Alabama Town Criminalizes Bathroom Use By Trans People

April 27, 2016 By Michael Stone

Transgender people using a public bathroom in Oxford, Alabama now face a $500 fine and six months in jail.

Tuesday the city council of Oxford, Alabama voted unanimously to criminalize the use of public restrooms by transgender citizens. The new law restricts a person’s use of public bathrooms and changing rooms to the facilities designated for use by those of the gender listed on his or her birth certificate.

The new law applies within both the city’s limits and police jurisdiction. Violations can result in a $500 fine or six months in jail.

Oxford City Council President Steven Waits said in a statement that the ordinance came in response to Target’s new restroom and changing room policies. Target has a store in the Oxford Exchange shopping center.

Recently conservative Christians have worked themselves into a lather over Target stores’ decision to allow transgender customers to use restrooms designated for their expressed gender.

In a statement issued last week Target said transgender people should use whichever restroom or fitting room matches their gender identity, saying inclusivity is a “core belief at Target.”

In response to the humane statement, paranoid conservative Christians launched a #BoycottTarget campaign on social media.

In a statement condemning the new anti-trans ordinance in Oxford, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) notes:

This anti-transgender law is unprecedented in its establishment of criminal penalties for violations of the law, and raises a myriad of privacy and legal concerns, including questions about how the law will be enforced. There is no clarity on whether all people in Oxford will be expected to produce birth certificates when using public facilities or, if not, how law enforcement officials will obtain evidence.

HRC Alabama State Manager Eva Walton Kendrick said:

This ordinance is a shameful and vile attack on the rights and privacy of transgender people. Transgender people are our neighbors, our coworkers and our fellow churchgoers, and every Alabamian has the right to live their lives without fear of discrimination and prejudice.

Kendrick is correct. The new law in Oxford is a shameful and vile attack on transgender people. The law plays on the discredited and malicious myth that transgender people using public bathrooms pose some sort of threat. However, the facts show that transgender people using public bathrooms do not pose a threat to others.

Yet despite the facts, the myth continues. Earlier this week a notorious conservative Christian lawyer threatened transgender bathroom users with gun violence. Anita Staver, president of the theocratic law group The Liberty Counsel, issued a thinly veiled death threat to transgender people via Twitter. Staver said she will carry a gun to Target so she can shoot transgender bathroom users.

However, there is no justification for the transgender bathroom hysteria exhibited by Staver and other conservative Christians. A recent report issued by Media Matters cites experts from twelve states – including law enforcement officials, state human rights workers, and sexual assault victims advocates – who debunk the myth that transgender non-discrimination laws and policies have any relation to incidents of sexual assault or harassment in public restrooms.

In fact, if one is concerned about public bathroom safety, it is Republican politicians, and not transgender people, that are most likely to be engaged in sexual misconduct. Multiple reports indicate that no transgender individual has ever been arrested for sexual misconduct in a public bathroom, while at least three Republican lawmakers have been arrested for sexual misconduct in a public restroom.

Bottom line: The new law in Oxford, Alabama that will punish transgender people for using a public bathroom with a fine and jail time is yet another example of the transgender bathroom hysteria that is sweeping the nation, a hysteria fueled by the ignorance and bigotry of conservative Christians.

Christian Lawyer Issues Death Threat To Trans Bathroom Users At Target

April 25, 2016 By Michael Stone

A notorious conservative Christian lawyer threatens transgender bathroom users with gun violence.

Anita Staver, president of the theocratic law group The Liberty Counsel, issued a thinly veiled death threat to transgender people via Twitter. Staver says she will carry a gun to Target so she can shoot transgender bathroom users:

I’m taking a Glock .45 to the ladies room. It identifies as my bodyguard. #BoycottTarget @Target

— Liberty Lawyer (@AnitaStaver) April 22, 2016

(I’m taking a Glock .45 to the ladies room. It identifies as my bodyguard. #BoycottTarget @Target)

Staver’s tweet is dangerous, and has the effect of encouraging and legitimizing violence against transgender individuals.

Staver’s Liberty Counsel is a Christian hate group that represented Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who went to jail because she refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Anita Staver, Liberty Counsel’s president, is married to Mat Staver, head of the legal team that defended Davis in her effort to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

Recently conservative Christian activists like the Stavers have worked themselves into a lather over Target stores’ decision to allow transgender customers to use restrooms designated for their expressed gender.

In a statement issued last week Target said transgender people should use whichever restroom or fitting room matches their gender identity, saying inclusivity is a “core belief at Target.”

In response to the humane statement, paranoid Christians launched a #BoycottTarget campaign on social media.

Staver’s tweet threatening transgender bathroom users with gun violence is just another example of the irrational backlash against Target’s humane bathroom policy in particular, and transgender rights in general.

Yet despite protests from paranoid Christian to the contrary, the facts show that it is a myth that transgender people pose a danger in public bathrooms, a myth promoted by conservative Christians who hate what they don’t understand.

In fact, if one is concerned about public bathroom safety, reports indicate that it is Republican politicians, and not transgender people, that are most likely to be engaged in sexual misconduct in a public restroom.

Bottom line: Anita Staver is a dangerous Christian bigot. And her thinly veiled death threat against transgender people using the bathroom at Target is yet another example of the transgender bathroom hysteria sweeping the nation.

(H/T Raw Story, Joe. My. God.)

DeVos Celebrates Father’s Day With Christian Hate Groups

June 16, 2017 By Michael Stone

Betsy DeVos officially celebrated Father’s Day at the Education Department by inviting two notorious anti-LGBT Christian hate groups to a “Fathers and Family” event.

BuzzFeed News reports:

The Education Department Quietly Invited Anti-LGBT Groups To A Father’s Day Event

Noting:

The move prompted the National Parent Teacher Association to pull out of the daylong “Engaging Fathers and Families” event.

Think Progress reports:

The Education Department included anti-LGBTQ groups in a conference on family engagement on Thursday, which caused the National Parent Teacher Association to pull out of the event.

Politico reports the Education Department’s “Fathers and Family” event held Thursday was a daylong conference to “convene a range of education, community and faith-based organizations to discuss family engagement. Representatives from the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family are among the speakers listed for the event, which is being held ahead of Father’s Day on Sunday.”

LGBTQ Nation also reports on the story, and offers some background on the two Christian hate groups invited to attend the official Education Department event:

… the Family Research Council, founded by notorious homophobe Tony Perkins and flagged as an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Focus on the Family, which is a proponent of “ex-gay,” or conversion therapy — a controversial practice that claims to change a gay or transgender person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and one that is banned in nine states and three cities.

The Focus on the Family group also promotes creationism, school prayer and traditional male/female gender roles…

Both groups are hideous. Previously, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins was publicly shamed on CBS when Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer correctly identified Perkins as the leader of “an anti-gay hate group.”

And last year, during the height of the transgender bathroom hysteria, James Dobson, Focus on the Family founder, said that transgender people using public restrooms should be shot.

However, the fact that DeVos is happy to welcome Christian hate groups to an official Education Department function celebrating Father’s Day should come as no surprise. A billionaire with a love for Jesus, DeVos has made it clear that she is willing to destroy public education and use taxpayer dollars to support private religious schools in order to promote her dreams of a Christian theocracy.

Case in point: The new education budget from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos would drastically cut public education while funneling hundreds of millions of tax dollars into private religious schools.

In fact, Betsy DeVos is a radical Christian extremist who wants to use American schools to advance “God’s kingdom.” She wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund private Christian schools, and she has no problem with private schools using taxpayer money to discriminate against gays and anyone else who offends the sensibilities of conservative Christians.

Bottom line: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has no interest in supporting or protecting LGBT students. In fact, she is happy to support and give voice to Christian hate groups that would discriminate against and harm LGBT students if given the chance.

DeVos Celebrates Father’s Day With Christian Hate Groups (Image via Gage Skidmore)

Watch: Angry Christian Assaults Trans Woman On NYC Train

May 4, 2016 By Michael Stone

An angry Christian verbally and physically assaults a transgender woman on a NYC train.

In a disturbing video a trans woman named Pearl Love is attacked by a woman wearing a Christian cross. The as-yet-unidentified woman hurled transphobic, homophobic, and racist slurs at Love before physically attacking her.

The following is a partial transcript of the verbal attack:

… Do you do this on the weekends or is this an everyday event for you? Like, you sit up and get on the train everyday, like, “What do people think about me?” one day, and then you cut all your shit off, put your extensions back in, and go back to work, like… who are you really under all that makeup? Where’d you come from? Are you the emperor of China? Or, like, how are we supposed to act with you? What should we do about you? ‘Cause this shit right here ain’t appropriate for my child. I’m sorry, I don’t give a fuck. I don’t give a fuck. I’ll fight you right now. I don’t even feel comfortable with you, motherfucker…

Love captured the assault on her phone while riding the subway last week and released the video on both her Facebook and YouTube account.

Describing her unfortunate encounter Love writes:

Hi. Everyone, it’s Pearl:

I am an outreach social worker for Trans Latina network and an Asian transgender individual. Today is 4.28.16 Thursday. I work in big event for the center – the 8th annual immigration fare & culture event. Between 4:30-4:45 pm. I was on 6 train from Bronx to the LGBT center to work , when I change 6 train to 4 express train in 125 st station an unknown woman sitting across me starter to verbally abuse me. Make lot of shit comments about how much she hate Trans people and want me to suck her dick. She also made racist comments. I ignored her and kept reading my book. When the train got to 86 st she start getting so loud and crazy yelling at me so I started to record her on my phone… she start getting even louder and start assault me and hit me. As you can see it’s definitely a hate crime. She attacked me inside the train . When I retreated she threw all my stuff on the floor and chased me around the train and say she is going to find a stick to hit me. It was a crowded train and everyone heard it but no one helped me. Guys acting like nothing happened. For 5 min. Then when the train stop on 42 st. She got out of train but keep yelling at me, I recorded 4 videos around 3.5 min. Thanks to an older guy who helped me pick my stuff up and put it back my bag, and said sorry to me…

The story is heartbreaking. Love continues:

So now you can understand what’s happening in my everyday life. That happens all the time. But it’s my first time recording it.

Love told Gawker that she did not contact the police because she didn’t sustain serious injury and she wasn’t even sure which precinct to report this incident to. She says she has a meeting set up with the Anti-Violence Project and is waiting to talk to them before deciding what to do with the other footage she shot that afternoon—footage that she says shows her being chased and hit by the woman in the video.

As the video shows, the woman attacking Love is a vile and despicable human being, and the fact that so many on the train watched this injustice and did nothing is a sad reflection on urban culture and human nature.

Bottom line: While some may argue that most Christians would not verbally and physically assault a transgender individual, there can be no doubt that the transgender bathroom hysteria manufactured by conservative Christian hate groups is making life much harder and much more dangerous for transgender people.

Watch the NSFW video below –

https://youtu.be/WuZJ-FJDV8Y

Conservatives Worry Flesh-Eating Robots Will Consume Christians

March 24, 2017 By Michael Stone

Paranoid for Jesus: Gullible Christian conservatives worry the military is developing an army of flesh-eating robots.

Right Wing Watch reports Rick Wiles, host of the popular Christian radio program “End Times,” is warning fellow Christians that flesh-eating robots will consume those that “do not conform to the requirements of this new society.”

Right Wing Watch reports Wiles and his guest “spent nearly two hours discussing the existence of giants, the prevalence of cannibalism and the looming Tribulation,” noting:

Wiles cited a 2009 Wired magazine article that reported that a company was working on developing robots that could refuel themselves by ingesting biomass from the environment. Despite the fact that the company itself stated that the robots would rely on plant matter, Wiles remains convinced that they will in fact fuel themselves by feasting on human flesh.

On the program Wiles warned:

Our military is developing an army of human flesh-eating robots. If you do not conform to the requirements of this new society, they’re going to send a robot to your house to eat you for lunch. That may sound extremely radical, but that’s where they’re taking it. They will reduce the human population. You will conform!

At one point in the program Wiles declared:

The hatred of Christians will become so great in the Last Days that people will be encouraged to kill and eat them.

Wiles is no stranger to crazy Christian conspiracy theories from the lunatic fringe. Last year Wiles argued that Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered by President Barack Obama as a human sacrifice to mark the pagan festival of Lupercalia.

Also last year, Wiles went on his radio program to lament the Obama administration’s directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.

Wiles even went so far as to claim that Obama’s humane decision concerning transgender students would lead to civil war, making the outrageous claim that President Obama (and Satan) intend to “rape your children.”

Referring to the Obama administration as “the command center of the Obama homosexual revolution,” Wiles predicted that most parents and school officials would “cave” and “sacrifice their children at the altar of sexual perversion,” while those good Christians who protested would be “beaten in the streets with batons” and “hosed down with firehoses.”

No word on when the army will be rolling out those Christian eating robots.

Listen to the discussion below –

Rick Wiles warns of "flesh-eating robots" (Image via YouTube) — Rick Wiles warns of “flesh-eating robots” (Image via YouTube)

Sandy Rios Fantasizes About Hillary Clinton Being A Lesbian

May 18, 2016 By Michael Stone

Christian extremist Sandy Rios fantasizes about Hillary Clinton being a lesbian.

Sandy Rios, Fox News contributor and Director of Governmental Affairs for the American Family Association, told her listeners that they must vote for Trump, and unite to stop Hillary Clinton, because Hillary Clinton is probably a lesbian.

Suggesting that the former Secretary of State is a lesbian, Rios opined:

Hillary Clinton embraces every sexual deviancy you can imagine. There have been more than rumors swirling about her own sexual proclivities since before she became first lady.

She’s an advocate of gay marriage, and I mean a strong advocate,” she said. “She’s been endorsed by every radical homosexual activist group in the country, all the major ones, Human Rights Campaign and others, especially in New York. She gets that endorsement for a reason, you know, she gets it for a reason.

Rios also praised Trump for coming out against marriage equality, claiming that it was a “gutsy” thing to do for someone who lives in New York.

This is not the first time Rios has fantasized about Clinton being a lesbian. Last April Rios discussed the possibility, noting:

Please keep in mind that Hillary Clinton was one of the first public officials to push this whole notion of embracing homosexuality. I would never forget my own personal shock in the late ‘90s when there was a women’s conference in Beijing and Hillary Clinton was in charge and they brought in women from all over the world at this UN conference, and the emphasis for the American delegation under Hillary’s tutelage was on lesbianism.

And after Clinton publicly announced her support for same-sex marriage in 2013, Rios claimed that the former U.S. Senator had a “love of homosexuality.”

Rios’ group, the American Family Association, is a Christian hate group that promotes propaganda and hate speech against LGBT people while pretending to protect children.

Earlier this month Rios made the news after being caught sending men into women’s bathrooms in a failed attempt to sabotage Target’s transgender-inclusive restroom policy.

Bottom line: Hillary Clinton’s sexuality should not be a campaign issue. The fact that Sandy Rios insists on fantasizing about Clinton’s sex life says more about Sandy Rios than it does about Hillary Clinton.

(H/T Right Wing Watch)

Christian Activists ‘Test’ Target By Sending Men Into Women’s Rooms

May 2, 2016 By Michael Stone

Creating a problem where none exists, Christian activists send men into women’s bathrooms in an attempt to sabotage Target’s transgender-inclusive restroom policy.

Right Wing Watch reports Christian activists associated with The American Family Association have been “testing” Target’s transgender-inclusive policy by sending men into women’s restrooms.

In a recent interview with “Breitbart News Daily,” Sandy Rios, Director of Governmental Affairs for the American Family Association, spoke out against Target’s transgender-inclusive bathroom policy.

Rios’ group, the American Family Association, is a Christian hate group that promotes propaganda and hate speech against LGBT people while pretending to protect children.

More than one million people have signed a petition sponsored by the American Family Association promising to boycott Target because of its new transgender-inclusive bathroom policy.

After Stephen Bannon, the program’s host, claimed that rather than being inclusive, Target is “trying to exclude people who are decent, hard-working people who don’t want their four-year-old daughter to have to go into a bathroom with a guy with a beard in a dress;” Rios replied:

I think there’s no question that when you say that there are no barriers in the bathroom, and that if men or women feel like they are men or women, the opposition of however they are equipped, and you have no restrictions, the net effect will be that people will not be stopped. We’ve already had people testing this, going into Targets and men trying to go into bathrooms. There is absolutely no barrier.

Rios continued:

And so the chief concern, even more than just, I think, trauma, certainly for little girls of having men dressed like women coming in their bathrooms, the chief concern of the American Family Association is the predators who will take advantage.

Writing at Danthropology, Dan Arel comments on the story:

Odd, it seems the only perverts “taking advantage” of this law are the American Family Association activists who are breaking the law and entering bathrooms of their opposite gender to cause a disturbance. They are the only ones violating these little girls they are so concerned with.

Arel is correct. The only perverts in this scenario is Rios’ band of male Christian activists harassing women trying to use the restroom at Target.

Ostensibly, Rios and her Christian hate group claims to protect “women and children,” but in reality they are a thinly veiled expression of Christian bigotry and hatred towards the transgender community.

Bottom line: Sending Christian men into women’s restrooms to harass and intimidate Target customers is despicable, and reflects the ultimate immorality of Rios and the American Family Association.

(H/T Right Wing Watch, Danthropology)