May 19, 2023

NY High School SUSPENDS 13 Female Athletes Who Started Petition To Wear Sports Bras For Training

From Mastodon, @amydiehl@mstdn.social :

"Dress code sexism: While a boys track and field team was allowed to practice shirtless due to heat, the girls team was not permitted to practice in their sports bras. They were told that was because they had male coaches and the bras were distracting."

Headline: New York High School SUSPENDS 13 Female Athletes Who Started Petition To Wear Sports Bras During Training

A New York high school is under fire online after they suspended the majority of the girl’s track team following an incident over the dress code.
With increasing temperatures, the students recently shifted to practicing outdoors. The boy’s track team began practicing shirtless which motivated the girl’s team to ask the school’s athletic director if they could practice in their lycra crop tops or sports bras. The athletic director for the Albany school district, a woman named Ashley Chapple, felt that the sports bra attire would be too inappropriate. The girls were told their sports bras would be distracting for male coaches
According to sophomore sprinter Jordan Johnson, after practice one day Chappel confronted the female students about “wearing sports bras” adding that they couldn’t wear the clothing “because we have male coaches.” The following week, any female athletes who arrived to practice in a sports bra were asked to leave the session. The same week that some of the female athletes were asked to leave their practice, other girls from the same track team were met by Chapple and security when they attended a school lacrosse game and prevented from entering. Following the lacrosse game incident, 13 members of the girls’ track and field team were suspended from school.

https://www.bleacherbreaker.com/trending/new-york-high-school-suspends-13-female-athletes-who-started-petition-to-wear-sports-bras-during-training/

May 18, 2023

11th Circuit Court is about to get its first Black woman judge!

From Mastodon:

@Bam
Nancy Abudu closure vote to be the first African-American woman on the #EleventhCircuit ongoing on #USSenate floor.
Presently 46-48.
1h ago

---------------
@Bam
48-48 now.
1h ago

---------------

@Bam
Coons on his way back to DC to break the tie and Harris is on standby.
(now)

The eleventh has jurisdiction over the following:

Middle District of Alabama
Northern District of Alabama
Southern District of Alabama
Middle District of Florida
Northern District of Florida
Southern District of Florida
Middle District of Georgia
Northern District of Georgia
Southern District of Georgia

May 17, 2023

A bit of perspective on transgender college athletes

"KVUE's partner, the Austin-American Statesman, previously asked every four-year public university in Texas that participates in NCAA-sanctioned sports if they ever had a transgender athlete compete, and none said yes.

Thirty-four openly transgender athletes nationwide have competed in college sports, including at community colleges and junior colleges, in the past decade, according to a limited list by Outsports. The list does not include any athletes who competed or are competing while attending a university in Texas."

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/texas-legislature/texas-house-college-transgender-athlete-bill-the-save-womens-sports-act/269-29222e4f-325e-4b6b-8854-9789cd543d8b

34 college transgender athletes over the last decade, and zero in Texas. That's what Republicans are railing against. That's the "threat" they're holding extended Legislative sessions over. Most can name only one, a somewhat mediocre (sorry, Lia) swimmer who won a race in a mid-level championship her last year.

May 17, 2023

"I repeat, interrogations of 5th graders by Florida state officials for watching a Disney movie."

From Mastodon: https://sfba.social/@esqueer_@bird.makeup/110386253227005657

"Ron DeSantis is sending in state investigators from the Dept. of Education to interrogate students about watching the Disney movie Strange World in class.

I repeat, interrogations of 5th graders by state officials for watching a Disney movie."

Links to a Miami Herald article: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article275456086.html

May 17, 2023

The Lauren-Jayson Boebert Divorce saga is brilliant marketing on her part

Being a sex-offender, he was a boat anchor to her aspirations. Any time she brought up any sort of rant that even alluded to sex / sexuality or gender, someone would throw back at her that she knowingly married a sex offender who exposed himself to young women.

And it's working for her. So far, she's successfully been able to pull even people left-of-center to "her" side in the divorce despite nobody knowing any details of the "irreconcilable differences" involved. Mostly because people see a story about her and just have to comment on it. But it still pulls them every so slightly in her direction, and serves to disconnect her from some of the disgust people felt for her.

- Too cynical?

May 17, 2023

Nebraska Legislature passes combined transgender, abortion bills following chaotic debate

State lawmakers on Tuesday successfully combined two of the most controversial measures introduced this legislative session into a single bill. Tuesday's vote, which came on Day 78 of the 90-day session, marked a successful gamble by supporters of both measures after a six-week abortion ban (LB626) failed earlier this year and support for LB574 appeared to be wavering.

"In every possible way you are cheating and it looks bad," said Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, who has held up progress of the Legislature this year in response to the bill being introduced. "What you are attempting to do today is the lowest of the absolute lows."

Still, Kauth was able to muster 33 votes to invoke cloture after a long and winding and often emotional debate that was marked by confusion and accusations that the majority was using its raw political power to achieve its goal.

Under the legislative procedures outlined by Speaker John Arch at the beginning of the session, cloture can be invoked after two hours of debate on final reading.

https://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/nebraska-legislature-combines-transgender-abortion-bills-following-chaotic-debate/article_b812eb80-f435-11ed-9362-5f750fd306c6.html

Update: This is how they went around the Democrats weeks long filibuster: by cheating

May 15, 2023

The GOP's latest nothing-story is starting to push its way up out of the muck...

"19 Republican states accuse JPMorgan of closing bank accounts and discriminating against customers due to their religious or political beliefs"

The group supposedly discriminated against is National Committee for Religious Freedom, whose chairman is Sam Brownback of "nearly ran the state of Kansas into the ground" fame.

The story is that Chase asked the NCRF for a list of it's donors. Pretty standard stuff to comply with OFAC/SDN regulations. The group said no, so Chase "debanked" them (ie said, please take your money elsewhere, we need to follow federal banking regulations). This was last year, by the way.

So now in 2023, all of a sudden the NCRF and a fast growing number of far right / religious media outlets are trying to start a dogpile to pressure Chase to...change its policies and ignore federal banking regulations? That part is not especially clear. Nor is what exactly NCRF did before this controversy, as there are exceedingly few mentions beyond an endorsement for a Florida mayor and a whole list of people using "advisory board member" as part of their credentials.

May 14, 2023

A word about "genocide"

In a comment on a post of mine regarding Florida's "medical conscience" law, the first comment replied,

"WHAT "genocide" of trans people? And WTF would anyone be doing here chatting away on social media if it was real?
To me, hyperbole insults those for whom reality is causing real problems, as if they aren't bad enough if they aren't lying in a growing pile of bodies awaiting burial.
Kind of an insult to all of us also."

Genocide does not require mass murder, although trans people are dying as a result of the actions against us, and more will die going forward.

From the UN:

"What is the Genocide Convention?
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) is an instrument of international law that codified for the first time the crime of genocide. Its preamble recognizes that “at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity” and that international cooperation is required to “liberate humankind from such an odious scourge”. According to the Convention, genocide is a crime that can take place both in time of war as well as in time of peace. The definition contained in Article II of the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part."

Please note that the Convention was drafted in 1948; since then most humanitarian & human rights groups have expanded the criteria to include sexuality & gender identity as well as disabled people.

Let's dive in:

Kansas, Montana and Tennessee have defined "man" and "woman" based on either whatever was assigned at birth based on a 2-second visual inspection of the external genitals, or based on a very problematic & patriarchal, "developed to create eggs or sperm". Transgender people in those states have been erased from legal existence, in regards to everything and anything where sex or gender are considered.

The following states now ban transgender health care, typically for teens. This causes irreversible damage that can only be minimized afterward. Every major medical association stands behind the care protocols being blocked and has condemned these bans.

Missouri
Florida
Oklahoma
Montana
North Dakota
Indiana
Idaho
West Virginia
Kentucky
Georgia
Iowa
Tennessee
Mississippi
South Dakota
Utah
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas

Texas and Missouri Republicans have stated they will pass bans before their sessions end in the next few weeks. Penalties in various states range from loss of licensure to 10 years in prison.

20+ states have passed bans on student transgender athletes & restricted bathroom use, erasing them from that part of education & stigmatizing them to their fellow students.

CPAC 2023 speaker Michael Knowles: “For the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.”

Republican candidate for Kentucky governor and former U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft, at a campaign town hall meeing: “Under a Craft-Wise administration, we will not have transgenders in our school system.”

Do a Google News search for "transgenderism" or "transgender ideology" to see an endless stream of Republicans / conservatives / Christians calling for our outright erasure and eradication. This is the messaging going out on their media outlets every single day.

This is genocide, and they won't stop with trans people. They've already started on non-trans women who get pregnant, they've already acted in countless ways against non-white people for so long it's become commonplace. But right now they're making a show of competing against each other to see who can display and enact the most hatred and damage against transgender people. Next year will, I fear, be far worse as we lead into the campaign season for the 2024 elections.

Update: I forgot that Florida also passed a bill that says the state can take custody of children who receive transgender affirming healthcare, and put them in the foster system.

May 14, 2023

Republican genocide of their enemies has expanded beyond trans people

YOU may now be vulnerable. It's not hyperbolic to say that Florida is no longer safe to travel to, or live in, if one has any perceivable indicator of not conforming to Christian / Republican ideals...or any other personal opinion, for that matter. But let's face it, only one group is going to use the law, and they'll use it to hurt people intentionally.

Anyone in a position of any power when it comes to healthcare in Florida can now follow the Catholic Bishops health directive of 2008; just sit back and passively let you die or come to further harm - without repercussion - even when it's their job to help you. If in their mind doing nothing helps to prevent you from sinning, it's the right thing to do. Or simply because they don't like you. Republicans have given up the pretense of it needing to be religion based. And similar to how COVID kills some but damages many more bodies, often for life, this new law will have a similar effect. Healing from injury, disease or damage is far more likely with timely treatment; this new law celebrates delaying treatment if anyone in the care provision chain doesn't like something about you. It's a very Trumpian invitation to anyone who wants to have power over others to use that power to abuse strangers and those who are already marginalized.

This has been posted elsewhere, but DeSantis signed into law CS/SB 1580, the "Protections of Medical Conscience Act".
Bill text is here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1580/BillText/er/PDF

Addition: I just read a frightening comment elsewhere regarding this bill:

"And why not? Employers can refuse to provide medical insurance for drugs and procedures they disapprove of. . . . why not allow doctors and first responders to do the same thing?"

The implication being that this bill is exactly the sort of thing the current US Supreme Court may well support and encourage nationwide.

May 13, 2023

Another example of the "other" side of stochastic terrorism

This is yet another example of how Republicans / fascists / authoritarians use stochastic terrorism to create violence and chaos, and can claim none of it is their fault. Violence and chaos provide them with opportunities to gather and concentrate power.

Please note: I am in no way claiming what the teacher did is morally or ethically right. I am not claiming it was at all a good way to react in a classroom. I am pointing out that this is a warning sign of what is to come as Republican power poses an existential threat to increasing groups of people who are not cis, het, white, Christian, Republicans.

Stochastic terrorism works by increasing pressure on the most emotionally vulnerable or unstable members of society. This usually means MAGA-Nazi-white supremacists who absorb the hate messages directly and feel they must do something about it because they feel threatened.

But it also occasionally, rarely means one of the targets of the attacks will react violently because they as a group really are being threatened.

Both work to Republican advantage. When one of their followers is violent, it induces fear in the target group but is written off as a "lone wolf". When one of the target group is violent, it is used to portray the entire group as a physical, violent threat.

From: https://www.cbs58.com/news/grafton-teacher-arrested-after-making-terrorist-threats-to-students

"GRAFTON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Grafton police arrested a teacher at John Long Middle School on Friday, May 12, on charges of making "terrorist threats" to students in his class as well as "exposing a child to harmful material, descriptions, or narrations." Both of these are Class I felonies.

The police made a report of an incident that happened around 9:55 a.m. after a student texted his mom from class saying that his teacher made threatening remarks and said that he owned 17 guns. The teacher did admit to this during a meeting with the principal and said that the threats were made out of anger.

The teacher said he became angry after he saw student artwork and a notebook in his class with swastikas drawn on them. The teacher, who is Jewish, said he would "send his daughter to their homes with a baseball bat," "go scorched earth on them," and wished pain upon the students and their families. Upon requests to discuss this matter, the teacher said would not speak with the investigating officer without his lawyer."