Tuesday, March 28, 2023

The war in the US

There is a war going on in the United States.  Crazed hate merchants have declared war on equality.   BUSINESS INSIDER reports:
 

Florida's push to axe gender-affirming care for minorsrestrict discussions of gender identity in schools, and, more recently, revoke a hotel's liquor license after hosting a drag show have repeatedly been painted by GOP state leaders and Gov. Ron DeSantis as an urgent crusade to protect children. 

But LGBTQ rights groups and communities are skeptical and maintain that the latest actions in Florida further marginalize a minority community that makes up less than 5% of the state's population.

"On the surface level, these pieces of legislation limit job opportunities for drag entertainers, reduce resources for transgender individuals, and prevent students (both children and adults) from being educated about LGBTQ+ topics," a drag performer who goes by the name of Venus Envy told Insider in an email. "All of these outcomes are harmful in their own right, but the greater impact of these bills is already being seen in the increase of hatred toward the LGBTQ+ community and the harmful rhetoric that drag queens are predatory."




Instead of rational and practical, we get lies and hysteria.  FOX NEWS can't help but offer lies -- they're talk show hosts' texts, for example, revealed that they hated Donald Trump but Tucker and Laura lied to viewers and pretended otherwise.  If you're hosting a talk show and you can't even be honest about your opinion, you're not a talk show host.  So FOX NEWS has its panties twisted in knots over poor little Layla Jane.  The 18 year-old is suing the hospital that started her transition to male.  She should be suing her parents.  First, she should be suing them for not using that money to fix her face -- ew, best in show is in her future.  Second, she was 13 which means no doctor proceeded because of her. wants and desires  No, her parents had to want that surgery.



But Layla Jane's going after the hospital and FOX NEWS is burying the part of the story where Layla Jane's parents signed off on the surgery.  Nothing was done to Layla Jane without her parents signing off -- she was 13-years-old -- and if she has a problem she needs to take it up with her parents. 



You got what you wanted and now you're not happy.  Sounds like a typical spoiled brat.  Sorry your parents didn't raise you better and that you're so ungrateful and so unwilling to take responsibility for your own actions.  Cry babies, if FOX NEWS didn't have them, who would host their programs? Mother Tucker is always accusing others of "playing the victim."  But on FOX NEWS, it's the hosts and the guests playing the victims,


Meanwhile, in the battlefield,  Nicholas Nehmas and Ana Ceballos (MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS) report that Florida governor and noted homophobe Ron DeSantis is cracking down on drag revues despite what his own investigators are finding:

But while agents took photos of three minors — who appeared to be accompanied by adults — at the Orlando drag show, they acknowledged that nothing indecent had happened on stage, according to an incident report obtained exclusively by the Miami Herald.

“Besides some of the outfits being provocative [bikinis and short shorts], agents did not witness any lewd acts such as exposure of genital organs,” the brief report stated. “The performers did not have any physical contact while performing to the rhythm of the music with any patrons.”

Still, the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation proceeded to file a complaint against the nonprofit that runs Plaza Live, claiming the venue had illegally exposed children to sexual content. The complaint, issued Feb. 3, seeks to strip the small, nonprofit theater of its liquor license — a serious blow that would likely put it out of business.

[. . .]

Carlos Guillermo Smith, a former Democratic state legislator from Orlando, said the report from state agents proves that the “moral panic” about drag shows is a “hoax.”

“What you see here is the governor sending in investigators and then dismissing what the investigators have to say because it doesn’t fit into his narrative,” said Guillermo Smith, who now works for Equality Florida, an LGBTQ rights group. “It’s more evidence that all of this … is contrived, it’s politically motivated. And it’s not about protecting children. It’s part of an ongoing effort to marginalize LGBT people and their allies because that’s the vehicle that will get him to … the GOP nomination.”

 

 As Jon Stewart recently pointed out on CNN, the GOP has run out of ideas -- even bad ones.