And so it begins...

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BoSoxGal
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Re: And so it begins...

Post by BoSoxGal »

This Matt Bevan story just keeps getting more and more despicable.

In case y’all aren’t already aware, there is no reliable virginity test using the hymen as a basis. Some girls and women maintain an ‘intact’ (whatever that means because the hymen is different in every female, and some females are born without one) hymen after sexual penetration, even multiple times.

It is clearer and clearer to me that Bevan has released a child rapist to whose family he owed a favor. Abhorrent.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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Joe Guy
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Re: And so it begins...

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It's important to note the man was sentenced to 15 years after burning the LGBT flag not for burning the LGBT flag. I suspect he has a history of doing much worse.

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Lord Jim
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Re: And so it begins...

Post by Lord Jim »

From the CNN link:
The 30-year-old faces 15 years in prison after being found guilty of a hate crime, third-degree harassment, and being a habitual offender, KCCI reported.
I'd be interested in knowing what the nature of those "habitual offenses" are...

Presumably that played a large role in the length of the sentence...
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ex-khobar Andy
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Re: And so it begins...

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

Lord Jim wrote:From the CNN link:
The 30-year-old faces 15 years in prison after being found guilty of a hate crime, third-degree harassment, and being a habitual offender, KCCI reported.
I'd be interested in knowing what the nature of those "habitual offenses" are...

Presumably that played a large role in the length of the sentence...
I didn't see that when I made the initial post . EitherI did not read down far enough or they edited it after I had made the link. Point taken.

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Scooter
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Re: And so it begins...

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Because clearly the key health care priority right now should be to allow providers to deny care to trans people:
Trump administration moves to allow doctors to refuse trans patients as COVID rages

As the U.S. passes 50,000 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration quietly moved forward with a rule that would make it easier for doctors to refuse to treat transgender patients.

Politico reports that a new Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rule that would remove Obama era transgender protections was circulated around the Department of Justice yesterday, one of the final steps before publicly releasing the rule. The White House also updated a website to say that the Obama rule is under review.

At issue is Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The rule bans discrimination “on the basis of sex” in health care, which the Obama administration interpreted as banning discrimination against transgender people, since discriminating against someone because their gender identity doesn’t align with their sex assigned at birth is effectively discriminating against them because of sex.

The Trump administration has consistently said that protections on the basis of sex do not apply to anti-transgender discrimination, and HHS, which has been working on the new rule for over a year, said that the rule change would make its regulations “more consistent.”

LGBTQ equality advocates said that the change would allow hospitals and health care workers to discriminate legally.

“If the final rule is anything like the proposed rule, HHS is adopting changes that would be harmful in the best of times but that are especially cruel in the midst of a global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities and exacerbating disparities,” Georgetown University professor Katie Keith said.

Discrimination against transgender people is rampant in health care. The Center for American Progress (CAP) found that 29% of transgender adults said that a health care professional refused to see them because of their gender identity. LGBTQ people are seven times more likely to say they have avoided going to the doctor out of fear of discrimination, a phenomenon that advocates warn could be deadly during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m really scared about what that means for testing, for treatment, for people’s comfort-seeking care,” said Sharita Gruberg, who works on LGBTQ issues for CAP. “This is not the time we want people to avoid seeking care and treatment.”

An HHS spokesperson said, “We do not comment on the rulemaking process” and referred questions to the HHS Office of Civil Rights, which is run by Roger Severino, a former Heritage Foundation staffer who has a long history of anti-LGBTQ activism and was called the most “dangerous person to head up the Office of Civil Rights at HHS” by HRC when he was appointed in 2017.

“As we have shown in our recent efforts to protect persons from disability and age discrimination during the pandemic, HHS will vigorously enforce civil rights laws as passed by Congress, before, during, and after any rulemaking,” Severino said about the rule change.

Since conservatives believe that discrimination on the basis of sex is entirely separate from discrimination against transgender people, his statement does not contradict the possible new rule, from his perspective.
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Scooter
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Re: And so it begins...

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White Supremacists Deface Pulse Mural at Orlando LGBTQ+ Center

A mural honoring the 49 lives lost at the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting — where Latinx LGBTQ+ people were targeted by a mass shooter — was defaced last week with a sticker from a white nationalist group.

The sticker was removed Thursday from a wall of The Center, Orlando's LGBTQ+ aid organization; it reportedly covered the center of a mural honoring the Pulse victims and emblazoned with #OrlandoStrong.

The racist group referenced by the sticker is known as Patriot Front, which arose following the violent 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., according to Orlando Weekly. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the Patriot Front a hate group. Patriot Front's mission is remaking America as solely a white Christian heterosexual nation.

The Weekly reports Patriot Front has recently been active in central Florida, distributing racist propaganda in various locales.

Around the same time the sticker was placed on the mural, The Center reported its phone lines had been cut.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

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Scooter
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Re: And so it begins...

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"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

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BoSoxGal
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Re: And so it begins...

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Trump administration memo explains how to spot a transgender woman

The memo says homeless shelters can use "factors such as height, the presence (but not the absence) of facial hair, the presence of an Adam’s apple" to find suspected trans women.

By Alex Bollinger Monday, July 20, 2020 88 Comments

A copy of the new rule that will allow homeless shelters to refuse transgender people has been leaked to the media, and it contains instructions on how to spot transgender women to target them for discrimination.

Earlier this month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it would be rolling back the Obama-era Equal Access Rule, which required homeless shelters that receive HUD funding to house transgender people with the gender they identify as.


The rollback – which HUD said would “better accommodate religious beliefs of shelter providers” – allows single-gender homeless shelters to decide if they want a housing policy based on sex assigned at birth or gender identity, effectively allowing shelters that house women to turn away transgender women and shelters that house men to turn away transgender men.

The announcement meant that homeless shelters would be allowed to determine who is transgender, which poses a significant risk to people’s privacy rights.

The news website Vox has obtained a copy of the rule, which includes instructions of what a shelter can do spot a trans woman.

Shelter workers may use “factors such as height, the presence (but not the absence) of facial hair, the presence of an Adam’s apple, and other physical characteristics which, when considered together, are indicative of a person’s biological sex,” the rule says.


If a homeless person appears too transgender for a homeless shelter, the shelter is allowed to ask them for proof of “biological sex.”

“Evidence requested must not be unduly intrusive of privacy, such as private physical anatomical evidence,” the rule states, barring shelters from forcing suspected transgender people to strip in front of them.

“Evidence requested could include government identification, but lack of government identification alone cannot be the sole basis for denying admittance on the basis of sex.”


HUD Secretary Ben Carson has criticized the Equal Access Rule in the past as allowing “big, hairy men” – how he once referred to transgender women – to “impede the rights of” cisgender women who are “not comfortable with the idea of being in a shelter, being in a shower, with somebody who had very different anatomy.”

He has also used “Biblical principles” to attack the protections for transgender people and said that LGBTQ anti-discrimination measures are “special rights.”

“One in three transgender Americans has been homeless at some point in their lives, and this proposal would have them sleep on the street rather than get help,” wrote National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling in a statement.


“The difference between being sheltered and unsheltered is especially dangerous for transgender homeless persons, particularly transgender persons of color, who face harassment and threats from private individuals, as well as elevated rates of policing and violence within police custody. When combined with President Trump’s recent policy proposals to increase criminalization of homelessness, while cutting HUD’s affordable housing budget and rolling back support for Housing First, it is clear that getting transgender persons off the street and out of harm’s way is a matter of life and death.”
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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BoSoxGal
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Re: And so it begins...

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For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Scooter
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Re: And so it begins...

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Right-wing extremist promises to “hunt” LGBTQ allies during Pride Month in shocking video

Ethan Schmidt, a 24-year-old right-wing extremist, has announced that he will be “hunting” LGBTQ allies around Phoenix, Arizona during June, Pride month.

In a video recorded by Schmidt and re-posted onto Twitter by the right-wing watchdog account PatriotTakes, Schmidt explained that, during June, he plans on “exposing” the “Satanic Pride shrines for children” and LGBTQ-supportive employees at Target retail stores.

“We’re not going to let corporate poison the children,” Schmidt adds. “So Target, we’re just giving you a heads up that we’re going to be coming after you hard…. This is going to be next-level stuff.”

Schmidt speaks while riding in a vehicle alongside a man in sunglasses named Kyle Clifton. Clifton has described himself as an “authoritarian Christian nationalist,” according to The Los Angeles Blade. He also leads the America First Union, an openly white nationalist, antisemitic, “conservative youth” organization.

In the video, Clifton then looks at the camera and says, “Christ wins. LGBT loses.”

Schmidt then continues by saying, “I also like to hunt LGBT supporters on my free time. That’s one of my favorite pastimes…. We’re going to be going on hunting expeditions pretty soon, y’know, hunting LGBT supporters across Phoenix and Arizona…. If you support the LGBT agenda, you’re not safe. You’re not safe. Right, Kyle?”

Clifton agrees and Schmidt laughs. Clifton then says, “Ethan finds you. Ethan finds everyone.”

“Yep. Can’t hide from me,” Schmidt says.

There are approximately 25 Target retail stores in Phoenix, Arizona. For the past several years, Target stores have offered a summertime Pride collection featuring clothing with rainbow-colored and LGBTQ-supportive designs created by queer designers. Proceeds from the collection go to the LGBTQ student advocacy organization GLSEN.

This isn’t the first time Schmidt has threatened to hunt LGBTQ people and allies — he has passed off his previous threats as “jokes.” He has been banned from numerous social media platforms for allegedly spreading false information about the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also posted numerous videos in which he harassed businesses for requiring patrons to wear masks.

In a late 2021 video endorsing Arizona Gov. Kari Lake (R), Schmidt burned a rainbow Pride flag. His promise to hunt down LGBTQ supporters and his equating of them with pedophilia are similar to Russian anti-LGBTQ vigilantes who recorded videos of physically threatening and humiliating queer people.

Schmidt has also appeared in an anti-vaccination video with Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and another video with Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers (R). Rogers was censured by her Republican congressional colleagues in March for speaking at the America First Political Action Conference, an event organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Fuentes is a self-described involuntary celibate who recently told his straight male viewers that “having sex with women is gay.”

Fuentes, Rogers, and Clifton have all repeated the white supremacist “replacement theory,” which states that white voters are being replaced by non-white people. This increasingly mainstream Republican theory was cited by a mass shooter who recently gunned down Black shoppers in a Buffalo, New York supermarket.
If this guy does manage to shoot someone, Republicans will hail him as a hero.
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ex-khobar Andy
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Re: And so it begins...

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

During the Charlottesville event (Trump's "good people on both sides") they were chanting "Jews will not replace us!" I didn't understand that then except as a generic anti-Semitic trope. Now of course we have the context.

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