South Dakota: New Attack on Transgender Kids.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R). CREDIT: AP Photo/James Nord.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R). CREDIT: AP Photo/James Nord.

Last year, Gov. Daugaard vetoed an anti-transgender bill, after meeting with a number of transgender persons. Unsurprisingly, the bigoted bill is back on the table, with a new twist.

The 2017 bill, SB 115, has the same purpose as last year’s: blocking schools from letting transgender students from accessing bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. But there’s a new word included in the bill — one not seen in other anti-transgender bills — that could set a dangerous new precedent for legislation designed to discriminate against transgender people.

“The term, biological sex, as used in this Act, means a person’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth,” the bill reads. “A person’s original birth certificate may be relied upon as definitive evidence of the person’s biological sex.”

That word “original” means there would be no way for any transgender person to ever obtain legal recognition.

Currently, in South Dakota, transgender people can obtain court orders to amend their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity without any specific medical requirements.

[…]

But if anti-trans legislation starts referring to “original birth certificates” like South Dakota’s new bill does, that would further limit the already-few ways trans people have to protect their gender identities under the law. Indeed, it would eliminate the relevance of any legal documentation they obtain that confirms their gender identity.

[…]

Given South Dakota’s otherwise-identical bill made it all the way to the governor’s desk last year, this year’s version could similarly have legs. And there’s nothing to stop the many other states considering various anti-trans bills from incorporating the same change or propose new bills with this extra rejection of transgender identities.

This is absolutely evil, and so unnecessary. I’m tired of saying it should not be alright to legislate hate and bigotry. I would hope that Daugaard find the spine to do the right thing again, but I’m doubtful. Even if he does, this will be picked up by spiteful, bigoted, hateful, christian asses in many other states.

Full story at Think Progress.

Snowflakes Rising.

Sign from Saturday's Women's March on Washington (Twitter.com).

Sign from Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington (Twitter.com).

WASHINGTON — The day after the Women’s March brought half a million people to Washington, 500 women from across the country spent Sunday learning how to run for office.

The candidate training held by EMILY’s List, the largest Democratic women’s group in the country, focused on overcoming the “intimidation factor” when navigating political campaigning, especially for women of color. It was the group’s largest training event.

“We still have ceilings to break, even inside our Democratic Party,” said Muthoni Wambu Kraal, senior director of state engagement and development at EMILY’s List.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., told the women about breaking through as the first Indian-American woman in the House of Representatives.

“As a woman of color in particular, barriers are high. They’re very high,” she said, encouraging women to pursue their point of view in elected office.

“It’s important, not only because of the color of our skin or anything like that, (but) because of the experience that we bring in from our different perspectives,” she said. “Don’t think that because you’re not connected to the wealthiest people in the world that you can’t run for office.”

GO SNOWFLAKES!

Full story here.

Wax That Ass.

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Wax That Ass, Allison Bouganim. Images courtesy of the artist.

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What do laundromats, bus stops, and supermarkets have in common? Besides being everyday locales, these seemingly innocuous sites are also hotbeds of sexual harassment. Wax That Ass, a project by artist Allison Bouganim, fuses sculpture, photography, and on-site intervention to explore the everyday discomfort felt in public places.

Bouganim began the project by making a series of sculptural butts cast from actual butts. The results were a series of plaster and wax butts (hence the project title, Wax That Ass) in a variety of different shades that seem to represent a spectrum of skin tones. Once these were made, Bouganim went to a series of sites that are not only breeding grounds for sexual harassment, but are also places where the artist herself has been sexually harassed before, to enact the performative aspect of her project.

You can read and see more at The Creators Project.

“But Nobody Told Him That.”

Three of the half-dozen octogenarian protesters who set up shop near the senior citizens’ residence where they live in downtown Washington, D.C., during Saturday’s Women’s March. CREDIT: Alan Pyke/ThinkProgress.

Three of the half-dozen octogenarian protesters who set up shop near the senior citizens’ residence where they live in downtown Washington, D.C., during Saturday’s Women’s March. CREDIT: Alan Pyke/ThinkProgress.

Nasty, Brave Women came out all over the world to march, and even those who were unable to march found a way.

…These women would love to be joining the march. But they had a hard enough time convincing their landlords to let them go even as far as this spot in Thomas Circle. They are in their 80s and 90s, veterans of many cycles of American political harmony and social discord. The management at their building were terrified these seniors might get hurt even walking three hundred feet to the circle.

That concern wasn’t going to stop 83-year-old Harriet Fulbright from demonstrating her dissent against Trumpism.

“Damnit, I feel strongly about making our views and feelings known,” Fulbright said. “I’m here because I’m very worried.”

Like her fellow senior sign-wavers, Fulbright remembers the mass upheaval of the Vietnam era and the paranoia which government surveillance and sabotage of dissenters inspired.

Something about today’s moment is scarier than the demagogues before, both losers like Barry Goldwater and winners like Richard Nixon.

“This is new. Nixon was not my favorite,” Fulbright said, with a wry grin, “but I’m more worried now.”

Mamie Chesslin, 83, nodded along with that comparison from her wheeled scooter. As a former Department of Justice attorney who spent her career enforcing environmental laws, Chesslin knows better than most just how much federal agencies influence the future — for brighter or dimmer.

“I honestly wonder how we’re going to survive it,” Chesslin said. “He’s pathological in a way we haven’t seen before. The world doesn’t stop because of Donald Trump, but nobody told him that.”

Ms. Chesslin is right on the money. She puts that sharp mind right on the big, huge problem: Trump thinks he can do anything he wants, and he’s surrounded himself with people who tell him that’s right. He’s also surrounded by people who have enough power to try and make that a reality.

“I’ve been astonished and delighted by the reactions from younger people today,” said Tina Hobson, 87, who helped rally the group to defy the well-intentioned concerns of the residence staff. “Instead of an intense, anxious day, it’s been a lot of fun.”

[…]

“When you get to this age you remember what life was like before Roe vs. Wade. You can tell the stories,” she said.

“None of us thought we’d be doing this again.”

At a mere 59 years of age, and the unwanted product of pre-Roe life, I never thought we’d be doing this again, either. Yet here we are. Stay strong, stand up, shout out. Resist.

Via Think Progress.

Sunday Facepalm.

facepalm_estatua1

All of life has become one gargantuan facepalm, ennit? Here are a few of them, adding to the whole:

Corey Lewandowski is now on record saying that no republicans ever questioned the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency, no, not those holy rethugs. That’s just so baldfaced, it’s hard to say it qualifies only as a facepalm.

“You’ve seen that the Democrats are trying to say that he’s not a legitimate candidate,” he said. “Can you imagine just for a second if a Republican congressman would have gone out and said this about Barack Obama and continued that narrative? It would be an uproar in the mainstream media.”

Right, because there wasn’t round the clock, constant coverage of all the rethugs screaming for birth certificates and the like.

highlights-magazine-2Kevin Swanson, who is rabid in his hatred for all things queer, is now raging about…Highlights. It’s just as bad as ISIS, did you know? Oh yes, just as evil, and maybe more evil. What brought on this irrational tirade of abuse? Inclusivity, natch. Inclusiveness of any kind is always to be found right at the top of the most evil list the Religious Reich has in their pocket.

Highlights Magazine announced they will be featuring same sex parents in future editions. That’s nice, isn’t it? Well, it’s nice for people who aren’t terrified by inclusiveness, and think it’s a good thing for the children of same sex parents to see themselves and their families represented. That helps to establish healthy, stable children, and a healthy, stable society, things which Christian Republicans are fanatically against. None of that inclusive wholesomeness for them, oh no!

Swanson said that while ISIS is releasing videos showing young children killing prisoners, Highlights is just as evil because it will “encourage the support for the sin of homosexuality among kids.”

It will encourage acceptance, yes. That’s a good thing, at least if you’re a decent, ethical person. I guess we know where that places Mr. Swanson.

“So now, here’s Highlights magazine, an American kids’ magazine promoting homosexuality amongst kids,” Swanson fumed, “and now ISIS is teaching kids how to kill people. Now, I got to thinking: Which sin is worse? Homosexuality or murder? Which is worse? Are we really that much better than ISIS?”

No, Highlights is not promoting homosexuality, anymore than it promotes heterosexuality. It’s simply reflecting their readership, and society as a whole. As for which sin is worse, can we just count Christianity as one big evil stain of a sin? It would save time. There are times I wish the xian hell did exist, because some people definitely deserve an extended dip in it, like Mr. Swanson. Even I’m not nasty enough to think he deserves such for eternity though. I’m simply not evil enough to be a good christian.

Okay everyone, hang onto those hats…

POTUS-Shield-800x458

Yeah. Are you impressed? I think we’re supposed to be impressed.

We reported earlier this week that a group of Trump-supporting dominionists has launched a POTUS Shield project to protect Trump and his presidency from his enemies. They’ve now posted video [warning: autoplay] from last week’s prayer gathering at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In addition to prayers of gratitude for Trump’s “anointing” and his having “surrounded himself with evangelical people” and “magnified Christianity,” the group prayed individually for each member of the Trump family, as someone came forward to act as a sort of Hollywood-style stand-in for each of them.

Lance Wallnau, who had repeatedly declared that Trump was anointed by God, prayed for Donald Jr., declaring that God would give him a personal heads-up—“a word of knowledge ahead of time”—when the media is trying to trip up or embarrass the family.

Sure, why not get to the really important stuff right away? I’m sure there couldn’t possibly be anything more urgent than embarrassment, given that Trump is sort of the living embodiment of embarrassment.

Frank Amedia, who served the Trump campaign as a voluntary “liaison for Christian policy,” prayed for Eric, saying that he too has “an anointing on him” and that Eric’s “humility for you is already beyond natural.” Amedia prayed that God would “bless his seed and the seed of his seed.”

Eeeuuuw. Seriously, christians, just start fucking more, maybe it will take care of this constant need to shove your noses into crotches, and stop concerning yourself with people’s semen.  As for humility, Eric. Really. Guess they didn’t see those disgusting hunting photos.

Leigh Valentine, a beauty-industry entrepreneur associated with John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel, thanked God for “the anointing” he had placed on Melania to walk alongside her husband. The “wisdom of God”, she said, will be upon Melania, who will “astound the women of her nation.”

What nation are we talking here? Astounded. By what? Her penchant for plagiarism? The fact that she was hawking her QVC crap on the whitehouse.gov site before someone hastily yanked it? Her standing silently by when her husband is busy drooling all over his daughter? Standing by her man when he talks about grabbing women by the pussy?

Mark Gonzalez prayed that young Barron would be given wisdom beyond his years and asked that God protect his heart when he sees “evil” being “launched at his family.”

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a blank looking kid. Either he’s so overwhelmed he’s close to paralysis, or he’s simply not affected by anything. I think he should be protected too, but that’s a tough call when he’s in the bosom of his family.

Clarence McClendon, a Los Angeles-based preacher who said in post-election Twitter messages to “the Prophetic Community” that the election was “supernatural” and a “Re-Set” for the country, prayed for Mike Pence has his wife, saying that God had told him Pence was “a covenant man.” Pence, he said, is “malleable and pliable” in God’s hand, and prayed that Pence would speak wisdom into Trump’s ears.

I wouldn’t describe Pence as malleable and pliable in the least. Rigid, cold, uncaring, devoid of empathy, and a willing toady, yes. There’s more at Right Wing Watch.

Okay…Inauguration Roundup.

IR

© Laura Racero.

Oh, where to start. I guess we’ll start with “Hey, look, a tiny, Bane-full inauguration!

(Photo: Wikipedia commons and screen capture).

(Photo: Wikipedia commons and screen capture).

For all the boasting about the bigliest ever, the crowds at Trump’s inauguration were woefully scant. The Twitternet jumped all over this immediately, and you can see many of the tweets here. Also noted by the Twitternet, and most everyone else on the planet, Trump borrowed a bit of his speech from a fictional villain, which is terribly apropos, but he picked the wrong villain, Bane. Bane was more of a “eat the rich!” kind of villain. That didn’t stop Trump:

Fans of the Batman franchise film The Dark Knight Rises were startled to hear the words of the movie villain Bane coming out of Republican Pres. Donald Trump’s mouth as he made his inaugural address — purportedly written by Trump himself — on Friday.

“We’re giving the power back to you. The people,” Trump said Friday, a nearly verbatim quote from Christopher and Jonathan Nolan’s screenplay for the 2012 film starring Christian Bale as Batman and Tom Hardy as Bane.

You can read all about this one, and see some of the tweets here.

The Twitternet also broke out in gales of laughter and comparisons over Kellyanne Conway’s outfit:

Kellyanne Conway attends President Trump's inauguration (Screen cap).

Kellyanne Conway attends President Trump’s inauguration (Screen cap).

Conway’s outfit, which TMZ claims she describes as “Trump Revolutionary Wear,” is a red-white-and-blue getup that is meant to be somewhat reminiscent of Revolutionary War-era military uniforms.

CNN’s Hunter Schwarz notes that her coat is actually a $3,600 Gucci wool a-line coat — and CNN’s Kate Bennett writes that the coat was originally designed to pay tribute to the city of London, which isn’t exactly a place to celebrate the American Revolution.

You can read all about that, and see tweets here. Oh, and the buttons on it are cat heads.

Then there’s a compilation of all the things that didn’t happen, didn’t come through, and weren’t bigly at all:

Women’s March bus permit requests outnumber inauguration requests by 3 times.

Most hotel bookings have been made by anti-Trump protesters.

Trump is wrong (again): dress shops still have plenty of available frocks.

“There’s never been less demand for inaugural ballgowns in my 38 years,” Peter Marx, who owns D.C. dress shop Saks Jandel, told People. “Never ever has it been less for the inaugural.”

Other shops expressed similar sentiments.

“We were expecting heavy traffic and it has not been that way,” a D.C. Bloomingdale’s representative told Elle. “The last inauguration was a lot more people shopping.”

A spokesperson from Intermix told the outlet, “Usually, it is really big for us, but this year we haven’t seen anything yet, surprisingly.”

Elle notes that “among others we called, White House Black Market and Cusp in Georgetown confirmed they have options in stock. So does Neiman Marcus. And Gucci. And Lord & Taylor. And Nordstrom.”

There’s more here.

And there were artists out, as well as all the marchers and protesters. FORCE put on a big show:

CREDIT: Nate Larson.

CREDIT: Nate Larson.

…For roughly 45 minutes, a slideshow of photos and quotes from survivors circulated on the front of the building, as passersby stopped to take it in. The organizers of the installation hoped their message reached at least a few visitors here for Trump’s inauguration.

“As a native woman, as a queer woman, as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and intimate parter violence, there’s so much that is traumatic about seeing my country support somebody that represents violence against all of those things,” said Rebecca Nagle, a co-director of FORCE. “The racism and the misogyny that [Trump] represents is bigger than just him as a person and a figurehead, but is something that is deeply embedded in American culture.”

Many victims of sexual assault were particularly traumatized by the election of Donald Trump, who bragged on tape about sexually abusing woman. Now, as he prepares to enter the White House, there are already signs that Trump won’t pursue policies aimed at preventing sexual violence. As part of his proposed plan to reduce government spending, Trump administration officials reportedly approached the Department of Justice with a plan to eliminate the federal grants used to combat violence against women.

“The goal of the piece is really to uplift survivors voices at a time that a lot of people are normalizing Trump’s behavior,” said Nagle.

Full story at Think Progress. A great work by FORCE!

And because there’s always bad news:

President Donald Trump’s whitehouse.gov page omitted references to a number of policy issues championed by his predecessor, including climate change, civil rights and healthcare, providing a blueprint for the new administration’s priorities over the next four years.

Full story here.

Sister Marches.

Wm

If you can’t make the women’s march on Washington, there are sister events! They are going on everywhere, not just here in uStates, but all over the world. Check out the sisters page, and see if you can find a march near you. (There are even three here in nDakota!)

World of Wonder has more details.

“Jade Eggs”

JAde-bag

A gynecologist, Dr. Jen Gunter, is taking Gwyneth Paltrow to task for hawking yet more crap at inflated prices. In this case, it’s ‘jade eggs’, which are claimed to do so much more than provide exercises of the kegel kind, oh yes! Goodness, there’s an intuition factory down there, and it requires feeding and care. This nonsense made me think back decades ago to a joke Roseanne Barr did about men thinking a uterus was a magical tracking device.

I read the post on GOOP and all I can tell you is it is the biggest load of garbage I have read on your site since vaginal steaming. It’s even worse than claiming bras cause cancer. But hey, you aren’t one to let facts get in the way of profiting from snake oil.

My issue begins with the very start of your post on jade eggs specifically that “queens and concubines used them to stay in shape for emperors.” Nothing says female empowerment more than the only reason to do this is for your man! And then the claim that they can balance hormones is, quite simply, biologically impossible. Pelvic floor exercises can help with incontinence and even give stronger orgasms for some women, but they cannot change hormones. As for female energy? I’m a gynecologist and I don’t know what that is!? How does one test for it? Organically sourced, fair trade urine pH sticks coming soon to GOOP for $77 I presume?

Queens and concubines, eh? Why would a queen need (or want) to impress an emperor? Besides getting her political classes all mixed up, citing concubines is on the really fucked up side. Perhaps Ms. Paltrow’s friends could chip in and purchase a dictionary for her, or some history books.

From the blather about jade eggs on Goop:

practice – there was not as much information about it then as there is now. But it made intuitive sense to me: The word for our womb, yoni, translates as “sacred place”, and it is a sacred place – it’s where many women access their intuition, their power, and their wisdom.

:Stifles scream: Oh gods, I can’t even say how much I loathe this sort of nonsense. No. No, no, no. I have a uterus, yes. It is by no means sacred, there’s no little altar in there, and it is not possible to access intuition, power, or wisdom from it. Pushing this absolute bullshit is not helpful, it’s not empowering, it’s simply reducing women down to parts, and misogyny and sexism already do that well enough. Dr. Gunter wasn’t impressed, either:

If the word for womb is yoni I hate to break it to you, but the uterus and vagina are different structures. If you are using the Sanskrit, while I admit I am no language scholar, it seems that yoni means the entire female reproductive tract and you should say that. Terminology aside, the vulva, vagina, cervix, and uterus are not intuition repositories and neither are they sources of “power” or “wisdom.” If fact, I find that assertion insulting. Do you really mean a woman who does not have a uterus is less effective? Is a woman without a vagina less intelligent?  Is a woman who had a vulvectomy due to cancer less creative?

Dr. Gunter also takes on some of the very real physical problems involved:

As for the recommendation that women sleep with a jade egg in their vaginas I would like to point out that jade is porous which could allow bacteria to get inside and so the egg could act like a fomite. This is not good, in case you were wondering. It could be a risk factor for bacterial vaginosis or even the potentially deadly toxic shock syndrome.

Regarding the suggestion to wear the jade egg while walking around, well, I would like to point out that your pelvic floor muscles are not meant to contract continuously. In fact, it is quite difficult to isolate your pelvic floor while walking so many women could actually clench other muscles to keep the egg inside. It is possible the pained expression of clenching your butt all day could be what is leading people to stare, not some energy glow.

Overenthusiastic Kegel exercises or incorrectly done Kegel exercises are a cause of pelvic pain and pain with sex in my practice. Imagine how your biceps muscle (and then your shoulders and then your back) might feel if you walked around all day flexed holding a barbell? Right, now imagine your pelvic floor muscles doing this.

Good advice, and people should keep in mind that Ms. Paltrow’s first concern is making money, regardless of what she says. She isn’t going to come rushing to the side of women who end up seriously ill because of the crap she hawks.

Dr. Gunter’s full post is here.

I believe in a BIG god.

Mike Farris.

Mike Farris.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian hate group, has a new prez, Mike Farris. Mike is intent on “winning”, meaning he’s all fired up to make sure that certain people are not accorded full human rights, what with their being subhuman and all. Primarily, this means all who fall under the LGBT+ umbrella, and women. Mike believes in a BIG god, so he’s confident. Just once, I’d like to see any of you Christian assholes actually leave something up to that god of yours. We both know you can’t do that though, because there is no god out there just waiting to stomp all over people. Unfortunately, this sort of wishful thinking is capable of a great deal of harm, not that these sanctimonious, so-called lovers of life care about that. Unwanted children? Eh, who cares. Dead women? Eh, who cares. Queer people subjected to violence and discrimination? Eh, who cares.

Farris described himself as a problem-solver by nature, and said ADF was founded to address “the general erosion of religious freedom” as well as “attacks” on marriage, human life, and the right to “preach the gospel” and “live the gospel.”

There has not been one single instance of erosion in regard to religious freedom. Religious freedom has expanded, in truth, and you don’t like that at all, no sir. You can’t stand the fact that secular people are allowed to have their own little scenes up in public, you can’t stand that the narrative isn’t just yours anymore. So, say what you really mean: we aren’t a fuckin’ dictatorship anymore, and we want that back! There’s been no attack on marriage. Again, that has been expanded to be more inclusive. No one is knocking on your door announcing “marriage dissolved!” and glitter bombing you. Although that’s a tempting thought. Since when don’t you have the right to preach the gospel and live the gospel? Just who in the fuck is stopping you? From my perspective, you asses never manage to shut up, and your gospelish lives aren’t terribly impressive, so there’s not much there to keep one’s attention. In short form, no one cares. Live your bloody life however you like. All that’s asked in return is that you allow others the same. Oh, but can’t have that, can we?

Winning means religious freedom is robustly protected. Winning means Roe versus Wade is reversed. Winning means that same-sex marriage by judicial edict is reversed, and we go back to the states and let the states make their own policy on this.

Religious freedom is already protected. That’s not what you want. You want to rule, much like Lucifer did. Is it really all that much to ask that you jackasses pay mind to your own fairy stories? Roe v Wade, yes, because viewing women as autonomous human beings who have a right to make their own personal medical decisions is unthinkable, someone must think of the wonders of misogyny, yes? After all, what’s the point of being a patriarch if you don’t get to make women miserable, that’s one of those perks, ennit? Oh, and marriage. Marriage is marriage is marriage. Marriage is a legal contract, it only has to do with a god if you decide that matters. So, some people have church a/o god based weddings, and some people have civil ones. Me, I went civil. It’s all marriage. Mine is not invalid because it did not invoke a god. It’s not invalid because I chose to not have children, even those of your view do consider childfree marriages to be invalid. Basically, it’s none of your business. The right to marry is a basic human right, you don’t get to withhold it from those you don’t like. If we could do that, I’d certainly never approve of you being married or breeding, Mr. Farris. You’re much too busy passing on hate for my tastes. However, that is not the case, so I have to accept your marriage. That’s how these little social contract thingies work.

The “left elites” want to restrict religious freedom, he said, and “that battle is at a pitched fever [sic] right now.” Farris said winning won’t be easy because “the other side is well funded, well organized, smart, and they don’t play fair.” But, he said, “I believe we can win because I believe in a big God and I’ve seen Him deliver before.”

Oh ffs. This idiocy again. I’m left, yes. Elite, no. I’m certainly not swimming in the same money pool as all you Christian hustlers and swindlers. A con, every single one of you, fleecing money left and right from those who can most ill afford it, while you live the high life, busy spoonfeeding lies and hate into those who think the sun shines out your arse.

Mostly, I’d like you to shut up and mind your own business. That’s all. You live your life, and let the rest of us live ours. I’m perfectly willing to make peace, but you aren’t. No, you must rule, you must destroy, you must always be at war of some fucking kind or other. Without your hate, you have nothing. Ugh. I just can’t go on, I feel like vomiting all over this awful excuse of a human being. The whole mess is at Right Wing Watch.

No Middle Ground.

Photo by Benson Kua.

Photo by Benson Kua.

Compromises designed to safeguard both religious freedoms and LGBT rights won’t fly among many of America’s most influential conservative Christians.

Leaders from nearly 90 evangelical seminaries, publications, ministries, and churches—as well as Catholic and Orthodox clergy—signed a statement last month rejecting any legal efforts to protect sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).

“[We] believe that proposed SOGI laws, including those narrowly crafted, threaten fundamental freedoms,” they wrote as part of the “Preserve Freedom, Reject Coercion” campaign, hosted by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.

[…]

Heritage Foundation research fellow Ryan T. Anderson and Princeton University professor Robert P. George wrote for Public Discourse about the legal and moral concerns with such laws more broadly:

SOGI policies attempt to impose, by force of law, a system of orthodoxy with respect to human sexuality: the belief that marriage is merely a union of consenting adults, regardless of biology, and that one can be male, female, none, or both, again, regardless of biology. SOGI laws impose this orthodoxy by punishing dissent, and by treating as irrational the beliefs that men and women are biologically rooted and made for each other in marriage.

There are days when it’s hard to believe these asses just don’t drop dead from an overload of cognitive dissonance. And irony poisoning. And heavy hypocrisy poisoning too. No, there’s no attempt, in any way, to legislate a system of sexual orthodoxy. It’s an attempt to include all people in the circle of full human rights. Marriage certainly should be between consenting adults, and what does it matter what their gender or orientation is? If anyone is attempting to legislate a sexual orthodoxy, it’s creepy Christians. This absurd idea that somehow, somewhere, queer marriage will utterly shatter and destroy hetero marriage. Oddly enough, no one has noticed this happening, although Christians still have the highest incidences of adultery and divorce. Perhaps your focus should be there, as clearly, something isn’t working. Perhaps inviting god into your bed every night isn’t such a good idea, after all, it disrupts that whole “one man, one woman” business.

Inclusion laws punish dissent? Huh, news to me. Oh, this about gay wedding cakes and other isht, right? Well, everyone should know the cake is a lie. You should not be able to legislate hate or bigotry. If people open up a shop, there’s an implicit relationship with the public. You’re offering a service, and people agree to pay you money for said service. If you are really that terrified of possibly being tainted by a queer customer, perhaps owning a shop is not a good path for you.

As for “treating as irrational the beliefs that men and women are biologically rooted and made for each other in marriage”, yeah, it is irrational. Part and parcel of the whole irrational god belief nonsense. In case it slipped your notice, you asses are always busy treating anyone you consider other as horrible, sinful, disgusting, and evil. You might want to note, you’re free to do that, and I’m free to fully consider you as irrational, willfully delusional assholes out to harm others. So? It’s hardly our fault you can’t wrap your head around actual science. Anyroad, all over the world, there are hetero people happily coupling, so what’s the problem? I don’t care, and it’s difficult to see why you would. I’m bisexual, and happen to be married to a man because that’s who I fell in love with. If I had fallen in love with a woman, I’d dearly like to think I’d be happily married to her for 38 years. Why on earth that would possibly get your knickers in a knot is unfathomable to me. Love is good. Love should be celebrated. That’s never the focus from the religious asshole sector though. No, everything from there is exclusion and hate. Hate, hate, hate, and never-ending judgmentalism, even though your book of myths says that sort of thing ought to be left to your psychopathic god monster.

You are truly terrible, indecent, immoral people. People who can never manage to get their noses out of other peoples’ crotches. And we’re the ‘indecent’ ones.

Via Christianity Today.

The Federal Heartbeat.

CREDIT: sebk/iStock.

CREDIT: sebk/iStock.

There’s an interesting article at Think Progress, demonstrating that the majority of Americans favour pro-choice.

Recent research from the Pew Research Center indicates that 69 percent of Americans — or 7 in 10 — say Roe v. Wade should not be completely overturned. This represents a 6-point increase in the number of individuals who expressed this sentiment just a few years ago.

It’s unfortunate, to say the least, that coinciding with this change is the illegal election which has placed every manner of fanatic into high office.

During the campaign, Trump promised to ban abortion, punish women who got abortions and doctors who perform them, and appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. What’s more, his cabinet picks read like the Who’s Who of anti-abortion zealots.

Our elected officials are now at complete odds with what the American public wants when it comes to abortion.

It’s fairly clear that what the majority of Americans want is not of import; it’s what the minority want which will rule the day. The attempt to de-fund Planned Parenthood is still on, and one of the very first things gutted from ACA was contraceptive coverage, because of course if you want to lessen the amount of terminations, eliminating access to contraception is the way to go. Fucking idiots.

Continuing in this vein, for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reading about an attempt to pass a federal heartbeat bill. Mostly, this story has been covered by Right Wing Watch. Not anymore! The lunatics are running the asylum, and the federal heartbeat bill is a reality. A vicious one.

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) Thursday introduced a bill that would implement a nationwide abortion ban, modeling it after the “heartbeat bills” already found unconstitutional in federal court.

Under HR 490, an abortion provider who performs an abortion without “determining … whether the fetus has a detectable heartbeat,” “informing the mother of the results of that determination,: or “after determining … that the fetus has a detectable heartbeat,” will face fines and up to five years in federal prison.

In a press release, King called Roe v. Wade “unconstitutional,” arguing, “lives have been ended by the abortion industry, all with a rubber stamp by the federal government.”

“Human life, beginning at the moment of conception, is sacred in all of its forms and today, I introduced a bill that will protect the lives of voiceless innocents,” he said.

“America was founded on the concept that our rights come from God…” the press release continues. “I believe our most important responsibility that God has bestowed upon us is to protect innocent human life, and I will continue to dedicate my life to that responsibility.”

King worked with anti-choice activist Janet Porter on the bill.

This isn’t a war on women. It’s an obliteration. It’s a refusal to accept women as full human beings, who are capable of making their own decisions. Sort of an alternate version of The Handmaid’s Tale. This will, of course, impact just as hard on some transgender men. This is also an insistence on forcing a specific religious belief, which is against the constitution, but these so-called lovers of the constitution don’t give a flying fuck about that, oh no. They are finally in a position to drop the bomb of misogynistic control on our heads, and they can’t wait to do it. Who cares if women end up dead? Small price to pay as far as they are concerned.

“I gave him a packet and he has agreed to introduce a federal Heartbeat Bill, which would protect every baby whose heartbeat can be detected,” Porter told Rewire in an interview. “That will actually end abortion in nearly every case. Ninety to 95 percent of the abortions will be ended with that bill.”

And you don’t give one little shit about all the lives which would be negatively impacted, either. As long as you get to be smug about stomping all over other women.

Via Raw Story.

Fellow Travelers.

Cincinnatiopera.org

Cincinnatiopera.org

Most people are aware of Sen. McCarthy’s red scare, the hunt for commies under every rock and pillow, but it wasn’t the only hunt McCarthy engineered, there was the lavender scare also, which yes, Cohn helped out with, in spite of being gay himself. There was a terrible purge of people, many of whom decided to die rather than face decades of abuse, turned backs, and no way to find employment ever again. In 2008, Thomas Mallon wrote Fellow Travelers, a historical fiction which centers on two people living and working during the lavender scare. The choice of title is a laden one. Now the book has become an opera:

You can read all about it at The Advocate.