Today on Wednesday, the second to last day of the General Assembly. The Kentucky legislature has overridden Democratic Governor’s Andy Beshear’s veto and has passed into law the most heinous Don’t Say Gay/Anti-Trans laws in the country.
The Senate passed the measure first 29-8. It then went straight to the House, where protesters disrupted chambers by breaking out in chants.
The legislation in Kentucky is part of a national movement, with Republican state lawmakers approving extensive measures that restrict the rights of LGBT+ people this year — from bills targeting trans athletes and drag performers to measures limiting gender-affirming care and saying the word “gay”. . At least nine states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minor.
Republican Sen. Robby Mills said he supported the bill because of his belief that “puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, when administered to youth under 18 for the purpose of altering their appearance, is dangerous for the health of that child.”
Transgender medical treatments have long been available in the United States and are endorsed by major medical associations.
Kentucky’s Democratic governor Andy Beshear, issued an election-year veto Friday of a Republican bill aimed at not allowing schools to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity with students of any age and regulating the lives of transgender young people, including banning access to gender-affirming health care and restricting the bathrooms they can use.
Beshear said in his veto message that the bill would “Tears away the freedom from parents to make important and difficult medical decisions for their kids,” and turn educators and administrators into “investigators that must listen in on student conversations and then knock on doors to confront and question parents and families about how students behave and/or refer to themselves or others.”
The governor added, “My faith teaches me that all children are children of God and Senate Bill 150 will endanger the children of Kentucky.”
The bill easily passed the GOP-led legislature with veto-proof margins, and lawmakers will reconvene next week for the final two days of this year’s session, when they could vote to override the veto.
Former Survivor winner and now ex-fan favorite Nick Wilson let his homophobia and transphobia freak flag fly on his vote on a recent bill in The Kentucky House Of Representatives.
The reality show star turned Republican politician, who has been representing his district since 2022, voted in favor of a proposed new law that would prohibit most health care for trans minors and control what bathrooms they use, as well as limit what sexuality-related subjects school districts are allowed to discuss.
Survivor contestant Karla Cruz Godoy, from this past season, called Nick’s actions “transphobic” and encouraged people to register to vote. Lyrsa, who was on David Vs Goliath with Wilson, blasted the Survivor Reddit for allegedly removing posts talking about the issue, and Gabby, who also played with Nick, called him a “former friend” in a post talking about where we are as a society. Multi-time player Jonathan Penner called him “an asshole”, and numerous other players also posted more general messages of support for the trans community including Ozzy, Angelina and Adam Klein, said eartbroken and ANGRY. Omar Zaheer from Survivor 42 also got in a sick burn that referenced Wilson’s final tribal council… “This isn’t the first time Nick has been on the winning side of a wrong vote.”
Well at least the ban on drag shows failed. For now.
A GOP led Kentucky House committee advanced a bill last minute that stuffed an anti-trans/drag bill into another hateful piece of legislation, the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” or “parental rights” bill.
Senate Bill 150, sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, which The bill requires school districts to form bathroom policies based on biological sex, limits the discussion of LGBT issues in K-12 sexual education classes and blocks a Kentucky Department of Education recommendation that teachers refer to children by their preferred pronouns, was quickly brought up on the last day before the veto period and passed 16-5. Then HB 470 elements, like banning gender-affirming care to anyone under age 18.was added to it, It then quickly went to the full House where after two hours of debate, it passed 75-22.
The final Senate vote was 30-7. When the bill passed, people in the gallery yelled at legislators and were removed. “Jesus was wearing drag,” one said. Another cried: “You’re all murderers.”
After Thursday’s vote Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said “the genesis of this measure springs from a national agenda of fearmongering.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky quickly condemned SB150 as the “worst anti-trans/Don’t Say Gay bill in the nation.”
“This dangerous bill and others like it across the country are nothing more than a desperate attempt to score political points by targeting people who simply want to live their lives,” Amber Duke, interim executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky, said in a statement. “True democracy requires meaningful and informed debate and engagement from the public. The shameful process on display in the Kentucky House undermines the public trust in government.”
Gov. Andy Beshear addressed HB 470 during his regular Thursday Team Kentucky update. He said, “All decisions for transgender children should be made by the families, not big government. And these bills harm children, lead to suicide, and we should not be doing this right now out of respect for Karen Berg and her loss.”
The veto period begins on Friday and lasts 10 days.
The GOP controlled Sate House has enough votes to override Beshear’s VETO.
Kentucky GOP lawmakers advanced a bill Friday to put limits on drag shows, opponents called it an unconstitutional attack aimed at the LGBT population.
Violations under the Kentucky proposal — Senate Bill 115 — would be punishable as misdemeanors for the first two offenses but would rise to a felony for subsequent offenses. Businesses hosting such performances could have their alcohol and business licenses suspended or revoked.
The measure won Senate passage on a 26-6 vote after a lengthy debate that led to some heated exchanges in the buttoned-down chamber.
The bill’s lead sponsor was asked if she had ever attended a drag show and then if she found it “sexually arousing.” Republican Sen. Lindsey Tichenor replied she had attended a drag show in Kentucky. The latter question — from a Democratic opponent of the bill — was ruled out of order after a GOP Senate leader called it “outside the bounds of decorum.”
The Kentucky bill takes aim at drag shows by stating adult performances include a live performance involving male or female impersonators that “appeals to a prurient interest in sexual conduct” and lacks “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
There are numerous existing laws, including indecent exposure in Kentucky, to deal with sexually explicit activity in public places. The bill instead sends a message of “hate and fear and discrimination to a group of Kentuckians that deserve equal protection and equal dignity under the law.
The measure heads to the House with only a few days remaining in this year’s 30-day legislative session. If passed Democratic Governor Andy Beshear will more than likely VETO it. But Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers for a possible override.
On Tuesday the Kentucky’s General Assembly opened its 2023 session. First up? A pre-filed draft bill could prohibit the use of “nonbinary” designations by people who identify as such on birth certificates issued in the state. People who identify as “nonbinary” do not identify with traditional male or female genders.
The legislation, which was pre-filed as an interim draft by Republican (of course) state Rep. Bill Wesley in mid-December, would “require the biological sex designation on a birth certificate to be either male or female.” and would also prohibit a nonbinary or any other symbol representing a nonbinary designation, including the letter “X.”
The Kentucky legislature is controlled by Republicans in both houses, but the executive branch is controlled by Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, who has been critical of and vetoed other bills related to LGBT policy.
Currently, 16 states and the District of Columbia allow an option outside of male or female, according to data from Movement Advancement Project (MAP), an LGBT think tank.
Kentucky is currently one of only 13 states in the USA where medical/recreational marijuana is still illegal. On January 1, 2023 it’s STILL ILLEGAL in most cases but Kentuckians with certain medical conditions can legally possess medicinal marijuana — with several caveats which include driving hundreds of miles out of state to where recreational marijuana is legal and bringing it back to the state for medical use.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear tired of waiting signed an order taking action on medical marijuana after legislation on the matter stalled several times in Frankfort and objections by Rep. Thomas Massie and Senator Mitch McConnell both Republican.
Beshear’s executive action, signed Nov. 15, 2022, grants full pardons to those accused of marijuana possession so long as they meet several conditions:
The marijuana must have been legally purchased in the U.S. Neighboring states Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and West Virginia currently allow sales of medical marijuana.
Written proof of purchase, including date and location, must be on hand.
The amount of medical cannabis possessed can’t exceed eight ounces.
The individual or their caregiver has to present written, certified proof of an eligible medical condition.
Rep. Jason Nemes (R, Louisville) and other Republicans have pushed back against Gov. Beshear’s order, saying he doesn’t have the authority.
“The governor, no matter how much I agree with the issue, no matter how much one thinks a particular issue is good, they can’t just wipe out statutes,” said Nemes.
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1889: Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau, French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist avant-garde French artist, is born in Maisoms-Lafitte, France. Cocteau is best known for his novel Les Enfants terribles (1929), and the films Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). His lover of many years was actor, Jean Marais.
1977: Canada’s Fifth Annual National Gay Rights Conference closes in the prairie city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
1978: A gang of anti-gay youth, went storming through The Rambles area of Central Park in New York City with baseball bats, bashing any men they thought were gay that came across their path. By the end of the night five men were hospitalized with serious injuries including Dick Button, former Olympic ice-skating star and sportscaster.
For many years a section of the west side 30-acre section of Central Park known as The Rambles was notorious for being a meeting and sex playground for gay men after dark.
The nighttime sex scene in the Ramble is conducted in silence, lest the voice dissipate the mutual fantasy evoked by the look, the pose, the costume, the attitude. Body language is the only language needed for success here. Some night people prefer a particular quiet corner, for one-on-one encounters. Others gravitate toward the Tunnel, that part of the Bridle Path which runs under the 77th Street overpass. The Tunnel is the most active group-sex scene in that area of the park. Some nights it will be crowded wall to wall with men until four in the morning. Some nights, too, the cops decide to come full speed down the Bridle Path in their squad cars covered with hgv insurance, headlights and spotlights blazing, barely giving those in a close encounters time to pick up their pants and run—before being run over. “For their own protection,” say the cops.
In the wake of themost recent gay beatings, there was much bitterness voiced against the police by gays—and straights—who frequent the Ramble. “They said only five gays were attacked, and that’s bullshit,” said Don, a young, straight doctor with a large gay practice in the neighborhood. “I’ve already heard about three other guys—one of them came to me—who were beaten by that same bunch. But at least they could walk.” Why don’t they go to the cops? “For what?” snorts Dr. Don. “If it happened on Central Park West, okay. The guys at the 20th Precinct are pretty good. But the cops in the park have seldom given gays anything but harassment. Go to them and you, the victim, are made to feel like a criminal.”
Dick Button to this day has never come out .
1980: The National Convention of the Liberal Party, one of Canada’s large mainstream political parties, adopts resolution to include sexual orientation in Canadian Human Right Act.
1987: James Donovan, a New York state senator, suggested that giving teens rosary beads would prevent the spread of AIDS more effectively than the distribution of condoms.
1996: The New Zealand Presbyterian Church rules that lesbian and gay people may not be licensed or ordained as elders or ministers or put in positions of leadership. The decision is also referred back to churches for a decision in two years.
1999: 21-year-old American soldier Pfc. Barry Winchell is bludgeoned to death while sleeping on his cot in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, by a fellow solider who thought he was gay.
The harassment was continuous until the Fourth of July weekend, when Winchell and fellow soldier, Calvin Glover, fought after Winchell accused a boasting Glover of being a fraud. Both were drinking beer throughout the day. Glover was soundly defeated by Winchell, after being taunted about being beaten by “‘a fucking faggot’ Glover took a baseball bat from a locker and struck Winchell in the head with it as he slept on a cot outside near the entry to the room Winchell shared with Fisher. Winchell died of massive head injuries on July 6 at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Glover was later convicted of Winchell’s murder and is serving a life sentence in a military prison.
The top military officers at Fort Campbell who were aware of the harassment were cleared of any wrongdoing.
2007: George Melly, British bisexual jazz singer, music critic, author, anarchist, lush, and raconteur, dies in London, England, of lung cancer at age 80. He was also an art lecturer specializing in surrealism, a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association, and widely noted for his loud suits, louder ties and the image he cultivated of a hard-drinking throwback to the jazz age
2011: Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, the first openly gay Speaker of the California State Assembly, urged lawmakers to approve a measure requiring public schools to teach the historical contributions of gay Americans, in Sacramento, CA. California becomes the first state in the nation to require public schools to add lessons about gay history to social studies classes, after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs the landmark bill into law the next week.
A homework assignment given to some middle-schoolers (7th. grade = 11/12 yo) at Christian Academy of Louisville, Kentucky has been exposed showing how it encourages students to persuade an “imaginary friend” to reject being gay. *cough*-GROOMING-*cough*
Via: The Courier Journal:
Screenshots show the assignment required students to write a letter to a hypothetical friend “struggling with homosexuality” and persuade them “God’s design for them is good,” “homosexuality will not bring them satisfaction” and “you love them even though you don’t approve of their lifestyle.” – Assume that you have known this friend since kindergarten, that you go to the same church and that you have been pretty good friends over the years until now,” the screenshot of the assignment read. “… The aim of your letter should be to lovingly and compassionately speak truth to the person you’re talking to in a way that does not approve of any sin. Instead, TRY TO PERSUADE THEM OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S DESIGN for them.”
Christian Academy of Louisville School System Superintendent Darin Long in a statement said the assignment had been given to students in a middle school Bible elective class.
The homework was “part of a unit of study which discusses ‘What are humans and where is their identity?'” Long wrote, and “in context, was how a person could discuss homosexuality with a friend from a biblical perspective with compassion and love.”
And Jesus wept. Again.
Modern day education assignment at Christian Academy of Louisville. Middle school. Write a letter to your homosexual friend explaining why it’s wrong. Shameful. #stopthehatepic.twitter.com/UdgXv3FEBA
Conservative lawmakers in 16 mostly red states across America are considering new legislation that would bar teachers from “introducing concepts of sexual orientation or gender identity to young students”, imitating a new Florida law that opponents have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” Law.
Falling back on the Ron DeSantis’ and Anita Bryant’s “Save The Children Campaign” playbook of “gay panic” the following states all have anti-LGBT legislation in the works.: Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, South Carolina, Illinois, Rhode Island, Ohio, and South Dakota.
“Battles over sex education in schools have been a constant front in the culture wars that have raged between liberals and conservatives for decades” aid Aaron Ridings, chief of staff and deputy executive director for public policy and research at GLSEN. ““There’s a chilling effect from all of these bills on people who are LGBT”
