Hate States On The Move

Today in Flori-duh, where Nazis can march and the governor doesn’t condemn them, lawmakers will be considering the state’s new Don’t Say Gay bill. This bill would regulate LGBTQ+ instruction and conversation in the classroom and would allow parents to sue over alleged violations.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican—because, of course—Joe Harding is also sponsoring an amendment to the bill that will out any child in Flori-duh schools to the parents. Harding does like to point out that the bill has an exception, allowing school personnel to decline to out kids to parents “if a reasonably prudent person would believe that disclosure would result in abuse, abandonment, or neglect.”

So, if the gay kid might be abandoned by his or her parents, or beaten by his or her parents, or neglected by his or her parents, you aren’t required to out them, but you can. Keep in mind that LGBTQ+ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide, but,  hey, those are the breaks I guess.

If a gay kid kills himself because a bigoted and hate-filled school employee decided outing them was the right thing to do, so be it. I guess that might be easier than going to school every day knowing you aren’t allowed to talk about your two dads, your two moms, your gay uncle, lesbian cousin.

In February, President Biden in February condemned the bill as “hateful” and added:

“I have your back, and my administration will continue to fight for the protections and safety you deserve.”

Joe Homophobe responded with a video countering White House talking points which features White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s remarks and his counterpunch:

“The President and his team decided to distort the truth and outright lie about my bill that empowers parents.”

The truth is you cannot discuss LGBTQ+ people in school if this bill passes.

The truth is if a child identifies as LGBTQ+ you can out them to their parents.

The truth is Flori-duh is walking backwards under its GOP leadership.

And Flori-duh isn’t the only Hate State.

A bill in Tennessee would ban textbook and instructional materials that “promote, normalize, support, or address [LGBTQ+]  lifestyles” in K-12 schools.

A bill in Kansas, seeks to amend the state’s obscenity law to make using classroom materials depicting “homosexuality” a Class B misdemeanor.

Legislators in Indiana are working to bar educators from discussing “sexual orientation,” “transgenderism” or “gender identity” in any context without permission from parents.

An Oklahoma Senate bill would ban public schools from employing anyone who “promotes positions in the classroom or at any function of the public school that is in opposition to closely held religious beliefs of students.”

We thought once we reached Marriage Equality we were safe. We are not; the GOP is coming for us with religion as the reason and so the march goes on …

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE.

Florida Politics

The Hill

Don't Say Gay, But Nazi Is Okay

The GOP of Florida, starting with dick-tator Ron DeSantis, is trying to make it illegal to say ‘gay’ in public schools; to make it a crime for children of same-sex parents to even talk about their Dads or Moms; to make the schools subject to lawsuits if they dare allow the children to discuss anything that might make the parents of other children uncomfortable.

Fucking snowflakes.

But Equality Florida is launching a new, two-part ad campaign to address those GOP legislative priorities that target—and could potentially harm—marginalized students, like those within the LGBTQ+ community.

The 30-second clips address two pieces of legislation centered around censorship in the classroom. One proposal, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, would closely regulate LGBTQ+ instruction in the classroom and conversations with younger students. Both versions of the bill have cleared their first committees in party-line votes, with Republicans voting in support of bigotry and hatred, and Democrats siding against.

These new Hate Bills, sponsored by Ocala Senator Dennis Baxley and Representative Joe Harding, would ban school districts from “encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate.” And the bills allow parents to sue a school district if such a violation occurred. Baxley says the bulls would promote parental rights and prevent schools from advancing “social agendas” like … equality.

The other legislation targeted by the ad campaign is called the “Individual Freedom” bill and it seeks to ban required discussions and lessons in classrooms and workplaces of any subject that Republicans contend are meant to “indoctrinate” cultural guilt in students and employees.

It’s anti-woke legislation, And meant to be a way to not discuss slavery, not discuss Civil Rights, not discuss LGBTQ+ rights, lest little Billy or Sally’s parents get butt hurt about it all.

This is DeSantis’ response to the teaching of Critical Race Theory which … read this and understand it … has never been taught in any school in the country—it was originally part of a law course at Harvard—and is not set to be taught at any school in this country.

Once again, it’s the GOP using fear of ‘other,’ be they people of color, or people of a different orientation or gender identity, to set this country back to the 1950s, when Black people knew they place, and LGBTQ people were in the closet.

The legislation, filed by Senator Manny Diaz Jr. and Representative Bryan Ávila allows people to sue for discrimination if they are made to feel “guilty” or “discomfort” because of training or school lesson is not pleasing and supportive and all-white.

Opposition to these Hate Bills has also come from the state’s largest parents group, the Florida PTA; child welfare and medical experts; and educators who warn of the chilling effect of the legislation’s vague language.

But the GOP doesn’t care. They want to keep America white and straight and bigoted and closed and racist and, let’s be clear women, because they’ll be coming for you next: male.

Oh, and please keep in mind that a few weeks ago when Nazis rallied in Florida not a single Republican spoke out against them. Clearly, you can’t say Gay but Nazi is okay.

Ain’t that America?

Florida Politics

Good News ... Bad News ... Good News On Trans Rights

Last week, in Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker signed new legislation that will allow anyone in the state to use bathrooms or locker rooms that match their gender identity, and empowers authorities to make sure that no one does so fraudulently.

Now, how this is going to be done is unclear; oh, not the trans person using the bathroom, that’s been going on forever. But how will authorities make sure that a non-trans person isn’t using the bathroom for their own disgusting purposes is unclear.

Opponents of the legislation say that male sexual predators might pretend to be trans women in order to enter a woman’s bathroom or locker room even though there doesn’t seem to be a single case on the books to suggest this has been an issue ever.

“This … legislation extends additional protections to the commonwealth’s transgender community, and includes language to address the public safety concerns expressed by some by requiring the attorney general to issue regulations to protect against people abusing the law.” — Governor Baker

While this is a celebratory moment for the LGBTQ community and our trans brothers and sisters, let’s not forget North Carolina and their law that — in addition to denying LGBT North Carolinians equal protection under the law — mandates people use only the restrooms that correspond to the gender on their birth certificates.And let us not forget that on the heels of Governor Baker signing this new law, some ten other states filed suit against the federal government over public schools allowing trans students to use restrooms conforming to their gender identity. Those backwoods states are, well, the usual suspects: Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North and South Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Wyoming.

And so now nearly half the states in this country are fighting to make sure transgender students can be discriminated against in schools. Yes, they’re fighting for the right to discriminate.

That new federal lawsuit in Nebraska challenges the federal government’s recent guidelines about the protections transgender students deserve under the law. And this new lawsuit joins a separate lawsuit that Texas — along with about a dozen states — filed in May.

The Nebraska suit argues that the Department of Justice [DOJ] and Department of Education [DOE] are overstepping their roles by “rewriting” the term “sex” to include “gender identity.” And, like the Texas suit, the Nebraska suit focuses mostly on how the new guidelines were issued; it’s semantics, y’all.

While the Administrative Procedures Act says that that when agencies like the DOF and the DOE clarify an existing rule, they can just issue new guidelines. But these Hate States say these agencies have created a new rule by now clarifying that “sex” protections should include transgender individuals, and so they want the DOJ and the DOE to go through a lengthy notice-and-comment period before the new guidelines are finalized.

You know, drag it out so the kids can’t pee. And the most disgusting part of these lawsuits is the wording in the suits seems to deny the very existence of transgender people and their identities:

“Neither the text nor the legislative history of Title IX supports an interpretation of the term “sex” as meaning anything other than one’s sex as determined by anatomy and genetics, which was the meaning assigned “sex” by the leading dictionaries at the time Congress enacted the statute.”

Basically, these Hate States think Title IX’s enforcement should be permanently attached to a 1972 understanding of the word “sex” — the term ‘transgender’ was first coined in 1965 — and the fact that trans people have failed to obtain protection under the law in the past is somehow proof that they should receive no protections now.

And while most of the research of what it means to be transgender is very recent, Nebraska and the Hate States argue that none of that new information should inform enforcement of Title IX. They want to use an understanding of transgender from back in the day when very few people knew what it meant; back when even the word itself was new. They clearly want to live in the past, with the rules and laws of the past informing the rules and laws of today, even though we have, or at least some of us have, increased knowledge and awareness of what it means to be trans.

But these Hate States aren’t concerned with how the transgender person feels, but rather how other people feel around, or about, transgendered persons. The suit maintains that individuals must use bathrooms or locker rooms based on their “biological sex” and even trots out the Hate Speech about how anyone can get access to any facility by just changing their gender identity on a whim.

You know, because that’s what it means to be trans … changing gender because of a mood or a feeling. Of course, the hate is clearly evident in the fact that, in the Nebraska suit specifically, nowhere is the word “transgender” even used unless they are quoting another document.

They’re so afraid to say the word so how can we possibly believe they’ll, ever accept the word, or the transgender person?

On the upside of the Hate … Friday was the deadline for collecting signatures for a Washington state anti-trans ballot initiative, and those anti-LGBT conservatives have fallen far short of the signatures they needed to legislate discrimination.

The Just Want Privacy campaign—an off-shoot of the Hate Group, Family Policy Institute of Washington—had proposed Initiative 1515 — very similar to North Carolina’s HB2 — to ban transgender people from restrooms that match their gender identity, but it also would have allowed students to sue schools if they saw transgender students in the “other” bathroom.

Luckily, though, Just Want Privacy cancelled their appointment to deliver their petitions to the Secretary of State because they have failed to collect even two-thirds of the 300,000 signatures they hoped to collect.

And so, last Friday, the campaign’s leaders released a statement conceding failure:

“Just Want Privacy will not give up the fight to protect the state’s girls and women and is considering all of its options for repealing the ‘Open Locker Room’ rule. The current law is grotesquely dangerous and in need of dramatic revision.”

This sign of failure is in sharp contrast to their website crowing just a week ago that they were “almost there” but, since they tried fear instead of facts, maybe the good people, of Washington saw the Hate for just that: fear and hate.

Now if only we could get those other twenty or so states to understand that ….

Massachusetts

Nebraska & Texas

Washington

Random Musings

Last week I had a wisdom tooth removed. I am one of those Freaks of Nature that has, er, had, all of my wisdom teeth. They didn’t come in crooked or not come in at all, and they didn’t bother the neighboring molars so why take ‘em out?

But this one tooth was snuggled a little too tightly between bone and molar and had cracked so it needed to come out.

It took all of five minutes — after the topical anesthetic and Novocain shot took hold — and afterwards the doctor told me I had a high pain threshold and I said:

“Actually, what I have is an over-active imagination and I assumed the pain would be so bad that I would die in the chair. When that didn’t happen, well, it didn’t hurt at all.”

The next morning, as Carlos was leaving for work, he asked if I was planning on doing some laundry — I do the fluff-and-fold … see what I did there … at Casa Bob y Carlos — and I replied:

“LAUNDRY!!!!!! I had a piece of my head removed yesterday and you think I should be doing laundry??”

I’m still not sure how long I can play the Wisdom Tooth Pain Card ….

More visibility leads to more acceptance, dontcha know … A new study finds there are twice as many transgender adults in the US than previously thought.

Right now there are 1.4 million adults who publicly identify as transgender which is double the previous estimate of about 700,000.

♫ ♪ Come out, come out, wherever you are … ♪ ♫

Bernie Sanders was booed by House Democrats in a closed-door session Wednesday after he deflected questions about when he would formally back Hillary Clinton for president.

As I said on Viktor’s blog, Bernie needs to put on his Grown Man Pants and realize he lost and support, and work with, Clinton, to keep The Rump from The Oval.

In case he didn’t know, when Hillary lost to Obama in 2008, she came out and supported him, and campaigned for him, almost immediately.

Work with the party, Bernie, not against it.

Last week we watched Woman In Gold, about Maria Altman whose family’s art collection was stolen by the Nazis in WWII and then held by a Museum in Austria.

Altman — played by the delicious Helen Mirren — sued to get her art back and just one painting of many, the Woman In Gold, was donated to a gallery in New York for $135 million. The film co-starred Max Irons, top, son of Jeremy, in flashbacks as Maria’s husband. Lord, he is one dreamy lad.

Speaking of politics … we’re watching Braindead … about Washington politicos. Braindead. Perfection; though it’s about bugs from outer space that invade the brain causing all sorts of shenanigans. And it has two hotties: Aaron Tveit, bottom left, as Gareth Ritter a GOP lapdog — I won’t hold that against him ‘cuz he’s kinda cute — and Charlie Semine as hot FBI agent Anthony Onofrio, bottom right, … so sultry.

That’s all.

In spite of threats of boycotts, North Carolina’s lawmakers are going home after offering one wee fix to their Hate Bill.

The fix was to a provision of HB2 that prohibited anyone in North Carolina from suing for discrimination under state law. Lawmakers restored the right to sue for discrimination in but they made it harder than before, shortening the statute of limitations from three years to just one.

Sadly, that “fix” may not appease the NBA who may opt out of holding the 2017 NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte next year.

Money talks … and it talks a lot in Raleigh, North Carolina, which stands to lose as much as $40 million in convention business from the state’s Bathroom Bill.

Some 16 trade associations or corporate groups have canceled gatherings in Raleigh because of HB 2, and Raleigh is no longer in the running for another 13 conventions, worth an estimated $2 million combined.

Bad for the people and economy of Raleigh, but maybe, just maybe, when the people realize their bigoted lawmakers are costing them money, they’ll vote them out and put rational thinkers in place.

Now, for a mini-rant:

This law, while even I call it a Bathroom Bill, is not just an anti-trans law. It took away all local LGBT protections in eight North Carolina cities.

It’s not just anti-trans, it’s anti-LGBT and it’s Hate. Remember that.

Marco Rubio will not attend the GOP convention.

Was he asked? He says he needs to stay in Florida and focus on his re-election campaign for the job he said he no longer wanted to do when he thought he had a snowball’s chance in hell of being President.

Hypocrite. And what’s sickening is that he’s leading in the polls meaning the people of Flori-duh don’t care that, while running for president, he stopped doing his job and said he didn’t even want to do it anymore, but changed his mind the minute he realized he’d be out.

Seriously, Flori-duh!

Over on Idiot TV … Fox & Friends recently reported that the Statue of Liberty might be a man. Uh huh.

A new Discovery Family program titled, “Secrets of America’s Favorite Places” suggests that French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi used his brother as a model for the famous statue and not his mother as previously thought.

This is all they got? That the French played a joke on the US by giving us a man as the Statue of Liberty?

Oh Fox … sit down.

Lastly … we know The Rump has a man-crush on Vladimir Putin, but did you know he also admires Saddam Hussein?

Yup, while he does admit Saddam was “a real bad man” The Rump wishes that, like Hussein, we could kill terrorists and the families of terrorists:

“[Saddam Hussein] was a really bad guy. But you know what he did well? Kill terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were a terrorist. It was over.”

And there are actual Americans who think The Rump should be President.

Vacation Post: Hate Bills Are Springing Up Everwhere

Well, it’s been almost a year since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage and for anyone who thought we’d be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for our Civil Rights needs to think again.

Since that historic ruling, we have seen a backlash against the LGBT in neatly half of the country:

A new law in Mississippi lets any person or any business deny services to same-sex couples because of so-called “religious objections.”

In North Carolina, Governor McCrory signed a law banning any city in the state from passing LGBT anti-discrimination ordinances and barring transgender people from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.

In Tennessee, they also have a “bathroom bill,” plus a bill that lets mental health professionals refuse to treat LGBT patients.

But that’s not all, not by a longshot; there are more than 100 active bills like those in 22 states around the country and they all fall into a handful of categories—mostly being discriminatory to the LGBT community: some are bathroom bills, some let judges refuse to marry same-sex couples, some let businesses deny services to LGBT people.

And it’s all a reaction from the so-called “Christian” conservatives and the GOP in response to that step toward equality we made last year. But some of their efforts have failed spectacularly.

In 2014, facing outcry from the business community, Arizona’s then-Governor Jan Brewer — a Republican — vetoed a bill that would have let businesses cite their religious beliefs to deny services to LGBT customers.

In 2015, Indiana Governor Mike Pence — a Republican — got hammered by the media and the business community after signing a law that allowed businesses to discriminate against LGBT people; he then signed an “amended “ version that scaled back the provisions in the original.

And that’s the way we’ll fight these upcoming proposed laws throughout the country: with our dollars and the dollars of the LGBT allies in business. When companies based in states with these anti-LGBT bills, and big corporations with hubs in those states, begin stepping forward with threats to close up shop, to cease expansion in these areas, the economy of those states will suffer and, when that happens, laws will change.

But anti-LGBT activists have a blueprint of their own to follow, one they base on the same tactics used in the anti-abortion movement. The minute the Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality, Frank Schubert, the strategist behind California’s Proposition 8, and National Organization for Marriage [NOM] president Brian Brown began a strategy of trying to erode LGBT rights through fear and fear of religious liberties being eroded … though that has never happened.

Yet that’s the tactic they used in Houston last year, and it worked. The city was weighing an LGBT anti-discrimination measure, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance or HERO, and it was expected to pass. Houston had a lesbian mayor — Annise Parker — and an anti-discrimination ordinance already in place, but religious conservatives overwhelmingly defeated it by running TV ads that demonized trans women and suggested the ordinance would allow male sex predators into women’s rest rooms. When HERO went down, conservatives saw a strategy that worked, and soon these “bathroom bills” and “religious freedom” bills began popping up everywhere, though mostly in the very religious South.

Here are some of the bills being proposed around the country:

Religious Freedom Restoration Acts – Conservatives are putting forward state-level RFRAs to let people claim religious liberty as a reason to deny services to LGBT people. That means an evangelical Christian baker can refuse to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding; or the photographer can refuse to provide services to a gay couple based on his or her perceived religious objections; and if that’s not bad enough, some of these bills are so broadly written they can be interpreted as a means to allow discrimination against single mothers, interfaith couples and interracial couples. Eight states have active RFRA bills: Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

First Amendment Defense Acts [FADA] … allow any person, business or taxpayer-funded organization to ignore any law that conflicts with their religious beliefs about marriage. But these not only discriminate against LGBT people, but can extend to single mothers and anybody with a sexual relationship outside of marriage. Three states have active FADA bills: Hawaii, Illinois and Oklahoma.

Pastor Protection Acts … allow churches to refuse to perform marriages that conflict with their religious beliefs, even though the First Amendment already covers this right. There are Pastor Protection Acts in fourteen states: Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Government-officials-using-your-taxpayer-funds-against-you bills … allow judges and clerks to refuse to perform same-sex marriages or issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples; four states have active bills like this: Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi and South Carolina.

No-wedding-cake-for-non-straight-non-white-heathens bills … allow businesses to refuse to provide goods or services related to marriages that conflict with their religious beliefs; but these bills can also be used to deny services to interracial and interfaith marriages; four states have active bills like this: Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio.

Other marriage exemption bills … provide other kinds of religious exemptions relating to same-sex marriage; five states have active bills in this category: Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Bathroom Bills … ban transgender people from using public bathrooms that match their gender identity, and even makes the suing of the “wrong” bathroom a criminal offense; nine states have active bills relating to this: Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.

God-Doesn’t-Want-Gay-People-To-Raise-Kids Bills … allow adoption and foster care agencies to refuse to provide any services that conflict with their religious beliefs about marriage, such as same-sex couples, regardless of what is in the best interests of a child; three states have pending bills like this: Alabama, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

And yet, even with all these Hate Bills out there, there are too many categories for all of them, but here are a few more of note: California and South Carolina have bills that require public universities to provide funds for student organizations, regardless of whether the organization discriminates against LGBT people based on religious beliefs. Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee have bills that allow health professionals to services to LGBT people by citing religious objections.  And one bill in Oklahoma prevents local governments from passing nondiscrimination protections, including LGBT protections that go further than protections at the state level; North Carolina’s recent anti-LGBT law does this as well.

So, let’s celebrate the fact that we have won marriage equality, but while we sip our champagne and eat our non-hate-bakery goods, remember that the march is far from over.

The anger from the right over losing on marriage equality is fueling all kinds of hate bills aimed at our community out of spite and we cannot allow this to happen.

We need to use our voices, our votes — Vote Blue! — and our wallets to send a message that hate, for any reason, especially hate using God and Jeebus and the Bible as a reason, will not be accepted.

h/t HuffPo Queer Voices

South Carolina's "Bathroom Bill"

It’s no secret that I am no fan of our governor, Nikki Haley, but I did stand and give her props last week when she said, of Senator Lee Bright’s proposed Bathroom Bill to ban trans people from using a bathroom that coincides with their gender identity:

“I don’t believe it’s necessary. When I look at South Carolina, we look at our situations, we’re not hearing of anybody’s religious liberties that are being violated, and we’re again not hearing any citizens that feel like they’re being violated in terms of freedoms.”

Now, to be fair, Nikki Haley is looking at her political future when she says these things, and she knows the tide on LGBT hatred is turning, slowly, turning, but in light of all these Southern Republicans working to legalize hate, it was still nice to see one — or two, counting Louisiana Governor, and a Democrat of course, John Bel Edwards — stand up for LGBT people in general and trans people in particular.

But even with Haley denouncing the need for such a law, Senator Bright — and how I laugh at that name — is continuing his march into the history books as a giant dumbass. Bright is heading the hearings on this issue and a great many South Carolinians, trans and otherwise, spoke out about the bill:

Grayson, a thirteen year old trans male, sat right in Lee Bright’s face and told his story of having to go to the nurse's bathroom to avoid having to answer questions about his identity:

"All I want is to be able to use the men's restroom with the rest of my non-transgender peers, but this doesn't happen and it won't happen if this bill is passed. The people introducing this bill are victimizing the innocent. When I enter a men's bathroom, I just want to use the facilities, wash my hands and leave. I do not deserve to have my gender identity washed away like a fingerprint on a windowpane. I do not deserve to have the person I am replaced by someone I don't want to be. I do not deserve to be forced to use a restroom where I do not feel safe. We were brought into this world to live, not to be targeted by people who don't know what it's like to be born in a shell that doesn't match your interior spirit."

But Lee Bright will not be deterred because he said he’s had enough of tolerance — yes, he’s had enough of tolerance — if that means "men who claim to be women" going into a bathroom with children.

Bright also sat stone-faced listening to Deb Foreman, whose adult son is transgender, describe how her son has struggled because of others' ignorance:

"He still fears using a public bathroom because of societal hate and discrimination, and this legislation would make it even worse."

She then took on Lee bright personally, saying she had contacted his offices after the legislation was introduced to invite him to meet with LGBT groups in Spartanburg to discuss the issue; Bright never returned her call even though he is her elected official.

"With all due respect, Sen. Bright, you are ignorant to the issues of the LGBT community. There has been no outcry for this type of legislation. It would certainly cause more harm than anything else."

In addition, three high profile mayors — Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, Florence Mayor Stephen Wukela and Greenwood Mayor Welborn Adams —all attended the meeting, and all agreed that the proposed bill is unnecessary:

"I came here from Florence today to report to the Senate that in the city of Florence, our bathrooms are just fine, they don't require any state supervision or regulation whatsoever." — Stephen Wukela

Summerville resident Ross Scherer, who has a transgender daughter, said the bill's supporters are misinformed and hold misguided beliefs.

"I will not stand by while people put my child in harm's way. I will do everything in my power to see that this bill is not passed."

Bill Nettles, the U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina, said there were no cases of a transgender person committing battery or assault and battery on a heterosexual person in a bathroom, and yet despite those facts Lee Bright remains committed to the measure:

"I have heard from an overwhelming number of people in the Upstate of South Carolina that have supported the bill. Businesses don't want to be burdened and forced to be told what accommodations they have to make in their restrooms."

What accommodations? Most businesses already have bathrooms, and most trans people have already used those bathrooms, oftentimes with others, and there have been no reports of any problems. But go on, Lee Bright; make a case where there is none.

Luckily, we have state Senator Joel Lourie, also a Democrat dontcha know, who has condemned the bill:

"I think this proposal is pathetic. I think it's mean-spirited. I think it's discriminatory, and on top of all that, economically it can be a disaster for South Carolina. We saw some incredible, brave people step forward today who gave some of the most moving testimony I've heard in my 18 years of public service.'

The testimony resumes today, and if the subcommittee votes in favor of the bill, it will likely go before the full committee sometime next week, though not without a fight from Joel Lourie:

"I will do everything strategically possible to make sure this bill never comes before the full Senate."

And the monetary backlash has begun; despite the fact that the bill hasn’t passed the House and that our governor says we don’t need it, Uphold, an international financial services company with U.S. headquarters in Charleston, has announced it would move its offices to Los Angeles to protest the proposal.

But all that aside, I must say that I am proud of South Carolinians; I am proud of our Democratic representatives, though they are few and far between, and Nikki Haley, for seeing this bill for what it is and denouncing it. And I am doubly proud of the trans South Carolinians who are standing up, and stepping into the spotlight, to condemn this bill for what it is: hate.

And I am hoping that South Carolinians remember this, and remember Lee Bright’s hate speech about trans people, and the LGBT community, when it comes time to reelect him in the fall.

Send Lee Bright home; he has no business representing the people of this state.

WIS-TV

Go Upstate