All Things LGBTQ+ (12 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.

 

[Booker]

This targeting of trans people needs to stop. The hysteria and mob driven anger that is pushing these laws is extremely corrosive to our social fabric, our peace and the strength of our country as a whole. I get that most people are turning a blind eye to it because it doesn't directly affect them and because it's easier to stay quiet then fight about something else with Republicans, but this will lead to a horrible outcome for our country. The people pushing fear and loathing of trans people won't stop at just them. They always target the smallest "other" communities first to build fear and loathing among the general public. This has worked very well with trans people. But it never stops there, trans people are just the first victims of this vitriol and sustained effort to make their existence illegal. They will eventually come for the other "others". They always do. If they are not stopped now by people speaking up, our society will continue to splinter to point of breaking our country.

What's forked up is that most people don't even know trans people, but the people passing these laws are just offended that they exist.

I actually do know a few trans people. And you know what? They're just people trying to make their way through this life just like everyone else.

 

[LA - L.A.]

What's forked up is that most people don't even know trans people, but the people passing these laws are just offended that they exist.

I actually do know a few trans people. And you know what? They're just people trying to make their way through this life just like everyone else.

That's so true. If you don't know them as actual individual people, it's easy to essentialize, stereotype, fear and dehumanize them. Same thing happens along skin color, national, cultural and religioius lines. I have a friend and an acquantence who are trans. I knew both of them before they physically changed. They're both still the same people.

The first person who was trans that I met was Holly Woodlawn. It was years ago at an after dinner desert and drinks gathering on Thanksgiving. She was down to earth and interesting. I hadn't heard of her before meeting her that day.

 

[Optimus Prime]

School cancels anti-bullying play with LGBTQ+ themes

Middle schoolers in Wheatland, Wyoming spent two months rehearsing for a play that included a scene mentioning a gay character who took his own life.

apnews.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

At least seven laws passed by Texas legislators and signed by the governor last year target LGBTQ people in violation of federal and international human rights law, four LGBTQ advocacy groups wrote Monday in a petition to the United Nations.

The groups in a joint letter of allegation submitted Monday to 17 independent experts, working groups and special rapporteurs at the U.N. wrote that Texas leaders during the state’s last legislative session intentionally targeted the LGBTQ community through hostile laws that have upended the lives of LGBTQ Texans.

“Taken individually, the seven pieces of legislation discussed in this submission will disrupt the lives of LGBTQIA+ people of various ages and backgrounds. Put together, the Bills are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of LGBTQIA+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors,” the groups wrote in Monday’s letter.

Texas lawmakers in 2023 filed at least 55 bills targeting LGBTQ individuals, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), accounting for roughly 10 percent of anti-LGBTQ legislation filed nationwide last year.

Monday’s appeal to the U.N. focuses on seven of them. They include Senate Bill 14, which bars health care providers from administering gender-affirming care to minors; Senate Bill 17, which prevents public universities in the state from maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion programs; and Senate Bill 15, which prevents transgender athletes from competing at the collegiate level.

The seven measures also include Senate Bill 763, which allows unregistered religious chaplains to counsel children in Texas public schools; Senate Bill 12, which restricts drag performances; House Bill 900, which enables schools to ban LGBTQ library books; and House Bill 2127, which limits the ability of cities to pass certain local ordinances that conflict with state law.

The letter asks the U.N. to request information on each of the bills from the Texas state government, including how the bills protect the rights of LGBTQ people. It also requests that the U.N. call for the bills to be repealed and encourage the passage of stronger state and federal nondiscrimination protections.

“Considering the danger this represents, we humbly ask for you to make inquiries into this backsliding of human rights of LGBTQIA+ persons in the state of Texas,” reads the letter, signed by Equality Texas, the ACLU of Texas, GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign and The University of Texas at Austin School of Law Human Rights Clinic...........

MSN

 

[coldseat]

School cancels anti-bullying play with LGBTQ+ themes

Middle schoolers in Wheatland, Wyoming spent two months rehearsing for a play that included a scene mentioning a gay character who took his own life.

apnews.com

The kids are much more thoughtful and intelligent than the homophobic middle school principle and administration that canceled their show. I'm glad they got to put it on in spite of the school.

 

[Optimus Prime]

A former Maryland elementary school librarian arrested for spray-painting the word “Groomer” on two other libraries also possessed child pornography, police say.

Charles Sutherland, 31, was arrested last June and charged with multiple hate crimes for allegedly spray-painting the word “Groomer” on two public libraries in New Carrollton and Greenbelt, WTOP reported. Libraries have become recent targets among right-wing extremists who accuse librarians of being “groomers” for featuring pro-LGBTQ books and hosting book readings.

Nicholas Brown, a library spokesman for Prince George’s County, said in June that the LGBTQ community “is a particular target” in the area.

“The library will not waver in its commitment to maintaining welcoming spaces to LGBTQ+ customers and their allies,” Brown said at the time.

Police searched Sutherland’s home at the time and found numerous diapers, children’s dolls, and a child-sized doll in Sutherland’s bed. Charging documents said Sutherland has no children, nieces or nephews.

Police took a laptop from Sutherland’s home, but forensic processing wasn’t completed until this January.

Sutherland, who worked as a school librarian at Northview Elementary School in Bowie, allegedly had seven files on his laptop related to child pornography, according to WUSA9.
Sutherland now faces child pornography charges along with hate crime charges and will stand trial later this year..............

Man Who Spray-Painted ‘Groomer’ On Libraries Caught With Child Porn, Police Say

Authorities became suspicious when they searched the home of Charles Sutherland and found a child-sized doll.

www.huffpost.com

 

[MT15]

This is becoming a trend, isn’t it? We see that the people who yell loudest about “groomers” are the ones that bear some looking into.

 

[zztop]

The Ohio Senate has voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto against Ohio House Bill 68 in a 23-9 vote. This bill would ban transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming medical care and prevent transgender girls from taking part in girls' and women's sports.

The Ohio House voted to override the veto on Jan. 10.

The bill restricts the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries for transgender youth. The bill does not restrict the use of this care on non-transgender youth, and specifically includes an exception for intersex youth with ambiguous or abnormal sex characteristics

 

[MT15]

The Ohio Senate has voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto against Ohio House Bill 68 in a 23-9 vote. This bill would ban transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming medical care and prevent transgender girls from taking part in girls' and women's sports.

The Ohio House voted to override the veto on Jan. 10.

The bill restricts the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries for transgender youth. The bill does not restrict the use of this care on non-transgender youth, and specifically includes an exception for intersex youth with ambiguous or abnormal sex characteristics

Unnecessary and cruel.

 

[Optimus Prime]

This is becoming a trend, isn’t it? We see that the people who yell loudest about “groomers” are the ones that bear some looking into.

A former Maryland elementary school librarian arrested for spray-painting the word “Groomer” on two other libraries also possessed child pornography, police say.

Charles Sutherland, 31, was arrested last June and charged with multiple hate crimes for allegedly spray-painting the word “Groomer” on two public libraries in New Carrollton and Greenbelt, WTOP reported. Libraries have become recent targets among right-wing extremists who accuse librarians of being “groomers” for featuring pro-LGBTQ books and hosting book readings.

Nicholas Brown, a library spokesman for Prince George’s County, said in June that the LGBTQ community “is a particular target” in the area.

“The library will not waver in its commitment to maintaining welcoming spaces to LGBTQ+ customers and their allies,” Brown said at the time.

Police searched Sutherland’s home at the time and found numerous diapers, children’s dolls, and a child-sized doll in Sutherland’s bed. Charging documents said Sutherland has no children, nieces or nephews.

Police took a laptop from Sutherland’s home, but forensic processing wasn’t completed until this January.

Sutherland, who worked as a school librarian at Northview Elementary School in Bowie, allegedly had seven files on his laptop related to child pornography, according to WUSA9.
Sutherland now faces child pornography charges along with hate crime charges and will stand trial later this year..............

Man Who Spray-Painted ‘Groomer’ On Libraries Caught With Child Porn, Police Say

Authorities became suspicious when they searched the home of Charles Sutherland and found a child-sized doll.

www.huffpost.com

First of all I'm glad this guy got caught, don't want to suggest for one second I wish that he hadn't

But why the fork would he spray paint "groomer" when he knows what he's into himself? I don't get it

 

[MT15]

First of all I'm glad this guy got caught, don't want to suggest for one second I wish that he hadn't

But why the fork would he spray paint "groomer" when he knows what he's into himself? I don't get it

I think somehow they think it helps disguise what they are doing. It couldn’t be him, he’s against all that. Maybe.

 

[LA - L.A.]

First of all I'm glad this guy got caught, don't want to suggest for one second I wish that he hadn't

But why the fork would he spray paint "groomer" when he knows what he's into himself? I don't get it

I think somehow they think it helps disguise what they are doing. It couldn’t be him, he’s against all that. Maybe.

I've read psychologist explain the tendency of some people to publicly crusade against what they do privately as a deflection from themselves (farting and blaming someone else) like MT15 says, a projection of their self-hate for doing that thing, or a combination of both.

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[Optimus Prime]

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton requested the medical records of Texas trans youth who sought gender-affirming care from a Georgia-based telehealth clinic last week, escalating an invasive campaign that has alarmed many advocates.

The Georgia clinic, QueerMed, confirmed last week to the Houston Chronicle that it received Paxton’s request for data well before the clinic stopped providing care for youth when the state passed its ban on gender-affirming care last year. A separate report from The Texas Tribune noted that Paxton sought data about patients back in January 2022.

“I’m not breaking any laws,” Dr. Izzy Lowell, the founder of QueerMed, told the Houston Chronicle. “We are doing everything by the book according to state law.”

This is the second time Paxton has tried to get information about out-of-state providers of gender-affirming care. The state attorney general sent a similar request to Seattle Children’s Hospital in November last year.

Paxton requested a broad array of data from the hospital, including patient diagnoses, medications, laboratory testing and treatment.

Over the past few years, Republican attorney generals across the country have sought patient medical records related to gender-affirming care and abortion care, a move that many advocates say not only sows confusion and fear among patients but is an overreach of governmental power.

Most notably, last year, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti opened an investigation into Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s transgender health clinic after a right-wing media personality pushed false information about the clinic.............

MSN

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

We all know who are really being groomed in this country, and it isn't the children to become gay, its children to become hateful and ignorant to others that are different.,.,
The real grooms are the ones who groom people like this..

20-year-old sacrifices future for hate, gets 18 years for firebombing Ohio church over drag shows​

Penny claimed "his intention was to protect children from transgender persons," but Lutzko wrote in court records that his "true purpose was intimidation of those who disagreed with him. He was not freeing any children held at the church that night."

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[bird]

We all know who are really being groomed in this country, and it isn't the children to become gay, its children to become hateful and ignorant to others that are different.,.,
The real grooms are the ones who groom people like this..

20-year-old sacrifices future for hate, gets 18 years for firebombing Ohio church over drag shows​

MSN

www.msn.com

Well, FAFO. He’ll find out some things in prison.

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

Well, FAFO. He’ll find out some things in prison.

oh, he's defenitly gonna learn some things from people he won't want to learn from...lol

 

[Optimus Prime]

Last week, the Ohio legislature voted to override the Republican governor Mike DeWine’s veto of HB68, a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. The veto marks the end of a yearlong effort by LGBTQ+ activists to block HB68’s passage. Starting this April, Ohio doctors are prohibited from prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapy to any trans patient under 18.

Ohio is now the 23rd state to pass restrictions on trans healthcare for minors (though courts have blocked a handful of those measures). It could also become the second state to restrict care for adults, through draft rules are currently open to comments from the public.

Families in Ohio are now planning for a future without the healthcare that medical professionals say is necessary for lowering the concerning rateof suicide attempts among LGBTQ+ youth.


Below is a collection of accounts from children and their parents, all of whom spent the past year meeting with and writing to state lawmakers, begging Ohio Republicans to reconsider their support of the bill. They are all considering leaving the state to preserve their families’ ability to receive care.

---

‘When it gets overwhelming, I remind myself that I’m a different kind of person’
Parker Elswick, 16, he/they​

Before I started on hormones last year, everything felt distorted, like I was seeing myself through an awful funhouse mirror. There was just a mismatch between my body and my brain, and now the two parts of me feel reconciled.

I have this memory of opening TikTok one day during the pandemic. There was a video of a 50-year-old trans man smiling and dancing. He was celebrating the anniversary of his transition, and all I could think was: “Oh wow, we get to live that long?”

Testosterone made all that mental health stuff so much easier. It can get hard sometimes, feeling like the entire world resents your existence.

When it all becomes overwhelming, when the noise is just a little too loud, I try to remind myself that I’m not some monster, I’m just a different kind of person. After I came out as trans at 13, my mom and I started reading about “two-spirit”people. In a lot of Indigenous cultures, people who lived outside the gender binary were cherished, they were sacred, they could become healers and shamans. Learning about that history made me feel a lot better……..

‘I’m so scared for my friends’: trans kids on Ohio’s ban on gender-affirming care

Families who fought for children’s healthcare rights say they are considering leaving the state

www.theguardian.com