This is the new normal. Where people destroy real persons in defense of a strawman that often doesn't exist in real life, and often for no other reason than to self aggrandize. Until we recognize this more wide spread, it'll just continue. Articles like this helps though, so thanks! Good read as usual.
Thanks. Yeah, it's definitely the new normal. This tendency to rip into anyone who disagrees or who has a different political persuasion regardless of their words or actions is not healthy.
This is a really great level headed piece. Its interesting how politics divides us as a people, the only people not divided? The people who run our country. I bet they have calm, polite dinners with each other behind closed doors laughing about how they run this country how every they want... and when somethings wrong, well just whip up a mob and divide the country again. Cant have another occupy wallstreet... you can occupy YOUR OWN streets and we dont care. If you do it to us though, a distraction will occur. Its like clockwork. You already see people NOT GETTING FUCKING MARRIED over political parties, or ejecting people from society itself for having differing opinions that if you look at them on paper are not anywhere near as different as people think? Fucking lunacy. They have us right where they want us, and we are enforcing it for them. How stupid are we.
Thank you! And great points about the powers-that-be. I definitely think that behind closed doors and out of the public eye there's a lot of that going on. I mean, the money speaks for itself. The sheer amount of money changing hands is insane.
This is a hard one, I don't think I could date anyone that voted for Trump. My girlfriend is fairly conservative and I'm pretty liberal. I'm liberal, and I might get flamed for this, but I think transgender is abnormal and I think it's only as big a thing now because of rich white dudes coming out as so, but I also want nothing but the best for them and just to live their lives in peace. I despise Trump and topically think that anyone that voted for him and then continued to support him after a time are either morons or not great people themselves. All of that said, in the same breath I hang out, watch movies, talk, play videogames, etc. with those aforementioned Trump supporters and think they're for the most part fine people and quite enjoy cutting up with them. The world is a messy place and finding some commonality, in this case the love of videogames, is the most human thing we should strive for.
mitch mcconnell and trump are literal traitors to this country and anyone who is voluntarily and knowingly giving money directly to them should not be accepted in any facet of society
I basically despise both these men but I don't like it when I hear conservatives say shit like "if you don't love America leave it" so I won't engage in the reverse and tell Republicans that they're traitors for supporting politicians I detest either.
You're absolutely fine in your thought process. Maybe people are just that blind to think they achieve something when in the end nothing was achieved at all.
I support eriks message here. Not everything but i agree that scott being cancelled is stupid. Let the guy have his beliefs. It's a free country. And before anyone says I'm a bigot I'm a bi adhd autistic arab. The amount of times i disagreed with fellow lgbtq/arab/disabled people is numerous. Minorities and non Minorities are not monoliths
Just what our community needs. Another hot take from a cishet caucasian male regarding the politics of another cishet caucasian male.
"Donald Trump was far from an ideal candidate when it came to LGBTQ issues, but beyond a single policy decision—banning trans service members in the military...he was mostly silent or had positive things to say about gay people who... As far as I can tell, Trump bears no ill will toward the LGBTQ community..."
Really?! Pretty easy for a cishet male cauc to say. You have no idea what it was like to live as LGBTQIA under that administration, or, God forbid as a Black member of our community.
We have every right, really a responsibility, to cancel and boycott anyone who is a direct threat, or funds and supports those who are a direct threat to our community. Yeah, doxxing is fucked and I absolutely despise that behavior, but I'm having a hard time finding sympathy for him. My entire family was--and continues to be--relentlessly stalked, harassed, and threatened by a trump-supporting proud boy neighbor. Despite scads of evidence, the police continue to do nothing, our landlord actually sides with the neighbor... nobody cares. Dude even pulled a gun on the police while heavily intoxicated but let him get away with it because they "support second amendment rights." He called the Mexican cop "n***er" with a hard r as he was leaving. "Freedom of speech." This was all recorded, mind you. Nearly every threat, every instance of hate speech has been thoroughly documented and recorded. Every single agency we contacted said there was nothing they could do... until Biden took office. Two weeks after his inauguration HUD and other federal agencies finally contacted us because Biden escalated all cases regarding racism, anti LGBTQIA, and disability discrimination. Cases that the trump admin refused to take. This case involves a small child who was 4 when all of this started, mind you.
In case you forgot, these things happened, and I can tell you they made and continue to make my life a living hell.
Trump only banned transgender military members? That was it?
What about:
Opposition to the Equality Act
Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ judges with alarming anti-LGBTQ records, including anti-equality Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh
In 2017, Trump joked about Vice President Pence’s anti-gay agenda saying “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”
Supported employment discrimination against LGBTQ people
Banned transgender service members from the military
Trump’s Department of Justice upended previous DOJ interpretations of the Civil Rights Act that protect transgender and non-binary workers from employment discrimination and ceased enforcing non-discrimination protections as well as taking a hostile stance to LGBTQ workers in court.
Trump’s Department of Labor issued a regulation designed to allow federal contractors to claim a religious exemption to fire LGBTQ workers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Department of Defense instituted a “Deploy or Get Out” policy, which would remove military personnel living with HIV from service solely because of their status.
Created a hostile work environment for LGBTQ federal employees: According to Politico: “[The Trump administration] fostered a climate where six staffers who are LGBT described removing their wedding rings before coming to work in the morning, taking down photos of their partners and families or ultimately finding new jobs further away from certain political appointees. They did not want to be identified; two said they feared being reassigned for being gay.”
Undermined Section 1557 Rule: HHS published a proposed major change to the administrative rule interpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to remove explicit protections for LGBTQ people in healthcare programs and activities by excluding LGBTQ people from protections from discrimination based on sex stereotyping and gender identity.
The Justice Department issued a legal filing arguing that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act should be overturned. This move would jeopardize health care for over 130 million people with preexisting conditions like HIV and eliminate non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people.
HHS created a new office whose sole purpose would be to defend physicians and other medical professionals who decide to refuse care, including to LGBTQ patients.
In his proposed FY 2019 budget, Trump cut $1.35 billion from, or 29% of PEPFAR’s budget. PEPFAR is the U.S. government program that fights AIDS abroad.
The Departments of Education and Justice eliminated Obama-era guidance clarifying that schools must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity. This encourages schools officials to permit harassment of transgender students, deny access to facilities consistent with gender identity, and refuse to use correct names and pronouns -- all inflicting untold emotional harm.
The Department of Education refused to respond to civil complaints filed by transgender students, including those who were barred from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. This increases the burden for transgender students to combat these harmful policies.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has refused to rule out federal funding for schools that discriminate against LGBTQ students and has declined to state she would otherwise intervene should discrimination occur.
DeVos rescinded Title IX rules related to schools’ obligations to address sexual harassment, including sexual violence. By eliminating the Obama-era rules, DeVos increased the standard of proof from “preponderance of the evidence” to “clear and convincing evidence” making it more difficult for survivors of sexual assault to obtain justice. LGBTQ people are disproportionately affected by sexual assault and harassment, and the stigma that many LGBTQ people face can make it more difficult for survivors to report.
The Trump-Pence Administration ordered 4-H programs to remove a policy specifically welcoming LGBTQ children in the 4-H program, which led to the firing of an official who protested.
the Department of Education claimed that school policies allowing trans youth to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity violated federal law and threatened to withhold funds.
Despite the fact that LGBTQ people are significantly more likely to experience homelessness in their lives, HUD Secretary Ben Carson has proposed a rule to permit emergency shelters to deny access or otherwise discriminate against transgender and gender nonconforming peoplewho are homeless. HUD also canceled a scheduled survey on LGBTQ homelessness.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) rolled back an Obama-era policy that housed transgender prisoners consistent with their gender identity. With transgender people experiencing sexual assault at higher rates than average, this decision only puts them at further risk of assault.
Trump-Pence White House has proposed a federal regulation that would strip away nondiscrimination requirements and permit all Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant recipients, notably adoption and foster care agencies, to discriminate against LGBTQ people, and in many circumstances religious minorities and women, and still receive federal funding.
The State Department began refusing visas for same-sex partners of some diplomats and U.N. workers if they are not married.
The Trump Administration has interpreted immigration rules specifically so the child of a same-sex couple born abroad via surrogate would be considered "born out of wedlock" and making it more difficult to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Trump’s HHS proposed a new definition that would narrowly define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by birth. According to the New York Times: “The new definition would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million [transgender] Americans.” In addition, agency staff, including those at the Centers for Disease Control, have been instructed to stop using the word transgender in official reports.
Within hours of Trump’s swearing-in, pages on LGBTQ rights and recognition were removed from government websites, including the White House.
Trump and Pence have sought to block questions on sexual orientation from the census in order to erase LGBTQ people from official counts. This would, in turn, prevent the collection of crucial data that could help improve government programs and resources for LGBTQ people.
Despite being the community most affected by the epidemic, Vice President Pence has consistently refused to acknowledge LGBTQ people in his addresses on National AIDS day
Trump issued an executive order to create further obstacles for all people seeking to enter the U.S., preventing refugees from escaping some of the most anti-LGBTQ regimes in the world.
Pence defended the State Department directive to ban U.S. embassies across the world from flying the LGBTQ Pride Flag during Pride Month.
Trump and Pence, over LGBTQ and other issues, removed the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Trump and Pence refused to condemn attacks on LGBTQ people in Chechnya, where atrocities against queer people are horrific and ongoing.
The Trump-Pence admin refused to condemn a Brunei law that imposes barbaric punishments on LGBTQ, including death by stoning, torture and whipping.
You might actually find people to engage with you and empathize with you regarding your shitty proud boy neighbor if you didn't open with a sexist, racist, bigoted statement about my race, gender and sexual preference. Crazy thought, but fighting for tolerance and equality will never work if you do it by insulting people based on those factors. Who cares if I'm white, cis or hetero? If you want to be treated equally you need to stop looking at peoples' race/gender/sexual orientation and treat people equally. Crazy, I know. But here we are.
It's not the fucking 90's we're not doing the "I don't see [race|religion|orientation|gender]" shit any more. This person wrote a comment that's longer than your entire article and the only thing you took away from it was "they called me white!"
Oh you think I read past the first sentence? No, you see I don't read people's bullshit when they open with crap like that. You are also welcome to kindly fuck off and go stroke your ego somewhere else.
...one of those. Or maybe somewhere else. It's been around for a few years, so take your pick.
In any case, I'm SURE you've read the whole thing, seeing as your distillation of it in reference to Mr. Kain's response is so very nuanced and doesn't miss the point AT ALL.
This is the new normal. Where people destroy real persons in defense of a strawman that often doesn't exist in real life, and often for no other reason than to self aggrandize. Until we recognize this more wide spread, it'll just continue. Articles like this helps though, so thanks! Good read as usual.
Thanks. Yeah, it's definitely the new normal. This tendency to rip into anyone who disagrees or who has a different political persuasion regardless of their words or actions is not healthy.
This is a really great level headed piece. Its interesting how politics divides us as a people, the only people not divided? The people who run our country. I bet they have calm, polite dinners with each other behind closed doors laughing about how they run this country how every they want... and when somethings wrong, well just whip up a mob and divide the country again. Cant have another occupy wallstreet... you can occupy YOUR OWN streets and we dont care. If you do it to us though, a distraction will occur. Its like clockwork. You already see people NOT GETTING FUCKING MARRIED over political parties, or ejecting people from society itself for having differing opinions that if you look at them on paper are not anywhere near as different as people think? Fucking lunacy. They have us right where they want us, and we are enforcing it for them. How stupid are we.
Thank you! And great points about the powers-that-be. I definitely think that behind closed doors and out of the public eye there's a lot of that going on. I mean, the money speaks for itself. The sheer amount of money changing hands is insane.
Good piece Erik, I wish there were more people on both "sides" who were as open-minded and accepting.
Thanks!
This is a hard one, I don't think I could date anyone that voted for Trump. My girlfriend is fairly conservative and I'm pretty liberal. I'm liberal, and I might get flamed for this, but I think transgender is abnormal and I think it's only as big a thing now because of rich white dudes coming out as so, but I also want nothing but the best for them and just to live their lives in peace. I despise Trump and topically think that anyone that voted for him and then continued to support him after a time are either morons or not great people themselves. All of that said, in the same breath I hang out, watch movies, talk, play videogames, etc. with those aforementioned Trump supporters and think they're for the most part fine people and quite enjoy cutting up with them. The world is a messy place and finding some commonality, in this case the love of videogames, is the most human thing we should strive for.
Very well put Michael. I'm right there with you.
mitch mcconnell and trump are literal traitors to this country and anyone who is voluntarily and knowingly giving money directly to them should not be accepted in any facet of society
I basically despise both these men but I don't like it when I hear conservatives say shit like "if you don't love America leave it" so I won't engage in the reverse and tell Republicans that they're traitors for supporting politicians I detest either.
You're absolutely fine in your thought process. Maybe people are just that blind to think they achieve something when in the end nothing was achieved at all.
I support eriks message here. Not everything but i agree that scott being cancelled is stupid. Let the guy have his beliefs. It's a free country. And before anyone says I'm a bigot I'm a bi adhd autistic arab. The amount of times i disagreed with fellow lgbtq/arab/disabled people is numerous. Minorities and non Minorities are not monoliths
Just what our community needs. Another hot take from a cishet caucasian male regarding the politics of another cishet caucasian male.
"Donald Trump was far from an ideal candidate when it came to LGBTQ issues, but beyond a single policy decision—banning trans service members in the military...he was mostly silent or had positive things to say about gay people who... As far as I can tell, Trump bears no ill will toward the LGBTQ community..."
Really?! Pretty easy for a cishet male cauc to say. You have no idea what it was like to live as LGBTQIA under that administration, or, God forbid as a Black member of our community.
We have every right, really a responsibility, to cancel and boycott anyone who is a direct threat, or funds and supports those who are a direct threat to our community. Yeah, doxxing is fucked and I absolutely despise that behavior, but I'm having a hard time finding sympathy for him. My entire family was--and continues to be--relentlessly stalked, harassed, and threatened by a trump-supporting proud boy neighbor. Despite scads of evidence, the police continue to do nothing, our landlord actually sides with the neighbor... nobody cares. Dude even pulled a gun on the police while heavily intoxicated but let him get away with it because they "support second amendment rights." He called the Mexican cop "n***er" with a hard r as he was leaving. "Freedom of speech." This was all recorded, mind you. Nearly every threat, every instance of hate speech has been thoroughly documented and recorded. Every single agency we contacted said there was nothing they could do... until Biden took office. Two weeks after his inauguration HUD and other federal agencies finally contacted us because Biden escalated all cases regarding racism, anti LGBTQIA, and disability discrimination. Cases that the trump admin refused to take. This case involves a small child who was 4 when all of this started, mind you.
In case you forgot, these things happened, and I can tell you they made and continue to make my life a living hell.
Trump only banned transgender military members? That was it?
What about:
Opposition to the Equality Act
Trump appointed anti-LGBTQ judges with alarming anti-LGBTQ records, including anti-equality Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh
In 2017, Trump joked about Vice President Pence’s anti-gay agenda saying “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”
Supported employment discrimination against LGBTQ people
Banned transgender service members from the military
Trump’s Department of Justice upended previous DOJ interpretations of the Civil Rights Act that protect transgender and non-binary workers from employment discrimination and ceased enforcing non-discrimination protections as well as taking a hostile stance to LGBTQ workers in court.
Trump’s Department of Labor issued a regulation designed to allow federal contractors to claim a religious exemption to fire LGBTQ workers because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Department of Defense instituted a “Deploy or Get Out” policy, which would remove military personnel living with HIV from service solely because of their status.
Created a hostile work environment for LGBTQ federal employees: According to Politico: “[The Trump administration] fostered a climate where six staffers who are LGBT described removing their wedding rings before coming to work in the morning, taking down photos of their partners and families or ultimately finding new jobs further away from certain political appointees. They did not want to be identified; two said they feared being reassigned for being gay.”
Undermined Section 1557 Rule: HHS published a proposed major change to the administrative rule interpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to remove explicit protections for LGBTQ people in healthcare programs and activities by excluding LGBTQ people from protections from discrimination based on sex stereotyping and gender identity.
The Justice Department issued a legal filing arguing that the entirety of the Affordable Care Act should be overturned. This move would jeopardize health care for over 130 million people with preexisting conditions like HIV and eliminate non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people.
HHS created a new office whose sole purpose would be to defend physicians and other medical professionals who decide to refuse care, including to LGBTQ patients.
In his proposed FY 2019 budget, Trump cut $1.35 billion from, or 29% of PEPFAR’s budget. PEPFAR is the U.S. government program that fights AIDS abroad.
The Departments of Education and Justice eliminated Obama-era guidance clarifying that schools must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity. This encourages schools officials to permit harassment of transgender students, deny access to facilities consistent with gender identity, and refuse to use correct names and pronouns -- all inflicting untold emotional harm.
The Department of Education refused to respond to civil complaints filed by transgender students, including those who were barred from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. This increases the burden for transgender students to combat these harmful policies.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has refused to rule out federal funding for schools that discriminate against LGBTQ students and has declined to state she would otherwise intervene should discrimination occur.
DeVos rescinded Title IX rules related to schools’ obligations to address sexual harassment, including sexual violence. By eliminating the Obama-era rules, DeVos increased the standard of proof from “preponderance of the evidence” to “clear and convincing evidence” making it more difficult for survivors of sexual assault to obtain justice. LGBTQ people are disproportionately affected by sexual assault and harassment, and the stigma that many LGBTQ people face can make it more difficult for survivors to report.
The Trump-Pence Administration ordered 4-H programs to remove a policy specifically welcoming LGBTQ children in the 4-H program, which led to the firing of an official who protested.
the Department of Education claimed that school policies allowing trans youth to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity violated federal law and threatened to withhold funds.
Despite the fact that LGBTQ people are significantly more likely to experience homelessness in their lives, HUD Secretary Ben Carson has proposed a rule to permit emergency shelters to deny access or otherwise discriminate against transgender and gender nonconforming peoplewho are homeless. HUD also canceled a scheduled survey on LGBTQ homelessness.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) rolled back an Obama-era policy that housed transgender prisoners consistent with their gender identity. With transgender people experiencing sexual assault at higher rates than average, this decision only puts them at further risk of assault.
Trump-Pence White House has proposed a federal regulation that would strip away nondiscrimination requirements and permit all Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grant recipients, notably adoption and foster care agencies, to discriminate against LGBTQ people, and in many circumstances religious minorities and women, and still receive federal funding.
The State Department began refusing visas for same-sex partners of some diplomats and U.N. workers if they are not married.
The Trump Administration has interpreted immigration rules specifically so the child of a same-sex couple born abroad via surrogate would be considered "born out of wedlock" and making it more difficult to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Trump’s HHS proposed a new definition that would narrowly define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by birth. According to the New York Times: “The new definition would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million [transgender] Americans.” In addition, agency staff, including those at the Centers for Disease Control, have been instructed to stop using the word transgender in official reports.
Within hours of Trump’s swearing-in, pages on LGBTQ rights and recognition were removed from government websites, including the White House.
Trump and Pence have sought to block questions on sexual orientation from the census in order to erase LGBTQ people from official counts. This would, in turn, prevent the collection of crucial data that could help improve government programs and resources for LGBTQ people.
Despite being the community most affected by the epidemic, Vice President Pence has consistently refused to acknowledge LGBTQ people in his addresses on National AIDS day
Trump issued an executive order to create further obstacles for all people seeking to enter the U.S., preventing refugees from escaping some of the most anti-LGBTQ regimes in the world.
Pence defended the State Department directive to ban U.S. embassies across the world from flying the LGBTQ Pride Flag during Pride Month.
Trump and Pence, over LGBTQ and other issues, removed the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Trump and Pence refused to condemn attacks on LGBTQ people in Chechnya, where atrocities against queer people are horrific and ongoing.
The Trump-Pence admin refused to condemn a Brunei law that imposes barbaric punishments on LGBTQ, including death by stoning, torture and whipping.
You might actually find people to engage with you and empathize with you regarding your shitty proud boy neighbor if you didn't open with a sexist, racist, bigoted statement about my race, gender and sexual preference. Crazy thought, but fighting for tolerance and equality will never work if you do it by insulting people based on those factors. Who cares if I'm white, cis or hetero? If you want to be treated equally you need to stop looking at peoples' race/gender/sexual orientation and treat people equally. Crazy, I know. But here we are.
It's not the fucking 90's we're not doing the "I don't see [race|religion|orientation|gender]" shit any more. This person wrote a comment that's longer than your entire article and the only thing you took away from it was "they called me white!"
You're pathetic.
Also if it's not obvious to you that this person did not actually write this blatant bit of copy/paste then I can't help you.
Oh you think I read past the first sentence? No, you see I don't read people's bullshit when they open with crap like that. You are also welcome to kindly fuck off and go stroke your ego somewhere else.
It's not the length of the comment, baby, it's what you do with it. In this case, that means copying and pasting it from here:
https://thelchat.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=75478&start=70
...or maybe it was here:
https://pkkid.wordpress.com/2020/07/
...or possibly here:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/herschell-walkers-gay-son-is-anti-blm-and-pro-trump.4131433/page-4
...or maybe here?:
https://proudqueer.com/news/item/5d0bece498182970ee128e56
...one of those. Or maybe somewhere else. It's been around for a few years, so take your pick.
In any case, I'm SURE you've read the whole thing, seeing as your distillation of it in reference to Mr. Kain's response is so very nuanced and doesn't miss the point AT ALL.
You lost me at your first paragraph. You know, the condescending one.
Lot to digest here. Not sure why you keep saying voting when the guy actually donated thousands. Anyway, this reminds of King’s criticism of the white liberal. You’d do well to read that speech. http://www.uumidland.org/blog/martin-luther-king-jrs-challenge-to-the-white-liberal/