Attempted genocide of transgender people

Every fascist state needs scapegoats. The unfortunate thing here in the United States a lot of states are or are flirting with fascism. The Republican Party pretty much are fully on board with this. As much as they talk up individual rights the individual pretty much has to fall within the purviewed standards they've created. So much for really being an individual.

>4 pnppl: In that respect it seems to me that the further to the right the Republican Party goes they drag the Democratic Party at least some distance rightward with them. That's on foreign, domestic and economic policy. To me the United States is very much a conservative nation and that IMO we pretty much have two conservative major parties---one of them on the far right.

At least in part the issues with the Democratic party come from the leadership groups in both the House and Senate and they do not welcome critiques from within.

To some degree all these Republicans are political creatures who don't particularly really believe in anything but getting enough votes to win in their next election. They'll say what they have to say to their base to get themselves reelected and their biggest fear is that their base will find someone else if they don't. They're mirroring the desires of a more and more whacked out worldview. The further they go down their roads of no return, the more these politicos find that they won't be held accountable for anything....they find their hypocrisy and lies actually being rewarded. There are regions of this country where this kind of shit is what the electorate want or at least what they think they want and they're getting it......things that might make their lives actually better they're not getting but so many people are off on their fucked up tangents and these same shitbag politicos keep on lowering the taxes of the super wealthy and taking money from the NRA and spreading all kinds of windy bullshit about socialism, gender rights, on the climate, CRT etc. etc. It's dangerous no question. Quite a lot of American voters are about as dumbed down as it's possible to be. I have some in my own family and I find it almost impossible to reason with them on anything political at all.

>14 pnppl: “I think most of us already know the answer,” Trump added.

So that's going to be a really independent investigation, isn't it, if the person instigating it is already sure that he knows the answer in advance. And one wonders why he is speaking about transgender issues to the National Rifle Association - unless, of course, they are not really concerned about guns but are just part of the network of extreme right wing culture war ideology in general.

>15 John5918: So that's going to be a really independent investigation, isn't it, if the person instigating it is already sure that he knows the answer in advance.

There's no doubt many ways that Trump could mess with this whole topic. Just yelling about it, drumming up hysteria and partisan hostility toward trans people, is probably the most important. But asking the FDA to investigate is probably not a winning idea for him. The FDA, like other government agencies, is stocked with career civil servants. He already tried to mess with it in the last administration, and his efforts were mixed at best.

>20 pnppl: I sometimes wonder if that's the actual point of all of this "woke" stuff - to consolidate right-wing power in a few states by making like intolerable for people who are unlikely to vote Republican, sort of a stealth secession.
I mean, it may or may not be intentional, but it seems to be working all the same.

Meanwhile in England :)

0:48 ( https://twitter.com/JamesAHogg2/status/1649730879621681153 )
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Barry Humphries: Dame Edna Everage comedian dies at 89
22 April 2023
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65328507

Erin Reed @ErinInTheMorn | 12:03 PM · Apr 21, 2023:
This is where we are heading.

Ben Shapiro is now advocating for local communities to pass laws stopping "men from wearing women's clothes in public," although he says "pants on women might be ok."

This regressive anti-trans ideology harms us all.

Just so y'all know, I report on anti-trans legislation moving throughout the United States. I may cover Shapiro this weekend, though there's a lot going on. He's not the only one pushing this...

0:53 ( https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn/status/1649443813067304960 )
From Jason Campbell
__________________________________________

In comments, everything from men's kilts to Franciscan robes.
Obi Wan-Kenobe?

In 1960s high school girls in Manitoba were forbidden to wear pants in school. Winter temps were typically -20F and occasionally -50F: frostbitten was not unknown. I remember that frozen blood is a coral colour... If one sensibly wore pants under one's skirt, had to remove them--we're talking half the school crammed into girls' bathroom before bell rang. Heck, far more recently, Hillary Clinton broke tradition in Senate with her pantsuits. Just a couple years ago, Trump required women to wear skirts in WH...

Amazing the problems that crop up when one attempts to turn back the clock with simplistic social engineering...

>34 pnppl:

And this is the same party which complains about so-called "cancel culture" whenever a right winger has difficulty finding a platform.

It's a wonder how all these conservatives feel in some way harmed by transgender people. The best that one of our commenters here could come up with was being angry about pronouns as if that's good enough reason to throw all these people under the bus. Can they really explain why? I don't think they can. Pretty much in Montana as in other states the legislature is moving to institutionalize the targeting and bullying of a minority. Whoever is good with that is pretty fucked up.

It's also a wonder how hurt some right wingers are when you call out their fascism when plenty of people on their side of the fence are as happy as all get out being called fascists or Nazi's----sport emblems, flags, tattoos etc. etc. It makes you wonder do they ever look at who's with them?

I don't think that the rank-and-file conservative voter cares one way or another about transgender people, any more than they ever cared that much about whether a person fancied people of the approved gender. Likewise, all of the polling tells us that conservative voters support abortion rights, and there's nothing to suggest that ordinary conservative voters bear any animosity towards people coming to this country to work.

All of these "culture war issues" are driven by a need for an other to demonize, in order to distract from their obvious lack of any positive agenda. If conservatives had something useful to say, they would say it. If they had policies that they were proud of, they would present them. Instead, they use groundless attacks on convenient "others" to distract their base. Sadly, this works far too well, far too often.

>39 kiparsky: The comment might be flinging out my personal take but there are still lots of conservatives that believe all kinds of shit like Biden stole the election.....quite a number of them even attacked the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021---which is 1) spending a lot of $'s to get to DC in the middle of winter (not what I'd consider a good idea for a vacation at that time of year) and 2) sitting outside listening to speeches half the day in the cold and 3) then marching more than a mile to storm a building, quite a number of these back the blue people fighting with police for hours and then a lot of them got their asses arrested. Those people seemed to run the gamut of conservatism from older to younger.....from just standard conservative to far right to open racist. And Fox News is by far still the most watched television 'news' out there......not that the others are a lot to write home about but Fox is also easily the worst as far as spreading bullshit and lies and a large (if not the larger) part of their audience aren't watching anything else and locked into the views disseminated by that channel.

I read Prox's posts (well not lately) and you can see how far down the rabbit hole he's gone. He's hardly by himself. There are plenty of people living around me including family who believe much the same. My mother-in-law who is around 90 living in northern Pa. is maybe the only one on her road of I don't know a couple hundred people who votes democratic ever. She's pretty much shunned now whenever she goes to some community function in her area by the other older people not that she can't handle it. Her expectations were already kind of low.

>40 lriley: I think "there are" is true, but I think that most people who habitually vote Republican are not particularly committed to the whack-job nutbaggery of the Tucker Carlsons of the world, just as most people who habitually vote Democratic are not particularly committed to all of the finer points of Democratic Socialism. Most people are relatively moderate, and just want to get on with their day.

>44 pnppl: Anarchists can have civic pride, nothing wrong with that. Also, nothing wrong with taking some joy in seeing someone stand up for themselves and others.

As for the Republicans banning a member and closing their sessions, I think they're probably not doing themselves any favors here. This is pretty good material for activists to work with - "what are the Republicans afraid of? why won't they let the people in the room? if the government is supposed to be for 'we the people', why won't they let the people in the room?".
Montana has a lot of cranky people who have a certain suspicion of government, and the government has just given those people a lot of reasons to be cranky. I hope Zephyr's community is able to take advantage of this effectively.

Conservatives have become past masters at conflating any kind of protest they don't like into calling it a riot. And then.......January 6, 2021 is just a bit of tourism.

The transgender Indonesian Muslims trying to secure their future (BBC)

The future of Indonesia's only Islamic community centre for transgender women is in jeopardy after its leader, Shinta Ratri, died in February - and the government says it cannot support it. There are 63 trans women who regularly attend the Al-Fatah community centre, which provides a space for them to pray, learn the Quran, learn skills or simply socialise without being judged for who they are... "It's a safe place where we can pray"... "Many Islamic centres do not accept transgender people"...

The Australian drag performers and ‘rainbow angels’ fighting back against far-right vitriol (Guardian)

As queer artists increasingly become political targets, volunteers wielding large wings are swooping in to their defence...

Jason Graber, a “Christian” pastor:

Christian pastor Jason Graber just called for the execution of all LGBTQ people as well as the parents of transgender people: “They just need to be shot in the back of the head and then we can string them up above a bridge.”

https://www.newsweek.com/video-pastor-saying-parents-trans-children-should-shot-...

I’m about to vomit.

apparently the Bud lite boycotts have torn a real layer of skin off of Budweiser's profit margins. Right wingers like to quaff Bud Lite. Go figure. Pretty much the worse beer on the planet was their go to. It's the kind of shit if there's nothing else I turn it down anyway. Coors is another that's awful and is another target of theirs. Maybe they're going dry this summer.

What started with Bud Lite. Anyway now some right wingers want to punish Chick-fil-a (sp?). Those people apparently have hired a diversity person. WTF!. Anathema or apostasy or fucking heresy or something of that nature. Personally I was already boycotting them because of all their christian nonsense but that wasn't hard to do because they're not around the neighborhood anyway. Maybe you can tell an area's made it by the fast food restaurants they have? I don't know. We don't have one of those though. It's also kind of a southern thing anyway but I digress........I mean it's a whatever for me. You don't miss what you don't give a fuck about. Stop slaughtering chickens. But I'm pretty sure there are plenty of conservatives suffering without their Bud Lite and now without their fried chicken too. What the hell! They think they're making a point and they kind of are. The point I'm getting is they're proving once again they're a bunch of assclowns.

31 May 2023 is last day for almost-free Budweiser beer:
https://www.budlight.com/budlightonusrebate
https://www.al.com/news/2023/05/bud-lite-rebate-means-almost-free-beer-as-sales-...

(Now free Disney entry--THAT would be something!)

LGBTQ+ Americans living in state of emergency, human rights group warns (Guardian)

Human Rights Campaign says emergency stems from ‘unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults’...

>63 pnppl: I don't think it's any accident how conservative republican politicians have gotten to where they are now. The base of the party has been moving further and further right like a runaway train. Donald Trump empowered those at the right extremes to go whole hog on their objectives and those who kept their congressional or Senate seats either followed them, were forced to retire or were primaried by grifters like MTG or Boebert. At least in some of their eyes this is how they can be personally successfully even if their agendas are not supported at all by the bulk of the United States electorate. It's either get with this destructive program or get out.

We're moving onto Cracker Barrel restaurants now. They've now run afoul of the MAGA right. They're selling Pride rocking chairs of all things.

I wonder what corporation is going to take the side of the Nazi/Ku Klux Klan/Patriot Front/Oathkeepers right?..... and all the 2nd amendment/antiabortion/antigay nuts? Is Kid Rock going to shoot up a Cracker Barrel now with his AK47? Ted Nugent as his getaway driver? Are they going to get real about Coors beer? who are not who they think they are. I'm great with them taking away their own personal happiness options over their stupid and drivelish beliefs. All these self owns. Maybe Hobby Lobby and Lindell's Pillow Heaven but foam, duck feathers and yarn take an awful lot of chewing and are pretty hard to swallow.

>66 pnppl: After my dad died in November 2012 my mom was in a real funk so having just retired from USPS I started taking her around. She was about 90 and her reflexes and eyesight (in the aftermath we kind of bullied her into getting Lazar surgery and all of a sudden she had 20/30 vision go figure) were shit and she was severely depressed. Anyway it was a way of getting her over some of these issues. But I swear when it came to restaurants her first (unspoken) rule was they were good if they didn't serve alcohol and her second was the cheaper the better and Cracker Barrel might not have been her go to but it was always in the running if she wanted something different.

>68 pnppl: The alcohol use to be a lot more important to me. Since my battle with myeloma started it's been cut back drastically. My mom died in 2017 on Christmas Eve. She had a very long life though and she wanted to meet up with Dad in the spiritual world----however that works. That had been an ongoing subject from the day he died.

Medical science though is working wonders these days in all kinds of fields. When you can take a 90 year old who is practically blind and with a couple kind of close to benign operations---(she had to wear patches for a couple/three weeks, take mild pain killers for a little while, eye drops for a couple/three months) and then to 20/30 vision it's a good deal.It's also a huge gift to be able to see again. From being severely depressed---that and the family looking in on her all the time moved that to a much milder depression. There is a lot to be angry about but there's also a lot of good if someone wants to look for it.

It has to be traumatic--feeling settled and then all this other nonsense happens. Personally I don't think I would cope well south of the Mason/Dixon.

I live in one of the more conservative regions of NYS and there's always bitching about high taxes. To me that's a big whatever. I kind of look at it this way---we don't really have culture war laws, there's sanity on guns and though upstate you don't get the beach life.....you don't get the hurricanes either. We do have some nice lakes.....wineries and breweries. We had one tornado in our neck of the woods about a dozen years ago. No earthquakes.....no fracking either. No massive forest fires. The biggest climate disaster that I can remember was the flood back in 1972. Nothing since has come close to that. We do get a blizzard or two in the winter but the snowfall around here ain't anything like it use to be back in the 1970's, 80's and 90's. Nothing is perfect but at least the state government we have isn't targeting groups right and left. No doubt there are some here that would like that but they're definitely in the minority. The New England states for the most part are pretty much like New York as far as people and the state and local governments. Some of the local governments are worse than others mind you but the state governments kind of keep them on the right side of sanity.

beans

These people who are determined to do their culture wars aren't reaching anyone that's actually left of center. It doesn't matter how relentlessly focused on the 'prize' that they are. There are some democratic politicians that they might reach but those are the Manchin kind--they're not left of anything.

All this culture war shit they do is easily see throughable. Their real hope is to get at independent voters who walk the margins between the two parties. I don't think they have the majority of the population seeing it their way for any of it.....they probably do have majorities in some states. They do have legislative majorities for some of their aims in those and other states. I think the Kansas referendum on abortion is something to keep in mind. Kansas has very much been a red state for a long time. After the Dobbs decision last year they thought it would be a slam dunk for some draconian abortion legislation but it was law they couldn't just enact that they had to do a referendum and they got clobbered by about 20 points.

We'll see what 2024 brings but it wouldn't shock me at all if there is some for real and unexpected pushback coming their way.

How US Evangelicals and the Russian Orthodox Church have helped fuel anti-LGBTQ+ agenda in Europe (euronews)

Foreign interference and growing anti-LGBTQ+ movements are threatening the European Union membership prospects of Western Balkan countries. A growing network of foreign organisations are pouring hundreds of millions of euros into "culture war" groups campaigning to roll back LGBTQ+ rights across Europe, European lawmakers have warned. In a resolution published earlier this month, the European Parliament raised the alarm about foreign interference in all democratic processes in Europe, pointing out that most of the foreign funding originates from Russia and the US. This foreign interference, coupled with disinformation and numerous attacks perpetrated by malicious foreign actors, is predicted to increase in the lead-up to the European Parliament elections in 2024, becoming more sophisticated in nature. MEPs flagged that at least 50 organisations now fund anti-gender activities — opposing what they call gender ideology. “Europe is seeing a growing number of anti-gender movements, specifically targeting sexual and reproductive health, women’s rights and LGBTIQ+ people,” the EU parliamentary report read. “Such movements proliferate disinformation in order to reverse progress in women’s rights and gender equality. These movements have been reported to receive millions of euros in foreign funding, either public or private, including from Russia and the US”...

>88 pnppl: In 2022 three red states (Kansas, Kentucky, Montana) put up anti-abortion referendums before their populations and they lost all three. In Michigan which has been a purple state---abortion rights were enshrined into law. Same happened in blue states Vermont and California. I don't think a lot of voters appreciated the Supreme Court's rulings last year. Conservatives tried to use those rulings to push their anti-abortion agendas and so far have pretty much lost every time a vote has gone to a referendum. They win when they have legislative control and don't have to go to their own populations for approval through a referendum. Their voters can vote them out next time around---I'm a little skeptical how much that will happen but it's clear to me that the silent majority these days are not conservatives.

To go on---the Republican Party is about as underhanded as it gets when it comes to the real will of the people. So much of their ability to hang on to power depends on voter suppression, drawing unfair districts and finding ways to get around majority opinion/rule. The former president is just an example of that from the top but it's something that's permeated throughout the party and has become a main part of their shtick. It might take a while but what I'm looking for in the relative future for them is a lot of crash and burn. What there is of a political agenda that I see from that party is just the targeting whoever they conceive as enemies---they have almost no ideas but a lot of denial about things such as climate, health care, infrastructure etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. They are a party without ideas but with lots of enemies.

A bit of moral support from the pope, although sadly his institutional Church is slow to respond, and there is fierce opposition from some members, particularly in the USA, so there is less practical progress than he (and many of us Catholics) would like.

Pope tells transgender person: 'God loves us as we are' (Reuters)

Pope Francis has told a young transgender person that "God loves us as we are", his latest outreach gesture towards the LGBT community... One of the young people was Giona, an Italian in their early 20s who said they were "torn by the dichotomy between (their Catholic) faith and transgender identity". Francis replied that "the Lord always walks with us ... Even if we are sinners, he draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are, this is God's crazy love." The Catholic Church teaches that members of the LGBT community should be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity, and their human rights respected. Whether the Church can and should be more welcoming towards LGBT people, for example by offering blessings for same-sex unions, is a particularly sensitive topic. Francis has famously said "who am I to judge" in an answer to a question specifically about homosexuals, and has condemned laws criminalising members of the LGBT community as a sin and an injustice...

Catholics bishops and Cardinals in the United States are pretty damned horrific. With all the problems they have finding new clergy and all the hollowing out of their congregations for the past few decades it's like they still ldo everything they can to drive people away.....and then they have all the issues with their clergy that they try to hide and bury and it doesn't work. Their anti-gay agenda just comes across as rank hypocrisy but when you have blinders on.........

Top US doctors’ group backs gender-affirming care amid rightwing attacks (Guardian)

The American Academy of Pediatrics has reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming medical care for transgender children, even as the treatments face a growing push for bans and restrictions from Republican lawmakers across the US. The board of directors for the group, which represents 67,000 pediatricians, unanimously voted to reaffirm its 2018 position on the treatments... "the board is concerned about restrictions to accessing evidence-based health care for young people who need it,” Mark Del Monte, the academy’s chief executive, said in a statement released by the group, calling the restrictions enacted by states “unprecedented government intrusion”...

>93 pnppl:

That's all fair criticism of a global institution, some parts of which are very unwieldy when it comes to trying to change entrenched attitudes, just as in some parts of the wider society. But for what it's worth, the pope has reinforced his message with a speech in Lisbon to half a million youth from all over the world: "There is room for everyone in the church and, whenever there is not, then, please, we must make room" (link). The article continues, "The pope's emphasis on openness is simple and has come to define much of his 10-year papacy as he has continually tried to preach a message of welcome to historically marginalized groups in the church, including women, the divorced and remarried, and LGBTQ Catholics. But it has been met with fierce resistance, including inside the church", and gives the example of one well known US Catholic bishop who is already dismissing it.

The United States Catholic Church hierarchy are at least for the much greater part all in on the Trump train. There are Cardinals and Bishops spreading all kinds of conspiracy shit and lies and like many evangelicals have no problem using their pulpits to extol Trump and to excuse his bullying and his crimes.

>103 lriley:

Sadly that's true. They are currently the most vocal and visible part of the US Catholic Church, but I doubt that they're a majority. In both humanitarian and peacebuilding fields I know and work with many US Catholics, from cardinals down to ordinary layfolk, who are supporting Pope Francis' position rather than Trump and the right wing culture war.

>104 John5918: What I get from it all is it's not the same in most European and South American countries......probably African too. It seems in places where the Church works with poorer people more it is far more open to being constructive than destructive. There are pretty big issues that go back to Rome though with some upper heirarchy, with the Vatican Bank, with the covering up of predatory sexual behavior among even very highly placed Cardinals and Bishops. Personally I think the Church should have opened up to Women priests and allowing marriage a long long time ago. That probably would have tamped down that last issue considerably. It is a church that seems in a lot of ways still to be back in the 18th/19th/maybe early 20th centuries. Just looking at the writers Brone cites in another thread that's pretty much where he seems to be too.

>105 lriley:

Again, I can't really disagree with you, and certainly brone is a prime example of that type of US Catholic. All I can say is there is also a lot of other Catholic literature around, which is cited from time to time in the Catholic Tradition and Christianity groups here on LT. But I don't want to derail this trans thread with a discussion of the Catholic Church, merely to point out that there are significant actors within the Church, led by the pope, who just want to see everybody treated as an equal human being regardless of colour, sex, gender, race, nationality, creed, class or whatever.

>106 John5918: I think you yourself are a prime example of one of those who want people to be treated fairly. To me it's not my job to judge others. There are certainly things I don't like. I don't like the idea of people murdering other people. Occasionally there can be some context to that for instance in that someone who has been abused for a long time flips out against their abuser. I don't like people physically, sexually or psychologically harming others. To me consent between people is important. On the trans issue I look at is as people trying to find and at least most of the time finding more happiness in their lives and there's nothing wrong with that. Happiness is a very elusive thing though. People chase after it and there are moments but then it's on to the next chase (or at least for most people). I also think there is not enough separation between a lot of people and their sense of property. For instance a TV, a computer, a car is a thing....it's not something I would want to harm someone over. Property is valued but pretty much values are always arbitrary. A life should be worth much more than that.

Pope doubles down on message that church is open to all, including LGBTQ people and women (National Catholic Reporter)

After driving home a message to young people for several days in a row that the church is open to everyone, Pope Francis on Aug. 6 reiterated that such a message includes LGBTQ people and all marginalized groups. "The Lord is clear," the pope said in reflecting on who is welcome in the church: "The sick, the elderly, the young, old, ugly, beautiful, good and bad"... Throughout the visit, the pope continued to repeat the message that everyone is welcome in the Catholic Church — at one point getting young people to repeat after him "todos, todos, todos" ("everyone, everyone, everyone”). Yet on the same day of those remarks, a Mass for LGBTQ pilgrims in Lisbon was interrupted by traditionalist protestors who believed the event to be sacrilegious. Organizers said the protest underscored the challenges gay and lesbian Catholics face in the church today. "The church is a mother," he said...

Speaking of genocide, 82 years ago today, the worst of all punishments handed out by the Nazis in Auschwitz was endured by St. Maximillian Kolbe a Polish Franciscan priest, on 7/31/41 a prisoner attempted to escape the terror camp. As punishment 10 men were to die of starvation in a 3ft high concrete hut entombed without water or light, toilets, or food. After two weeks the comandant hoping to find Madness and Cannibalism, found only calmness among those still alive. Furiously he ordered Carbolic acid injected into them immediatly. Kolbe's death was in place of another man who had pleaded for his life. Today Kolbe is the patron Saint of addicts and represents the over 205 million men, women, and children, murdered by their governments in the 20th century and continuing in this century because each and every one of them were an unrepeatable center of dignity and freedom, made in the image of Christ and made for eternity, not the whim of governor, bureaucrat, commandant or ideolgue....16670 pray for us....

>112 pnppl: Having separate gender categories in chess seems outdated.

First Ugandan is charged with ‘aggravated homosexuality’ punishable by death
The country enacted one of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in May, prescribing life in prison for same-sex intercourse and the death penalty in certain cases.
Reuters | 28 Aug 2023

KAMPALA — A 20-year-old man has become the first Ugandan to be charged with “aggravated homosexuality,” an offense punishable by death under the country’s recently enacted anti-gay law...

It prescribes life in prison for same-sex intercourse. The death penalty can apply in cases deemed “aggravated”, which include repeat offenses, gay sex that transmits terminal illness, or same-sex intercourse with a minor, an elderly person or a person with disabilities.

According to a charge sheet seen by Reuters, the defendant was charged on Aug. 18 with aggravated homosexuality after he “performed unlawful sexual intercourse” with a 41-year-old man. It did not specify why the act was considered aggravated...

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/first-ugandan-charged-aggravated-homose...

Everywhere the world is dominated by mistrust and filled with hate. Worst of all is the pervasive indifference to truth. Men and women embrace fictions with which to silence their opponents and even create slogans which justify killing them. Such language is either innocent or harmless. We have already suffered bloodshed and mayhem such fictions have caused. Not everyone however has surrended to these falsities but there can be no doubt that those who traffic in delusions and folly today speak with authority and continue to gather enthusiatic disciples....JMJ....

Reportedly, doctors are telling recruiters 'no red states'.
Not very pro-life to drive away people who save kids born with Congenital Heart Disease...

One of Louisiana’s only pediatric cardiologists has left the state over anti-LGBTQ legislation
Nicquel Terry Ellis | September 1, 2023

...In 2023, more than 525 anti-LGBTQ bills were passed in 41 states, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that advocates for the LGBTQ community. Of those bills, more than 220 explicitly targeted transgender people. As of June, 77 anti-LGBTQ bills had been signed into law.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/01/us/jake-kleinmahon-doctor-leaves-louisiana-reaj

Uganda’s anti-gay law has turned camps into prisons for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers (The New Humanitarian)

Uganda is home to the largest refugee population in Africa – and the third largest in the world – and has been widely praised for its progressive policies, which allow asylum seekers to work, start businesses, and move freely. However, a new law imposing harsher penalties on the country’s sexual minorities has made life harder for LGBTQ+ people who have taken refuge there and increased the risks they face if they leave the refugee settlements. Same-sex relationships were already illegal in Uganda. However, the Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni on 22 March advanced the government's long-running campaign against homosexuality. Engaging in homosexual acts can now result in a life sentence, and attempting to have same-sex relations can earn a 10-year prison term. There is even the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality", which includes same-sex relationships with HIV-positive people, and up to 14 years in prison for "attempted aggravated homosexuality". While the new law, which has been couched in the language of decolonisation, religious mysticism, and a narrative of a weakened West, will almost certainly result in further persecution and discrimination of Uganda's LGBTQ+ minority, its impact extends beyond local people to the 1.5 million refugees living in the country... Within the refugee context, additional challenges arise. The majority of refugees in Uganda live in one of the country's 13 refugee settlements, where levels of poverty and unemployment levels are high. The conditions within the camps are especially tough for marginalised members of the refugee population, including LGBTQ+ individuals... The recent changes in legislation have only amplified the plight of LGBTQ+ refugees, trapping them between a rock and a hard place. While refugees are allowed to settle elsewhere, leaving the camps could potentially expose LGBTQ+ refugees to prosecution under the new law... Because of their refugee status and the presence of international organisations in the camps, they may have a certain sphere of protection from arrest based on their sexual orientation. However, this has led to a distressing reality: Their fundamental right to free movement has become obsolete in the face of systemic discrimination...

Abuse of Oxford’s trans students and staff saddens me, says vice-chancellor

Oxford’s vice-chancellor has said she was “deeply saddened” by the abuse and attacks aimed at the university’s transgender staff and students during her first year in the post, including the controversy which surrounded an appearance by Kathleen Stock, a gender-critical feminist... “I was deeply saddened to learn of the abusive and threatening language and behaviours that our trans community suffered this year. We should have done more to support them; rest assured lessons were learned. In this university, I expect more and we will continue to strive to create a culture of tolerance and respectful disagreement on key issues of the day. That is how we learn together and evolve”...

Trans hospital patients in England to be banned from female- and male-only wards

Trans hospital patients in England will be banned from being treated in female- and male-only wards, under plans announced by the health secretary. In a speech to Conservative activists at the party’s conference in Manchester, Steve Barclay also promised a patient’s request to have intimate care provided by someone of the same biological sex would be respected... However, the comments sparked a backlash from moderate Tory MPs, who fear LGBTQ+ people are being targeted as part of a wider culture war designed to appeal to the right of the party. Jamie Wallis, a Conservative who became the first openly transgender MP last year, said Barclay was grappling with a non-issue...

Both from the Guardian

They don't call it abortion; they call it "reproductive health", abortion... This is the obligation imposed by political correctness with its Orwellian Newspeak, and those who hide the horrific crime against innocent human life behind an aseptic term are also in favor of using amputations and "therapies" to mutilate people, prepubescent children to look like what they are not: They call this "sex reassignment". Those who advocate abortion and child mutilation are also in favor of killing the sick, the elderly, the demented, the disabled, or as in practice in Canada all those the state or individual deems unworthy of life. This then as the claim goes is not legalised murder but Euthanasia. Death. Only Death. Death before birth, Death during life, Death before natural dying. Significantly, those who are innocent for the death of innocent people, chilren, the sick, the elderly, are opposed to the death penalty. We can be found unworthy of life because we are poor, because we are old, because we are not wanted by those who begot us; but when the death penalty is imposed on those who slaughter people in massacres or other horrific atrocities it is considered barbaric....JMJ....

Strangely enough in this frenzied rampage to suicide, murder, and mutilation we begin to understand the theorists of these monstrous crimes, which have been going on for decades and throws us back to the worst barbarism of the worst paganism, do not consider themselves part of the extermination and mutilation: None of them have been aborted; none of them were left to die uncared for; none of them were forced to die by court order. It is us who are guilty because we are alive, because we exist and produce co2. The exception of course are the geronic old globalist billionaires, elites, and politicians who barricade themselves in their fortresses guarded by armed security, who cannot resign themselves to natural death but resort to everything-even the most heinous means- to appear young. To avoid the deterioration of their bodies and to secure "eternal life" in a cloud of transhumanism, the elite themselves want to rule over life, over old age, and over illness....AMDG....

>131 brone: Do you believe that human beings own their own bodies? Or do you believe that all human beings are inherently slaves of the state and/or the church?

Take your pick. If the former, then people have the right to make their own decisions about their own bodies, period. If the latter, then please present your case: why should I believe that I am and should be a slave of the state and/or the church?

>135 kiparsky: Real slavery is alive and flourishing in our own country and is practically universal at present and throughout human history. You are right slavery has different forms and not all slavery is the same. In our own time we can and do say that all forms of slavery are contrary to Natural Law. I think you will agree progress can always be made in human reason even if, in the past, something now forbidden by Natural Law was permitted an example would be the almost universal prohibition of polygamy, permitted in the past. So the slavery of the state/church is not defined in our country as prevalent, I see no auctions or chains. Today it is definined as "human trafficking" a terrible problem right here in our own country. It is true when we say that slavery is illegal in this country, but it is still present and flourishing all around us. Recently a Billionare NFL team owner flies his personal jet to Florida and gets caught with a 13yearold Asian girl to recieve one of his frequent "massages" and buys his way out of it. This sort of exploitation is slavery and is out of sight therefore out of mind....JMJ....

>137 brone: the almost universal prohibition of polygamy, permitted in the past

There is not an "almost universal prohibition of polygamy". It is permitted in Islam, which accounts for 1.3 billion people, or around 16% of the world's population. It is also permitted in many African traditional cultures and is still not uncommon in Africa, which represents about the same percentage of the world's population, overlapping with Islam. And it has been said that in the western world we now simply have a form of successive polygamy where it is considered normal for a person to have several spouses one after the other but just not at the same time.

But you're right that modern slavery continues, in Africa and elsewhere. Human trafficking is part of that dynamic.

Apologies to the OP for being off topic.

>137 brone: You don't need auctions or chains if you've declared - as you have - that all human beings belong to the state, straight out, and that the state has full ownership of every body.
Please explain why you think I should tolerate this proposal, as it sounds utterly insane and indeed sociopathic to me. Why should I go along with the idea that what I do with my body is a matter for me, my doctor, and any random politician or priest who happens to take an interest? Are you willing to submit your own personal body to the dictates of anyone who claims to be representing a higher power or who has been elected to some local office? (If so, please let us know, as I'm a registered minister in the ULC and I could have a lot of fun with that.)

In our own time we can and do say that all forms of slavery are contrary to Natural Law
I don't have a lot of time for the idea of "Natural Law", that sounds to me like a fancy way of saying "what I personally happen to believe and want to coerce others into believing as well". I prefer to treat ethics as an ongoing argument rather than as some sort of pre-existing "law" that we are meant to discover. I think anyone can make the argument that slavery is ethically impermissible, without needing to resort to some sort of command from on high.

And in case it's not clear to you, the reason we're talking about slavery in this context is because slavery is the correct name for the position that you take when you claim that some person inherently lacks the right to determine what happens with their own body. If a person does not own their own body, then someone else owns it, and if someone else owns your body, then you are a slave. If the church or the state has the right to determine what a person can do with their body, then that person is a slave of the church or the state.

Again, if you believe that abortion bans or controls on gender-correction surgery are legitimate, you're going to have to explain why you think we should agree with your pro-slavery position.

Gender correction surgery is now mostly protected by medical associations, legislative actions, these radical surgical interventions promote so-called gender affirmation and transitioning even in children before the age of puberty and are even on the verge of mandatory compliance. These regulations are coercive based on a false understanding of human identity. This transitioning insists in most cases of mutilation of the body in suppoort of that falsehood. What it really is, is the attempted exchange of one's unambiguous, clearly defined sexual identity as a male or female for the other sex,male altering or female altering. this mutilation involves behavioral, harmonal, and radical surgery, these "treatments" or combinations thereof are accepted as "therapy". Gender transitioning presupposes that there is a "self" that is somehow separate from the body. Yet the human person is full body and soul unity not a ghost in a machine. "a person does not merely have a body: he or she is that body" JPll....JMJ.... PS Polygamy is prohibited in most of the world and is rare in most muslim countries. And where have I "declared all human beings belong to the state straight out and the state has full ownership of everybody, and that I am pro slavery" all news to me.

>140 brone:

As usual, you omit to cite your source. Am I right in thinking that much of that comes from The National Catholic Bioethics Centre? That doesn't hold much sway on a diverse secular website such as LT.

Polygamy is prohibited in most of the world and is rare in most muslim countries

"Most" and "rare" are relative terms. Can you cite any sources? Wikipedia tells us that it is legally recognised in 58 states in Africa, Asia and Oceania, ie more than 25% of the countries in the world, and notes that it is still practiced even in many countries which do not officially recognise polygamous unions. In my experience it is certainly not rare, although neither is it universal, often for economic reasons. Beware of conflating "the world" with "the Global North" or " the West".

>140 brone: Gender correction surgery is now mostly protected by medical associations, legislative actions, these radical surgical interventions promote so-called gender affirmation and transitioning even in children before the age of puberty and are even on the verge of mandatory compliance.

That's false. Surgery rarely occurs on minors at all; medical interventions at that age mainly involve puberty blockers.

Gender transitioning presupposes that there is a "self" that is somehow separate from the body.

No, it presupposes that some people would be happier in a different body. Most medical intervention presupposes that, in fact, including things from clef lip repairing to separation of conjoined twins to stomach stapling.

Certain people are unhappy with their body's gender aspects. Studies have concluded that gender reassignment surgery generally reduces unhappiness and associated psychological issues; cf. https://fenwayhealth.org/new-study-shows-transgender-people-who-receive-gender-a...

You want to claim that those studies are wrong, or that it's better to leave some people unhappy, even suicidal, than to give them surgery, go ahead. But wild dodges like the above imply you don't want to deal with the basic issues.

And where have I "declared all human beings belong to the state straight out and the state has full ownership of everybody, and that I am pro slavery" all news to me.

Then you're not listening. The point is clear; people have rights to their body and you want to limit what they can do with their own body.

Jordan Peterson's infamous tweet about Elliot Page said that "Page had {his} breasts removed by a criminal doctor". Besides all the transgender issues in that tweet, at the end of the day, if a competent adult has $20,000 and decides to have their breasts removed, whose business is it? It's strictly constitutional to sell guns to all and sundry, but if a person wants to have plastic surgery, that's criminal?

>140 brone: where have I "declared all human beings belong to the state straight out and the state has full ownership of everybody, and that I am pro slavery" all news to me.

I could be mistaken. Are you saying you agree that a person's right to an abortion or to gender affirmation surgery is absolute and that laws restricting those are ethically unacceptable?

If not, you're claiming that the state has the right to dictate the disposition of every human being's body, and that is an assertion that every human body is owned by the state, which is to say, it is a pro-slavery position. Take your choice!

NHS gender care delays ‘contributed’ to trans woman killing herself, coroner says (Guardian)

Alice Litman had been waiting more than three years to receive gender-affirming healthcare when she died in May 2022...

Hi everyone. Scrubbed my posts a while back when I decided to step back from the internet. Just to update, Ohio is now making trans healthcare for adults illegal. So I am moving. I am being forced out of my home by political persecution in the land of the free.

I can work around the ban until I've escaped, but I can't live somewhere that treats me like this. Who knows what comes next? The law requires doctors to report trans patients to the government and they will make our info ("deidentified", natch) available to the public every 6 months.

I have the means to relocate but not the spirit, as I'm a few weeks post-breakup. This timing isn't great.

Take care of your trans loved ones. More info: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/governor-dewine-uses-anti-abortion

>150 pnppl: The bastards. I'm sorry.
I wish you all the best.

>150 pnppl: So Ohio Legislature is over-riding Gov DeWine's veto? I had hoped, with voters' Nov amendment to state constitution (declaring an individual’s right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions”) and DeWine's veto of trans bill, that Ohio's busybodies had been checked...

Brace yourself, Ohio. GOP lawmakers ready to embarrass you again with attack on trans kids
"As for HB 68’s stab at transgender athletes, that’s a solution in search of a problem,"
Thomas Suddes | 7 Jan 2023

Ohioans heartened by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s eloquent veto of the General Assembly’s anti-transgender bill – Substitute House Bill 68 – prepare to be embarrassed, again, by the legislature.

The Republican-run Ohio House of Representatives, then the state Senate, also GOP-led, could override DeWine’s veto as soon as this week.

...House Bill 68 would forbid minors to obtain gender-affirming medical care in Ohio while also forbidding transgender Ohio women to participate in women’s high school- and college sports.

As DeWine said in vetoing this legislative blunderbuss, “Were (HB 68) to become law, Ohio would be saying that the state, that the government, knows what is best medically for a child rather than the two people who love that child the most, the parents.” ...

https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2024/01/07/whats-next-with-...

What's really messed up is that these laws don't need to be fully passed or implemented to cause long-term harm. They just need to show that they could have been.

Medical workers, government officials, employers, and others limit their interactions with trans people in fear of the stigma and potential legal challenges, and trans people avoid them in return in fear of discrimination. This interferes with services, including lifesaving procedures. In short: people die. Loved ones are left with grief and distrust in social systems.

There must be more than a veto here and a judge order there for the needless suffering to end. The general public needs to push back against the politicians who are destroying civil rights or else this will not stop.

>151 davidgn:
Thank you!

>152 margd:
Not sure if they are overriding it but Dewine used an executive order to draft new regulations targeting adults. Edit: yeah they overrode it. They actually returned from recess early to do it. Really makes me feel warm and fuzzy to be such a priority for lawmakers! Edit2: was too distraught to read, apparently. House voted yes, Senate vote upcoming.

>153 aspirit:
Absolutely, people really underestimate the chilling effect, especially when most doctors only grudgingly treat us in the first place.