Tag Archive for: queers

Pope Francis Declares ‘Gender Ideology’ As ‘Dangerous’ To Civilization

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Pope Francis said in an interview published Friday that “gender ideology” is among the “most dangerous ideological colonizations” today, according to a recent interview with La Nacion, an Argentinian media outlet.

The pope has made waves recently with some of his comments on LGBTQ issues, most recently saying that homosexuality, while a sin, should not be criminalized. Francis said that “gender ideology” has created one of the most “dangerous” ideologies in recent history because of the way it blurs the lines between men and women, according to a translation of his remarks to La Nacion by the Catholic News Agency.

Francis explained that “all humanity is the tension of differences” and worried about how “gender ideology” had virtually eliminated those differences between men and women.

“Why is it dangerous?” Francis said. “Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women. The question of gender is diluting the differences and making the world the same, all dull, all alike, and that is contrary to the human vocation.”

The pope said that the idea of allowing people to identify as male, female or nonbinary reminded him of a 1907 book titled “Lord Of The World” by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson. Francis explained the book showed a future where “differences are disappearing” and all things become “uniform.”

Francis also dispelled rumors that he had been asked to write a document on the topic of gender, noting that he “always distinguish[es] between what pastoral care is for people who have a different sexual orientation and what gender ideology is,” according to La Nacion. The pope called people who believe that radical gender ideology is “the path of progress” rather “naive.”

Francis has been criticized in the past due to remarks he has made about transgenderism and acceptance of same-sex marriage, according to the Catholic News Agency. In 2020, the pope said that he would be in favor of a “civil union law” for same-sex couples, and in January 2022 encouraged parents to not “condemn” their children over sexual orientation.

Most recently, he criticized the Church for becoming caught up in political debates, warning that the “Gospel is not an ideology.”

“[T]he Gospel is a proclamation that touches your heart and makes you change your heart, but if you take refuge in an idea, in an ideology, whether right or left or centre, you are making the Gospel a political party, an ideology, a club of people,” the pope said.

The Vatican did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLES:

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Catholic University Holds ‘Reproductive Justice’ Series Pushing Pro-Abortion, Transgender Ideology

‘We Were Wrong’: Pioneer In Child Gender Dysphoria Treatment Says Trans Medical Industry Is Harming Kids

Parents Fight Elite High School’s Lottery System Used To Increase Diversity

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘Misogyny’: 47 Biological Males Allowed in Women’s Prisons in California

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On Wednesday, The Post Millennial reported that 47 biological males who identify as transgender have been allowed entry into women’s prisons in California since the state’s Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act (SB-132) went into effect in 2021. Experts are decrying the policy, pointing to the dangers posed to women’s safety and privacy.

Citing data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) website, the story notes that “as of Feb. 26, 2023, 349 people housed in male institutions have requested to be housed in a female institution. 47 were approved for transfer, 21 were denied, and 35 changed their minds. The remaining requests are being reviewed.”

Amanda Stulman, director of the U.S. chapter of the advocacy organization Keep Prisons Single Sex, pointed to the unique dangers that female inmates face as a result of California’s SB-132.

“Keep Prisons Single Sex remains horrified that the transfer of criminal men into women’s prison in California has continued,” she told The Washington Stand. “The impact of a law such as SB-132 should have been obvious when it was under consideration. Now that the law has been in place for over two years, California is able to see its impact: As of 2022, over 33% of the men seeking to transfer under this law under the guise of ‘gender identity’ are registered sex offenders. Over a quarter have been convicted of a sex offense. These are substantially higher percentages than the general prison population.”

Stulman went on to highlight additional reports coming out of the California prison system since the law’s implementation.

“There have been allegations of pregnancies and sexual assaults, of the introduction of condoms and other birth control and information about options in the event of pregnancy,” she said. “Men who have been moved under this law include murderers and sexual offenders. California needs to admit this law was a mistake and walk it back.”

Instances of trans-identifying men assaulting women in female prisons have occurred as recently as last April, when a biological male who identified as female was sentenced to seven years in prison after he was convicted of raping a female inmate in the women’s section of the jail on Rikers Island in New York.

The problem does not appear to be contained to the United States. The Times in the U.K. recently reported that seven sexual assaults have occurred in women’s prisons by transgender-identifying convicts, and that trans-identifying males are “five times more likely to carry out sex attacks on inmates at women’s jails than other prisoners are,” according to official figures.

Male criminals convicted of sexual crimes are also being permitted into women’s prisons in Canada. On Wednesday, The Post Millennial reported that a male convicted sex offender who raped a 13-year-old girl and who was “classified as a dangerous offender” has been transferred to a women’s prison in Ontario after identifying as trans. This latest instance is just one of multiple examples of biological males convicted of sexual crimes being allowed into women’s prisons in Canada since 2017.

Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, the director of the Center for Family Studies at Family Research Council, was candid in her assessment of California’s controversial prison policy.

“The word that comes to mind is ‘misogyny,’” she told The Washington Stand. “That’s actually what this is about: the hatred of women instead of the protection of women in prison. Some people could write off this population just because they’ve committed crimes and [say] they’re not deserving of protection — I totally disagree with that. But I think this is just another example of a disregard for women and a preference for the desires of men. Whether people are aware of that at a conscious level or not, that’s what is manifesting.”

Bauwens, who formerly worked as a clinician providing trauma-focused treatment and has studied the effects of trauma, pointed out how the policy will be particularly detrimental to women prisoners.

“This is an old study, but it still speaks to who is in a women’s prison,” she noted. “‘One key finding from this research is that incarcerated women are more likely to report extensive histories of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse—between 77 and 90%.’ … And the prevalence rates of childhood abuse [are] much higher among incarcerated women in comparison to the general population. This study was specifically looking at the California prison population.”

“[Women prisoners] are more susceptible to committing crimes based on abuse histories,” Bauwens continued. “When someone’s experienced childhood abuse, they’re more likely to act out in delinquent behaviors or abuse substances. … There have been recommendations from different public health researchers that have suggested that for female prisoners, trauma therapy should be a part of their time in prison because of this knowledge.”

She went on question the vetting process by which male inmates are allowed into female prisons.

“So you have all that going on in the background, and then you’re going to [add male convicted criminals]? We don’t know of the criteria for a transfer. What kind of background checks are they looking at? What’s the reason that they’re in prison in the first place, and is that considered? Have they had a violent or sexual offense? Does that sideline them from transfer? I don’t think so, based on previous reporting.”

“It speaks to the level of misogyny going on in this thought process,” Bauwens concluded. “There really is no thought about protecting women from further harm. Women should do their time for their crime, but not be victimized in the process.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

High School’s Policy Tells Girls To Leave Their Locker Room If Uncomfortable With Trans Students

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An Arizona high school has a policy allowing transgender students to change in their preferred locker rooms and telling female students to use alternative facilities if they are uncomfortable, according to emails obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Students and parents at Catalina Foothills High School (CFHS) in Tucson, Arizona, found out about the new policy after Bart Pemberton, a parent of a female student from CFHS, spoke with radio host Garrett Lewis about an “unwritten policy” that another parent had told him about. The policy not only allows transgender students in the bathroom or locker room of their choice but also tells students who are uncomfortable with the policy to request an accommodation to use different changing facilities, according to emails obtained by the DCNF.

Pemberton told the DCNF that when he heard about the policy he set up a meeting with the school’s principal Jody Brase for Feb. 21.

“According to [Brase] it is an unwritten and unadvertised policy for the past 10 years,” Pemberton said. “It’s basically whatever they (the school administration) want it to be since it isn’t ‘official.’ Her rationale was that this is a small number of kids, the other kids know who they are, the kids almost always don’t fully undress, most of the kids won’t use the locker rooms, etc.”

Eileen Jackson, president of the Catalina Foothills School District (CFS) governing board, told Pemberton in an email obtained by the DCNF that the district’s Nondiscrimination/Equal Opportunity policy covers such matters and “guide[s] our administrators in their daily decisions that arise in the operation of our schools.”

“Similarly, any student who is uncomfortable sharing multiple-occupancy facilities with others has the ability to request an accommodation,” Jackson said. “Our district administrators respond to their needs and find alternatives for those students. In this way, we treat all students in the same manner. Further, our administrators do not require any student to be singled out or isolated based on any of the protected statuses identified in our policy.”

Pemberton told Jackson that her statement directly contradicted what Brase had told him and asked that the school board talk about the policies at the district’s March 28 meeting.

Pemberton told Brase his concerns were based on what had happened at other schools like in Loudoun County, Virginia, when a male student, claiming to be transgender, allegedly sexually assaulted two girls in two different school bathrooms. Brase allegedly told Pemberton that she was “aware” of what had happened in Virginia but was “confident it wouldn’t happen here.”

Genon Thomas, a female student at Catalina, told the DCNF that the school had failed to inform her that she would have to share the bathroom or locker room with biologically male students, calling the policy the “dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I found out through my family members sending the news to me since they found out,” Thomas said. “I shouldn’t have to share a bathroom or locker room with people who were not born the same gender as me. I just would not feel comfortable.”

Chandler Thomas, Genon’s older brother, and his cousin Dylan Thomas told the DCNF that they concerned about safety and potential discrimination against female students.

“By enforcing the policy to allow non-biological females to use the women’s bathroom, they directly force two options on biological females: 1) Use the same bathroom uncomfortably around these individuals or 2) choose to use another bathroom to feel comfortable,” Chandler Thomas, an alum of CFHS, said. “Simply put, this is discrimination caused by hate for discrimination, very reminiscent of the force driving Marxist ideology. This policy discriminates against biological females as well as any information opposing the ideology that manifested this policy.”

Dylan Thomas said he wanted “a definitive answer” about how the school will keep its students “safe, protected and comfortable.” Thomas also objected to his siblings and other students being subjected to “this delusion” and wondered how the school could claim it was preventing discrimination when it would force girls to leave their own locker room.

A spokesperson from CFSD district told the DCNF that no students are “singled out or isolated based on any of the protected statuses identified in our policy.”

“The CFSD Governing Board’s policy, unanimously adopted in 2015, states that our district is committed to nondiscrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ethnicity, religion, creed, age or disability,” the spokesperson said.

The district did acknowledge that any students who are “uncomfortable sharing multiple-occupancy facilities (e.g., restrooms, locker rooms)” can “request an accommodation,” noting that administrators “find alternatives for those students.”

Jennifer Pershing, a mother of four with one student at CFHS, told the DCNF the school is embracing a “dangerous social contagion” and “discriminating against the truth.” Perishing said she has “compassion for children suffering from gender dysphoria” but argued that it was not going to help anyone to “pretend it is normal.”

Pershing said some parents have tried to ignore what is going on because it feels like a losing battle, but she said that the “transgender ideology is a lie” and will “ultimately fail.”

Dylan Thomas noted that parents he has spoken to are looking for ways to take their kids out of high school either by transferring or homeschooling.

“Parents, teachers, and siblings that I have talked to couldn’t believe it, no one thought this delusional reality would come this far and seep into our own backyard,” Thomas said.

CFHS and Brase did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Do You Think The Girls … Would Feel Comfortable’: Trans Student Confronts Gov. Youngkin On Bathroom Policy

RELATED VIDEO: Governor DeSantis speaks at ‘Exposing the Book Ban Hoax’ presser in Tampa, Florida

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Here Are The Sexually Explicit Books Florida Is Working To Remove From Public Schools

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  • Florida public school districts have removed over 100 books for containing content that is pornographic, violent or not age-appropriate, the Daily Caller News Foundation learned.
  • The books included “This Book is Gay,” “Gender Queer,” “Let’s Talk About It” and “It’s Perfectly Normal,” all of which include graphic references to sex.
  • Florida law requires librarians and media specialists to undergo training before selecting material that is age-appropriate, and it has a law prohibiting the distribution of pornographic material to minors.

Florida schools have removed more than 100 books that contain pornographic material during the 2022-2023 academic year in order to comply with state law, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

A survey of local school districts found that 153 of 175 books were removed the the district for including pornographic, violent or age-inappropriate content, according to a document obtained by the DCNF. The removed books included “This Book is Gay,” “Gender Queer,” “Let’s Talk About It” and “It’s Perfectly Normal,” all of which contain sexually explicit depictions according to snippets shared by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration.

“This Book Is Gay” is described as an informational book about growing up in the LGBTQ+ community and includes a section about the “ins and outs of gay sex,” according to Sourcebooks. Taryn Feske, DeSantis’ communication director, shared a page from the book that defines sex terminology including “rimming,” “scat,” “scissor sisters” and “strap-on.”

Feske also shared pages from “Gender Queer,” an autobiography from author Maia Kobabe who uses e/em/eir pronouns, that depict two characters attempting oral sex by using a strap-on. The book also depicts the characters sexting, masturbating and tasting themselves.

“Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears,” the book description reads.

“Let’s Talk About It” includes an image of two people engaging in anal sex and a diagram of an anus, according to pages of the book shared to Twitter.

“When it comes to reproducing, the penis and the vagina can fit together to form the ultimate baby-making machine. Let’s take a peek right now and see how —” the book reads.

It also explains that “your genitals exist to let you feel pleasure with yourself or others (no matter which genitals they may have)” and promotes hookup culture.

“Sexual intimacy is a powerful way to feel good and bond with another person, whether it’s for a night or a lifetime,” the book reportedly reads.

“It’s Perfectly Normal,” advertised for children ages 10 and older, includes sections on masturbation, heterosexual and gay sex and all gender restrooms.

Only 23 districts out of 56 reported to remove books from the schools and a majority of books were removed from the schools’ media center and not classrooms. The number of books removed for having inappropriate content may be higher because 13% of reports did not include a specific reason for removal.

DeSantis signed legislation in March 2022 that requires school districts to be “transparent” about the material being taught in public schools. House Bill 1467 required those involved in selecting school library books to undergo training prepared by the state Department of Education beginning in January 2023 before selecting age-appropriate materials.

Florida law also prohibits distributing pornographic materials to minors under section 847.012, which reads that a person cannot distribute on school property “any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, videocassette, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct” to minors.

Videos circulating on social media appeared to show empty book shelves at a Duval County public school, according to First Coast News. DeSantis challenged this video on Tuesday and said it was a “fake narrative.”

“That was not true,” DeSantis reportedly said, according to First Coast News. “This is trying to create some narrative as if that they hadn’t even put the books out yet to begin with. So there’s no need for all of that stuff. What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to act like somehow, you know, we don’t want books.”

Eighty-four percent of books removed from Duval County schools contained pornographic, violent or inappropriate content, according to data provided to the DCNF.

Tracy Pierce, Duval County Public Schools chief of marketing and public relations, confirmed to the DCNF the video was fake.

“Yes, this video is an outstanding example of deceptive and false narrative,” Pierce said. “The videographer took great care only to show a portion of the media center where books were removed. At that time, an extensive array of non-fiction books, biographies and reference materials remained in stock and accessible. In fact, well over half of the books in the library were still available to students.”

AUTHOR

ALEXA SCHWERHA

Contributor.

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Is The University Of California System Becoming A Safe Space For Antisemitism?

School District Enlists ‘Black Lives Matter Task Force’ To Help Teach 7th Graders How They’re Implicitly Biased

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

TENNESSEE: Bill advances to ban drag shows, other adult entertainment on public property

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A society is in a moral crisis when it becomes necessary for a bill to be sponsored to safeguard kids in public places. Although the bill is aimed at “go-go dancers, exotic dancers, and strippers on public property,” it is hardly a secret that the trans agenda has come to include grooming children in vulgar performances that are inappropriate for children.

Republican Rep. Chris Todd, who sponsored the bill, called it a “common-sense” “child safety” bill. Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson introduced the bill. People have lost sight of what responsible censorship is even means. It is glaring how the far Left uses charges of censorship to shut down speech that does not suit its agenda and that they claim to consider “offensive,” but they have no problem with the overt, public corruption of children. The sexualizing and grooming of young children is relentlessly becoming normalized. That’s why laws of this kind are needed.

Tennessee bill aims to ban drag shows, other adult entertainment on public property

by Lawrence Richard, Fox News, February 1, 2023:

The state of Tennessee could bar drag shows and other adult entertainment performances, pending a bill that is advancing through the state’s legislature.

A bill banning go-go dancers, exotic dancers, and strippers on public property and for those under the age of 18 was approved by the Tennessee House Criminal Justice Subcommittee on Tuesday, according to FOX 17 Nashville. It will now advance to the House Criminal Justice Committee.

“This is a common-sense child safety bill,” said Rep. Chris Todd, a Republican who sponsored HB. 9, per the report.

The bill intends to prohibit “adult cabaret entertainment” that is “harmful to minors,” including “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers.”

“There’s confusion in the law of what performances are covered. This clarifies what is crossing the line that is harmful to minors,” Todd added.

While the bill effectively bans drag shows, it does not specifically use the term.

Republicans in the state have contended that drag shows can result in the “sexualization” or “grooming” of children.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican, introduced the legislation near the end of 2022 with his own bill that limits gender-care surgeries for those under 18.

“We are not going to expose our children to this type of inappropriate, sexually explicit performances,” Sen. Johnson told the station in November 2022, after drag performances where kids were present were becoming more popular……

Read more.

AUTHOR

HRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Texas Republicans Ask All School Districts To Immediately Leave Texas Association Of School Boards

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Several members of the Texas legislature sent a letter to every school district in the state asking them to immediately leave the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB).

Texas state Representatives, led by GOP Rep. Brian Harrison, are asking school districts to leave the TASB, claiming recent decisions the association made regarding school board protests and transgender students prove to Texas parents that the TASB “work[s] against their values and potentially place[s] their children in harm’s way,” according to the letter shared exclusively with the Daily Caller.

The nine signatories — GOP Reps. Brian Harrison, Briscoe Cain, Richard Hayes, Terri Leo-Wilson, Matt Schaefer, Nate Schatzline, Bryan Slaton, Mark Dorazio and Tony Tinderholt — said that although they “appreciate” that TASB left the National School Boards Association in May 2022, the amount of time the decision took to make was troubling.

January Letter to School Board Presidents Re TASB Vf-2 by Mary Rooke on Scribd

“We were shocked last year that it took the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) almost an entire year to leave the National School Boards Association (NSBA) after it sent an indefensible letter equating parental involvement at school board meetings to ‘heinous actions’ which ‘could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism’ and called on federal law enforcement to potentially target parents,” the letter stated.

The Texas lawmakers also took issue with TASB’s “radically pro-transgender” guidance released in January, which they claim undermines parental rights and violates Texas law.

“This dangerous legal advisory appears to encourage school districts to refrain from reporting child abuse and to obscure information regarding children exhibiting gender dysphoria from their parents,” the letter stated. “In the guidance, TASB also may be encouraging schools to violate Texas’s recent law, the ‘Save Girls’ Sports Act,’ and allow biological males to participate in girls’ sports. We feel duty bound to make sure all elected officials charged with overseeing the education of Texas student[s] are aware of this.”

Harrison told the Daily Caller that Texas parents shouldn’t be responsible for funding “woke ideology” with their tax dollars.

“It’s bad enough that harmful woke ideology is being pushed on Texas students over the objection of their parents, but worse that local elected officials are forcing those same parents to fund it with their tax dollars,” Harrison told the Caller. “That must end. I appreciate my colleagues joining me in fighting to stop the continued weaponization of our constituents’ tax dollars against them.”

Texas school districts are not required to be part of TASB or any school board organization. The representatives have directed their offices to help provide school districts with alternatives for the services TASB currently handles.

AUTHOR

MARY ROOKE

Commentary and analysis reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: Texas Representatives Demand Review Of ‘Radically Pro-Transgender’ State School Board Guidance

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘What Is A Woman?’: A Provocative Look at the Transgender Debate

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These days, dead white males do not count for much. But we still have the legacy of an exceptional man who went around Athens asking people to provide basic definitions. In so doing, he proved to many that they were not as knowledgeable as they thought themselves to be. This man’s questions annoyed many, and for that, he was called “the gadfly”. Ultimately, some Athenians could not handle his intellectual curiosity, and sentenced him to death.

American conservative commentator Matt Walsh has often been labelled a “troll”. What is the difference between a troll and a gadfly? It is hard to tell. Very much as Socrates, Walsh simply asks questions. Admittedly, Walsh may be more exasperating than the father of Western philosophy in this endeavour, but he gets the job done. And that job is getting closer to truth.

What is a Woman?, Walsh’s latest documentary has been produced by the Daily Wire, a bumptious but highly professional conservative media company. It is structured as a series of Socratic dialogues about the transgender debate. He interviews many gender studies “experts” who spout the usual ideological points regarding gender dysphoria (sex is a social construction, children should not be refused hormone replacement therapy, etc.), and asks them “What is a woman?” Predictably, none of them provide a clear answer.

The most challenging interlocutors for Socrates were the Sophists — teachers who taught how to persuade people with rhetoric but did not care about the truth. How can you establish a meaningful dialogue with someone who does not even accept that there is a difference between truth and falsehood? American academia is awash with transgender Sophists, as Walsh discovers. One stands out for his absurdity. Professor Patrick Grzanka says: “I am uncomfortable with that language ‘getting to the truth’… It sounds deeply transphobic to me… You keep invoking the word ‘truth’, which is condescending and rude.”

This is not the only outrageous thing coming from the mouth of a college-educated person in the film. Paediatrician Michelle Forcier tells Walsh that puberty blockers are “completely reversible and don’t have permanent effects, and are wonderful, because we put that pause on puberty.” Many paediatricians have pushed back against this claim. For example, the American College of Pediatricians states that “puberty blockers may cause permanent physical harm.” Bioethicists frequently invoke the “precautionary principle”, yet strangely, puberty blockers get a free pass. Even medical ethics is falling under the influence of woke ideology.

Critics are ignoring this uncomfortable documentary

Not all moments in the film are as sad. Walsh travels to Kenya to meet members of the Masai tribe and asks some men: “What if someone is non-binary?” The Masai interlocutor’s confused and perplexed reaction is hilarious. Now, some social justice warrior might denounce this as an evil racist film that makes fun of African people. But that would be missing the point. The ones being mocked are the (mostly white) North American liberals who project onto the rest of the world their social constructionist ideas.

Walsh lays the blame for the transgender craze at the feet of Dr Alfred Kinsey, who allegedly had a mission to erode Judeo-Christian values. I do not see the need for Walsh to go down this path. Kinsey may have claimed many questionable things, but I do give him credit for having lifted the veil on many sexual practices whose existence the 1950s establishment refused to acknowledge. And I see no need to bring a religious angle to this topic. Saying that women have vaginas and men have penises is not about Judaism or Christianity. It is about common sense, regardless of whether you are a Jew, Christian, Buddhist, or atheist.

He also goes overboard exhibiting people who self-identify as animals, presumably to mock the extent to which self-identification can be taken. In the film, one Naia Okami identifies as a transgender woman and “wolforian”, walks on all four, and howls. Of course, psychiatry has always documented cases of lycanthropy. But to bring such exceptional cases to the transgender debate is more akin to P.T. Barnum’s 19th century so-called “freak shows” than serious engagement with issues of identity.

Nevertheless, Carl Trueman, a scholar interviewed by Walsh, does have a point in arguing that at the root of the transgender craze is a desperate need to belong. Adolescents are searching for an identity, and in our fragmented communities, it is hard to find one. Describing yourself as a “man trapped inside a woman’s body” may do the part, and with peer pressure, others follow suit. Hollywood takes note and being transgender becomes the new cool.

This “social contagion” theory is anathema to woke activists. But it should be noted that not long ago, leftists embraced the concept. When in the 1980s some religious conservatives talked about Satanic ritual abuse in books and TV shows, suddenly multiple personality disorder rates exploded. Why do they refuse to even consider that some similar process may now be at play with gender dysphoria?

But of course, social contagion cannot be the sole factor in gender dysphoria. Yes, many kids may become transgender due to media influence, but surely there must be some cases in which social factors do not play a role. The scientific data does suggest a degree of biological origin in some cases. Walsh does not address this.

Walsh’s film is at times excessively one-sided. There is no interviewee genuinely expressing the frustrations of feeling trapped in the wrong body. Likewise, there are no testimonies of adolescents transitioning and doing just fine. Surely there are many such cases, and even though Walsh is entitled to make his point, he could at least give the devil his due.

Be that as it may, Walsh speaks for many people who are simply too afraid to let their views be known. Walsh deserves praise for that courage. And he is very effective in the bottom line of any film: entertaining the audience. Like Socrates, he is forcing us to challenge many of the assumptions of woke culture by asking “dumb questions”.

AUTHOR

Gabriel Andrade

Gabriel Andrade is a university professor originally from Venezuela. He writes about politics, philosophy, history, religion and psychology. More by Gabriel Andrade.

EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Transgender Agenda Losing Support: Poll

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Although left-wing activists often say they represent “the right side of history,” a well-regarded poll finds that support for a key item of the LGBTQ agenda has collapsed faster than virtually any other issue: Significantly fewer Americans support allowing men to use women’s restrooms in 2022 than in 2016.

“Americans are 17 percentage points more likely to favor” laws requiring the two sexes to use separate restrooms “today than they were in 2016, when the question was first asked,” according to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). “In fact, 2022 saw the sharpest uptick of strong support for requiring transgender people to use bathrooms based on their” sex.

“Typically, opinion does not move so quickly on such issues,” PRRI notes.

Americans of all political views became less supportive of this plank of the LGBTQ agenda over the last six years, with registered independents switching their views completely. “In 2016, most independents opposed” laws respecting female privacy, “but by 2022 a small majority favored these laws,” the polling firm states in an article published on December 15.

Surprisingly, the number of Democrats backing restroom privacy laws has grown by four points in 2022 (31%) over the level in 2016 (27%), according to PRRI’s 2022 American Values Survey.

Support for laws respecting privacy in intimate settings spans all racial and ethnic backgrounds, religions, and nearly all generations. A majority of multiracial (53%), Hispanic (52%), and white Americans (51%), as well as half of black Americans (50%), told PRRI they support legally established zones of privacy where people disrobe. Only college-educated white people, registered Democrats, people not affiliated with any religion, and those under the age of 30 tend to favor sexually mixed restrooms, the poll finds.

One likely reason for the seismic change is increasing public awareness of physical and sexual assaults inflicted by men against women inside restrooms. Last week, details emerged that a male who identifies as female physically attacked two teenage girls in a female restroom inside the Edmond Memorial High School in Edmond, Oklahoma. The nation’s restrooms have been the sight of numerous assaults and acts of voyeurism stretching all the way back to 1999. Recent incidents include:

  • “Two Loudoun County Public School (LCPS) officials have been indicted in Virginia on charges related to attempts to cover up two sexual assaults in a girls’ bathroom and in an empty classroom perpetrated against female students by a male student” who identified as “gender fluid,” The Washington Stand reported last week;
  • In March, an 18-year-old male exposed his genitals to a child inside a gender-neutral restroom in Wisconsin’s Rhinelander High School;
  • A five-year-old girl said a male student who identified as “gender fluid” sexually molested her inside the restroom of Oakhurst Elementary School in Decatur, Georgia, on November 16, 2017. The school district violated Title IX by failing to adequately investigate the incident, according to a 2020 ruling from the Office of Civil Rights in the Trump administration’s Education Department; and
  • Police arrested a man for indecent exposure inside a women’s restroom in Charlotte, North Carolina, in July 2016.

Similar outrages have occurred in intimate facilities other than restrooms:

  • The Daily Mail reported this month that prison authorities transferred convicted child rapist Brett David Sonia, who now identifies as Brooke Lyn Sonia, to Washington Correctional Center for Women, reportedly leaving women “petrified” they will be victimized next;
  • In July 2016, police arrested a man for recording a young girl changing her clothes inside a Target changing room. Sean Patrick Smith, who identified as woman named “Shauna Patricia Smith,” reportedly told police that he exploited Target’s celebrated, transgender-friendly policies to record several young women undressing. Smith entered a guilty plea to one count of video voyeurism in October 2016; and
  • Officials accused voyeurs of recording similar, surreptitious videos in Target’s multi-sex changing rooms in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Texas in 2016 alone.

The real difference on the issue comes down to ideology, not age, PRRI states. The Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, and Generation X oppose opening restrooms to transgender people. Americans aged 30-49 are evenly split, while those 18-29 support transgender restroom use. But the report notes that Millennials and Gen Z who belong to the Republican Party side with older Republicans in backing restroom privacy legislation.

“Generational divisions, then, are largely attributable to differences in the generations to identify with the Democratic or Republican Party,” says the survey. “If younger cohorts start identifying more with the Republican Party,” support for restroom privacy will increase.

“It is not guaranteed that demographic change means a destiny of victory for LGBTQ equality,” concludes PRRI.

Values play a strong role in how citizens view transgender restrooms. A majority of “members of all religious groups support requiring transgender individuals to use bathrooms that correspond to their sex,” notes PRRI, “including three in four white evangelical Protestants (75%), 64% of other Christians, 58% of white mainline Protestants, 57% of Black Protestants (57%), 53% of white Catholics, 51% of Hispanic Catholics, and 50% of non-Christian religious Americans.” Yet only 34% of the Nones support gender privacy.

Americans who believe there are only two sexes are also three times more likely to support separate restroom and changing spaces than those who believe in gender fluidity (69% vs. 23%).

What’s more, the poll’s results fall to the left of many other surveys; for instance, a 2016 WPA Opinion poll found two-thirds of all Americans oppose transgender restrooms. PRRI’s declining numbers indicate public support has eroded even more than the report lets on. The title of the report announcing these results, “Challenges In Moving Toward A More Inclusive Democracy,” reflects PRRI’s pique.

PRRI also complains that “Americans who most trust far-right news outlets” are “notably more likely to support” restroom privacy (84%), even more than those whose first news choice is Fox News (78%). Americans who “most trust mainstream outlets are much less likely to support” female restroom rights (44%).

Time magazine ran an article in 2016 titled, “Transgender Bathroom: Advocates Say ‘Predator’ is Myth.” A year later, CNN asserted that “there is no evidence” that policies giving males access to female’s intimate spaces “lead to attacks in public facilities.”

Nearly two out of three people who stopped or curbed their viewing of CNN (61%) agreed that “one of the reasons I find myself watching CNN less often is because of its liberal/left-wing bias,” according to a new poll from the Media Research Center.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This The Washington Stand column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

After the ‘Respect for Marriage Act’, will the U.S. follow Spain down the ‘disrespect for marriage’ rabbit hole?

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Spain is on the way to recognising 16 types of families, none of them the traditional nuclear family.

The Respect for Marriage Act has sailed through the US Senate, amidst great jubilation. Twelve Republicans, including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, voted with Democrats to pass the legislation by a vote of 61-36. Now it goes to the lame-duck House of Representatives, where it is certain to pass.

This will be one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements. The Act will basically codify Obergefell v Hodges, the US Supreme Court decision which legalised same sex marriage. If SCOTUS happens to overturn Obergefell, as many people fear, same sex marriage will still be safe.

The President tweeted that: “our nation is on the brink of reaffirming a fundamental truth: love is love.”

New York Senator Chuck Schumer, whose daughter is a married lesbian, tweeted: “the Senate has sent a message to Americans everywhere: No matter who you are or who you love, you deserve dignity and equal treatment under the law.”

Heart-warming sentiments, these. What lies ahead for same-sex marriage now that the US Congress is about to codify “love is love”?

The Senators who voted against the Respect for Marriage Act warn that it will be used to strip religious institutions of their tax-exempt status. Texas Senator Ted Cruz commented that “Not only does the so-called Respect for Marriage Act open the door for a weaponized IRS to target religious non-profits, but it will start a race to the bottom, forcing the most extreme marriage laws from any state onto every other state.”

In a speech to the Senate Utah Senator Mike Lee reminded his colleagues that the possibility of a conflict with religious freedom was also predicted in the oral arguments before SCOTUS:

Justice Alito asked whether, should states be required to recognize same-sex marriages, religious universities could lose their tax-exempt status. His response, the response from [then] Solicitor General Verrilli was chilling. He said, quote, “It’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It’s going to be an issue.” …

But if you want to look even further ahead, consider Spain, which legalised same-sex marriage in 2005, ten years before Obergefell v Hodges. After almost two decades of experience, it is moving on to bigger and better things. The government there is a left-wing coalition and the Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra, belongs to Podemos, a party at the extreme left of the left-wing.

Next week she will present a draft of a new law on families to the Spanish Parliament. This lists 16 kinds of families, according to an exclusive in the ABC newspaper.

The bill’s explanatory memorandum states: “The family no longer exists, only families, in the plural, exist”. Based on rulings by Spain’s Constitutional Court, it declares that “the concept of family is not limited to those of matrimonial origin”.

Accordingly, the Minister says that Spain must give full legal recognition to this array of families and to protect and support them with government services.

Here is the list:

  • Two-parent families
  • Single mother or single father families
  • Young families
  • LGBTI families
  • Families in need of support
  • Multiple families
  • Blended families
  • Immigrant families
  • Transnational families
  • Intercultural families
  • Families living abroad
  • Families returned from aboard
  • Vulnerable families
  • Married couples
  • Defacto couples
  • Single-person families

The linguistic and legal creativity is astonishing. What’s notable about the list is that none of the 16 categories corresponds to the traditional definition of family: a married woman and a man and, if they exist, their children.

In Minister Belarra’s narrative, two-parent families (familia biparental) include married couples and defacto couples and could even squeeze in gay and lesbian couples. Married couples (personas unidas en matrimonio) include heterosexual and homosexual couples. She has even created new words to describe gay and lesbian couples (familia LGTBI homomarental y homoparental).

Clearly Belarra’s aim is to create a blizzard of labels in which the nuclear family disappears from view. It will no longer have a privileged place in Spanish law or a special claim on government services.

Furthermore, Spanish schoolchildren will be catechised in the new order of things. According to the draft bill, “family diversity is a principle of the educational system”. The list of family types must be included in textbooks and in the syllabus for trainee teachers.

What if parents object?

They can’t.

The bill specifically states that “parents or responsible adults may not limit or impede the access of children and adolescents to information and their participation in activities to raise awareness and disseminate family diversity that take place within the educational framework, in order to avoid restricting their rights to education and the free development of their personality”.

Spain is a country where politicians like Ione Belarra are unafraid of defending and imposing loopy laws. Once in power, opposition energizes them and fills them with righteous conviction. Whether or not her proposals succeed completely, it is clear that the nuclear family in Spain is in the sights of a very large LGBTQI cannon.

In the near term, the Spanish experience will not easily transfer to the United States, which has a federal system of government and a larger and more intellectually diverse population.

However, it’s a clear warning of what lies ahead. If American courts and legislatures can redefine marriage to include gay and lesbian couples, why can’t they include polyamory or polygamy?

Or still worse, redefine marriage to include so many relationships that it means nothing at all?

AUTHOR

Michael Cook

Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet. He lives in Sydney, Australia. More by Michael Cook.

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EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

MICHIGAN: Watch Leftists excoriate Muslims for opposing sexually explicit LGBTQ propaganda in schoolbooks

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This is a bit surprising, as previously Islam has always trumped other “progressive” causes. Feminists went mute about Islamic misogyny, race activists said nothing about the persistence of slavery in some Muslim countries, etc. But now the Leftist-Islamic alliance is being seriously strained, at least in Dearborn. Note the pain of one Leftist at the ingratitude of the Muslims: “we fought the right to allow you to come here & now you dare go against us.”

Samira Khan says: “It’s only a matter of time before American Muslims are branded terrorists again and hunted down by the government, but it will be done by the left this time around, not the right.” Islamic groups in the U.S. were always hysterical about any and all counterterror measures, far beyond any proportionality, leading to suspicions that they just didn’t want any counterterror activity at all. But Samira Khan is correct that the Left is ruthless and authoritarian, and will hunt down its enemies. It’s very clear that’s what the groundwork is being prepared for now, with Biden’s handlers’ attempt to portray half the electorate as dangerous criminals who are a threat to the very survival of the republic.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Only Two F*cking Genders’: Ocasio-Cortez Townhall Goes Completely Haywire As Protesters Shout Her Down

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Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s town hall went downhill Wednesday night after protesters shouted her down.

Ocasio-Cortez was hosting a Listening Forum Event in Astoria, Queens, when a large group of protesters began chanting “AOC has got to go.” Several of the protesters held up signs, with some reading, “Fuck Joe Biden,” “Wake up New York” and “Agenda 2030 U.N. Is Dirty.”

As Ocasio-Cortez spoke about LGBTQ centers, one protester asked, “So if I don’t have butt sex, I can’t have a place to live?”

“Sir, your sexual orientation has nothing to do with it,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. The man then said the centers were “racist against straight people.”

Another man then stood up, and though his speech was inaudible, the rest of the crowd broke out into a “let her speak” chant.

Eventually Ocasio-Cortez, addressing a woman in the crowd, said, “Ma’am, you are saying you ask us why, you’ve been talking for twenty minutes, we know why, we know why you’re mad, let’s talk about it.”

“I am not mad. There are only two fucking genders,” the woman shouted back in response.

This wasn’t the first time Ocasio-Cortez’s town hall was interrupted by protesters. The congresswoman was shouted down by a pair of protesters one week prior at a town hall in the Bronx. One protester slammed Ocasio-Cortez for voting to send weaponry to Ukraine, with one protester saying she should really focus her efforts on calling for peace.

AUTHOR

BRIANNA LYMAN

News and commentary writer. Follow Brianna on Twitter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

U.S. Air Force Academy holds seminar promoting ‘transgender visibility and awareness in our Air Force’

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Every second spent on this kind of thing is a second taken away from training cadets to fight and win wars. But get with it, man! The idea that the military should be devoted to winning wars is so 1945! This is 2022! We have other priorities now, and the Chinese, Russians, jihadis, North Koreans et al are laughing uproariously.

Air Force Academy Holds ‘Transgender Visibility’ Seminar

by Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, September 26, 2022:

The United States Air Force Academy on Thursday held a seminar promoting “transgender visibility and awareness in our Air Force.”

The “discussion” session focused “on awareness for transgender communities in the military,” according to a copy of an invitation for the event obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Events of this nature are part of a wholesale push by the U.S. military to foster a more culturally inclusive environment. Critics say this type of training is part of a woke cultural agenda that is being mainstreamed by the Democratic Party’s far-left flank. The Army, for instance, mandates gender identity training and instructs its officers on the best time to offer subordinates gender-transition surgery….

The first 40 cadets to attend the seminar received a free lunch….

Read more.

There ain’t no such thing, my friends.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Shame And Horror’: Tucker Carlson Doesn’t Mince Words Blasting Doctors Who Perform Sex Changes On Kids

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted doctors and universities involved in performing sex changes on children Wednesday evening.

“Never has American medicine been more transparently a racket than it is right now. With the most basic ethical guidelines gone, completely ignored, we should not be surprised to learn that some hospitals have decided to monetize the mental anguish of children,” Carlson said in reference to recent news stories on hospitals providing sex change treatments to children. “Consider the University of California at San Francisco hospital. Supposedly it’s one of the best in the world, UCSF, despite its august reputation, is not even trying to behave responsibly when it comes to children who have been convinced by TikTok they should change their sex.”

Carlson claimed that this meant that groups like the Human Rights Campaign and other activists supported such procedures, while hospitals viewed the procedures as moneymakers, playing a video from one administrator at Vanderbilt University shared by Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh that reportedly outlined how one procedure brought in $40,000.

Walsh posted a thread on Twitter featuring videos of officials at Vanderbilt University Tuesday. Walsh later tweeted that Vanderbilt took the page down after his initial thread on the social media site.

WATCH:

Republican Gov. Bill Lee and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee called for an investigation into the practices at Vanderbilt in response to the reports. The university denied wrongdoing in a statement, according to Fox News.

“The truth is people who are horrified for this are not the bad actors. Vanderbilt is a bad actor. They just admitted on camera to castrating children as young as 13 years old,” Carlson said.

“Five years from now, we’re going to look back at this, like a lot of things we’ve done recently, like destroying public art and statues, and the Covid vaccine, so many of the things we done without thinking about it in an environment where no one is allowed to protest and we’re going to look back at shame and horror,” Carlson said.

AUTHOR

HAROLD HUTCHISON

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

CDC: One-In-Five Gay Men Who Got Monkeypox Had Sex With 10 Or More People Before Getting Infected

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Nearly 20% of gay men who are contracting monkeypox in the U.S. reported having 10 or more partners in the three weeks before symptom onset, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.

Virtually all monkeypox cases in the U.S. which have data available, 99%, are in men, the report also found, and 94% are in men who have sex with other men. The overwhelming majority had multiple sexual partners in the weeks leading up to their symptoms.

In addition to the 19% of men who said they had 10 or more partners over the three weeks preceding symptoms, 40% reported having two to four partners and 14% reported five to nine partners. 38% reported having group sex at a festival, group sex event or sex party.

The data was pulled from a sample of 358 men who contracted monkeypox for which data was available on recent sexual behaviors. That represents about 12% of all confirmed monkeypox cases in the U.S. between May 17 and July 22, the time period which the report covers. Age and gender identity data was available for 41% of all cases nationwide.

Of the 334 cases for which HIV status was known, 41% of patients were HIV-positive. Only 8% of patients were hospitalized, and there were no reported deaths. There remain zero confirmed deaths caused by monkeypox in the United States or Europe in 2022.

The Biden administration declared a public health emergency due to monkeypox last week, after the World Health Organization had already done so in July. Critics have accused the administration of not acting fast enough to respond to the outbreak, particularly as it regards vaccine procurement and distribution.

Data from the CDC, as well as the WHO and European health authorities, have increasingly shown that the virus is almost exclusively spreading within the homosexual male community, with some outlier cases within other demographics. Still, health authorities are engaged in intense debate over how to target messaging on the risks associated with monkeypox due to fears of directing stigma toward gay and bisexual men.

In its latest report, released Friday, the CDC admits “public health efforts should prioritize gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.” However, the agency still does not recommend that gay and bisexual men have fewer sexual partners in its guidance on safe sex during the monkeypox outbreak. The WHO made that recommendation last month.

AUTHOR

DYLAN HOUSMAN

Healthcare reporter. Follow Dylan on Twitter

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Obscene Narrative: ACLU Staff Attorney blames ‘Christian right,’ GOP for Orlando massacre

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“You know what is gross — your thoughts and prayers and Islamophobia after you created this anti-queer climate,” ACLU staff attorney Chase Strangio tweeted on Sunday morning. Does the illustrious Strangio actually believe that Omar Mateen was incited to commit mass murder in the gay nightclub in Orlando by an “anti-queer climate” created by Christian conservatives? He probably does, since, as a Leftist, he knows that non-Muslims are always and everywhere to blame for atrocities that Muslims commit.

Chase Strangio

Chase Strangio

“ACLU lawyers blame ‘Christian right,’ GOP for Orlando terrorist attack,” by Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, June 12, 2016:

Christian conservatives are responsible for the mass shooting at a gay bar in Orlando because they “created this anti-queer climate,” according to American Civil Liberties Union attorneys.

“You know what is gross — your thoughts and prayers and Islamophobia after you created this anti-queer climate,” ACLU staff attorney Chase Strangio tweeted on Sunday morning.

About 50 people were killed last night by Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen born to Afghan parents suspected to have “leanings toward extreme Islamic ideologies.” The FBI is investigating the attack as a “domestic terror incident.”

But Strangio — who “spend[s his] life fighting Christian homophobia while being loved & supported by [his] Muslim family” — and his colleagues connected the shooting back to Christians and Republican politicians who oppose gay marriage. “The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this,” Strangio tweeted. “No.”

Another ACLU attorney who specializes in religious liberty issues scolded Republican lawmakers who tweeted out their condolences. “Remember when you co-sponsored extreme, anti-LGBT First Amendment Defense Act?” the ACLU’s Eunice Rho tweetedat Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and other Republicans,

House Speaker Paul Ryan was careful not to jump to conclusions about the attacker on Sunday morning. “We pray for those brutally attacked in Orlando,” Ryan tweeted. “While we must learn more about the attacker, the victims & families will not be forgotten.”…

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