A Congressional Rule for Transgender Bigotry? - ‘No Bathroom for You’
Are House Republicans going to install police at rest room facilities at the nation’s capital?
Congress member Nancy Mace (R-Bigotville) is doing a bit of MAGA virtue signaling, doing her best to keep incoming member Sarah McBride (D-Delaware) from using the restroom. House Majority Leader Mike Johnson has reportedly agreed to include a motion to this effect in the rules for this year.
McBride, you see, is the first openly transgender member of congress. Voters in her district said she should represent them. That’s what she wants to do, according to public statements.
She has responded to this not-so-veiled hostility, calling it “a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing,”
Republi-bigots, you see, have been making up stories about transgender women doing God-knows-what to red-blooded American baby makers in restrooms. This is a thing that’s never happened. I’m not sure what the imagined danger is.
Are transgender women giving bad makeup advice? Are House Republicans going to install bathroom police at rest room facilities at the nation’s capital? How will they know for sure which persons are transgender? Where will those caught in trans dragnets empty their wastes? How are jail time or monetary penalties going to discourage such “behavior?”
The reality is that transgender women use toilet facilities designated for females all the time, and nothing other than taking care of their immediate human needs occurs.
The reality also is that, like most Americans, supporting or opposing policies impacting transgender people is not personally concerning for Congress members. Republicans need to feign concern to drum up emotions that supersede day-to-day challenges that they don't have decent answers for.
For some Americans of a certain age, concepts about gender are seared into their brains. The emergence of existences outside of Biblically-induced binary couplings is a challenge to the very core of their being.
Speaking of core beliefs, this puritanically-correct aversion to transgender humans is based on the authoritarian-generated belief that the US is a Christian (usually Protestant) nation. I’m guessing this fallacy won’t be put to rest any time soon, and that no major media coverage will dig deep enough to consider this motive.
For some Americans who have traditionally hidden in the shadows, concepts of gender and sexuality manifest themselves differently. It’s not something they can control, and their challenges are related to existence as they are at the very core of their being.
Having lost the culture war on homosexuality, the wannabe dictators of our society have picked out gender transitioners as a threat to humanity. A web of conspiracies and falsehoods has emerged in which those otherized are seeking to convert by force or persuasion or inflict harm upon heterosexuals.
Rules and laws are being demanded for imagined acts or existences.
Congress member Mace’s actions are part of a growing wave of transphobia pushed by Republicans nationwide. The party has passed anti-trans legislation barring young trans kids from receiving health care, blocking trans athletes from participating in school sports and from using bathrooms associated with peoples’ gender identity.
So here’s the thing: People opposed to what the incoming authoritarians say they intend need to say no and resist at every stage.
There aren’t a whole lot of things where just a few calls to your Congress member can make a difference. Letting the Representative from Delaware tinkle where she may should be one of them. I know that Rep. Jacobs will do the right thing here based on her past advocacy.
Will Reps Scott Peters, Juan Vargas, or Mike Levin stand up for Sarah McBride? Let's make sure they do. (I know, Darrell Issa hates everybody who isn’t wealthy and white.)
Rep. Nancy Mace is seeking to make a point, forcing her compatriots to openly declare that they are against transgender humans. May she burn in the hell of her religion’s making.
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If you would like to learn more about transgender humans, click here.
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Another Batch of Tuesday Headlines
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‘Morning Joe’ meeting with Trump was driven by fears of retribution from incoming administration, sources say by Brian Stelter at CNN
According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Scarborough and Brzezinski were credibly concerned that they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration.
Knowing that Trump has threatened retribution against his perceived political opponents, and that Trump has promoted lies about Scarborough and Brzezinski in the past, the MSNBC hosts decided to reach out to the president-elect, the sources told CNN.
The two sources generally agreed with Scarborough and Brzezinski’s impression of the situation at hand – namely, that the incoming Trump administration could use its wide-ranging powers to punish people deemed enemies. (Trump ally Elon Musk wrote on X overnight, in a post supporting Matt Gaetz for attorney general, that America needs Gaetz to “put powerful bad actors in prison.”)
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How a Second Trump Presidency Will Affect San Diego County Schools via the Union Tribune
More specifically, Trump has said he will defund schools he believes are teaching critical race theory or “gender indoctrination,” dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and assign its duties to other federal agencies. Some of his plans would require action by Congress, but with a Republican-controlled Congress by his side, experts say Trump has a high chance of success.
Trump’s plans may sound shocking in progressive areas of California but are far from unprecedented, said Agustina Paglayan, a UC San Diego political science professor and author of “Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education,” a new book about how Western governments have used public education to control citizens.
“Everything that Trump wants to do … is actually not an anomaly at all, and it follows a global pattern,” Paglayan said. “Governments are particularly interested in using education to teach people that the status quo is actually OK, and you shouldn’t question it.”
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"Unknown and unauthorized third party" has gained access to Matt Gaetz depositions, source says by Michael Kaplan at CBS News
An "unknown and unauthorized third party" has gained access to two dozen depositions of witnesses tied to the various investigations into former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, CBS News has learned.
The leaked materials are part of a civil defamation case filed by Chris Dorworth, a lobbyist who is close to Gaetz. These materials include the sworn deposition of the minor with whom Gaetz allegedly had sex.
According to a source familiar with the matter and an email viewed by CBS News, the person who gained access went by the name "Altam Beezley."
