Oklahoma Lawmakers Introduce Vile Measure Attacking Transgender Youth
What the heck is happening to this country?
The doors of hatred, bigotry and persecution have opened.
Hate and discrimination are pouring down through opened flood gates.
This is the sad reality of our times.
What happened to:
The second paragraph in the Declaration of Independence states
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Why this obsession about what people have between their legs?
Why this crap about security in bathrooms?
These seem to be demons that live in the psyche of very narrowminded people.
Scared people …. scared of what?
Vilify what you don’t know or understand.
I wonder about the demons/skeletons in their closet.
Today, HRC and Freedom Oklahoma, the state organization working to advance equality for LGBT Oklahomans, strongly condemned the introduction of a new anti-transgender bill in the Oklahoma State Legislature. The outrageous proposal would force schools to make accommodations for students who purport to have religious objections to sharing a sex-segregated space with transgender students. Going a step further, the legislation also strangely states that allowing students with religious objections to use a single-user facility is not an acceptable accommodation.
“To be clear, transgender young people are the ones being targeted. Legislators should be working to find solutions that ensure that they are safe and treated equally by their school, not stigmatized by the people elected to protect them,” said HRC Communications Director Jay Brown.
“Like so many of the anti-transgender bills we’re seeing, this is a solution in search of a problem that does not exist. School districts across this country have had policies in place for more than a decade with no safety problems at all. This does nothing more than demean transgender students and undermine their dignity.
If passed, Governor Fallin must veto this bill, which gambles with the lives and safety of young people.”
Despite claims to the contrary by anti-LGBT activists who have preyed on misinformation and ignorance, states with laws protecting transgender people’s access to public accommodations, including restrooms that accord with their gender identity, have seen no increase in public safety incidents.
Cities and states throughout the country have rejected similar attacks on the transgender community.
South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard vetoed legislation that limited restroom use for transgender children in public schools earlier this year, and the sponsor of a similar bill in Tennessee recently pulled the legislation from consideration. Additionally, after immense backlash, the City Council of Oxford, Ala. rescinded an anti-transgender ordinance that imposed jail time and a fine on violators of the law.
From North Carolina to Mississippi to Missouri to Tennessee, HRC has been actively fighting more than 200 anti-LGBT state bills that have been introduced this year. #NoHateInMyState
Isn’t it time to speak up about the outrageous, disgusting, bigoted, xenophobic, mysoginistic, hateful comments that come out of this man’s oral cavity?
Some may say: I love free speech. I also love ignore, mute and block.
This has gone on long enough.
America, beware … you may get what you wished for, what you deserve or what you don’t fight against.
Three weeks after a gunman massacred nine worshippers in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, the Confederate battle flag that has flown for decades at the state Capitol is gone.
The flag issue has ignited fierce passion on both sides, from those who say it honors Southern heritage and sacrifice and those who call it an ugly symbol of racism and slavery.
Members of a South Carolina Highway Patrol honor guard lowered the flag for the final time.
“In wake of the tragic massacre of nine members of the AME Emanuel Church in Charleston, Gov. Nikki Haley is calling for the removal of the Confederate flag which flies on the premises of the seat of our government.
It’s long overdue and a no-brainer that this divisive symbol has no place on Statehouse grounds.
Put it in a museum, put in in your backyard, put it on the back of your truck, but don’t let it fly on Statehouse grounds.
The Confederate flag is an anachronism — a thing that seems to belong in the past and not to fit in the present — and a contradiction in the direction South Carolina seeks to go.
This is an opportune time to capitalize on tragedy. It’s sad that it took such a horrific event to bring Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Lindsey Graham to this stark realization.
But “the arc of the moral universe is long but bends towards justice.”
It must be kept in mind that this is the removal of the flag from the state Capitol. There are many of them all over the South. There are decals on vehicles, there are personal flags, there are souvenirs … you name it.
This is an ingrained value, a feeling of “heritage” and pride in some people.
Maybe because they don’t know the real meaning behind it, maybe because they truly believe in white supremacy, maybe because they are racist, maybe because they are just plain mean.
This is a “step” …. the first step in a long journey.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao-tzu
I must confess that this Indiana/Hoosier topic doesn’t seem to want to leave my mind.
Why?
Because I believe in freedom and equality for all? Because I think I can determine what is right or wrong? Because I believe that this RFRA law signed by Gov. Pence is totally discriminatory? Because I believe this law, as originally signed, sets a precedent and opens the door for discrimination of many minority groups? Because I am a member of the LGBTQ community? Because bigotry, hate and discrimination are not supposed to be true American values?
Because I had high expectations of this country? Because I was taught the difference between right and wrong? Because I know the difference between real need and taking advantage? Because this smells fishy rather than pizza?
Because this says a lot to me about the business owners? Because this says even more about the people who are sending their hard-earned money to this fund?
You name it.
Lady, you don’t need to be sad for me. I know where I stand in my religious freedom and the beliefs that I hold dear. I know that my relationship with god is a good one for me.
Like Rosie explains below, I have a hard time imagining anyone (gay or straight) catering their wedding reception with pizza. There’s no need to worry your little head with this concern. It would never happen where people from my community are concerned. We are way too classy for that.
Get off your cloud … don’t consider yourself that lucky. Could anyone explain to me how these two thoughts go together:
“Her family ‘doesn’t hate gays’ but simply would not deliver pizzas to a gay wedding because of their religious beliefs.” Yet, they would serve them in the pizza place …. sure that’s where the profits come in.
I truly think those who have donated money have been taken for a ride.
Now nearly $800,000 richer, Indiana pizzeria co-owner is ‘sad, very sad’ for gays
Crystal O’Connor: ‘We have to accept them, and we just ask they accept us’
BY GREG HERNANDEZ
Flush with nearly $800,000 in donations from supporters, the owners of Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana, aren’t through talking about gay people.
‘God has blessed us for standing up for what we believe, and not denying Him,’ Crystal O’Connor tells Fox News.
She also said her family ‘doesn’t hate gays‘ but simply would not deliver pizzas to a gay wedding because of their religious beliefs.
The family was the first Indiana business to publicly state this after the state’s governor, Mike Pence, signed a ‘religiousfreedom‘ bill into law that would allow private businesses to do so.
Memories Pizza was so besieged by phone calls and online comments that they temporarily shut their doors. This resulted in a Go Fund Me campaign that as of Friday afternoon was closing in on $800,000.
Of the LGBTI community her family has offended O’Connor says:
‘All we can do is pray for them, and truly, we’re not really angry at them. We’re sad for them. Very sad.
‘We have to accept them, and we just ask they accept us.’
It’s OK to serve gays in restaurant, but a sin ‘if we cater their wedding’
~~Published on Apr 2, 2015~~
Indiana pizzeria owner speaks out against religious freedom backlash
A pizza restaurant in a small Indiana town has turned into a flashpoint in the national fight over religious freedom and gay marriage. Crystal O’Connor, one of the owners of the family-run Memories Pizza, told a local news outlet that, hypothetically, they would not cater gay weddings. They got quite a lot of social media trolling in response, as well as lots of threats.
As a result, they had to shut down. However, on Fox Business Network tonight, O’Connor told Neil Cavuto “we have decided that we will reopen again,” they’re just not sure when. They want to wait until the anger and threats subside.
O’Connor had said in the now-infamous local TV interview that they wouldn’t mind serving gay customers, just that they wouldn’t cater gay weddings. Cavuto asked her about why that’s the case. O’Connor explained:
“It is not a sin that we bring gays into our establishment and to serve them. It is a sin, though, if we cater their wedding. We feel we are participating, we are putting a stamp of approval on their wedding.”
She did emphasize that they “show no hatred” towards gay people and told Cavuto she just feels sad for all the people attacking them.
It Is What It Is 