The Republican legislature in Kentucky assembled a set of those inhumane, ignorant anti-trans laws, and handed it to the Democratic governor…who vetoed it. Good work, Governor Andy Beshear!
Kentucky’s Democratic governor issued an election-year veto Friday of a sweeping Republican bill aimed at regulating the lives of transgender youths that includes banning access to gender-affirming health care and restricting the bathrooms they can use.
The bill also bans discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and allows teachers to refuse to refer to transgender students by the pronouns they use. It easily passed the GOP-dominated legislature with veto-proof margins, and lawmakers will reconvene next week for the final two days of this year’s session, when they could vote to override the veto.
Gov. Andy Beshear said in a written veto message that the bill allows “too much government interference in personal healthcare issues and rips away the freedom of parents to make medical decisions for their children.”
In his one-page message, he warned that the bill’s repercussions would include an increase in youth suicides. The governor said, “My faith teaches me that all children are children of God and Senate Bill 150 will endanger the children of Kentucky.”
Wait a minute…Kentucky? Who do I know who lives in Kentucky?
Right. You can guess how he responded.
Another politician showing blatant disregard for young people, for science, for parents and for God’s Word by Vetoing legislation he claims would harm children, but the opposite is true.
Children and young people do not have the maturity to make life altering decisions (that are destructive regardless) advocated by the LGBTQ movement. So sad many will destroy their lives because politicians deny the obvious, there’s only two genders of humans, male and female. Science confirms it as males have a pair of XY chromosomes and females a pair of XX. And of course, God’s word makes it clear:
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).
Does anyone else feel stirrings of rage when a know-nothing, superstitious dogmatist like Ken Ham decides to declare what science has determined, and gets it all wrong, while relying on his authority as a preacher to persuade people to accept his views? No? Just me?
I’m not as irritated when he tries to explain what his version of the Bible says, since I don’t give a good goddamn about the book or his interpretation of it. Although I am confused by his Bible quote.
So God created male and female in his image
…how does that work, exactly? Do both men and women look like god? If we’re going to get all literal on this, as Ham prefers to do, does that imply that god is a bipedal primate with ambiguous genitalia, or is he some kind of shape-shifter? Does his god have XX chromosomes, or XY, or some other combination? I don’t really care what the answer is, since I think it’s all bullshit, but you know, Ham claims that God’s word makes it clear,
and it’s anything but.
Ham goes on to complain about bathrooms, of course.
What a travesty that this Governor would allow males to use women’s restrooms (and vice versa). By allowing young people to use the bathrooms of their choice is certainly a denial of the sin nature of man and what can happen because of that. Governor Beshear refers to his “faith,”—he needs to refer to the clear teaching of the Word of God on gender! The Governor does not own children, they belong to parents and ultimately to God. And they certainly don’t belong to teachers.
It’s been a long time since I read the Bible, but I have to ask: is there a commandment about men’s and women’s restrooms in there? Personally, I think people should be allowed to use the restroom of their choice, because what they’re going to do in there is to privately relieve themselves, and that’s about it. OK, maybe wash their hands, touch up their makeup, that sort of thing. They are not dens of sin.
Also, the idea that parents “own” kids is offensive. Parents have a responsibility for their children, which is not the same as possession, and society can step in when they fail in, or violate those responsibilities.
Actually, contrary to what Gov Beshear claims, what the Kentucky legislature passed have passed are the strongest bills in the nation protecting kids, parents and teachers! Notice how the media always like to portray such legislation as “anti-trans” instead of “pro-children, pro-family, pro-parents” etc. Media like to use words they think will cause people to believe those passing such legislation are full of hate–which is not the truth at all. Yet, I often see hate from people directed at Christians/conservatives because they won’t comply with the LGBT worldview.
Trans kids exist and should have rights. The primary consequence of those bills is to deny trans kids their autonomy (I know, Ham doesn’t believe children should have that) and cause active harm. They also deny parents their right to fulfill their responsibilities and provide appropriate care to their children.
I will concede that the people behind that legislation might not be full of hate. They’re full of stupidity and selfishness, instead.
For what it’s worth, Deuteronomy 23:12-13 says this about going to the bathroom:
And people say the Bible is behind the times.
but the reason is weird
14 For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.
I think you are wrong about the question of hate. These bills are about “the freaks” not knowing their place and the need to punish anyone who doesn’t conform. There is fear of the different and difficult to understand. Since gender and sexual orientation are strongly felt, it takes empathy and personal effort to understand that one’s personal feelings aren’t obvious revealed truth.
It’s not just Ham that pushes this kind of stuff, the NY Times has been running a string of editorials and “news” articles where straight white cis authors make all sorts of claims about “science” that are nothing but their personal prejudices. These articles in the NY Times are repeats of exactly the same casual dismissal and cruelty that the NY Times showed towards gay people forty years ago.
Yea, that line “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” really could be used as evidence for a pangender deity. But don’t tell that to the bible-eaters or their heads (such as they are) will ass-plode. For some reason, they are quite definite in casting the fella as a guy.
As for that bathroom thingy, is it not strange that Mr Jehovah first creates absolutely everything, then proceeds to declare a goodly part of his own creation as being impure/indecent/unholy? What’s that, buyers remorse?
Or… may it be that authoritarians always have that “purity” itch that they must scratch, come what may?
At the end of the day it’s always the same knee-jerk reactions, the same ol’ song and dance. Boring, noioso, Scheißlangweilig.
Once again, a lot of these Trans hate bills from the GOP are likely to be unconstitutional and tossed out by the courts.
It has already happened in Alabama and Arkansas.
It turns out that Trans children, their parents, and their health care providers are…people also and have rights as well.
Repost.
Legislation restricting gender-affirming care for transgender youth: Politics eclipse healthcare
This is the legal basis for challenging the anti-Trans laws.
They’ve already lost in Federal court. So far anyway.
“In short, lower courts are likely to continue to rule that “[p]arents, pediatricians, and psychologists—not the State or [a] Court—are best qualified to determine whether transitioning medications are in a child’s best interest on a case-by-case basis.”
I wouldn’t bet on this though.
These days some of the US court system has been captured by the extreme right wing christofascists and rule based on ideology, not law or common sense.
I thought (though I haven’t actually checked) that I have an XY chromosome pair, not “a pair of XY chromosomes”, and mutatis mutandis with my XX friends.
But if He Who Speaks For Gawd says we have a two-pack of each, respectively, well … please cite chapter ‘n’ verse, Br’er Ham!
Thou shalt poop in the woods. (Right next to the pope.)
Ken Ham is such a blatant hypocrite.
Kentucky is one of the 43 US states that permits child marriage.
You can get married at 16 with parental permission after petition to the courts.
You can get married at any age without parental consent if the girl is pregnant or gave birth.
“Minors under the age of 18 can obtain a marriage license without parental permission in case of a pregnancy or birth of a child by petition the court. The local district court judge can grant permission for the marriage license. This petition has a $5 court cost.”
So according to Ken Ham, children and young people aren’t capable of making “life altering decisions” but they can get married and/or have children at the same time. Because of course, marriage and children aren’t life altering decisions.
There is a movement in the USA to prohibit child marriage. It’s opposed by most of the GOP and the fundie xians.
And, Ken Ham is also wrong as usual.
Children and young people in Kentucky or the rest of the USA aren’t making permanent life altering decisions about their gender. We don’t do irreversible medical procedures on children under age 18. We give them puberty blockers because they are…reversible.
Funny how God has a son, yet there’s no mention of Mrs. God. Sounds like more potential evidence that God is trans.
You can add UFC fighter Holly Holm to the anti-trans list. After winning a fight last night she babbled about protecting the kids. Probably not a surprise from a fighter whose nickname is The Preacher’s Daughter.
How many of these hate-preachers only go to hotels which don’t have gender-neutral bathrooms in their hotel rooms? How many of these “divine list of subclass people” haters don’t have gender-neutral bathrooms in their own homes? These Talibangelicals claim to hate the laws of the country that they claim to be part of, enough to make it more like Saudi Arabia’s.
Lemme put it this way, I’ll be going in tomorrow for blood testing, as I’m fairly certain that my methimazole isn’t keeping my thyroid hormone levels at a safe level.
Beyond some hypertensive events, there’s the urge to literally tear Ham’s face off of his skull, then pulverize the remaining bone to 1cm large pieces. Medically, doctor refers to that symptom as “irritability”.
Yeah, welcome to Grave’s disease. Thankfully, I’ve enough self-control to not act upon such obscene urges.
@feralboy12, yep, the early bible was a field sanitation manual, designed for an army in the field. When one has built cities, one is decidedly not an army in the field.
@outis, ah, but the thing is, immediately after creating each, there’s another section where Adam was lonely, having no mate, so I guess his mate took a powder and Eve had to be magically cloned. But, finding some things evil and awful, well, that suggests fallibility. To the point of needing a flood to get rid of some things, fucking even that up.
@raven, yes, many, if not most of these obscenities called laws will end up overturned, they’ll then complain about the expense made defending the indefensible, while decrying the Constitutional right of redress, then blame the victims for defending themselves successfully and some will talk about guns.
Party line: blame the victim and threaten violence.
The gun talkers never realize that one can successfully bring terrorism charges against them. The threat of the use of force to force a political change is the very definition of terrorism.
“Yet, I often see hate from people directed at Christians/conservatives because they won’t comply with the LGBT worldview.”
It isn’t hate, Hammy, at least not at first. At first maybe it’s sheer bafflement at how people can be so stupid. Then it might become weariness and despair for the smugness of the ignorant. Then who knows? in the end it might become hate when you realize that those who hate and hurt you will never stop turning things around backward and will always accuse you of doing what they themselves are doing. If you push hard enough, yes, you might eventually win that hatred that you seem to long for.
Where did Dumb Idiot Ham ever get the idea of “owning” children from besides his pathetic, sick mind? This is as bad as claiming without evidence that evolution violates the virgin birth of Mary or claiming without evidence that evolution leads to high rate of divorce and suicides.
“So Dog created man in his own image, in the image of Dog he created him; male and female and maybe some that are mixes of both, he created them. And Dog said, OOPS, sorry brain cramp. I screwed up. How can I create a singular man as both male and female?” (Genitals 1:27).
I look forward to some enlightened person slicing up that rotting, half-baked ham and serving it to the swine.
Yesterday, 20230325, in my comment on PZ’s criticism of Richard Dawkins binary Bullshit. Tired and angry, I said “I have to stop letting this crap contaminate my thoughts. Please everyone, let’s not let these imbeciles waste any more of our time.”
I must retract that last sentence. PZ is fighting the good fight against rtwingnut Xtian Terrorist Bullshit. I must not discourage him and all the decent commenters here that find ways to mitigate the insanity of Nat.Cs’ crap. I REALLY hope that PZ doesn’t get too stressed out by the barrage of insanity that is threatening to bury what’s left of this society. I admonish him and you, Don’t ruin your health or shorten your life by letting this BS push your blood pressure through the roof and ‘stroking out’. (We could look at some beautiful classical nude artwork to reduce our stress levels)
@ 4
Or, more likely, that the Ancient Hebrews were a patriarchal, misogynistic lot who didn’t think much of women.
timgueguen @9:
There may well have been a Mrs God, but she seems to have become “She Who Must Be Ignored”.
Actually, the ancient Hebrew faith had a godess and god, the godess figures remain at some archeological sites, but managed to get fired, erm, deleted from the current revisions of documents of faith.
Google “Asherah, consort of El”.
Just as originally, the faith had a male and female created together, the female being named Lilith. They split up, largely over sexual positions apparently and Eve had to be created.
Decidedly odd, given the first being “perfect creations”, almost as if Genesis was a documentation of a serial fuck-up.
“ They are not dens of sin.” Not unless there’s a republican senator lurking in there.
I posted this on “Art is going to disappear when the Puritans take over” But, that is dormant. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but, I thought you might enjoy it here:
A mother was concerned her 13 year old son was becoming fixated on sex. She took him to a therapist who showed him rorschach pictures and asked the boy what he saw. The boy said:
1. a couple making out
2. a nude woman
3. a couple fooling around in bed
etc.
When the session was over the therapist asked the boy if he had any questions.
The boy asked, “Hey, can I have those dirty pictures”
Also, please see: https://claytoonz.com/2023/03/25/penis/
timgueguen @9:
God did it the old-fashioned way, he raped a woman.
And don’t try to tell me that the scenario was equitable and consenting. Even putting aside the power imbalance, I’ve read about that dude – bad news.
Timgueguen @ 9
Rob Grigjanis @ 17
Jahwe/El was married to Asherah, but she got redacted in later versions of Judaism. See ‘The Memoirs Of God’ by Smith.
Even today, the OT is full of fragments from a polyteistic (and later monolatrist) past. The “host” – the messengers (literally “angels”) were originally lesser gods. Palestine/Israel was a fairly typical part of Caanan and its culture.
John of Patmos (not a disciple) who wrote the book of revelation also had a rapey god.
Here is Bart Ehrman
https://youtu.be/NKDbn5Wq3eo
Addendum
The rapey bit is discussed 19 minutes in. John of Patmos was a sick puppy.
So they canceled Asherah?
Science? Did the Hamster cute Dawkins as an authority?
@25, yep, she was utterly cancelled. Only a very few references can be found today, including one pole.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah_pole
Guess El and her got a divorce and he got the temple and spousal support.
Nope. I don’t hate you because of what you consider a mere difference of viewpoint. I hate you because you’re child abusers and gleeful murderers driven exclusively by a combination of willful ignorance and hatred of anyone who isn’t exactly like yourselves.
That applies to every last one of you who support hate legislation like this. I’m not interested in pretending otherwise. I know what drives you, and I know what you intend to do about it.
Here in Missouri, Attorney General Andrew Bailey decided not to wait for the legislature to pass any of the grotesque, inhumane anti-trans-people laws it’s considering (they’ll get around to it soon enough, and Governor Parsons will be only too happy to sign it). He issued an “Emergency Regulation” targeting trans people last Monday. It’s one of the worst anti-trans actions I’ve seen to date, because not only does it ban gender-affirming care, it also includes a slate of regulations that will serve to create a detailed list of every person in the state who has ever sought such care.
We all know what the list is for. We all know what the likes of Bailey and Ham do with lists like it.
Having discussed matters regarding my own gender identity with my shrink, I’ll be on the list. I swore I’d never let people like that get their hands on me again, and I meant it. Alas, suicide would mean giving them what they want, and I’m not interested in giving them a single fucking thing.
Well, nothing they’d ever want, anyway. My faith does say I should be generous, after all.
Recall the multiple denunciations (by priests of the Jerusalem Temple) of “the high places” – widely considered allusions to Asherah’s hilltop ceremonies in the (relatively) extensive boondocks west of the Jordan River.
El & Asherah had at least two spawn (he couldn’t be The Patriarch without a clan, could he?):
• Son Ba’al, storm- & thunder- god, with numerous monster heads on his trophy wall (apparently to metamorphose into a fertility deity – an easy transition anywhere crops really depend on rain, later to sort of merge into his daddy), and namesake of a few major Semitic theologians;
• Daughter Anat, goddess of whatever-the-hell-she-wants (with strong tendencies in surviving tales toward bloody vengeance); namesake of an occasional and erudite FtB commenter;
What of Yahveh, you ask? Haven’t found quite as much: allegedly a war god of what we now call the Negev Desert (whereas the El Family hailed from approximately Tyre, aka coastal southern Lebanon), so perhaps originating with early Bedouins. Not just different “Names of the Lord”, but a mashup of different deities.
All spliced together with further additions and editing during the fraught years of El&Asherah-worshiping refugees from Assyrian-conquered Israel fleeing into (sort-of) independent Judah, at least according to my minuscule grasp of the Documentary Hypothesis (see also JEDP).
TL;DR – Asherah’s believers apparently persisted generations after the Jerusalem Temple Priests declared them in unGodly error. (Hrrmm – so did Isis’s after the Christians pulled the same game on Rome.)
@25. Steve Morrison : “So they canceled Asherah?”
Yes – and, mostly ouside the Kabbalah, Shekinah too. See :
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-divine-feminine-in-kabbalah-an-example-of-jewish-renewal/
Plus : https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9781905297511#:~:text=The%20Shekinah%20is%20the%20manifestation,of%20the%20Tree%20of%20Life.
@shermanj :
Ah, Ee was just ribbin’ us!
(https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ribbing )
@ PZ Myers :
Definitely not just you. Also me & I’m guessing most of the Horde here & many more besides.
I’m afraid that Kentucky legislators haven’t been keeping track of anti-trans laws. Tennessee has already passed legislation that goes into effect on April Fools day that even surpasses Kentucky’s wildest dreams. Our school systems won’t even allow schools to provide cat litter boxes for trans students. Our lawmakers seem to have special information that no one else including trans folks know about.
Tennessee should outlaw shape-changing space lizards, before they take over the state! I can pay the airfare for David Icke, so he can come and annoy the Tennessee Republicans.
We should start by introducing him to the Qanon followers, once they build up momentum they will push the Republican politicians ahead of them. It will be hilarious.
OT
Just in. The congressman think a guy from Singapore is from China.
@Pierce, close. Ba’al was owner or lord in the early languages in the region. Of course, any city-state king promoted themselves to god-king, so…
But, the closest known as Hadad, storm and rain god. The later Hebrew mishmash of faiths eventually put him analogous with Beelzebub of Christianity and Islam.
I learned that learning and comprehending such origins helped me understand the sociology and psychology of the region.
@vucodlak, the list exists for a purpose that I’ve heard bragged of by Christian Taliban, special Camps. When I say heard, I mean with my own two ears.
They didn’t like my response of matching their force with military force, or that I know how the Permissive Action Link system operates, bringing nukes to my table. I’ve always felt zealots should share in their namesake’s fate.
I also beat them over their collective heads with their own faith’s misapplied doctrine. One rejects the New Covenant when one insists upon enforcing the Old Covenant and their faith insists on only one fate for those rejecting the New Covenant.
They hesitate to attack a guy who is retired military and knows where the nukes are and how they work, largely due to their phenomenal ignorance. I may know where the shit is and how it works, that doesn’t mean I telepathically acquired the codes, nor would I want anything to do with them beyond deleting every nation’s codes.
But, people consider real not what you will do, but what they fear that you may do. Because, people are stupid and will believe whatever they most want to believe or what they most fear. It’s the wizard’s first rule. ;)
The eighth rule comes to mind as well, “Deserve victory”. Be justified in your convictions. Be completely committed. Earn what you want and need rather than waiting for others to give you what you desire.
Because, their end is coming soon enough, they’re literally destroying the party that absorbed them around 1850, when the new Republican party absorbed the remnants of the American party, aka the “Know Nothing party”.
People just got tired of the idiocy and noise.
@birgerjohansson, well, quite a few US types, especially politicians think everyone in Asia is Chinese. Geography, culture or well, having intelligence is not their strong suit, making noise is.
But then, bang the empty kettle and the full one, we know that the empty one will be the loudest.
Wzrd1 @ 34
I had great fun listening to the latest Skepticrat on Youtube, the Republicans in Congress were drilling the CEO of TikTok, a Singaporean from Singapore, repeatedly showing they thought he was Chinese.
The best part was when they asked if TikTok could access other devices on the wifi on your house…because it wants to show cat videos to the printer???
https://youtu.be/DGJ62ApnRAs
Notice how the media always like to portray such legislation as “anti-trans” instead of “pro-children, pro-family, pro-parents” etc.
That’s because — as anyone who actually reads up on these proposals can see — they’re anti-trans and not at all “pro-children” (cis or trans) or “pro-family” (if there’s anyone non-conforming in the family) or “pro-parents” (except for the most bigoted parents).
birgerjohansson, they’d hate me if they asked that question.
“Do you know what a printer driver is and what it does? No? Go find out, then ask me that stupid assed question again”.
@Raging Bee, ah, but if the legislation says that it’s pro-children and involves shooting them in the head with artillery, it’s obviously good for children or something.
I’ve commented in person once to a politician that “one good thing about politicians is, they don’t feel pain like humans do”. Obviously, the creep go quite distant from my location, which was precisely my desire, but to which they’d otherwise refuse to do.
Wzrd1 @”11
“there is the urge to literally tear Ham’s face off of his skull”
There is s species of bear in India who consistently goes in for that stuff. It literally tears faces off.
I have an idea for an “exotic pet”…
I wonder if they greet one another like Tasmanian Devils do, biting each other’s faces.
A behavior that’s now endangering the Devils, as they transmit a contagious cancerous tumor disease to one another.
“Hello, Bob”
“Hello, Bob”
~For All Devilkind
that language about “complying with” the “LGBT worldview” is interesting. that’s how they they see it all: gender, race, economics as a battle of compliance because it’s what they want from us: acquiescence to their particular authority on how society should function because they want the dysfunction. the dysfunction is part of their power.
…nor would I want anything to do with them beyond deleting every nation’s codes.
You’d have to make sure all the “change password” emails get sent to you.
Nah, just clear the old codes and delete the new ones once the new codes are programmed in. :)