though it did not say whether state agencies under the governor's control would follow or defy them, setting up the possibility of a court fight. In 2019, a federal judge began requiring Kansas to allow transgender people to change their birth certificates to settle a lawsuit over a no-change policy.

“The attorney general must be off his rocker,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, an attorney for Lambda Legal, which represented the four Kansas residents. “This was a bunch of bombast by an attorney general engaging in politics.”..........

MSN

 

[Snarky Sack]

My post was not directed at, about or in response to you personally. My post was directed at, about and in response to the backlash against LGQBTIA+ people as a whole.

It wasn't intend to apply to you. If it doesn't apply to you, then it doesn't apply to you.

Ok but what did you mean by "Crying Game vibe?" I'm asking because at first look it appears to be a homophobic attempt at insult, but I don't want to put words in your mouth.

 

[Optimus Prime]

sad read
=========
One day when I was about six, I was walking with my dad in New York City. We noticed that someone had stuck little folded squares of paper under the windshield wipers of the cars parked on the street beside us. My father picked one up and read it. I saw his face grow dark with anger.

“What is it, Papa?”

“It’s a message from people who think that all Jews should be killed.”

This would have been in the late 1950s, a time when the Nazi extermination of millions of Jews in Europe was still fresh in the American consciousness. Not, you might have thought, a good season for sowing murderous antisemitism in lower Manhattan. Already aware that, being the daughter of a Jewish father and gentile mother, I was myself a demi-semite, I was worried. I knew that these people wanted to kill my father, but with a typical child-centered focus, I really wanted to know whether the gentile half of my heredity would protect me in the event of a new Holocaust.

“Would they kill me, too?” I asked.

Yes, he told me, they would if they could. But he then reassured me that such people would never actually have the power to do what they wanted to. It couldn’t happen here.

I must admit that I’m grateful my father died before Donald Trump became president, before tiki-torch-bearing Nazi wannabes seeking to “Unite the Right” marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, chanting “Jews will not replace us!” before one of them drove his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators, killing Heather Heyer, and before President Trump responded to the whole event by declaring that “you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”

Maybe the grubby little group behind the tracts my father and I saw that day in New York would have let me live. Maybe not. In those days home-grown fascists were rare and so didn’t have that kind of power.

Now, however, there’s a new extermination campaign stalking this country that would definitely include me among its targets: the right-wing Republican crusade against “sexual predators” and “groomers,” by which they mean LGBTQI+ people. (I’m going to keep things simple here by just writing “LGBT” or “queer” to indicate this varied collection of Americans who are presently a prime target of the right wing in this country.)

You may think “extermination campaign” is an extreme way to describe the set of public pronouncements, laws, and regulations addressing the existence of queer people here. Sadly, I disagree. Ambitious would-be Republican presidential candidates across the country, from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to the less-known governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, are using anti-queer legislation to bolster their primary campaigns. For Florida, it started in July 2022 with DeSantis’s Parental Rights in Education act (better known as his “Don’t Say Gay” law), which mandated that, in the state’s public schools,

“Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

In April 2023, DeSantis doubled down, signing a new law that extended the ban all the way up through high school. Florida teachers at every level now run the very real risk of losing their jobs and credentials if they violate the new law. And queer kids, who are already at elevated risk of depression and suicide, have been deprived of the kind of affirming space that, research shows, greatly reduces those possibilities.

Is Florida an outlier? Not really. Other states have followed its lead in restricting mentions of sexual orientation or gender identity in their public schools. By February of this year, 42 such bills had been introduced in a total of 22 states and are creating a wave of LGBT refugees.

But the attacks against queer people go well beyond banning any discussion of gayness in public schools. We’re also witnessing a national campaign against trans and non-binary people that, in effect, aims to eliminate such human beings altogether, whether by denying their very existence or denying them the medical care they need. This campaign began with a focus on trans youth but has since widened to include trans and non-binary people of all ages.................

MSN

 

[Optimus Prime]

As the Senate Judiciary Committee kicked off a hearing on LGBTQ+ rights last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sought to draw a clear distinction between same-sex marriage — once at the center of the culture wars — and the Republican Party's recent targeting of civil rights for trans people.

"You mentioned that eight years ago, the Obergefell decision created a constitutional right to same-sex marriage," said Graham. "We're not talking about that here — we're talking about other things here."

Since the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision, same-sex marriage has largely faded as an issue targeted by Republicans, at least at the national level. Instead, most have redirected their fire to transgender women's participation in sports, gender-affirming care for minors, and drag performances.

"To be honest, I don't hear a lot about that issue," Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, one of the more eager Republican culture warriors, said of same-sex marriage. Instead, Hawley told Insider, he hears a lot about "women's sports, about kids transitioning, about puberty-blocking drugs."

But if GOP leaders are mainly concerned with the "TQ+" in LGBTQ+ while leaving the other parts of the acronym alone, the rank and file don't seem to be listening.

Recent polling suggests that Republicans have begun to change their minds on the acceptability of same-sex relationships, even after many Republican lawmakers supported protections for same-sex and interracial marriage in the Respect for Marriage Act last year.

A new Gallup poll has found that just 41% of Republicans believe that gay or lesbian relationships are morally acceptable, a 15 percentage point drop from a high of 56% last year. It's the steepest drop in Republican approval for same-sex relationships since Gallup began polling the issue in 2001, reversing almost a decade of steady acceptance.

Still, support for the legality of same-sex marriage remains broadly popular — it's not the potent wedge issue it once was, such as during the 2004 presidential campaign when President George W. Bush campaigned on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Asked last week about the shift by Insider, Republican senators pointed to a possible conflation between gay rights and trans issues — which they continue to pursue with vigor today.

"I think people are conflating same-sex rights with transgender rights, and they are very different issues," said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who notably described the "painful" and "brutal" backlash from conservatives in her home state of Wyoming after she unexpectedly supported the Respect for Marriage Act last year...............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Snarky Sack]

As the Senate Judiciary Committee kicked off a hearing on LGBTQ+ rights last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina sought to draw a clear distinction between same-sex marriage — once at the center of the culture wars — and the Republican Party's recent targeting of civil rights for trans people.

"You mentioned that eight years ago, the Obergefell decision created a constitutional right to same-sex marriage," said Graham. "We're not talking about that here — we're talking about other things here."

Since the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision, same-sex marriage has largely faded as an issue targeted by Republicans, at least at the national level. Instead, most have redirected their fire to transgender women's participation in sports, gender-affirming care for minors, and drag performances.

"To be honest, I don't hear a lot about that issue," Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, one of the more eager Republican culture warriors, said of same-sex marriage. Instead, Hawley told Insider, he hears a lot about "women's sports, about kids transitioning, about puberty-blocking drugs."

But if GOP leaders are mainly concerned with the "TQ+" in LGBTQ+ while leaving the other parts of the acronym alone, the rank and file don't seem to be listening.

Recent polling suggests that Republicans have begun to change their minds on the acceptability of same-sex relationships, even after many Republican lawmakers supported protections for same-sex and interracial marriage in the Respect for Marriage Act last year.

A new Gallup poll has found that just 41% of Republicans believe that gay or lesbian relationships are morally acceptable, a 15 percentage point drop from a high of 56% last year. It's the steepest drop in Republican approval for same-sex relationships since Gallup began polling the issue in 2001, reversing almost a decade of steady acceptance.

Still, support for the legality of same-sex marriage remains broadly popular — it's not the potent wedge issue it once was, such as during the 2004 presidential campaign when President George W. Bush campaigned on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Asked last week about the shift by Insider, Republican senators pointed to a possible conflation between gay rights and trans issues — which they continue to pursue with vigor today.

"I think people are conflating same-sex rights with transgender rights, and they are very different issues," said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who notably described the "painful" and "brutal" backlash from conservatives in her home state of Wyoming after she unexpectedly supported the Respect for Marriage Act last year...............

MSN

www.msn.com

This is a very legitimate concern. With the Trans activist agenda being so radical, the inevitable backlash could be sharp enough to even overturned the gay marriage ruling.

We certainly have the judges in place for that. Not that they would state it in terms of being anti-gay marriage, but in terms of allowing states to decide issues of marriage, as they always have.