The Guardian: Joe Biden's gender discrimination order offers hope for young trans athletes - Discussion Thread

[Larry]

My initial reaction (for the last year) is that the pleasant fantasy I had for what my final years would be like, are being replaced by newsreel footage of Nazi rallies. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[GhostofSparta]

Are we sure that ALL the cops were in their cars? There weren't maybe a couple empty cars because they were in the group photo?

[Larry]

Just asking. 
 

We're the Nazis peacefully protesting?  Cause, you know, Nazis have that right. 

[Captain Wiggles]

39 minutes ago, Larry said:

Just asking. 
 

We're the Nazis peacefully protesting?  Cause, you know, Nazis have that right. 

 

Not sure calling for the death of the "pedophiles" is peaceful but I also doubt most cops are really gonna care in that situation. 🤷‍♂️

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Larry]

10 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

Sounds like they got the memo. 

[EmirOfShmo]

A restaurant here in RVA - Metzger Bar & Butchery - cancelled a reservation for a group 'The Family Foundation' because of the groups anti-LGBTQ views. Another christo-fascist group trying to push their bull**** on the non-believers. Right wing assholes are flooding the restaurants reviews on Yelp, Google, etc with their bull****.

My wife & I have known the owner of the restaurant since she was a bartender many years ago before she went to culinary school in NYC. She's a great person and chef - she's competed on several Food Network TV shows & I think she's going to have a part in a new series on Food Network. She also owns the restaurant Brenner Pass in RVA and another restaurant in DC. 

I can't wait to catch up with her on our next visit to one of her restaurants. I'm really proud of her for standing up for her staff.

The restaurants Instagram post:    https://www.instagram.com/p/ClpFttLObmf/
 

The denied group, the Family Foundation, proclaims on their website that they're not a church nor are they pushing a specific religion, but rather their interpretation of the Bible on government laws. Their goals, as stated, are an "advocate for policies based on Biblical principles that enable families to flourish at the state and local level." They don't cite a specific religion outside of the Bible.

That includes advocacy against marriage equality and LGBTQ+ human rights, they deny gender identity outside of male or female, the group also pushes a policy that parents should be able to do whatever they want to their children without government involvement and they deny a woman's right to choose.

Despite the issue being a political one, the Family Foundation's director of government relations, Todd Gathje, is trying to paint it as religious discrimination, which could make it difficult since the group indicates they're pushing political policy, reported WRIC News. Gathje makes the case himself in the group's public statement that they aren't a church organization but a political one.

 

https://www.rawstory.com/right-wing-group-denied-service/

 

https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/local-restaurant-refuses-service-to-conservative-advocacy-group/

[bearrock]

14 minutes ago, EmirOfShmo said:

A restaurant here in RVA - Metzger Bar & Butchery - cancelled a reservation for a group 'The Family Foundation' because of the groups anti-LGBTQ views. Another christo-fascist group trying to push their bull**** on the non-believers. Right wing assholes are flooding the restaurants reviews on Yelp, Google, etc with their bull****.

My wife & I have known the owner of the restaurant since she was a bartender many years ago before she went to culinary school in NYC. She's a great person and chef - she's competed on several Food Network TV shows & I think she's going to have a part in a new series on Food Network. She also owns the restaurant Brenner Pass in RVA and another restaurant in DC. 

I can't wait to catch up with her on our next visit to one of her restaurants. I'm really proud of her for standing up for her staff.

The restaurants Instagram post:    https://www.instagram.com/p/ClpFttLObmf/
 

The denied group, the Family Foundation, proclaims on their website that they're not a church nor are they pushing a specific religion, but rather their interpretation of the Bible on government laws. Their goals, as stated, are an "advocate for policies based on Biblical principles that enable families to flourish at the state and local level." They don't cite a specific religion outside of the Bible.

That includes advocacy against marriage equality and LGBTQ+ human rights, they deny gender identity outside of male or female, the group also pushes a policy that parents should be able to do whatever they want to their children without government involvement and they deny a woman's right to choose.

Despite the issue being a political one, the Family Foundation's director of government relations, Todd Gathje, is trying to paint it as religious discrimination, which could make it difficult since the group indicates they're pushing political policy, reported WRIC News. Gathje makes the case himself in the group's public statement that they aren't a church organization but a political one.

 

https://www.rawstory.com/right-wing-group-denied-service/

 

https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/richmond/local-restaurant-refuses-service-to-conservative-advocacy-group/

 

How very "Christian" of the Family Foundation

[tshile]

As far as I can find the power substations being shot up hasn’t been linked to a drag show 

[Jabbyrwock]

2 minutes ago, tshile said:

As far as I can find the power substations being shot up hasn’t been linked to a drag show 

 

You gotta admit the transformers did look pretty hot in those heels after they tucked their bushings.

[China]

8 minutes ago, Jabbyrwock said:

 

You gotta admit the transformers did look pretty hot in those heels after they tucked their bushings.

 

"Transformers, more than meets the eye!"

[Jabbyrwock]

24 minutes ago, China said:

 

"Transformers, more than meets the eye!"

[Larry]

1 hour ago, tshile said:

As far as I can find the power substations being shot up hasn’t been linked to a drag show 

Well, supposedly there was a person who publicly claimed, right after the lights went out, that that was the reason. 
 

No doubt things like the timing of her announcement is being looked into. How soon did she "take credit"?  Was it even known, at that time, to be "vandalism"?  Was there any communications, by any means, between her area and the area of the substations?  
 

I'm not saying she's a co-conspirator. But I certainly assume the FBI is doing a lot of digging. I could see justification for the NSA to be involved. 
 

But, it's also true that there are people who falsely "take credit" for terrorist incidents, too. 

[tshile]

3 hours ago, Larry said:

Well, supposedly there was a person who publicly claimed, right after the lights went out, that that was the reason. 

Really? I thought I read that no one had taken credit. Maybe it said no group had taken credit. Or maybe I’m just confused

[China]

5 minutes ago, tshile said:

Really? I thought I read that no one had taken credit. Maybe it said no group had taken credit. Or maybe I’m just confused

 

Authorities investigate social posts claiming knowledge of Moore County blackout

 

A woman who vehemently and repeatedly protested a drag show scheduled in Southern Pines claims that deputies questioned her in regard to the mass power outages in the county, after she posted on social media that she knows why the outage happened.

 

Click on the link for more

[EmirOfShmo]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Larry]

So they can be more efficiently discriminated against. By the government a Republican Presidential candidate. 

[The Evil Genius]

In another article the contract provisions violated were two missed quarterly reports.

 

Omg. Not that! The horror. 

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

North Dakota Bill Would Require Employers Use Pronouns "Associated With Deoxyribonucleic Acid"

 

North Dakota has been the site of many anti-trans bills in 2023. Already it has seen multiple bills proposed that would do things like ban transgender people from sports, ban transgender birth certificate updates, and medically detransition trans youth. One of these bills, the bill to ban trans birth certificate updates, even received a “do pass” from its committee hearing yesterday. It is clear that the state has set its sights on transgender people and may be the first state to pass anti-trans legislation in 2023, a year where many people are concerned that rights will be eroded in a historic fashion. It is in the states that are in a rush to pass anti-trans laws that we often find some of the worst proposals - often blatantly unconstitutional ones - and we are left to wonder if this is the direction that the far right wants to take the country in its treatment of transgender people. Now, a new bill has been proposed in North Dakota that would force any employer receiving state funding as well as all government employees to misgender transgender people based on “the individual’s deoxyribonucleic acid.”

 

Pronoun usage has come up in several bills this year and I anticipate that we will see bills around pronouns passed in at least one state. Most bills focus on the use of pronouns in schools and give teachers the right to misgender students. The Missouri “Teacher’s Bill Of Rights” bill, HB192, has a section that says teachers shall be free to use the legal name and pronoun of a student without fear of reprisal - a bill that would allow them to misgender trans students. Some states have ventured into compulsory pronouns, but only for students. An Arizona senator has proposed that teachers must use the pronouns that correspond to a student’s biological sex unless they get permission from a parent in writing. Oklahoma’s bill, SB30, would place similar restrictions on teachers. In Virginia, Glen Youngkin’s school board policy that he is attempting to force on all schools in the state require parental permission to gender a transgender student correctly, but have no such permission required to misgender a trans student. These double standards harm trans students as well as force teachers to participate in hurtful actions that may go against their own conscience.

 

Now, we have seen our first policy that targets employers and mandates that they partake in similar practices. North Dakota’s SB2199 would mandate that all employers in the state who receive state funding as well as all schools, institutions, state agencies, and offices misgender transgender people at large - not just students but all transgender people. The bill mandates that “words used to reference an individual’s sex, gender, gender identity, or gender expression mean the individual’s determined sex at birth, male or female.” It also mandates that this be determined through the individual’s deoxyribonucleic acid, their DNA. Those who violate will be charged by the state a fee of $1,500. Here is the text

 

This bill is especially perverse. It would be compelled speech for many employers in the state of North Dakota. It would force people to act against their conscience and would be a blatant violation of rights. Many individuals and corporations receive state funding. It would institutionalize the mass discrimination of transgender people across the state by hijacking Title 34 of the North Dakota Century Code which pertains to regulations around labor and employment.

 

On top of that, it would make outlandish demands of how employers and government agents should determine the gender of the people they interact with. The fact that the drafters of this bill include “determination established by deoxyribonucleic acid” shows that they have a fundamental misunderstanding of both biological sex and pronouns. We do not have “he” and “she” encoded into our DNA, and human biological sex is not binary. One would wonder how a bill like this would treat intersex people with nonstandard DNA profiles. Would people be forced to submit to mandatory DNA tests in order to determine what pronouns we should use for them? The implications of this bill are absurd.

 

Click on the link for the full article and the text of the bill