Vote Blue .. . And Here's Why, AGAIN!!!

It’s been a few weeks since we checked in on the GOP and their special brand of bigotry and ignorance, so let’s dive right in …

FLORIDA

GOP lawmakers who fear the T in the LGBTQ+ community have passed one of those Bathroom Bills requiring people to use bathrooms that line up with their sex assigned at birth. The bill applies to the use of bathrooms at facilities such as public schools, colleges, universities, state and local government buildings, prisons and jails.

Once again, I’ll say it: trans people use the bathrooms that align with their gender identity because they want to pee.

LOUISIANA

Efforts to increase the state’s minimum wage—currently $7.25 an hour—were rejected in a GOP-controlled legislative committee. The failed bill would have gradually increased the state’s minimum wage to $10 an hour in 2024 and to $14 an hour in 2028. And yet the day before those same GOP lawmakers advanced a bill to double their own salaries from $16,800 to $40,000.

Louisiana has the second-highest poverty rate in the country, with nearly 19% of the population impoverished … unless you’re a GOP lawmaker and you give yourself a raise.

MONTANA

Representative Zooey Zephyr, the transgender state lawmaker who was silenced after telling Republicans they would have blood on their hands for opposing gender-affirming health care for kids, was barred from returning to the Montana House floor in a court ruling that came just hours before the Legislature wrapped up its biennial session.

Silenced by the GOP because she stands for the rights of trans Americans and dares to speak out.

FLORIDA

The GOP-controlled legislature passed a bill to allow the state remove transgender minors from their homes if they are receiving gender-affirming care. Odd when you realize that in 2022 DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education act, which reinforces parents’ fundamental rights to make decisions regarding the upbringing of their children. 

In education, not healthcare; in those cases Ron DeSantis and his merry band of Nazi Sympathizers make the decisions.

TEXAS

Public schools will have to prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom starting next school year under a bill the Texas Senate approved. This is the latest attempt from the Texas  GOP to inject religion into public schools. The Senate also gave final passage to Senate Bill 1396 authored by GOP Senator Mayes Middleton to allow public and charter schools to adopt a policy requiring every campus to set aside a time for students and employees to read the Bible or other religious texts and to pray.

What about atheists and agnostics, or those who believe public schools are not the place for religious exercises?

LOUISIANA

GOP Party officials want state lawmakers to forbid the study of racism at colleges and universities, arguing in a resolution that classes examining “inglorious aspects” of United States history are too divisive. The resolution asks the Legislature to pass laws removing diversity, equity and inclusion departments and agencies “within any institution of higher learning within the state.”

Funny, because that old saying goes, “When we know better, we do better,” but in Louisiana they don’t want to know better.

MONTANA

GOP Governor Greg Gianforte signed into law five bills aimed at restricting abortion access in the state triggering a legal request from Planned Parenthood of Montana later in the day to block one of the bills.

Five Bills??

UNITED STATES

After suffering recent electoral losses  due to a historic surge in turnout from younger voters backing Democrats, GOP lawmakers around the country are making it harder for students to cast ballots where they attend school.

A new law in Idaho specifically bars the use of student identification cards to vote, while a change in Ohio law means students will no longer be able to use tuition or college housing receipts as a form of voter ID, long a popular option for students without state driver’s licenses. Similar legislation has been introduced in at least 11 other states this year, including the presidential battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and Nevada, and a bill in Texas would bar college campuses from serving as polling places.

Funny how the GOP only works to suppress the votes of those who vote against their racist, anti-democracy, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-women, pro-gun agenda.

ON THE UPSIDE …

FLORIDA

Mayors across the state, from Orlando, Miami Beach, Tampa, Tallahassee and more, are speaking out in support of LGBTQ+ rights in light of several bills targeting the community that have been passed by the state legislature and are heading to the desk of Fascist Governor Ron DeSantis.

At least eight mayors have signed the pledge in support of the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLSEN and its Rise Up campaign.

The march goes on …

ILLINOIS

It looks like Illinois is set to become the first state to punish public institutions that ban books. Democratic Governor JB Pritzker supports a House bill that would withhold state funding from any of the state’s 1,600 public or school libraries that remove books from their shelves, and said:

“In Illinois, we don’t hide from the truth, we embrace it and lead with it. Banning books is a devastating attempt to erase our history and the authentic stories of many.”

The impetus for the legislation came from newly elected Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat of course, who said he couldn’t fathom that book banning is happening in 2023.

MINNESOTA

In times like these we need more governors like Tim Walz, who, while not really naming that ‘F’ state and its Fascist governor, said in his State of the State speech:

"They're banning books from their schools. We're banishing hunger from ours."

Walz has also signed the "Democracy for the People Act" which implements automatic voter registration, allows 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, and creates a permanent absentee voter list that will automatically send people who sign up a ballot each election. The proposal also requires voting materials and sample ballots to be in languages other than English and prohibits voter intimidation at the polls.

Pay attention … vote … speak up … vote … because if we don’t all stand together one day all of this country will be like Florida and Tennessee and Missouri and Idaho, and the GOP and the traitors come for us all.

h/t to JoeMyGod and NCRM