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I found this great LGBTQ article in today's LA Times. Big Closet members will find this full page story packed with news that we all can relate to. The photos are nice as are the points of view of many girls like us.
You will be better prepared to refute the haters and learn what restrictive laws may be coming. Bills are being introduced to the federal level, increasingly seek to limit the liberties of LGBTQIA people.
This isn’t just an issue for Tennessee and states with active anti-LGBTQ bills. The rise in anti-queer and trans rhetoric and legislation has implications that impact us all.
"...drag queen BenDeLaCreme... was a small-town queer kid struggling with depression and suicidal ideation. It was drag that saved her life."
"...“These are very thinly veiled attacks, this very clear dog whistle is a clear call for genocide of trans people... They want LGBTQIA people out of sight, out of mind.”
While there is a lot to fear in the wake of this legislation, DeLa says queer arts have always been a lifeline and will continue to be, even if pushed back into the underground.
“Queer people are fighters,” DeLa says. “Laws didn’t stop us then and they won’t stop us now. I am not going to go away. We will not be squashed.”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-03-14/...
ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS - Calendar, Section E, March 15, 2023 page 1
Comments
It wouldn't let me in
I'll support the struggle against repression. In the C18th we sent droves of all sorts of nutters to America. It seems they are still there, as the Republican Party.
Angharad
Back then....
what we know today as the Republicans... were actually the Democratic Party. somewhere along the way and after the Civil War they sort of swapped sides.
If Fla is anything to go by, and by some freak of chance, DeSantis becomes POTUS 47 then expect to see the place swing to the far, far right and become a fascist state. Again if Fla is anything to go by, he'll try to ban the Democratic party. I hope that Erin and the elves have exit plans for themselves and this site.
Those of us in the rest of the world can't do much to stop this from happening other than try to get all our US friends to vote blue (while they can vote)
Oh, and we sent a good number of nutters down under but so far they seem to have escaped other than being home to Rupert M.
Samantha
You Don't Ban the Opposition Here...
...you just try to make it so irrelevant and unpopular that it's no longer a threat -- nobody with a political future will want to run against you on their ticket. (Here in true-blue California, the Republicans couldn't find anyone credible to run against Governor Newsom last year.)
But unlike some autocratic nations out there, you can't eliminate popular potential opponents by putting them behind jail or prison bars; in fact, it may add to their appeal.
Eric
Add to Their Appeal
Let's hope we can balance equal justice under the law with political considerations.
My guess is those who would increase their support for a disgraced politician because they suspect a witchhunt -- were confirmed voters for that politician long ago.
History might suggest that many prosecutors are more concerned with their personal careers than with impartial justice.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
But. . .Would You Want Your Child To Be Trans?
I have four children. As far as I know, none of them are trans. As far as I know.
That doesn't necessarily make me sad.
Nor does it make me happy!
Because of this site (largely) I'm at peace with my trans nature. My gender confusion's cost me in life, but it's also provided a richness of experiences I would have missed otherwise.
Most parents don't have my perspective or knowledge. It's a short leap for a demagogue to convince parents that drag queens will recruit their children to a life of trans.
Trouble, trouble, trouble. Right here in River City.
I would do almost anything for my kids. Most parents feel that way. The hardest part of parenting is knowing what is helpful and what is stifling. When your TV, your online sources, your clergy, and your elected officials are unnanimous that drag queens are gay recruiters, it's hard to totally reject.
Thankfully, the demagogues are over-playing their hand by combining trans bigotry with banning books and taking away women's access to healthcare.
Of course, when they are all voted out they can just refuse to accept the results.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Thanx
Very well said! Thanx for commenting.
Donna T
Donna
Mixed feelings
I suspect that even if the community opposes anti-LGBTQ bills and wins, it loses.
It’s a question of framing, or positioning. The notion that a drag artiste is somehow representative of transgender people does us harm. Likewise, the idea that sexual preference and transgender status are intertwined. When you allow the far right to frame the ‘debate’ as they are doing here, you’re already losing a lot of territory.
Transgender people shouldn’t have to seek an entertainment career. Until you can be a transgender police officer, architect, financial adviser, aerospace engineer... and not have anybody raise so much as an eyebrow, we’re all oppressed. Drag queens may have admirable qualities (I wouldn’t know; I don’t know any) but that facet of the LGBTQ+ community doesn’t exactly represent me. Obviously, Stonewall did a lot of good and we can feel a certain solidarity with other groups who are oppressed by morality policing. This may well be a good time to stand up and support others, but I hope we can do so without getting lumped together into the same category.
I’m not gay; I don’t wear ‘drag’... but (as so often nowadays) the toxic polarisation of politics means we’re all either “they” or “we”. A state of affairs that is precisely how the bad guys want it to be.
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh
Are They -- We
Could Joe the Plumber express the difference between a transsexual, a transvestite, or a drag queen?
We either have PRIDE or we have guilt.
I understand your feelings and doubt I will march in solidarity anytime soon, but that's on me.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I see your Transsexual and Transvestite
And I raise you a Transsexual and a Transgender.
Would or could Joe Plumber even know the difference? There's a big distinction.
- Leona
No Threat.
The West Coast is very different politically from the East. I'm not worried.
Gwen
I'm not worried?
Currently, Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives, and it wasn't that long ago that they had a majority in the Senate. If they regain that majority, and the next President is a Republican, we could very well see federal laws targeting trans people, who seem to currently be bête noire for the right wing. Many current civil rights laws protect sexual orientation, but not gender identity.
I’m less worried about older people
I am more worried about young ones. How can anyone be against something that reduces the rate of teen suicide? How?
Only by loss of any moral compass IMO. Or to put it another way, such politicians, to protect against further concussions, should be on colace.*
But unworried? Not when leaders discard reason. Under mob rule all are at risk.
*US brand of stool softener
East
You mean the mid-west/south.
I would not want to live in any area south of Virginia and Virginia is marginal imho.
And forget about the mid-west.
And I agree that it affects older people less.
However, not worry?
We have to care else it sets a very bad precedence for our rights and it has to be nipped in the bud else it will erode even further if it goes federal. It sets the bad Fascist precedence that they can just impose a single belief system that is to be blunt arbitrarily set by not even a majority on those who are the most vulnerable.
Like it or not the younger folks have to shoulder the most of this as they are most threatened and also have the most energy and time to tackle this. This does not mean we should not provide support to them where we can.
The classic Burke expression applies as never before: The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.
It brings to mind an old essay or story
My recollection may have some details wrong, but as I remember it, my mother had around the house a paperback anthology Literature and Liberalism containing an essay or story by Flannery O’Conner; its title may have been “Testing the Range.” I can’t recall now if it was a factual account or a story that conveyed essential truth as many stories here do, but either way, here’s the sketch of what I remember. The context was early 20th century Europe. A man died of injuries from the shelling by German artillery of a soup kitchen where he had been seeking food. The soldiers were not particularly targeting the building, they were just practicing, testing their range. “Testing the range on a poor man begging for soup is a hell of a job for a man.”
My worry is that what we’re seeing so far is just testing the range.