Bigger in Texas: Transphobia

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick at left; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at right

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick at left; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton at right

Two of the state’s top elected officials — the lieutenant governor and the attorney general — both went on transphobic, fear-mongering tirades as North Carolina ramped up its defense of a controversial anti-trans law.

Moments after North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory announced Monday that he was suing the federal government over its determination that his state’s sweeping anti-LGBT law violates federal civil rights law, Texas’s top lawman rushed to his fellow Republican’s defense.

Local LGBT publication Dallas Voice posted the full statement from Attorney General Paxton, who is currently facing a federal securities fraud lawsuit, on top of similar charges filed against him  last year in state court. Paxton previously earned the ire of marriage equality supporters (and a formal ethics complaint) last year when he falsely informed Texas county clerks that they did not have to abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling bringing the freedom to marry to all 50 states.

Paxton said:

“The people of the United States, through their representatives in Congress, enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ensure, in part, that men and women are treated equally. Congress has not changed this law to mean that individuals may choose whether they want to be male or female for the purpose of public accommodations. One’s sex is a biological fact, not a state of mind, and this threat to North Carolina is the latest in a long series of efforts by an unaccountable federal executive branch. My office stands with Governor McCrory and the people of North Carolina regarding this unconstitutional form of federal overreach.”

[…]

The same day, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — himself no stranger to transphobic fear mongering — took aim at a school superintendent who had approved a modestly trans-inclusive policy regarding bathroom and locker room access for students in the district.

Patrick suggested Monday that Kent Scribner, Fort Worth school district superintendent, should be removed from his position following the April 19 adoption of a district-wide policy that allows trans students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Full Story Here.

Trump Presidency: Forget Canada, Go to Russia!

Russia

Several celebrities and liberal politicians have threatened to move to Canada if Donald Trump becomes president, but Vladimir Putin would like American political refugees to consider moving to Russia instead.

Putin is offering 2.5 acres and citizenship to any Americans fleeing a Donald Trump presidency who would be willing to live in Russia’s remote Far East for at least his first term.

Like the United States 19th century western land rush, the Russian Homestead Act was designed to lure hardy settlers and political asylum seekers to help settle the largely undeveloped region.

Inquisitr has the full story.

McCrory: We’ll Sue the Feds

nc-mccrory-sues-fedsx750

Facing a federal government about to crack down, Gov. Pat McCrory is suing to stop them, arguing there’s no such thing as federal protections for transgender people.

At a press conference at the state capitol in Raleigh today, McCrory repeated his earlier claims that he and his conservative colleagues in the legislature did not “seek out” this issue, placing the blame squarely on members of the Charlotte City Council, which approved a trans-inclusive public accommodations ordinance in February. The statewide law was drafted explicitly as a response to these protections, which McCrory has consistently called “government overreach.”

[…]

North Carolina’s chief legal counsel, Bob Stephens, confirmed during today’s press conference that the state’s lawsuit, seeking declaratory judgment, “is our response to that deadline” set by the DOJ. “So we’ve met the deadline and now we’ll go forward,” he added.

The lawsuit blasts the United States, in particular the federal Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, “for their radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which would prevent plaintiffs from protecting the bodily privacy rights of state employees while accommodating the needs of transgendered state employees.”

Mischaracterizing the law as a “common sense privacy policy,” the complaint admits that House Bill 2 does not grant citizens access to public restrooms based on their gender identity. The suit continues:

“The Department [of Justice] contends that North Carolina’s common sense privacy policy constitutes a pattern or practice of discriminating against transgender employees in the terms and conditions of their employment because it does not give employees an unfettered right to use the bathroom or changing facility of their choice based on gender identity. The Department’s position is a baseless and blatant overreach.”

North Carolina’s complaint contends that there is no legal precedent affirming that transgender individuals are protected by federal employment law, but relies upon cases decided up to 16 years ago, notably failing to mention the numerous pro-trans equality rulings handed down in federal courts under the Obama administration.

At today’s press conference, Stephens told reporters that the DOJ is misunderstanding federal civil rights law, and argued that transgender people are not protected under Title VII. “The class of people that the Justice Department are referring to, are not a protected class,” Stephens told reporters, speaking about transgender employees who are now barred from using public restrooms that match their gender identity.

The Advocate has the full story. This just keeps plumbing brand new depths of stupidity and bigotry. How is it possible that holding on to bigotry is worth so much?

Rape Pregnancies A Silver Lining From God

Ugh. I can’t even suppress the nausea induced by this mess of a person.

via YouTube Republican State Rep. Tila Hubrecht held a press conference Thursday to defend her views on rape pregnancies.

During an intense Tuesday floor debate on the measure, Hubrecht made the case that women should not be allowed to abort pregnancies caused by rape.

“When God gives life he does so because there’s a reason, no matter what,” she said. “Sometimes bad things happen, horrible things, but sometimes God can give us a silver lining through the birth of a child.” Because, yeah, rape sucks, but there’s nothing like nine months of living with your rapist’s baby growing inside you to help you get over it!

Full Story Here.

Obliterating male and female distinctives.

House Speaker Tim Moore (The News & Observer)

House Speaker Tim Moore (The News & Observer)

North Carolina Republican lawmakers vowed to defy a federal order to repeal or stop enforcing a controversial anti-LGBT law.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday found the law violated the federal Civil Rights Act and Title IX, and officials ordered lawmakers to comply with those laws by next week or risk billions of dollars in federal education funding.

But House Speaker Tim Moore indicated Thursday that he and his fellow Republicans had no intention of meeting the federally mandated deadline, reported The News & Observer.

“We will take no action by Monday,” Moore said. “That deadline will come and go. We don’t ever want to lose any money, but we’re not going to get bullied by the Obama administration to take action prior to Monday’s date. That’s not how this works.”

[…]

One of their fellow Republicans, state Rep. Mark Walker, sniffed that Bruce Springsteen was a “bully” after the rock legend canceled a concert appearance over HB2.

“Bruce is known to be on the radical left,” Walker said. “He’s got every right to be so, but I consider this a bully tactic. It’s like when a kid gets upset and says he’s going to take his ball and go home.”

Aaaaand just what it is you all are doing? Mandating bigotry into law certainly seems like serious bullying to me.

The Christian Action League of North Carolina — one of the primary backers of the controversial law — offered a scenery-chewing statement urging GOP lawmakers to disobey the Obama administration:

“At the hands of his henchmen in the U.S. Department of Justice, King Obama, has delivered his message of intimidation to the state of North Carolina.

“The Administration has taken it upon itself to declare “sex” in Title VII and Title IX includes “sexual orientation” and “gender Identity.” This interpretation goes far beyond the language adopted and intended by Congress. Nevertheless, the Great Pontiff of Political Correctness holds the educational futures of our state’s children hostage, while dangling the money bags of federal funds over their heads, demanding in exchange North Carolina bow to the madness of obliterating male and female distinctives – something foundational to every society in human history.

“The battle over North Carolina’s common sense law, HB 2, has national significance. Must every state, more specifically, 28 other states, with laws similar to our own be forced to sacrifice their fundamental right to privacy and safety when using a restroom, locker room, or shower? That is the question of the hour.

“If this doesn’t make people righteously indignant, then our culture has lost any capacity for real moral outrage. We deserve exactly what we’ll get – confusion and chaos. Either truth is something evidential and verifiable or it’s purely subjective and determined wholly in the eye of the beholder.

“It is imperative the Governor and state lawmakers remain strong and fight the advancement of this misguided agenda. No federal law, approved by the people’s Representatives in Congress requires North Carolina comply with the Obama Administration’s demands.”

-Dr. Mark Creech

Well, male and female ‘distinctives’ are certainly foundational when it comes to misogyny, patriarchy, and every day sexism. They certainly do provide a framework for intolerance and remaining close-minded. All of which are great reasons to obliterate them. (As if it were possible to obliterate them. Christians do love being melodramatic.)

Full Story Here.

UPDATE:

(CNN)- North Carolina will meet a Monday deadline to respond to the U.S. Justice Department about the state’s transgender bathroom law, Gov. Pat McCrory said Thursday.

“We’re reviewing (the Justice Department letter) and we hope to have a response in the very near future.” he said, according to CNN affiliate WNCN.

When asked if the state will respond before Monday’s deadline set by the Justice Department, McCrory answered in the affirmative.

“Definitely,” he said. “We’ll have a response by Monday.”

CNN Story.

Pat Blames PC Culture for HB 2 Hate

Pat McCrory

Pat McCrory

With House Bill 2 under intense scrutiny, the signer of the controversial transphobic bill — North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory — lashed out at his critics and voiced concern he would lose his job. […] On the radio show, McCrory declined to take responsibility for the blowback and instead lamented his new pariah status.

“And now, sadly, in our nation if you have disagreement and you’re on the wrong side of that disagreement, according to the thought police, you’re dispensed of. You’re exiled,” he said. “I’ve even had some people call me, ‘Please don’t, governor, don’t show up to this event because I have people who disagree with you and we don’t want it.'”

[…]

“Society is changing quickly, and anybody who gets in the way is in trouble,” McCrory said on The Big Show. “And I might be in trouble. I might be looking for a side job over here.”

McCrory denied Cooper’s charge that HB 2 has embarrassed North Carolina, which has been hemorrhaging millions thanks to events and entertainers pulling out of the state.

“We haven’t embarrassed North Carolina by talking about something logically,” he said. “It’s logic but it’s not politically correct, apparently.”

The governor also contended that Bruce Springsteen, one of the performers boycotting the Tar Heel State, canceled his Greensboro performance because he couldn’t sell tickets. According to the Greensboro Coliseum, the show had sold 15,000 tickets and was about 100 tickets away from being sold out. McCrory also took umbrage with Fox News and Meet the Press, saying they presented him in a bad light when he was defending HB 2.

Full Story Here.

Transgender News Roundup

Oxford City Council President Steven Waits

Oxford City Council President Steven Waits

Alabama City May Repeal Harsh Anti-Trans Ordinance.

The Oxford, Ala., City Council is considering repealing a controversial ordinance it approved last week, imposing fines and jail terms on transgender people for using public restrooms that match their gender identity.

The council will hold a special meeting at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday “to discuss potentially recalling” the ordinance, reports AL.com, a website for several Alabama newspapers. […] The American Civil Liberties Union’s Alabama affiliate is considering a legal challenge to the Oxford ordinance, and a rally to protest the law is scheduled for Saturday, AL.com reports.

Full Story Here.

Texas City Council Wholly Rejects Mayor’s ‘Bathroom Bill’

Mayor Jim Pruitt

Mayor Jim Pruitt

Supporters and opponents showed up to watch the Texas city council deliberate on an ordinance proposed by Mayor Jim Pruitt, one that would force trans people to use the bathroom that matches with the sex they were assigned at birth, not their gender identity. “I just think that it’s insanity not to have those protections in place,” Pruitt told Dallas TV station WFAA last week.

Unfortunately for the mayor, he couldn’t find anyone on the town’s city council who agreed with him. The ordinance died in debate, after not a single one of the five council members stood up to support it. […]

But Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Lewis argued that if Pruitt doesn’t agree with the company’s statement, the solution is simple: Don’t go there. Others have the exact same option, he said. “If Target wants to have this policy, I have the choice of not shopping at Target,” Lewis told the Morning News.

The bill was vocally opposed by the local Hilton Hotel, which warned that passing an ordinance targeting trans bathroom use would be bad for the town’s local economy. Rockwall — with a population of just over 37,000 — is located outside of Dallas. “Our business will suffer,” Hilton general manager James Montgomery told KHOU. “This will negatively affect travel and tourism to our area.”

[…]

Montgomery warned that if Rockwall were to pass its own anti-trans legislation, Hilton might be forced to follow suit and leave the town. As KHOU reported, “the hotel employs 175 workers and pays $750,000 in property taxes.”

Full Story Here.

Boston Raises Transgender Pride Flag.

Boston's mayor raised the flag in a show of support for the trans community in Massachusetts.

Boston’s mayor raised the flag in a show of support for the trans community in Massachusetts.

Boston Monday became the first city in Massachusetts to fly the transgender pride flag.

Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh raised the flag along with activists and other elected officials. Lawmakers are currently “pushing a bill aimed at creating anti-discrimination protections for transgender people, allowing them to enter a bathroom based on their gender identity,”in the state, reports MassLive, a website for several Massachusetts newspapers.

“We’ve proven there’s nothing to fear from being inclusive,” Walsh told MassLive. “Quite the opposite. We are safer, we are stronger when everyone enjoys the same protections.”

Both the House and Senate versions of the measure — House Bill 1577 and Senate Bill 735 — have been advanced by the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee. The Senate version of the bill is up for debate May 12, reports MassLive. Massachusetts currently has antidiscrimination protections for trans people in employment, housing, and other areas, but not in public accomodations. Boston has had a trans-inclusive public accommodations law since 2002.

Full Story Here.

The Supreme Court Decided Against N.C.’s Law 20 Years Ago.

John Miller

John Miller

A federal lawsuit aimed at dismantling North Carolina’s sweeping anti-LGBT law is just getting under way, but the nation’s high court already struck down an eerily similar law. That ruling celebrates two decades of precedent this month.

Imagine, for a moment, that a proactive city council votes to extend nondiscrimination protections to LGBT people. The ordinance guarantees equal access to public accommodations and freedom from discrimination in housing, employment, and health and welfare services. You know, the basics.

Then, a fervent backlash arises — led by religious and political conservatives — and all LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances in the state are struck down in the heat of partisan overreaction. Further, local and state governments are prohibited from enacting these particular protections in any capacity. The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal file a federal lawsuit to stop the anti-LGBT law from taking effect.

This sounds a lot like North Carolina, where the state’s Republican leaders are intensely defendingHouse Bill 2, the draconian anti-LGBT law passed in a single day-long special session March 23.

But in reality, it’s the background of a landmark case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court 20 years ago.

Full Story Here.

18.

American Indians experienced some of the worst massacres and grossest injustices in history while Ulysses S. Grant was in office.

American Indians experienced some of the worst massacres and grossest injustices in history while Ulysses S. Grant was in office. Whitehouse.gov

…But changes in how the government treated Indians came at a critical juncture in westward expansion. As Grant worked to reform federal agencies, he also supervised the development of millions of acres of federal public lands and presided over the private acquisition of land by pioneers, spectators and railroad and mining companies.

During his eight years in office, Grant approved the Timber Culture Act (granting homesteaders additional acreage if they agreed to plant trees), the General Mining Act (authorizing prospecting and mining for minerals on public lands) and the Desert Lands Act (issuing arid Western lands to individuals who agreed to reclaim and irrigate). He also created the first national park at Yellowstone.

Yet Grant realized that his expansionist goals required the removal of Indians from desirable land. His Indian Peace Policy, designed to reform the Indian Bureau and remove corrupt agents, also called for rigorous agricultural training on reservations and established schools and churches that would transform Indians into Christian citizens.

“From the foundation of the government to the present the management of the original inhabitants of this continent—the Indians—has been a subject of embarrassment and expense,” Grant told Congress in December 1869. Calling the Indians “wards of the nation,” he proposed a new policy to establish “permanent peace” between white settlers and Indian nations.

[…]

Yet Grant’s policies toward Indians fell far short of what he promised. White settlers continued to push Indians off the land, relying on the Army to prevent retaliation. While Indians on reservations experienced poverty and increasing desperation, Grant oversaw the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad and the great slaughter of buffalo on the Plains, which destroyed much of the Indian economy.

The peace policy, ironically, led to some of the worst massacres in history. Grant’s strategy to contain Indians on reservations involved aggressive military pursuits, resulting in the Modoc War in California, the Red River War in Texas, the Nez Perce conflict in Oregon, the Black Hills campaign by Gen. George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Indian chiefs Sitting Bull, Gall, Chief Joseph, Geronimo and Cochise led their people into wars against the United States in efforts to preserve their land and ways of life. In 1870, Oglala Chief Red Cloud visited Grant at the White House, where he condemned Indian policy and described his peoples’ suffering.

Full Article Here.

White power meets business casual

Photo: Andrew Mears/ AFP

Photo: Andrew Mears/ AFP

Thank God for Donald J. Trump,” cried National Policy Institute director Richard Spencer into the microphone.

Spencer, 37, has a boyish, straitlaced look about him. With his well-tailored suit and a nicely kempt undercut, he’d meld perfectly into the swarms of youthful think tank employees trotting down Massachusetts Avenue. But NPI is no ordinary Washington think tank. Founded by an heir to a conservative publishing fortune, it drew white nationalists and sympathizers from around the country—and at least one from Canada—to its innocuously named “Identity Politics” conference a couple of days after Donald Trump dominated the field on Super Tuesday. For $45, I snagged the last ticket designated for millennials.

It is the rise of the bombastic Republican frontrunner that brought this amalgam of aggrieved crusaders together for an evening of cocktails, appetizers, and songs of praise to the candidate who’s inspired them to dip a toe into the stream of establishment politics.

Full Story Here.

There’s another hate group tackling Target for daring to be inclusive, the AFA (American Family Association):

The American Family Association, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been sending cisgender men into women’s restrooms at the retail chain.

Previously, the AFA had organized a boycott of Target, which allows customers and employees to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity. The policy is a slap back at North Carolina’s anti-LGBT law prohibiting transgender people from using the appropriate facilities for their identity, although the law applies only to government buildings, not private-sector companies.

The group, which contends Target’s policy opens the bathroom floodgates to sexual predators, claims to have enlisted over 1 million people to join its boycott.

Sandy Rios, AFA’s director of governmental affairs, revealed its new anti-LGBT tactic in a Monday radio interview with Breitbart News.

“We’ve already had people testing this, going into Targets and men trying to go into bathrooms. There is absolutely no barrier,” she told host Stephen Bannon, who said “decent, hard-working people who don’t want their 4-year-old daughter to have to go into a bathroom with a guy with a beard in a dress.”

“Absolutely no barrier”. I think that one gets filed under “no shit, Sherlock.” There’s never been anything stopping anyone from going into any public lav. You don’t even need to play dress up, just walk right in. You’d think that might have occurred to the genius watchdogs of uStates morality, but apparently it just slid right by them.

Full Story Here.

Loretta Lynch: Fundamental Fairness

Ending Transgender Discrimination About ‘Fundamental Fairness’

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch spoke out against transgender discrimination during an interview with BuzzFeed Friday.

In the interview, she showed concern for transphobic legislation making its way through states such as North Carolina and Mississippi, which have both passed laws this year that target the trans community. “Our transgender family members and friends are also incredibly vulnerable to discrimination, in terms of the laws that we see, but also to abuse,” she said.

“We decided over 200 years ago that we wanted to be an inclusive society, and we wanted to guarantee equal rights for all,” she told BuzzFeed‘s Chris Geidner. She went on to explain her position:

“For that to mean something, we have to be careful, we have to be vigilant, so that when people, for whatever reason, are either [made to] feel like they’re on the outside — a particular group — or are placed on the outside, that that doesn’t happen. And transgender issues are no different, to me, in that regard.”

Full Story Here.

Texas is joining the bigotry parade, following in the footsteps of Alabama:

Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt

Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt

Texas is poised to become the next battleground in the debate over transgender bathroom use.

Rockwall Mayor Jim Pruitt, a Republican, proposed legislation on Friday that would fine trans people up to $500 for using the bathroom that most closely corresponds to their gender identity. The ordinance restricts bathroom access strictly to members of the same “biological sex,” described as the “physical condition of being male or female, which is stated on a person’s birth certificate.”

“Citizens have a right to quiet solicitude [sic] and to be secure from embarrassment and unwanted intrusion into their privacy,” the legislation reads, as the The Dallas Morning News reports.

Apparently, they literally copied Alabama, incorrect spelling and all.

“I just think that it’s insanity not to have those protections in place,” Pruitt told Dallas TV station, WFAA. “These folks aren’t transgender that this is targeting. This is targeting folks of the opposite sex that are going into those restrooms under the guise of being transgender and having access … This is not about sexual orientation or anything of that nature. It is about privacy and the protection of our children.”

As Mark Hicks, who serves as a city councilman in Lufkin, Texas, argues, the reason that towns like Rockwall are drafting such legislation is in response to Target’s recent decision to provide affirming restroom use for trans staff and customers in all its locations.

“I am among those who believe that the potential for abusive behavior by voyeurs, exhibitionists and sexual predators is increased exponentially with the implementation of this policy,” Hicks wrote in a letter to the editor published in The Lufkin Daily News on Sunday. “It creates an unsafe environment, and it should not be allowed or encouraged. I do not believe my wife or three young daughters should have to be concerned about using public facilities anywhere — and certainly not in a neighborhood staple like Target!”

There’s more here, if you can stomach it.

Nude Trump Garners Death Threats…

and a lawsuit!

Illma Gore’s painting of a nude Donald Trump. Photograph: Courtesy of Illma Gore

Illma Gore’s painting of a nude Donald Trump. Photograph: Courtesy of Illma Gore

An infamous nude of Donald Trump has attracted bids of over £100,000 after it went on display at the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London, last week, but the artist is being anonymously threatened with legal action if she sells it, due to its resemblance to the Republican presidential hopeful.

The piece by Illma Gore, titled Make America Great Again, depicts Trump with a small penis. It went viral in February after the artist published it on her Facebook page and has since been censored on social media sites and delisted from eBay after the anonymous filing of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice threatening to sue Gore.

The Maddox Gallery in London offered to exhibit the painting after galleries in the US refused to host the piece due to security concerns following threats of violence from Trump’s supporters. Hundreds of visitors have queued to see the work.

Gore said: “The reaction, especially in the UK, has been incredibly supportive. Everywhere apart from America has been great. Who knew it would be such a big deal? I think an artist’s job is to take the times we’re living in and then set the scene. It is a representation of where we are.”

The LA-based artist has received thousands of death threats and travelled to the UK to escape the frenzy, agreeing to allow Mayfair to manage the sale of the controversial painting, now priced at £1m.

The artist is offering free downloads of the art work on her website. (NSFW). The Guardian has the full story, but be aware the full art work is shown, and is NSFW.

I went to a gay wedding. OK? I mean, that’s what I’ve done.

The Republican presidential candidate was pressed into discussing LGBT rights at a San Francisco town hall.

The Republican presidential candidate was pressed into discussing LGBT rights at a San Francisco town hall.

Bryan had asked Kasich if people are “born gay.” The Republican presidential candidate attempted to avoid answering the question, stating “I’m not gonna get into all the analysis of this or that.” But Bryan pressed Kasich and asked again.

“Do I think that people are, you know, born gay? Probably,” Kasich conceded, according to CNN. “I’ve never studied the issue. But I don’t see any reason to hurt you or to discriminate you or make you feel bad or make you feel like a second-class citizen. I don’t think that’s right.”

Kasich also reminded the audience that he once attended a same-sex wedding.

“I don’t agree with gay marriage,” he said, according to CBS News. “[But] I went to a gay wedding. OK? I mean, that’s what I’ve done.”

When asked if LGBT people deserve “free, regular rights like everybody else,” Kasich responded, “Well, you have free regular rights. We’re not denying you any rights. … I’m not out to discriminate against you. I think you ought to have as good a life as anybody else.”

[…]

“In terms of me, I don’t believe in discrimination,” Kasich said. “I think there is a balance, however, between discrimination and people’s religious liberties. But I think we should just try to, like, take a chill pill, relax, and try to get along with one another a little bit better instead of trying to write some law to solve a problem that doesn’t frankly exist in big enough numbers to justify more lawmaking.”

Kasich does keep affirming that he’s an idiot, and a mealy-mouthed one at that. Full Story Here.