#Missouri Legislature

[tomorrowusa]

It's not just in areas like abortion and restrictions on voting that makes Republicans want to turn back the clock 200 years.

In Missouri, a Republican legislator wants to bring back dueling. No, that isn't a typo.

A Missouri Republican’s proposal to reintroduce dueling to solve statehouse differences was branded “utter stupidity” by a leading historian of political violence. “Back in the day,” Joanne B Freeman of Yale tweeted, “they were smart enough to take dueling OUTSIDE. The draft that I saw suggests doing it in the chamber. This doesn’t show guts or bravery or manhood – if it’s supposed to. It shows utter stupidity.” Freeman is the author of The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War. The state senator behind the proposal said he was making a point about the breakdown of regular order in Missouri politics. The draft rule change came to national notice when it was posted to social media by Democrats in the state senate. “The Missouri Republican civil war continues to escalate as a member of the Freedom Caucus faction has filed a proposed rule change to allow senators to challenge an ‘offending senator to a duel’,” they wrote.

Here's some of the language from the proposal...

The draft rule read: “If a senator’s honor is impugned by another senator to the point that it is beyond repair and in order for the offended senator to gain satisfaction, such senator may rectify the perceived insult to the senator’s honor by challenging the offending senator to a duel. “The trusted representative, known as the second, of the offended senator shall send a written challenge to the offending senator. The two senators shall agree to the terms of the duel, including choice of weapons, which shall be witnessed and enforced by their respective seconds. “The duel shall take place in the well of the senate at the hour of high noon on the date agreed to by the parties to the duel.” The author, Nick Schroer, represents District 2 in the Missouri senate.

I imagine that the Republican choice of weapons in such duels would be ketchup bottles with nitrogen gas.

Nick Schroer is rather typical of anti-democracy Republicans. He and another extremist held a stunt with flamethrowers last September which got international attention.

Republican candidate for Missouri governor vows to burn books after viral flamethrower video

Republicans like Schroer have more screws loose than a Boeing 737 Max 9. And people who vote for them are just as loony.

Nick Schroer is yet another reason we need to pay attention to state government – especially the state legislatures.

The first step is to find out just who represents you in your legislature.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

If you have the misfortune of being represented by a MAGA Republican, contact your county or state Democratic Party and ask what you can do to turn your state blue.

#missouri #republicans #the far right #nick schroer #duels #dueling #flamethrowers #missouri legislature #missouri state senate #election 2024

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

A rare party switch in the Missouri House could be in the offing after one Republican on Wednesday wasn’t allowed to speak against a GOP plan to restrict gender-affirming care for minors.

Rep. Chris Sander, R-Lone Jack, one of two openly gay Republicans in the Legislature, said Wednesday that local, state and national Republicans needed to decide whether gay and transgender Republicans were welcome.

“If they want to tell all Republicans who are gay to get out and go to the Democrat Party, they just need to do that,” Sander, a 2001 graduate of Hazelwood West High School in St. Louis County, told the Post-Dispatch.

Sander was one of three Republicans to vote against the restrictions, which are headed to Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, for his consideration.

House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, and Rep. Gary Bonacker, R-House Springs, also broke with their party to vote with Democrats against the ban.

Sander, who said he is Republican committeeman for the Van Buren Township in Jackson County, said he planned to speak at the county party’s May 22 meeting.

Members of the county GOP have tried to censure Sander for filing a resolution that would overturn Missouri’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, which was nullified by a 2015 Supreme Court decision.

“I’m going to rail against them and I’m going to say how I think it should be, and if they don’t like it, they can just get rid of me, and if that happens then I’ll be an independent or a Democrat,” Sander said, adding he might also consider becoming a Libertarian if he left the GOP.

“If they kick me off that (Jackson County GOP) committee, I will not be a Republican,” Sander said.

If Sander were to quit the GOP, he would join a short list of other House members over the past decade to leave their political party.

In 2015, then-Rep. Keith English, a Florissant Democrat, said he was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent.

“This is no longer the Democrat Party of Bill Clinton or John F Kennedy. I’m leaving the party because I love my state,” English said at the time.

English’s decision to ditch the Democrats followed another Democratic defection a day after the 2014 midterms.

Then-Rep. Linda Black, who had been a Democrat from Desloge, switched to the Republican Party a day after the election after she ran unopposed.

Her St. Francois County district had a long history of electing Democrats but voters there have bolted to the Republicans in recent election cycles.

Sander’s eastern Jackson County 33rd District is roughly 58% Republican and 39% Democrat, according to an analysis of the district’s partisan makeup.

“I can see myself winning an election as a Republican or a Democrat or an independent,” he said.

Republicans controlled 117 seats in the House in 2015 following Black’s switch.

The GOP now controls 111 seats despite continuing to hold a two-thirds majority.

Democrats hold 51 seats following Democratic Rep. Rasheen Aldridge’s resignation this year to join the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. Parson has not called a special election to replace him.

#us politics #news #2023 #st. louis post dispatch #Missouri #republicans #conservatives #gop #Chris Sander #Democrats #independents #Missouri Legislature #Gov. Mike Parson #Jonathan Patterson #Gary Bonacker #Keith English #Linda Black #Rasheen Aldridge

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Missouri ranks last in the nation in starting salaries for teachers and 49th in state funding of schools, so low that a quarter of the districts have cut back to four-day weeks.

But the GOP legislators in the “Show Me” state have demonstrated their priority with at least 20 bills aimed at the LBGTQ community. Ten are aimed at restricting transgender athletes in the schools. That is in a state where just seven transgender students in K-12 are presently registered to compete.

"There’s more bills about trans kids playing sports than there are trans kids that want to play sports," Senate Democratic Minority Leader John Rizzo told reporters last week.

This legislative frenzy causes the father of one 9-year-old transgender boy—a soccer and basketball player as well as a computer wiz and all around happy kid—to feel his family is targeted.

“Our state government is at war with our family,” Daniel Bogard told The Daily Beast.

He says his son is otherwise fine, accepted and embraced and supported by his family, friends, and community.

“The only bullies in our lives work for the state legislature,” he said.

Bogard, who is 39, serves along with his wife, Karen, as rabbi at the Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis. Their residence has been his family’s home for four generations. He now wonders if they will have to move to another, more tolerant state.

“[My trans son] sleeps in the bedroom that was my bedroom in the house my kids’ great grandpa built and we’re afraid we’re going to have to flee,” Bogard said.

The bigotry is more intense these days, but it is nothing new. Bogard has been making the two-hour drive to the Capitol in Jefferson City for four years seeking to counter LGBTQ legislation. He often brings along his trans son, along with another son who is two years older.

“This is not lobbying,” Bogard said. “This is showing up and begging our legislators to stop torturing our kids and our families, to see us as human beings and have some empathy…Just to let us live our lives and raise our children as we and our faith and our doctors understand is best.”

Both boys go with him to legislators who seem at least open to supporting them. But Bogard keeps his trans son away from the hearings, where people too often prove themselves cruelly insensitive.

“We had a Senator in a hearing ask a kid about his genitals,” Bogard said.

He noted that this is a particular fixation among the bigots.

“How obsessed they are with children’s genitals,” he said. “What they’re really saying when they ask ‘what is he really?’ They’re really asking what his genitals look like.”

He added, “Then they look at us and tell us we’re sexualizing kids and grooming them. And we’re just trying to let kids be kids.”

Bogard says these bigots are more offended by a trans girl than by a trans boy.

“They live in a world that has a strict gender binary,” Bogard said. “It’s a world view that is deeply patriarchal and misogynistic. They get it in their minds why a girl would want to be a boy. The other direction, they treat those kids with disgust.”

On his part, Bogard is most repelled by the legislators who are not actually bigoted, but are only going along with it because it is expedient in an increasingly right-wing state where almost half the Republican candidates run uncontested in the general election and the primary is everything.

“How cynical and disgusting is that?” Bogard said. “They know they’re torturing us and they’re only doing it because it’s good for them politically.”

Bogard’s older son has testified four times on behalf of his brother and a trans friend, most recently on Tuesday.

“I'm here today because I have a trans brother and a trans friend, and I have to be here because you, the Missouri government keeps trying to take away what they have a passion for,” the older brother began. “Why do you keep trying to take things from these kids? Kids just wanna have fun playing sports and not wasting time being stressed and coming here to tell you to let them play. It’s been years that you have been trying to take things away from people that I love who are just little kids. They’re not competing for a scholarship or a job where most of the time they’re not even in a tournament. They’re just trying to have fun, which they can’t do since you’re trying to pass these bills. This has affected my brother because now he gets scared that he will not be able to do what he loves.”

He went on, “It’s affecting my dad because now he goes here every other week to sit for hours to say a small speech that might not even mean anything to you. It’s affecting me because I love living here in Missouri and I’m scared that I might have to move away… because of these bills. My family and my friends are just trying to live their lives in peace in Missouri and you are hurting us and scaring us. So please vote no on Senate Bill(s) 2, 29, 39, 48, 87, 165 and all other bills that are targeting trans kids. Thank you for your time.”

The 11 year-old was reading from a statement that he had composed on a desktop computer built by the 9-year-old.

“From scratch,” the father later told The Daily Beast. “With allowance and birthday money.”

After testifying, the 11-year-old stayed the night in Jefferson City with his trans friend’s family. His own family, including his 9-year-old brother and his grandmother, Denise Bogard, were at the Capitol the next day. The grandmother has Parkinson’s disease, which is a comorbidity with COVID. She had accordingly been very careful about venturing into public indoor spaces, but she risked it to join her son and grandson in doing what they could to counter the hate.

The family had surmised from the younger boy’s earliest years that he might be trans. He balked at wearing a dress and preferred his brother’s clothes. He was 4 when he asked a question that seemed to confirm it.

“He asked if God could make him over again in a boy’s body,” Daniel Bogard recalled.

Bogard cut the boy’s long, beautiful hair to his shoulder and then to his chin and then to his ears.

“He looked at it and said, ‘I’m a boy!” Bogard remembered.

At 9, he is what his father describes as “so well adjusted, such a normal kid.”

On Wednesday, the younger son was back among legislators who treat kids like him as handy targets.

“Trans kids are among the most vulnerable kids,” Bogard said. “They’re really easy punching bags.”

The 9-year-old then returns to the house where his family has lived for four generations and fears they will be forced to flee. Bogard feels certain that the elected officials he calls “these bigots and bullies who control our state” will be introducing additional anti-trans bills that are a greater concern to them than underfunded schools and underpaid teachers and fewer school days.

“There will be more [bills] next week and they’ll just keep coming because they all want their name tied to this cruelty,” he said.

#us politics #news #the daily beast #2023 #Missouri #lgbtqia+ rights #lgbtqia+ #lgbtqia+ representation #trans #trans rights #transphobia #John Rizzo #Missouri legislature #bigots be like #groomers be like #conservatives #republicans #republican family values #trans athletes #trans sports

[don-lichterman]

Parson pitches legislative leaders on cutting Missouri’s income tax rate | Politics

Parson pitches legislative leaders on cutting Missouri’s income tax rate | Politics

Gov. Mike Parson delivers his State of the State address at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022.  David Carson, JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Mike Parson began laying the groundwork Tuesday for an attempt to cut Missouri’s income tax rate. In back-to-back meetings in his office with House and Senate leaders, the Republican discussed his decision earlier this month to…

View On WordPress

#cutting #Election 2022 #gov. mike parson #Income #income taxes #leaders #legislative #missouri legislature #Missouris #Parson #Pitches #politics #Rate #state-government #tax #tax cuts

[transenbyconfessions]

In the past hour I've begun making my last resort plan on how to get out of Missouri if need be. I graduated high school last year, I haven't even talked to my folks about this; why am I being forced to seriously consider uprooting myself to avoid punishment for existing? What did I ever do to them

Submitted May 19, 2023

#transgender #trans #enby #nb #nonbinary #non-binary #non binary #transphobia #missouri #anti-trans legislation #transphobic legislation #transphobic legislature

[shredsandpatches]

I never seem to post about my life these days but things are still going well, I just never hit the sweet spot of "enough time to write posts + enough energy to write posts" but I still love my job and I also love choir now that it's back on again. Just this evening I did the thing where I remember to listen to a recording of the thing we're rehearsing if I wasn't really familiar with it before:

You guys. I get to sing this.

Actually we rehearsed this movement at tempo last night and I think I sprained something. We're singing it in English and it doesn't sound quite as cool in English, but it's still an absolute blast.

I suspect that the choice of English is a pointed one, though: the piece is about a group of friendly neighborhood pagans who get one over on their Christian oppressors by scaring them off so they can worship in peace (that's what the movement in the video is) and sort of accidentally invent Walpurgisnacht. Given that my state is one of the ones where certain types of Christian are going aggressively after our personal and civil liberties, I think that's why we're doing it in English, to make the point clearer to the audience. So I think that's an okay counterbalance to the aesthetic loss incurred by not singing in German.

#also it's self-evals season at work which suuuuuucks #i mean i am good at my job and my direct supervisor is extremely supportive #i just have ptsd about performance reviews from my years of teaching #anyway i would happily chase the missouri state legislature with pitchforks and stuff #Youtube #choir stuff

[charmcoin]

to the rather, uh, impassioned person in the notes of lrb spam reblogging in an attempt to get kansas to win and continually tagging their posts with shit like, in missouri they want queer people to die, i don't know what to say. it's truly not that serious. go vote for missouri

#pers #q slur #<- for bl #on a more serious note yeah okay the legislature here is notoriously terrible and bigoted. #but that doesn't mean that minorities don't exist here? #i get that your entire personality is being a trans person from kansas and like more power to you for that #but as a gay transsexual from missouri i really like it here. it's my home. #sure there's other better places to live. but i wasn't raised there. #and kansas doesn't even have the good kansas city. so what pray tell is the point

[dare-to-dm]

Welp, the Missouri House of Legislatures just voted to defund public libraries.

I’m honestly shocked and dismayed and heartbroken.  Like, I knew things were bad, but I didn’t think it was this bad already.

I’m also quite frankly shocked at how small the state budget for libraries was in the first place ($4.5 million).  I’ve visited so many quality libraries all across Missouri that do so much for their communities.  When I was a social worker, the local library was always the first place I’d visit in the communities I worked in, because I knew they had good services to offer and could help me get connected to other local supports.  Like, even from just a heartless financial standpoint, I can guarantee public libraries are worth the money.

I’m just really sad right now.

#Dare Original

[reasonsforhope]

"For the first time in almost 60 years, a state has formally overturned a so-called “right to work” law, clearing the way for workers to organize new union locals, collectively bargain, and make their voices heard at election time.

This week, Michigan finalized the process of eliminating a decade-old “right to work” law, which began with the shift in control of the state legislature from anti-union Republicans to pro-union Democrats following the 2022 election. “This moment has been decades in the making,” declared Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber. “By standing up and taking their power back, at the ballot box and in the workplace, workers have made it clear Michigan is and always will be the beating heart of the modern American labor movement.”

[Note: The article doesn't actually explain it, so anyway, "right to work" laws are powerful and deceptively named pieces of anti-union legislation. What right to work laws do is ban "union shops," or companies where every worker that benefits from a union is required to pay dues to the union. Right-to-work laws really undermine the leverage and especially the funding of unions, by letting non-union members receive most of the benefits of a union without helping sustain them. Sources: x, x, x, x]

In addition to formally scrapping the anti-labor law on Tuesday [February 13, 2024], Michigan also restored prevailing-wage protections for construction workers, expanded collective bargaining rights for public school employees, and restored organizing rights for graduate student research assistants at the state’s public colleges and universities. But even amid all of these wins for labor, it was the overturning of the “right to work” law that caught the attention of unions nationwide...

Now, the tide has begun to turn—beginning in a state with a rich labor history. And that’s got the attention of union activists and working-class people nationwide...

At a time when the labor movement is showing renewed vigor—and notching a string of high-profile victories, including last year’s successful strike by the United Auto Workers union against the Big Three carmakers, the historic UPS contract victory by the Teamsters, the SAG-AFTRA strike win in a struggle over abuses of AI technology in particular and the future of work in general, and the explosion of grassroots union organizing at workplaces across the country—the overturning of Michigan’s “right to work” law and the implementation of a sweeping pro-union agenda provides tangible evidence of how much has changed in recent years for workers and their unions...

By the mid-2010s, 27 states had “right to work” laws on the books.

But then, as a new generation of workers embraced “Fight for 15” organizing to raise wages, and campaigns to sign up workers at Starbucks and Amazon began to take off, the corporate-sponsored crusade to enact “right to work” measures stalled. New Hampshire’s legislature blocked a proposed “right to work” law in 2017 (and again in 2021), despite the fact that the measure was promoted by Republican Governor Chris Sununu. And in 2018, Missouri voters rejected a “right to work” referendum by a 67-33 margin.

Preventing anti-union legislation from being enacted and implemented is one thing, however. Actually overturning an existing law is something else altogether.

But that’s what happened in Michigan after 2022 voting saw the reelection of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a labor ally, and—thanks to the overturning of gerrymandered legislative district maps that had favored the GOP—the election of Democratic majorities in the state House and state Senate. For the first time in four decades, the Democrats controlled all the major levers of power in Michigan, and they used them to implement a sweeping pro-labor agenda. That was a significant shift for Michigan, to be sure. But it was also an indication of what could be done in other states across the Great Lakes region, and nationwide.

“Michigan Democrats took full control of the state government for the first time in 40 years. They used that power to repeal the state’s ‘right to work’ law,” explained a delighted former US secretary of labor Robert Reich, who added, “This is why we have to show up for our state and local elections.”"

-via The Nation, February 16, 2024

#michigan #united states #us politics #labor #labor rights #labor unions #capitalism #unions #unionize #gretchen whitmer #democrats #voting matters #right to work #pro union #workers #workers rights #good news #hope

[callapilla]

the long and short of the matter: i'm a black trans guy trapped under crushing poverty w an abusive dad who won't leave and a state trying to legislate me out of existence

i'm raf, a 21 y/o black jewish transmasc and complex ptsd survivor. years of neglect and abuse have made living in my current home an anxiety trigger, my piece of shit dad has no intentions of leaving anytime soon, and the increasing hostility of the missouri legislature means my best bet is to leave. i've already got arrangements made to move in w a very close friend of mine.

minimum wage in missouri is $12 and i make less than $600 for 52 hours of work. 3/4 people in our household work, my mom needs my help staying caught up with bills and expenses, and keeping her and my sisters afloat means i desperately need fucking help to get out of here within the next 5 months and every penny anyone can spare is gonna help. having to choose between menstrual products and meals for the next week is incredibly fucking stressful as it is, the situation we are living in is so far past the point of desperation that i've only ever owned four to five pairs of "good" pants at a time my entire life. dm me if you want like a headshot bust drawing or a playlist made or something, i'm more than happy to make something in return for any help i get, but i need fucking help.

info here. don't tag as donation when reblogging.

#direct action #mutual aid

[tomorrowusa]

Cheers to Olivia Rodrigo! 🍻👍🏼

Pop singer Olivia Rodrigo teamed up with the Missouri Abortion Fund to give out free emergency birth control pills and condoms to concertgoers at her St. Louis show. Rodrigo visited St. Louis on Tuesday evening as part of her GUTS world tour. X user @cowboylikekin posted a viral photo of the condoms and Julie contraceptive pills that were distributed at the concert. The image has been liked more than 30,000 times. Volunteers with the Missouri Abortion Fund handed out the pills, condoms and stickers at Tuesday’s concert. The nonprofit aims to provide assistance to Missouri residents who cannot afford the cost of abortion care.

Missouri has been taken over by far right MAGA extremists. Fortunately there is a ballot measure being proposed to restore reproductive freedom in the state.

Abortion rights advocates with Missourians for Constitutional Freedom are pushing for a ballot measure through Missouri’s initiative petition process, looking to amend Missouri’s constitution with a law that would make abortion legal until viability. To place the issue on this November’s ballot, the campaign must collect around 180,000 signatures in support of the petition and turn the signatures in to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office by May 5.

If you're in Missouri, consider lending a hand with the ballot measure.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom

And whichever state you live in, get more involved in state politics and particularly the state legislature. Most of the far right anti-freedom badness originates in legislatures in red states. Start by discovering who represents your legislative district(s).

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

Only one party is dedicated to restoring reproductive freedom nationally.

#olivia rodrigo #guts world tour #abortion #a woman's right to choose #reprodective freedom #emergency birth control pills #missouri #st. louis #missouri abortion fund #fund 4 good #text right by you #roe v. wade #restore roe #the sanctity of reproductive freedom #state government #state legislatures #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who

[feminist-space]

Article by Fortesa Latifi:

"Being the child of an influencer, Vanessa tells me, was the equivalent of having a full-time job—and then some. She remembers late nights in which the family recorded and rerecorded videos until her mother considered them perfect and days when creating content for the blog stretched into her homeschooling time. If she expressed her unease, she was told the family needed her. “It was like after this next campaign, maybe we could have more time to relax. And then it would never happen,” she says. She was around 10 years old when she realized her life was different from that of other children. When she went to other kids’ houses, she was surprised by how they lived. “I felt strange that they didn’t have to work on social media or blog posts, or constantly pose for pictures or videos,” she says. “I realized they didn’t have to worry about their family's financial situation or contribute to it.”

Vanessa, who requested anonymity to speak freely about her family dynamics, says she helped create content for huge companies like Huggies and Hasbro when her mom landed endorsement deals. When she reached puberty and began menstruating, her mother had her do sponsored posts for sanitary pads. “It was so mortifying,” she says. “I just felt like I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out.”

Being part of an influencer family changed everything about her life, Vanessa says. “Sometimes I didn’t know where the separation was between what was real and what was curated for social media.” And her mother’s online presence indelibly warped their relationship. “Being an influencer kid turned my relationship with my mom into more of an employer-employee relationship than a parent-child one,” she says. “Once you cross the line from being family to being coworkers, you can’t really go back.”

...

Khanbalinov has had zero new offers since he took his kids offline. “When we were showing our kids, brands were rolling in left and right—clothing companies, apps, paper towel companies, food brands. They all wanted us to work with them,” he says. “Once we stopped, we reached out to the brands we had lined up and 99 percent of them dropped out because they wanted kids to showcase their products. And I fought back, like, you guys are a paper towel company—why do you need a kid selling your stuff?”

The law has woefully lagged behind the culture here, but there’s signs that policymakers might finally be catching up. In 2023, in addition to Illinois, three other states—New York, Washington State, and New Jersey—proposed bills to protect influencer kids. Contrast that with the flurry of legislative activity in just the first two months of 2024. Seven more states—Maryland, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, California, Arizona, Minnesota—have introduced similar legislation. Some of the bills are going one step further to protect the privacy of the kids featured in this content. In some states, proposed legislation would include a clause that borrows from a European legal doctrine known as the “right to be forgotten”—it would allow someone who was featured in content when they were a child to request that platforms permanently delete those posts. None of the current legislation introduced, however, would outright bar the practice of featuring minors in monetized content.

...

The movement on this issue was glacial for years, but it finally feels like the ice has thawed. Much of that progress is thanks to activists like Cam Barrett (she/they), a 25-year-old creator (@softscorpio) who uses TikTok to talk about her experience of being overshared in their childhood and adolescence. Barrett doesn’t go by her legal name anymore because of the online history it’s tied to. “I love my legal name,” Barrett tells me. “I just don’t love the digital footprint attached to it.” Last year, Barrett testified in front of the Washington State legislature as a proponent of a bill to protect influencer kids. This year, they testified again—this time, in front of the Maryland legislature.

“As a former content kid myself, I know what it’s like to grow up with a digital footprint I never asked for,” Barrett told the Maryland House of Delegates Economic Matters Committee in February. “As my mom posted to the world my first-ever menstrual cycle, as she posted to the world the intimate details about me being adopted, her platform grew and I had no say in what was posted.” And yet, Cam says her activism has been healing.

For Cam and other influencer children, getting a paycheck won’t give them back what they lost—a normal childhood unobstructed by the cameras pushed into their faces. But it could be the beginning of some version of restitution. “My friends say I’m fighting for little Cam,” she tells me. “It feels very healing because I didn’t have anyone to fight for me as a kid.”"

Read the full article here: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a60125272/sharenting-parenting-influencer-cost-children/

#children of influencers #influencers #children's rights #social media #fortesa latifi

[rapeculturerealities]

(7) There is a reason politicians don't want pregnant women getting divorced

In Texas, Alabama, Missouri, and Arizona, pregnant women cannot divorce.

There are no exceptions for domestic violence.

These laws are not new, but they’re back in the news because a lawmaker in Missouri introduced a bill to change the law in that state. It’s unlikely the GOP-led legislature will pass the bill. These laws also have abortion bans — a sort of catch-22 for people who can become pregnant.

These laws initially came about, as so many bad laws do, as a paternalistic measure to make sure a child was provided for after birth. But when you add in the context that these states have banned abortions, what these laws essentially do is force women into positions of financial or emotional vulnerability and into marriage and into lives of unpaid labor.

#Pregnancy #Divorce #Texas #Alabama #missouri #Arizona #Abortion #reproductive rights #Domestic violence

[probablyasocialecologist]

In the fall of 2022, a German court heard an unusual case.

It was a civil lawsuit that grew out of a feud on Twitter about whether transgender people were victims of the Holocaust. Though there is no longer much debate about whether gay men and lesbians were persecuted, there’s been very little scholarship on trans people during this period.

The court took expert statements from historians, including myself, before finding that the historical evidence shows that trans people were, indeed, persecuted by the Nazi regime.

This is an important case. It was the first time a court recognized the persecution of trans people in Nazi Germany. It was followed a few months later by the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, formally releasing a statement recognizing trans and cisgender queer people as victims of fascism.

[...]

Though the American Academy of Pediatrics and every major medical association approves gender-affirming health care for trans kids, Republican politicians have banned it in 19 states, with even more moving to prohibit it.

Gender-affirming medicine is now over 100 years old – and it has roots in Weimar Germany. It had never before been legally restricted in the U.S. Yet Missouri has essentially banned it for adults, and other states are trying to restrict adult care. A host of other anti-trans bills are moving through state legislatures.

I find it fitting, then, that “A Transparent Musical” recently premiered in Los Angeles. In it, fabulously dressed trans Berliners sing and dance in defiance of Nazi thugs.

It’s a reminder that attacks on trans people are nothing new – and that many of them are straight out of the Nazi playbook.

#nazism #fascism #lgbt #transgender #transphobia

[shitswiftiessay]

“multiple posts in support of the lgbtq community”

her LGBTQ “activism” pretty much started and ended with the lover era. she released the musical equivalent of “it’s ok to be gay,” she waited until she was in a blue state on the eras tour to even barely address the anti trans legislation that was being passed in OTHER states (states she had just performed in where her speech would’ve made much more of an impact). and telling people to go vote without specifying who you’re voting for or bringing attention to the important issues is not activism. it’s merely a voting reminder. which is fine, but, y’know, it doesn’t make you an lgbt advocate. which she promised to be as she accepted an award for it.

and despite the fact that she’s reportedly “spending a lot more time” in fuckass missouri to be with travis, she’s yet to say anything about the anti lgbt legislation being passed in that state.

she also went off tumblr because people asked her to talk about BLM and swifties act like it was the cruelest thing in the world to expect of her 🙄 but she made a whole thing in her documentary about wanting to be on the “right side of history.”

and taylor did the black square too so if you’re gonna attack joe for that 💀

and she made some promises on twitter to be “loudly and ferociously anti-racist.” then she went on to date racist pos matty healy… and use ice spice as a shield. AND she also made sure that her publicist let everyone know that the “controversy” surrounding matty’s racism had NOTHING to do with her decision to split from him.

so… yeah.

these same miserable fucking swifties used to praise joe alwyn for speaking out against men abusing their power over women in hollywood but now their whole blogs are basically dedicated hate blogs to him. because he committed the crime of not marrying taylor so now they’ve decided he’s the worst man on the planet. 🙄

meanwhile taylor’s working with rapist directors, hanging out with SA apologists and high-fiving an abuser at football games. her feminism and “advocacy” is limited ONLY to herself and it’s painfully obvious she does not give a shit about anything that doesn’t directly affect her.

also, joe’s name wouldn’t have been added to that ceasefire letter if he didn’t WANT it added. it’s a risk to anyone in the entertainment industry to openly support palestine and no one’s name is going to be “just added” without their consent. signing that ceasefire letter may be bare minimum shit, but it’s still more than anything Miss Americana has said or done regarding this issue, which is absolutely nothing, and you have to ask yourself WHY.

also if you’re upset about people saying that taylor was encouraged to be more political because of joe… idk what to tell you that’s literally a canon event that came straight from taylor’s own mouth.

and it’s not that i think she’d be a trump supporter without joe but… it’s pretty obvious that since they’ve broken up (and even in the year leading up to the breakup) she’s not dared to do anything remotely resembling activism or being “controversial.” if anything she’s just too fucking narcissistic and self-absorbed to care about anything going on in the world, just like her bestie selena.

#anti taylor swift #shit swifties say #joe alwyn

[socialjusticeinamerica]

There needs to be a national level discussion about eviction and not one with millionaire politicians putting their two cents in. I’m not justifying some gun nut shooting it out with law enforcement by any means but if this were handled differently lives could have been saved. Forcibly making someone homeless is one of the top ten most traumatic things that can happen and people are going to resist it. If it was indeed just unpaid taxes then other less severe measures could have been taken. Community leaders, social workers, and activists could step in and help plan a course of action. Sending armed officers in to every conceivable social situation needs to stop. The guy probably owed thousands while billionaires who owe hundreds of millions never have law enforcement sent after them.

Further, the push by Republicans to evict everyone immediately needs to stop as does their relentless drive to criminalize the unhoused. Nobody wants to be homeless. Decades of tough guy bully talk from right wing Fox News, conservative talk radio, Neo-confederate racist Republican politicians, and oligarch controlled social media has turned this nation into a cruel heartless place with no compassion for the vulnerable.

Red state legislatures are turning their privatized penal systems into debtors prisons. Being poor shouldn’t be a crime, nor should homelessness. We need solutions to lift everyone up not trickle down schemes to keep transferring wealth to the billionaire class.

Finally you can no longer be a Christian and a conservative. The term “Christian conservative” has become a contradiction in terms. Conservatism once meant low taxes, military preparedness, and a robust foreign policy that protected our allies and our trade. Now it has degenerated into being hateful animals consumed with rage, petty jealousy, contempt for the vulnerable, and hatred to everyone not in the MAGA camp. It is an abomination. A vengeful mob of ignorant degenerates led by media savvy Neo-Nazi oligarchs and power hungry Republican demagogues. Demagogues who preach literal Nazism, often openly quoting Hitler himself, to a mob that thinks wrong is right, hate is right, and corruption is good.

We have become the French Revolution in reverse. The angry mob is propping up the oligarchy that oppresses them while tearing down American democracy which seeks to level the playing field and treat everyone with equality, decency, and respect.

#eviction #unpaid taxes #homelessness #criminalizing homelessness #debtors prisons #never trump #republican hypocrisy #republican assholes #traitor trump #crooked donald #Republican oligarchs #Neo-Nazi oligarchs #Republican demagogues #conservatives are not Christians #republicans are not Christians #maga morons #gun nuts #gun violence #law enforcement #save our society from cruelty