Umm... WTF is this?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/8-democrats-pass-bill-forcing-teachers-to-out-trans-students_n_6a0f2d3ee4b084c012e3b6d4Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Donald Davis (N.C.), Cleo Fields (La.), Laura Gillen (N.Y.), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) and Eugene Vindman (Va.) all voted for this bill.
I swear, Don Davis is going to singlehandedly flip that area to red for the first time since 1972, and that was a one off!
IDIOTS!
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Why should teachers lose their jobs if the parents and their own children can't communicate with one another? The teachers shouldn't be taking sides anyway, and that's what has been happening.
This bill sounds like it is meant to save the teachers from being fired ... and it puts the onus on parents and their kids to agree on the basic principle: Yes they are trans or no they aren't trans. School principals and counselors need to step up also.
I can actually see why Democrats would support this bill.
I freaking hope so. If it does, I'm still going to side eye those Democrats who voted for it, very hard, but man, I really hope so.
Some of these people sound like they don't live in reality. Yes, of course, full and open communication between home and school is ideal, but there are times when that's just not safe, because some parents suck. Keeping kids safe should come first. Next thing you know, they'll be passing laws to require teachers (who are mandated reporters) to notify parents before reporting suspicions of parental child abuse to authorities. Because gods forbid schools keep ANYTHING secret from parents, right? 
Oh, and they just HAD to put in that part about banning books that include transgender characters or even address the existence of transgender people! Will ALL school libraries be required to get rid of every book that so much as hints at the possibility that trans people exist? As a former librarian who still fiercely supports intellectual freedom, the idea of actively denying children access to information that some of them may desperately need makes my blood boil. Yes, public libraries exist, but not all kids have access to them. (In my case, the public library was a long way from where we lived and my mother didn't have a driver's license. It was a great day for me when the bookmobile started to make a weekly stop in my neighborhood, even though what it offered was only a fraction of what was available in that big building that I never got to visit.)
What we need is this country right now is a MASSIVE public education program to combat all the lies and distortions about trans people and trans issues that are being spread by the right. More and more people are being brainwashed by those lies and distortions every day, and I don't see anything being done to counter it. 
So, what was the excuse for the lack of real change when we had the majority?
Clinton and the Democratic Party held the government in the mid 90s.
I did not feel any safer then. I still had to stay hidden because my job would have probably fired me, there were certain people I had to deal with who I felt would probably have killed someone like me. One does not always get to choose who one deals with in life, nor do they get to always keep control of that situation. I also did not feel like I could hug whomever I was with in public, even during those 'better' times.
Paper victories are hollow without enforcement and enlightenment.
After five decades of my life in fear, it is only in the past ten years that I can even attempt to show affection to my husband in public.I am not talking about naked romps in the park (which is one of the tropes that the rethugs and their religious cronies use to make us sound like wild animals), I am talking about a simple kiss. I felt no safer doing that when a Democratic party member is in office than when a rethug is in office. Why? They both operate under the same parameters. They get money from other people. If they piss off other people, they won't get money. The topic of Homosexuality has been a great tool for the rethugs for the past 60+ years. By making it political, they get to ignore the human reality of what is still going on these days. And, I have seen no one trying to remove that onus. Well, no one that might be able to achieve such a thing, anyway.
Taking one or two steps is a great starting point, but taking one or two steps and then celebrating 'victory' is... well...
Typical?
Also, I think I have expressed my position several times on the current 'changes' going on these days. If you wish, I suppose I can write up something that would explain my position and what I think should occur going forward. The issue is that, despite the usual propaganda that 'anyone can be President!', we know that is certainly NOT the case. 'Anyone' cannot be a member of the body politic without money and prestige behind them. Which means, no one except those with money can get anywhere in our governmental processes. Which means that the only thing that matters in government is... money. Not 'of, by and for the people'.
I have never had any money. I do not have any money, and I never will have any money. So, why keep on saying my thing when there is no way anyone cares or even wants to consider it. Since we prefer to answer questions that we already know the answer to anyway, the concept of 'progress' becomes even more of a joke. I am not alone in this. Personally, I am tired of being a 'stepping stone'.
It doesn't matter, though. My life is soon to be over, and I did nothing to help the world because the world did not care about what I said or did, despite the propaganda that said I should, and that they would.
I still cannot walk down the street with my husband without getting some stares. To this day. In what is supposedly a 'very blue' state.
"Equality' my fat, old, broke ass.
But, I will not support anything 'fervently' until it gives me a reason to. Just because one side allows you to live when the other side won't doesn't mean much when the system (that they both keep in place) won't let you do much of anything to survive.
And, well...
And BOY, do I question that statement about Democrats keeping their 'crazy aunts and uncles locked up in the attic'.
But, both are debates for another time.
Thanks for your input.
