Most days in my depraved, transsexual lifestyle start the same: I wake up at 5:15 a.m. to pet my cat, have some coffee, and journal a little before I get out the door. Meanwhile, Republicans are warming up for their bigger goals. If they can wipe away two decades of progress for trans people in a few short months, they’ll have playbook for overturning gay marriage by the end of the year.
lgbtq
Judge Blocks Biden Rule Preventing Gender-Identity Discrimination in Florida
The rule, which was scheduled to take effect Friday, is designed to help carry out a federal law that prevents discrimination in health-care programs that receive federal money. The law prevents discrimination based on “sex,” and the rule would apply that to include discrimination based on gender identity.
From Drag Queens to Sister Bunny Juju, Throngs Exult in Pride, Joy and Freedom at Flagler’s 2nd Annual LGBTQ Festival
Saturday’s Flagler Pride Festival and its crowds, which by 9 p.m. had totaled between 600 and 800 people, put the lie to the county’s presumed homogeneity: Palm Coast, a city started in the late 1960s as an integrated, post-racial subdivision, is still more diverse than perhaps assumed, and if anything growing more so.
Anti-Transgender Bills Are Latest Version of Conservatives’ Longtime Strategy to Rally Their Base
Mischaracterizing LGBTQ-supportive policies as harmful to young people are a staple strategy conservatives use to galvanize their base. A record number of anti-transgender policy reforms were introduced this year in state legislatures across the country.
Measure Banning Transgender Girls From High School and College Teams Heads for DeSantis Signature
Under the measure on its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis, female students’ eligibility for sports teams would be based on their “biological sex” on birth certificates issued “at or near the time of the student’s birth.”
School Board’s Latest Fray Over LGBTQ ‘Hysteria’ Is Tense But Civil as Law Has the Last Word, Not Parents
Flagler school district officials explained that a student’s privacy–and sexual identity–may override a parent’s right to know about it as transgender matters again divided an audience of 70 and the school board in impassioned but mostly courteous debates at a meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Ban on Transgender Girls in Sports, Requiring Genital Proof in Disputes, Heads for Florida House Vote
The proposal would make participation in athletics contingent on determining a student’s “biological sex,” including the requirement, in disputes, of proof of a student’s birth genitalia as certified by “a health examination and consent form.”
I Want Civil Rights. They Want to Talk About Sports.
The Equality Act would extend basic civil rights protections to Queer people in housing, employment, education, and other arenas. Support tops 70 percent. Many people assume a federal law like this already exists. But in dozens of states, it’s perfectly legal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Palm Coast Student Elliott Bertrand Accuses Senate Panel of ‘Prejudice’ Before 6-4 Vote on Transgender Sports Ban
The Florida Senate Health Policy Committee today approved a bill that would scrap existing policy and ban transgender women from participating in competitive high school and college sports absent testosterone testing that might clear them to play. Elliott Bertrand, a student at Flagler Palm Coast High School, was among the many opponents of the bill who addressed the panel in Tallahassee.
Calling Mullins ‘Pied Piper of Hate, Deception and Fraud,’ School Board’s Conklin Rips His Latest Attack on LGBTQ and GOP
Joe Mullins combined attacks on transgender people and local Republicans in an extended screed filled with falsehoods and mischaracterizations as he spoke to a local far-right Republican group, prompting the School Board’s Colleen Conklin to issue a severe condemnation and called him a “narcissistic beast.”
The Fabricated Fear of Transgender Athletes in High School Sports
Randall Bertrand, who led last year’s campaign to add “gender identity” to the Flagler school board’s protections against discrimination, lays out a case against the Legislature’s baseless fear-mongering over transgender participation in high school sports.
Overriding Florida High School Athletic Association, House Backs Banning Transgender Female Athletes
Critics of measures targeting transgender student athletes argue the proposals are rooted in fear, misunderstanding and politics as a Florida House panel on Wednesday approved a controversial proposal that would ban transgender girls and women from competing in women’s high-school and college sports.
Renewing Assault on Transgender Rights, Florida Rep. Sabatini Will Seek to Criminalize Certain Procedures
Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini announced he will again try to criminalize gender-altering surgery and medical treatments performed on minors who want it, even when their parents approve.
Local Governments Seek Re-Hearing in Federal Case That Allowed ‘Conversion Therapy’ Targeting LGBTQ Youths
Local Florida ordinances that a federal court found unconstitutional had barred therapists from providing treatment or counseling that is designed to change minors’ sexual orientation or gender identity. Critics of such therapy say it harms minors who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Trevor Tucker, in Remarkable Shift, Provides 3-2 Majority to Add ‘Gender Identity’ to Long-Sought School Protections
The Flagler County School Board this evening reversed its April vote and added “gender identity” to its anti-discrimination policy, ending a year-long and at times controversial and embittered debate over the identity and rights of LGBTQ students.
Court’s Trump Appointees Strike Down Florida Bans on Bigoted ‘Conversion Therapy’ Aimed at LGBTQ Children
Two South Florida ordinances barred therapists from providing treatment or counseling that is designed to change minors’ sexual orientation or gender identity. Critics of such therapy say it harms minors who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. The federal court ruled against the ban on First Amendment grounds.
St. Johns Schools Discriminated Against Transgender Student, Appeals Court Rules in Case with Local Implications
On the heels of months of debate over Flagler schools’ stance on transgender students, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the St. Johns County school district discriminated against a transgender high school student by denying him the right to use the boys’ bathroom.
The Fight for LGBTQ Equality Just Won a Huge Victory
This historic decision achieved by an astonishing 6-3 vote in a conservative court, written and delivered by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch, codifies that LGBTQ individuals deserve human and civil rights.
Landmark Ruling Spurs Calls for LGBTQ Protections in Florida, Where No Law Bans Discrimination
Florida is one of more than two dozen states that do not have laws banning discrimination based on gender, and Republican legislative leaders during the past several years have thwarted efforts to pass such measures.
Stunning Victory for Transgender and Gay Rights as Supreme Court Makes Protections Explicit
The decision will have far-reaching consequences regarding LGBTQ rights beyond employment, as it now explicitly lays out a prohibition against discrimination that cannot apply in employment situations without also applying in housing, education, the military and elsewhere.
Hearts and Rainbows v. Satan and Lies as LGBTQ Advocates and Opponents Hold Neighboring Demonstrations
The two demonstrations by advocates and opponents of LGBTQ rights outside the Government Services Building in Bunnell preceded the Flagler County School Board meeting Tuesday night, which again was dominated by transgender rights issues.
Religious Leaders Defend Parochial Schools’ Shunning of LGBTQ Students on Taxpayers’ Dime
Religious leaders and some black lawmakers on Tuesday escalated a fiery debate over anti-LGBTQ policies at private schools that receive state-funded scholarships, fueling discussions of religious freedom, discrimination and politics.
Rubio Derides as ‘Publicity Stunt’ Banks’ Funding Halt to Vouchers Underwriting Anti-Gay Schools
An investigation found at least 156 Florida private schools that took state-funded scholarships had anti-gay views or policies, and 83 of the schools refused to admit LGBTQ students or could expel them if their sexual orientations or gender identities were disclosed.
Beyond Transgender Student’s Transfer Out of Matanzas, Calls on School Board to Take LGBTQ Safety Seriously
A throng of students, faculty members and parents asked the Flagler County School Board Tuesday to support more explicit procedures protecting LGBTQ students as Charlene Cothran, a Palm Coast pastor, again attacked the a transgender student and ridiculed LGBTQ rights.
Flagler School Board Lets a Pastor Insult a Transgender Student at a Meeting, In His Presence
Rev. Charlene Cothran of Palm Coast called a transgender student “mentally ill” and his father “confused” and “intimidated” in both their presence during a Flagler County School Board meeting this week, with pushback only from Colleen Conklin.
For Victor Williams, Context of 16 Year Old’s Rape Will Decide Whether He Spends Life in Prison, Or a Few Years
In his trial starting Monday, Palm Coast’s Victor Williams, 43, admits to sex with a 16-year-old -boy, but not to drugging him and raping him. The difference is the difference between 15 years in prison or a life term.
Gender Traitors: Fired While Gay
The Supreme Court will decide three cases that ask a question you should be offended to hear still asked today: may an employer fire a worker for being gay? The answer in most states, including Florida, is yes.
Coming Out in Rural America
“I came out to my parents via email the same week I figured it out myself because it’s no big deal in our family. Others aren’t as lucky; some people’s families still disown them.”
Good News: Straight People Don’t Need a Pride Parade
Organizers of the “straight pride parade” in Boston this summer have ties to numerous far-right groups. Here are conditions that would make such a parade easier to embrace.
Calling Florida Prison Officials Ignorant and Bigoted, Judge Orders Accommodations For Transgender Inmate
A federal judge ordered Florida prisons to continue providing hormone treatments to Reiyn Keohane, who identifies as female since age 8. She started serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder in 2014.
Court Orders Re-Hearing in Death Penalty
Case Over Juror Calling Gays ‘Depraved’
Justices ordered a new sentencing hearing for inmate Eric Kurt Patrick because the jury split 7-5 in recommending the death penalty to a judge, and because a juror was prejudiced against Patrick.
Pious Homophobes Win One
The Supreme Court in its wedding-cake ruling declared gays once again second-class citizens, at least when their sexuality has to compete with someone else’s more stone-throwing version of Christianity.
Progressive Voices Rise to Resist Locally as Flagler Beach “Rally By the Sea” Rebukes Trumpism
Saturday’s rally of progressive-liberal organizations in Flagler Beach, organized by a group barely a few months old, suggests the local Republican sweep is not as total as it appears, or Trumpism the only movement in town.
Florida’s Only Openly Gay Lawmaker Describes a Rick Scott More Accepting of LGBT
In the days after 49 people were killed at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Gov. Rick Scott privately expressed some support for gay rights to the state’s only openly gay state lawmaker, David Richardson.