Liberty Council: Target on Transgender

The Liberty Council's Anita Staver poses with assault rifle (Facebook.com)

The Liberty Council’s Anita Staver poses with assault rifle (Facebook.com)

LC

The president of theocratic law group The Liberty Council announced on the social medium Twitter that she plans to carry a gun with her to the women’s restroom at Target stores so that she can shoot anyone she thinks is transgender.

Blogger Joe My God wrote on Monday, “Liberty Counsel president Anita Staver declared Friday that she will be taking her Glock .45 handgun to Target as protection against assaults by transgender patrons.”

How about if we ban idiots pickled in Jesus Juice with guns from lavs? That seems to be a better route to safety than picking on transgender people who simply want to pee in peace.

Full Story Here.

The Advocate also has this story:

Anti-LGBT activists are taking the newfound role of “potty police” to the next level, pledging to carry weapons into public restrooms to “protect” against trans people using the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

[…]

The same day that Staver posted her threat about carrying firearms into Target bathrooms, a Republican candidate for sheriff in Texas promised he would “beat the hell out of a transgender person who tried to piss in a bathroom where [his] daughter was peeing,” according to the Dallas Observer. 

[…]

“This isn’t an anti-transgender issue,” Murphree told the Dallas paper. “It’s a safety issue. I’m not afraid of transgenders. I’m afraid of who will take advantage of the rules to get close to kids. The rights of transgenders do not trump the rights of everyone else.”

Oh, you aren’t afraid. Right. Threatening to beat someone to death, yeah, no fear there.  Before transgender people’s rights could “trump” anyone, you fuckbrained asshole, they first have to have the same rights as everyone else.

“Yes, I will be the next sheriff, and I will serve all citizens,” Murphree reportedly wrote in response to the mother. “I will not sit back and not voice my beliefs and opinions. I will not give in to the political correctness police. I won’t be threatened by those who may call me a bigot or ignorant. I have no issue with transgenders. That’s between them and God.”

No issue with transgenders. I’m beginning to have an auto-enraged response to seeing this, with no people or person[s] attached. It’s othering and treating people like things. And Discworld fans know what Esme Weatherwax had to say about that. It’s the beginning of all evil, treating people like things.

Responding with Style

…and stating the obvious. Recently, Merriam-Webster updated their dictionary to include the words cisgender and genderqueer. Some people have been less than thrilled by this inclusion. There are times the sheer density of people is well, um, this:

Genderqueer

“People keep 1) saying they don’t know what ‘genderqueer’ means,” said the tweet, “then 2) asking why we added it to the dictionary.”

Full story here.

We Don’t Care

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Durham hotel puts new signs on bathrooms after HB2.

Durham, N.C. — A boutique hotel in downtown Durham has hung new signs on its public bathrooms in response to a controversial state law.

21c Museum Hotel, which opened a year ago and displays contemporary art throughout its lobby and public spaces, installed signs featuring a merged male-female silhouette above the phrase “We Don’t Care” outside a bank of single-stall public restrooms in the hotel.

“The title refers to the position of ‘all are welcome’ or we don’t care where you go to the bathroom,” 21c officials said on the hotel’s website. “The installation gives the community another way to engage in conversation around this important issue. Thought-provoking contemporary art fosters dialogue and discovery.”

The signs were created by Kansas City, Mo., artist Peregrine Honig, and each is signed and numbered, officials said.

[…]

21c also issued a statement denouncing the legislation.

“It is demoralizing that sanctioned discrimination could be a cause contemplated, let alone endorsed, by public officials elected to represent a diverse and complete constituency,” the statement reads. “We humbly stand with fellow North Carolinians who petition the repeal of House Bill 2.”

I’m in favour of these signs going up everywhere. Case closed.

Evolution: not a religion

SAB

So sayeth the court.

A federal court rejected the argument from a Christian group in Kansas which said that evolution was religious “indoctrination” and should not be taught in schools.

[…]

In a statement, Americans United for Separation of Church and State said that COPE feared that scientific facts would cause “Kansas schoolchildren will be subtly manipulated into rejecting their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

“It’s a nonsensical argument, which is why courts have unanimously rejected it,” Americans United said. “COPE, it seems, isn’t interested in promoting facts; it’s interested in forcing public schools to conduct far-right religious and political indoctrination.”

Full Story Here.

A love letter to bigotry

Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Jim Webb (Flickr Creative Commons)

Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Jim Webb (Flickr Creative Commons)

Sen. Jim Webb scolds supporters of Harriet Tubman’s new home on the 20-dollar bill, because they’ve been disparaging President Andrew Jackson too much.

One would think we could celebrate the recognition that Harriet Tubman will be given on future $20 bills without demeaning former president Andrew Jackson as a “monster,” as a recent Huffington Post headline did. And summarizing his legendary tenure as being “known primarily for a brutal genocidal campaign against native Americans,” as reported in The Post, offers an indication of how far political correctness has invaded our educational system and skewed our national consciousness.

This dismissive characterization of one of our great presidents is not occurring in a vacuum. Any white person whose ancestral relations trace to the American South now risks being characterized as having roots based on bigotry and undeserved privilege. Meanwhile, race relations are at their worst point in decades.

Aaauugh. It’s too bloody early [here] for this ineffable twaddle. Race relations are at their worst point in decades? Yes, I’d say they are, but perhaps you should figure out just why that is so.

Far too many of our most important discussions are being debated emotionally, without full regard for historical facts. The myth of universal white privilege and universal disadvantage among racial minorities has become a mantra, even though white and minority cultures alike vary greatly in their ethnic and geographic origins, in their experiences in the United States and in their educational and financial well-being.

Into this uninformed debate come the libels of “Old Hickory.”

Old Hickory. Did you know that Jackson was known as Sharp Knife among many Indigenous peoples? Ever heard Indian Killer Jackson?

As president, Jackson ordered the removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi to lands west of the river. This approach, supported by a string of presidents, including Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, was a disaster, resulting in the Trail of Tears where thousands died. But was its motivation genocidal?

I can answer that. Yes. Yes, it was. Fuck, I can’t take any more right now. Need tea.

Op ed here. Raw Story has this also.

#Boycott Target

Boycott

…As a result of Target’s transgender bathroom policy, the retail chain has now become the target of a boycott. Though not as substantial as the boycott which has sighted North Carolina in its crosshairs (costing the state PayPal, a plethora of performing artists, and even the business of multiple municipalities), the newly implemented Target boycott could end up costing the company’s bottom line.

Apparently, to some, it’s legitimate for states to try to promote “bathroom bills” and other anti-LGBT legislation, but it’s crossing a line for a corporation to take as stand against discrimination. Target, as the first national retailer to publicly weigh in on the LGBT subject publicly, is bearing the brunt of conservative anti-LGBT activism.

[…]

Now, The American Family Association is calling for a boycott of Target, and has gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures of those who intend to boycott the retail giant. Target is also dealing with backlash pertaining to its transgender bathroom policy on social media.

[…]

On Saturday, April 22, Breitbart reported that over 250,000 people had already signed the boycott petition circulated by the American Family Association. According to the American Family Association’s Director of Government Affairs, Sandy Rios, Target “jumped into” the transgender bathroom debate, effectively saying that “men who claim to be women may use whatever bathroom or changing room they choose.”

According to Rios, a “gender neutral” bathroom would be enough to satisfy herself and her organization, although she doubts that such a compromise would “satisfy the left.”

The AFA would be satisfied with a “gender neutral” lav? Somehow I don’t think so. I think they want nothing to do with unisex lavs. What I think they do want is for Target to install a brand new lav labeled “freaks”.

The American Family Association president had some words to share about the Target transgender bathroom policy himself. As Yahoo! News reports, Tim Wildmon posted an open letter to the public regarding his thoughts on the Target bathroom policy. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t impressed.

“Target’s policy is exactly how sexual predators get access to their victims. This means a man can simply say he ‘feels like a woman today’ and enter the women’s restroom… even if young girls or women are already in there.”

Wildmon must be absolutely thrilled that’s he found a way back into the limelight. Please, Tim, do us a favour and crawl back into your cave.

Full article here.