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ShazzieB

ShazzieB's Journal
ShazzieB's Journal
June 29, 2026

Charges dropped for trans woman threatened with jail over license debacle caused by anti-trans law

A trans woman in Kansas accused of operating a motor vehicle without a valid license learned on Tuesday that charges against her have been dropped, Transitic News reports. Kris Ripper had been threatened with jail time after a traffic stop last month, despite following rules mandated by a new law in the state that erased accurate gender markers from official identity documents.

The ordeal started when Ripper was driving home in the rain on May 5, and was pulled over by a cop; her headlights were off after a brief patch of sun. Confusion followed.

“After seeing my license, he spent like 10 minutes questioning me on if my license was real before I explained to him that I am a transgender woman,” Ripper told Transitics. “It has to say ‘M’ legally. He just awkwardly gave it back to me and sent me on my way with a verbal warning.” Ripper says she wasn’t issued a citation. And under the new, draconian rules in Kansas, she shouldn’t have been.

In February, Republican lawmakers in Kansas rammed Senate Bill 244 through the legislature without debate. The “one-stop shop of hate,” in the words of State Sen. Abi Boatman (D), the legislature’s lone transgender member, revoked the official documents of trans people, banned them from using bathrooms in public buildings that match their gender identity, and created a bounty hunter incentive for Kansans to sue transgender people that they encounter in restrooms.

Trans Kansans received letters the same week stating that their driver’s licenses were no longer valid with the passage of the law, which went into effect over Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D) veto. Ripper and at least 1700 other trans Kansans with driver’s licenses reflecting their gender identity were forced to turn in their old licenses and carry new ones with a gender marker reflecting their sex at birth.

Ripper did so in March. But this week, she received another notice stating that she had failed to appear in court for an arraignment on charges of driving without a valid license. She was given 30 days to show up in court. Failure to appear would constitute an admission of guilt and would carry a 6-month jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.

*snip*

In an about-face on Tuesday, however, country prosecutors dropped the charges against Ripper.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/06/charges-dropped-for-trans-woman-with-over-license-debacle-caused-by-anti-trans-law/

I don't even know where to start with this pernicious nonsense. I guess this is the kind of thing that can happen when hate is put into action by those who are pathetically uninformed about the thing they have decided to direct their hate at. I'm sure the Kansas State legislators who voted for this bill were rubbing their hands together in anticipation of police arresting masculine looking people with an F gender marker on their driver's licenses. It just never occurred to them that a trans person might actually LOOK like the gender they are living as rather than the sex assigned to them at birth!
June 27, 2026

Trump Tower in Chicago could soon be located on 'Barack Hussein Obama Way'

This made me laug8h out loud!

A proposal to honorarily rename the street in Chicago where Trump Tower is located to “Barack Hussein Obama Way" was introduced at city council this week.

The proposal was introduced by 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly on Wednesday, the eve of the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in the city's Jackson Park neighborhood -- an event President Trump was not invited to.

If approved, the ordinance would honorarily rename the east side of North Wabash Avenue between East Kinzie Street and East Wacker Drive to “Barack Hussein Obama Way."

Plus, an honorary street sign marking the designation would also be put up right outside Trump Tower, located at 401 N. Wabash Ave., and on the Wabash Avenue Bridge, accrding to the proposed ordinance.

Link to full article: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/trump-tower-in-chicago-could-soon-be-located-on-barack-hussein-obama-way/3951459/


I sure hope this thing passes. Can you imagine how enraged the Orange One will be?





June 24, 2026

The party of small government?

The GOP claims that it supports small government, but that obviously does not apply in all cases. There are certain kinds of people whose lives and bodies the Republican party wants to police very closely. These currently include people with uteruses and all trans people.

People not in those categories may assume they are safe from such surveillance, but if this trend is allowed to continue, I predict more and more people will find the government all up in their business. It will go something like this...

The Republican Party wanted to control the bodies of people with uteruses. I didn't have a uterus, so that was fine with me.

The Republican Party wanted to control the bodies of transgender people. I wasn't trans, so that was fine with me.

Republican Party wanted to control the bodies of [fill in the blank] people. I wasn't [fill in the blank], so that was fine with me.

Etc. (You all know how it ends.)
June 24, 2026

Poe's law doesn't just apply to the internet anymore

Poe’s Law is a popular adage that says satirical expressions of extremism online are hard to distinguish from genuine ones without indicating intent. The world has gotten so wacky under Trump 2.0 that it's hard to distinguish parody from reality in real life.

Ever since January 20, 2025, we've been living in upside down and backwards world, where white is black, hot is cold, wet is dry, and nothing makes any sense. I don't think any of us need to apologize for getting taken in by this piece of very clever satire. We've all gotten so used believing 6 impossible things before breakfast every single day, that almost anything is believable, including most of that article!

June 15, 2026

I've never been a fan of that regime.

Between taking over the US embassy and holding dozens of Americans hostage, launching widespread persecutions of minority religions, and forcing women back into second class citizenship, I have been opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran from the getgo. But boy howdy, did they ever get this right!

The Iranians aren't the only ones who havef igured out how to use Trump's mental illness to their advantage, though. I have no doubt that Netanyu got the US into this war by convincing the Orange One that attacking Iran would make him a big hero with the American people and around the world. It probably wasn't a hard job, considering Trump's towering narcissism, but I will grudgingly give Bibi some credit for figuring out to manipulate our demented president so successfully.

Trump's incomprtence and the urgent need to remove him from office have never been more glaringly apparent. If the Republicans in both houses of Congress weren't as corrupt and incompetent as he is, he would have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office a long time ago.

June 15, 2026

"And so there's this intersectionality between racism and sexism that was on full display at the White House"

Well spoken, Sunny, but you left something out. This was an intersectionality between racism, sexism, and transphobia.

These bigots don't just think Michelle is a man; they think she is a trans woman, which to these racist, misogynistic, transphobic bigots, is the same thing. Consciously or not, they view trans women as traitors, men who have rejected masculinity, and that feels like a personal insult to them.

Calling Michelle a man is just one facet of transvestigation, which GLAAD calls a "hate-driven conspiracy theory [that] maliciously targets cisgender public figures — from France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron to Michelle Obama to Olympic boxer Imane Khelif — and then “investigates” them offering fake pseudo-scientific “evidence” that they are transgender (with the underlying bigoted and ignorant implication that being a transgender person is a bad thing). This is a notable example of how transphobic hate impacts everyone — as the targets of the harassment are cisgender people. The trope has even been weaponized against right wing figures such as Kyle Rittenhouse and Andrew Tate. Disinformation researcher Dr. Jay Daniel Thompson describes “transvestigation” as “a mash-up of QAnon, celebrity gossip and the myriad anti-trans conspiracies.” Source: https://glaad.org/transvestigation-definition-meaning-anti-lgbt-online-hate/

These people comb the internet for photos of famous women they don't like, looking for "clues" like broad shoulders, a prominent forehead, or a strong jawline that they regard as "proof" that the women in question are really trans women (who they call "men" because they either don't understand the distinction or have chosen not to recognize it).

If a woman they are targeting is married to a male public figure, these accusations are used as slurs against the male partner (because if his partner is a "man," he must be gay. )

Never mind that there's absolutely nothing wrong with being either gay OR trans; these people believe that being either of those things is wrong in every way, and they delight in spreading their lies. Transvestigation is a sick, disgusting activity, and those who pursue it are sick, disgusting people.

June 9, 2026

This is exactly what I would have expected of him.

He has a desperate need to believe he is THE most wonderful, fantastic, amazing person to ever walk the earth. He wears his malignant narcissism like a suit of armor that protects him from ever having to confront unpleasant truths like those boos.

I'm sure he was aware of the boos, but admitting that to himself, much less to reporters, is absolutely out of the question, just like admitting that he actually lost the 2020 election. So yes, he's definitely delusional. On some level he does know the truth, but acknowledging it is not something he's capable of doing.

June 4, 2026

This melted my heart!



Profile Information

Name: Sharon
Gender: Female
Hometown: Chicago area, IL
Home country: USA
Member since: Tue Mar 26, 2013, 04:18 AM
Number of posts: 23,087
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