Denise Shick is upset that trans youth can get treatment

Monday, Denise Shick writes: California Passes Law Allowing 12-Year-Olds To Get Tax-Paid Transgender Treatments. The subtitle of this intellectually challenging treatise reads:

In the nation’s most progressive state, you only need to be 12 years old to privately seek and consent to treatment for gender transitioning.

Yes, Mommy forgot to lock up her computer

There was a flood of inappropriate comments. A kind reader took the time to alert me and they have been eliminated. The offending account has been blocked.

I have no problem at all with opposing points of view. In fact, I welcome them. I have learned more from people with whom I disagree than from those who agree with me. Cartoons about dying from AIDS are not meaningful discourse.

ACPeds returns to its roots with anti-trans screed

ACPeds has released a statement in conflict with the public statements of its president.

"Best for Children?" This hate group's primary concern is conservative Christianity.

Late Sunday the American College of Pediatricians group released a statement titled: Sex Change isn’t Child’s Play. The intent is to cast doubt on the benefits of gender affirmation for children with gender dysphoria. This comes on the heels of a statement from the real professional peer group, the American Academy of Pediatrics, recognizing the importance of gender affirming care.

The American College of Pediatricians is a small hate group with an annual budget around $100,000. While the group's leader, Michelle Cretella, has been very outspoken on LGBT matters (among other things she promotes conversion therapy), the group has been trying to pose as a legitimate medical organization.

The disgraceful McHugh crew

At VVS two physicians mislead and misinform on behalf of the Church

Listening to Paul R. McHugh are (L-R) Peter Sprigg of Family Research Counsel, (Activist Mommy) Elizabeth Johnston and Hate Group Leader (American College of Pediatricians) Michelle Cretella.

Washington DC: On Saturday, the Values Voter Summit assembled a panel to discuss the harms caused by “gender ideology.” Perhaps they want to confirm the fact that the prime sponsor of VVS, Family Research Council, is an anti-LGBT hate group.

Neither Peter Sprigg nor Elizabeth Johnston know anything about juvenile gender dysphoria. Sprigg's training is as a Baptist preacher. Johnston is just a Facebook celebrity.

Weekend fun with 2ndVote

Dana Loesch is probably compensated for this ad and she is not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. She is still "funding progressives."

Saturday, an email from 2ndVote is highlighting this weeks scores. They have decided to trash Verizon. I couldn't care less what they think of Verizon. It's the intent that counts.

2ndVote attempts to steer consumers away from progressive companies and towards more conservative organizations. They have an entire section on the Human Rights Campaign listing every sponsor and every company with a score of 100. Those are all deemed to be evil, evil, evil.

Brian S. Brown complains of dirty tricks re: Kavanaugh - Solution: Send him $$$

Friday, Brian S. Brown of National Organization for Marriage has sent out an email to supporters titled: Same old dirty tricks… (Brown likes three ellipses in his titles).

Brown is shameless. It seems that anything and everything can be crafted as a reason to send NOM some loot in spite of the fact that those donations will never be used for the stated purpose. It is called dishonesty but it's okay if one is a conservative Christian. Apparently that can be found somewhere within scripture.

Maine preachers banning banned LGBT books not really banned or, ...

Some Christian clerics in Rumford, Maine are displeased over the Rumford Public Library's promotion of Banned Books Week, September 23-29. Included in the local display are a number of LGBT themed books. Apparently the mere presence of such material  threatens to corrupt children or encourage them to become gay or trans.

Personally, as a child, I only read books with heterosexual characters. It didn't work.

The anti-LGBT bus tour

A promotional photo from the 2016 Values Bus tour

Tony Perkins has announced that Family Research Council's “Values Voter Bus Tour” will commence immediately. The bus will travel across a dozen states between now and Election Day to energize religious conservative voters.

Family Research Council is an anti-LGBT hate group.

Elton John and David Furnish win libel suit

No, it's not for what you think. In London, Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, have accepted an apology and undisclosed libel damages over a newspaper report that their dog severely injured a child while on a playdate.

Defendants in this case were News Group Newspapers which owns The Sun and Sun on Sunday. The Sun claimed in February that the dog inflicted “Freddy Krueger-like injuries.”

By the way, the MassResistance website got whacked

Suspended sometimes relates to an unpaid bill.

A rather bizarre polemic from Brian Camenker

Hate group leader Brian Camenker (MassResistance)

Brian Camenker is very upset with the Southern Poverty Law Center, supposedly for reasons other than the fact that the SPLC has designated Camenker's MassResistance a hate group. Camenker, who is Jewish, takes to a fundamentalist Catholic site to author: See how the liberal SPLC is the true hate group. Some selected passages from Camenker's diatribe:

More than ever, in this age of Trump, the Left simply cannot defend its ideas or positions with rational discussion. It must rely on the most extreme vitriol in the form of lies, distortions, disinformation, and dishonesty. This is something that most conservatives would never think of doing, but it is part of the Left's mindset.

Michelle Cretella and Defenders of the Faith respond to AAP

Hate group leader Michelle Cretella (American College of Pediatricians) is predictably displeased that the real peer organization (the American Academy of Pediatrics) recommends gender affirmation for trans and gender nonconforming children.

Wednesday evening, Lisa Bourne, with the fundamentalist Catholic LifeSiteNews, wrote: American Academy of Pediatrics’ new guidelines support gender change for kids. The title is incorrect per se. Attempting to conform medical science to Catholic dogma confuses the people who are trying to confuse everyone else.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has released a lengthy statement regarding the care of transgender and gender-diverse youth. At the core of the AAP statement is the gender affirming care model. That is the direct opposite of Ms. Bourne's “gender change.”

AFA is offended by its accurate depiction

Hate group leaders Tim Wildmon (American Family Association) and Tony Perkins (Family Research Council)

American Family Association, an anti-LGBT hate group, is very upset with remarks made by Vice President Joe Biden at the Human Rights Campaign.

Former Vice President Joe Biden bashed Christians opposing the homosexual agenda as “forces of intolerance” and “virulent dregs of society” at a recent LGBT event, and a prominent pro-family group used his rant to alert Americans about what a leftist takeover in the nation’s capital would mean for believers.

American Academy of Pediatrics releases a statement on trans youth

The American Academy of Pediatrics has released a policy statement aimed at the parents of trans and gender diverse youth and the clinicians who care for them. The statement is available online and will be included in the October issue of Pediatrics, the organization's academic journal.

The AAP statement incorporates a 2012 statement by the American Psychiatric Association:

Hate group propagandist, whose life is structured around mythology, attempts to debunk scientific and social facts

“Scientists have found that transgender people have brain structures more consistent with their gender than their natal sex.”

At the World Congress of Families anti-LGBT hate-fest in Moldova, Peter Sprigg lectured about gender identity. Sprigg's uninformed and illogical presentation has now been reduced to a blog post titled: Five Myths About “Gender Identity” . Gender identity is in quotes to suggest that it doesn't really exist.

Peter Sprigg has no training in medicine or psychology (he is a Baptist pastor). Sprigg, an anti-LGBT propagandist for Family Research Council — an anti-LGBT hate group — is claiming expertise in human sexuality. It is erudition that he simply does not possess. The idea that gender identity does not exist would come as quite a shock to the people who do have the requisite training and expertise.

The Sprigg and six crackpot studies of conversion therapy

Hate group troll, Peter Sprigg

Peter Sprigg works for Family Research Council, an anti-LGBT hate group. Sprigg is the author of a pretentious “issue analysis” which concludes that “evidence for the effectiveness of SOCE [sexual orientation change efforts] far outweighs the evidence of its harm.”

Sprigg bases his science-defying conclusion on six “studies.” Let us review them, oldest first:

FRC blogger advocates for Christian Privilege to advance anti-LGBT bigotry

David Closson
Hate Group Blogger

On Friday a federal judge ruled that plaintiffs have standing to sue in Dumont v. Lyon. The case challenges the constitutionality of Michigan's law allowing state-funded child placement agencies to turn away gay people from being foster or adoptive parents because of an agency's religious principles.

David Closson (a doctoral student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) has twice authored blog posts on behalf of Family Research Council (an anti-LGBT hate group). The first of these, on August 31, decried the fact that Buffalo, NY had the audacity to enforce New York State and local nondiscrimination laws regarding adoption agencies. The second, on Monday, is about Dumont v. Lyon. Young Mr. Closson, it seems, is an advocate for Christian Privilege, a right to discriminate. 

Robert Oscar Lopez is terribly upset with Christians who oppose conversion therapy

Last week, Robert Oscar Lopez wrote: Christians Who Oppose Conversion Therapy Need a Reality Check. It is Lopez who needs the reality check — and a competent shrink. Lopez is an individual who is smart and well educated. He could, and should, be doing better.

The guy is incapable of writing a paragraph without claiming that people are determined to persecute him (“Us” means R.O. Lopez.):

To be loving does not mean to be gullible. … We should love people, but that does not mean we should let them take advantage of us. Or fool us. Or trick us.

Porno Pete "isn't scared"

Hate group leader Peter LaBarbera
Americans for Truth About Homosexuality

Apparently Peter LaBarbera's hate-site was shut down for two weeks. You will forgive me for not noticing. Now the hate group leader (Americans for Truth About Homosexuality) has told another hate group, American Family Association, that he isn't scared.

The leader of a national organization devoted exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual activist agenda is not afraid to challenge the infamous individual responsible for temporarily shutting down his website.

The implication is that LaBarbera should be fearful. According to AFA's Charlie Butts:

North Carolina warns Liberty Counsel for unlicensed practice of law

If you receive a letter from Liberty Counsel — please send me a copy.

Hate group leader Mad Mat Staver
Liberty Counsel

Liberty Counsel, an anti-LGBT hate group, subscribes to the entitlement of Christian Privilege. For IRS purposes, Liberty Counsel is a church auxiliary (it is not). Liberty Counsel engages in frivolous litigation and the group threatens people with crackpot legal theories. Hate group leader, Mad Mat Staver, could give Trump competition in the mendacity Olympics.

A very clever reader (who wishes to remain anonymous) has also discovered that Liberty Counsel indulges in the unauthorized (unlicensed) practice of law. Document #1, below, is one of Liberty Counsel's threatening letters with the boilerplate that we are accustomed to seeing (much of it nonsensical).

GLSEN's new trans youth PSA

GLSEN continues to be one of the most effective LGBT advocacy groups in the nation.

Gelded Christian literally claims that homosexuality is contagious

“Demonic forces” drive homosexual desires which are contagious.

Snip, snip!

Horses are gelded to make them more manageable. The Catholic Church has a similar objective when it comes to gay men. One of the gelded is Douglas Mainwaring. His latest post it titled: Former gay man: Christ’s cross has power to purge Church of homosexual corruption. I couldn't care less about the plight of the Church. However, Mainwaring's statements about gay people — which he knows to be false — are a source of concern.

Heritage Foundation adds to the transphobic noise

Friday, Heritage Foundation's Kelsey Harkness writes: The Alarming Findings of a New Study on Transgender Teens and Suicide. The intended inference is that teens should not be permitted to transition. In an email I received from Russell Toomey, the study's lead investigator, he called it “unfortunate” that the study is being used to promote a right-wing agenda.

According to Dr. Toomey's paper:

CONCLUSIONS: Suicide prevention efforts can be enhanced by attending to variability within transgender populations, particularly the heightened risk for female to male and nonbinary transgender adolescents.

If you don't like Facebook ...

This tax cheat wants the government to break up Facebook

Hate group leader Peter LaBarbera is only the latest conservative to complain about supposed Facebook “censorship.”

According to the right wing LifeZette: Jeff Sessions Drops the Hammer on Google, Facebook, Twitter — Investigation Looming.

Twitter, Facebook and Google could be navigating some choppy waters in the near future.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is considering an investigation of the companies.

FRC continues its campaign to denigrate trans military veterans

Family Research Council, an anti-LGBT hate group, is strongly opposed to the VA providing treatment for gender dysphoria. They refer to the treatment as “gender alterations.” In point of fact treatments are just the opposite. They are gender affirming. In a blog post without attribution to an individual author:

Family Research Council has submitted public comments urging the Department of Veterans Affairs to retain a regulation that prohibits “gender alterations” (hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery) from being funded by taxpayers as part of the VA’s medical benefits package.

AFA: Expecting adoption agencies not to discriminate with taxpayer money is "intimidation"

American Family Association, an anti-LGBT hate group has again weighed in on discriminatory adoption agencies on their blog. Their quest is for Christian Privilege.

Faith-based adoption and foster child placement services in the U.S. are looking to the federal government to protect them from being forced to violate their faith.

Adoption agencies are contracted to do the work of the state with taxpayer funds. They are required to obey state and local laws regarding nondiscrimination. If they do not want to place children with LGBT couples no one is forcing them to be state-subsidized adoption agencies.

A conversion therapy proponent running for Congress from New Hampshire

The bewildered Steven Negron

Republicans offer a difficult choice when it comes to LGBT views. Many are cynical panderers to the religious right in order to get elected. That doesn't excuse their abhorrent behavior — I am just exploring the taxonomy. Another group of GOPers are stunningly stupid. These are the incurious cranks and crackpots who have no interest in science.

New Hampshire Rep. Steven Negron is in the latter group. Negron is currently running for Congress to represent the state's second district. Democrat Annie Kuster is the incumbent and Negron's general election opponent.

Conservative site uses trans suicide rate to disparage trans youth

The smirking Brianna Heldt is a science denier

According to Brianna Heldt writing for Townhall.com, young people with gender dysphoria should not transition due to the high suicide rate. It is potentially deadly advice. According to Townhall, “Brianna Heldt is a Catholic writer and blogger. She is a regular contributor at National Catholic Register …”

Heldt's piece is titled: Study Shows High Suicide Attempt Rate for Transgender Teens. She relies on a CNN piece which includes a bad link to the actual study. CNN does not include the study's conclusion and neither does Ms. Heldt. It reads:

Federal judge promotes "Christian Nation" mythology

Judge C. Ashley Royal in his Macon, GA courtroom
He seems to have his own portrait on the wall

A panel with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling ordering the removal of a cross from a public park in Florida, stating that they were “bound by existing circuit precedent.”

According to Christian News: “Good law—stare decisis—sometimes leads good judges to follow bad law and write the wrong order. That happened in this case,” lamented Judge C. Ashley Royal.

He said that Christianity was woven into the very fabric of early America, and that modern society has difficulty understanding that aspect of history.

"They are taking over"

No, that headline is not about gay people (although it could be). The full title on CBN is: 'They Are Taking Over': How Satanists Are Working to Stop Trump and His Evangelical Supporters.

They even have “ex-satanists.” (people who have learned how to craft an income from Christian conversions). As in: Ex-Satanist Radically Saved and Baptized. May I add “Hallelujah!!?” (I had the discipline not to add a gratuitous adjective between Halle and lujah.)

When religion becomes an anti-trans OBSESSION

Jane Robbins of American Principles Project presumes to have the knowledge and training of a medical professional

Wednesday, Jane Robbins writes: U.S. Doctors Are Performing Double Mastectomies On Healthy 13-Year-Old Girls. Ms. Robbins is a fellow with the American Principles Project. APP, founded by Robert P. George, has a considerable anti-LGBT advocacy record. Ms. Robbins is obsessed with attempting to marginalize transgender people, presumably on behalf of the Catholic Church.

The subtitle of Robbins' tirade reads:

Thirty-three of these girls were under 18 at the time of surgeries a taxpayer-funded researcher is studying to validate transgenderism. Two were only 13 years old, and five were only 14.

Research confirms what we knew all along - Transgender accommodations pose no dangers

According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law:

Conducted in Massachusetts, this study assesses the validity of claims that gender-identity protections lead to privacy and safety violations in restrooms

A new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law finds that Massachusetts’ public accommodations nondiscrimination laws that include gender identity do not affect the number or frequency of criminal incidents in restrooms, locker rooms or changing rooms. In addition, reports of privacy and safety violations in these places are exceedingly rare.

California legislature condemns juvenile intersex surgeries

The California legislature has become the first in the nation to pass a resolution expressing opposition to non-consensual intersex surgeries. While resolutions have no effect on law or public policy they raise awareness and could lead to future legislation.

These surgeries are not medically necessary. Intersex advocates claim that they are often performed on teens without their fully informed consent. The procedures can be emotionally and physically harmful.

Tony Perkins has the balls to call President Obama a demagogue?

Monday evening hate group leader Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) wrote: Dialogue with a Demagogue. He is referring to President Barack Obama. It comes as no surprise given Perkins' historical connections to the Klan. I will defer to Wikipedia:

A demagogue … is a leader in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation. Demagogues overturn established customs of political conduct, or promise or threaten to do so.

Who does that describe? President Obama or Trump?

Apparently gay people are "R" rated

It is bigotry that should be “X” rated.

Western civilization has come to an abrupt demise due to a gay cartoon kiss. According to one Calvin Freiburger: Cartoon Network promotes LGBT agenda with lesbian kiss in kids show ‘Adventure Time’. The implication is that gay people are unsuitable in the presence children. Three possibilities come to mind. They are not mutually exclusive:

1. Positive images of gay people will turn kids gay.
2. Positive images of gay people make it more difficult to advance discrimination.
3. Positive images of gay people suggest that they are the equal of straight people.

"Maybe the dead kid wasn't really gay"

Esther O'Reilly via Twitter

Esther O'Reilly writes: No, HuffPo: Dead Children Like Jamel Myles Are Not Gay Martyrs. The subtitle of this expressive masterpiece reads:

Jamel Myles’s blood is on his bullies’ hands, but it is not on their hands only. It is on the hands of every single tastemaker who is turning him into a martyr for their sexual cause celebre.

A “tastemaker” is someone who influences what is, or might become, fashionable. There is nothing fashionable about human sexuality. Moreover, sexuality is not something that anyone can influence. While most people are (or at least identify) as heterosexual and cisgender, it is an established scientific fact that both sexual orientation and gender are continuums (straight to gay and male to female). We are what we are.

Mad Mat Staver lost another one - shocking I know

“AFA introduces a lawyer who might be more moronic than Staver”

Hate Group Leader Mad Mat Staver

Shurtleff v. City of Boston is not about LGBT people but it is about Christian privilege. Mr. Shurtleff is the president of a group called Camp Constitution. The City of Boston allows organizations to fly a flag on one of the three flagpoles at city hall.

Camp Constitution wanted to fly a “Christian Flag” on one of those poles for an event. The city denied the request because it does not permit religious flags in order to avoid the appearance of endorsing a religion in violation of the First Amendment.

Brian S. Brown claims that marriage equality was "a cheat and stolen"

I received an email Friday from one of my heroes — Evan Wolfson. Evan is campaigning for marriage equality in Taiwan. Evan wrote: “If you thought the National Organization for Marriage disappeared once we won the freedom to marry in 2015, think again.” In response Brian S. Brown of National Organization for Marriage sent out an email titled: “Thanks, Evan!” In his painfully verbose money-beg Brown writes:

NOM is not only the leading advocacy organization in the United States fighting to preserve and defend marriage, but globally: people do look to us and our strategies for inspiration in waging their own defense of marriage and family.

Those shilling for conversion therapy are no better than Klansmen

This image appears on a press release from Christopher Doyle for Voice of the Voiceless. The source of the photo is Bethel Church in Redding California and includes some Bethel personnel. Bethel Church is a cult.

The comparison of ex-gay religious zealots to Klansmen is not hyperbolic. According to LifeSiteNews' Calvin Freiburger: Former homosexuals urge California Dems to give them a voice on reparative therapy ban. On Friday, Mr. Freiburger writes:

A group dedicated to representing those who struggle with and have overcome homosexual attractions is warning California Assemblyman Evan Low not to ignore those who left the homosexual lifestyle when attempting to revive his ill-fated ban on reparative (“conversion”) therapy next year.

The Voris Problem

“Most importantly, gay men are less likely to be child molesters than straight men.”

Michael Voris is the gay man (now allegedly celibate) who runs Church Militant. The website has been described as the Alt-Right of ultra-conservative Catholicism. Mr. Voris is entitled to believe anything he wants. He is equally entitled to his opinion. He is not entitled to offer, as fact, inaccurate or misleading information. Voris is a propagandist willing to push just about anything in defense of the Catholic Church regardless of its truthfulness of if it even makes sense. Voris is also unrestrained by the damage that he potentially does to other people, particularly gay men.

Thursday, Voris writes: The “Gay Priest” problem (and it is a problem). Before I get to Voris' off-the-wall fiction, he asserts that gay priests should not be ordained. I couldn't care less and that is not the subject of this post. With that resolved:

Ex-transgender woman explains it all for you - Updated

In 2016 Jamie Shupe became legally non-binary

Photo credit: NPR

We are told by The Federalist that Jamie Shupe was an Army tank mechanic who, after retiring, lived as a trans woman for four years and then desisted. Actually, in 2016 Shupe became legally non-binary. Now he identifies as male I suppose.

Update: A prior version of this article described Mr. Shupe as ex-non-binary. Mr. Shupe informs me that he is still non-binary but is no longer a transgender woman. Moreover, Shupe is intersex. I am not qualified to offer an opinion regarding the gender identity of an intersex individual. Nevertheless, that is not the subject of this post. My concern remains the spread of research that does not conform to generally accepted scientific standards.

Aside from the fact that Shupe is, or was, an atypical transgender or gender nonconforming person due to age, his experience does not qualify him as an expert on transgender issues. Quite the contrary due to the uniqueness of his condition. His experience certainly does not qualify him to appreciate and analyze research on gender dysphoria.

Aggrieved and victimized by LGBT people

The Heritage Foundation's Monica G. Burke

The Southern Poverty Law center might have coined the term “hate group” (perhaps they did not). Regardless of authorship we sometimes lose sight of what those words mean.

Hate is quite different from dislike which generally makes people indifferent. Real hate is the unification of loathing with fear. Haters believe that those they hate pose a dire threat. The perception of that threat is often overblown but it is the perceived threat that causes people to cross the civility line.

Hate group anguish over the health of transgender women

American Family Association, an anti-LGBT hate group, is so concerned for the health of transgender women that their Charley Butts has written: The dangers of 'trangender' [sic] hormone therapy. Assuming that Mr. Butts is referring to transgender people, I have no idea why the word is in quotes. Butts is apparently relying on Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council's expert on LGBT matters. Sprigg is, after all, an ordained Baptist minister and before that he was an actor for a Christian entertainment ministry. Indeed, those make Sprigg an expert:

Information obtained by Family Research Council (FRC) reaffirms how dangerous it is for an individual to transition into a “transgender.”

In spite of being withdrawn CA AB-2943 might have succeeded in part

Sometimes the religious right is its own worst enemy. In attempting to defeat California AB-2943, which would make conversion therapy consumer fraud per se, they have brought a tremendous amount of attention to efforts to change someone's sexuality. The process is already banned for minors in California and that measure has survived extensive litigation.

Because of the amount of attention that AB-2943 received awareness might have increased as well. That awareness might cause an adult to think about what he or she hopes to accomplish and why. It might have also reinforced the ban on juvenile conversion therapy which could result in fewer parents marching their kids to religious crackpots to pray away whatever is disapproved of.

An important LGBT question answered by imbeciles

Jamel Myles

CBN News asks what for them is a rhetorical question: Why Would a 9-Year-Old Come Out as Gay and Take His Own Life? A Closer Look at the Jamel Myles Tragedy. The simple answer to the question is that the kid was bullied after he came out as gay. I too want to take a “closer look” at this tragedy. But first:

Chad Felix Greene, a senior contributor to The Federalist, says cultural pressures are partly to blame.

“LGBT has been intensely focused on sexuality and gender identity in children as a way to prevent the same types of adolescent and teenage anxiety they experienced,” Greene told CBN News.