Trump administration: transgender are not people

Donald Trump had claimed during his run for the presidency that he would be good for the LGBT community. It was just another of his innumerable lies:

The department argued in its memo that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender as determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.” The agency’s proposed definition would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.

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The new definition would essentially eradicate federal recognition of the estimated 1.4 million Americans who have opted to recognize themselves — surgically or otherwise — as a gender other than the one they were born into.

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The Trump administration has sought to bar transgender people from serving in the military and has legally challenged civil rights protections for the group embedded in the nation’s health care law.
Several agencies have withdrawn Obama-era policies that recognized gender identity in schools, prisons and homeless shelters. The administration even tried to remove questions about gender identity from a 2020 census survey and a national survey of elderly citizens.

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One of the Trump administration’s first decisive policy acts was the rescission by the Education and Justice Departments of Obama-era guidelines that protected transgender students who wanted to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity.
Since the guidance was rescinded, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has halted and dismissed discrimination cases filed by transgender students over access to school facilities. A restrictive governmentwide definition would cement the Education Department’s current approach.

If you live in Massachusetts you should vote Yes on question 3 which keeps transgender rights passed two years ago.

MA Family Institute wants discrimination back

Massachusetts added gender identity to the list of reasons people can’t be discriminated against in 2016. That’s very upsetting to some people so they’re trying to get it overturned by ballot:

A November ballot question asking voters whether to keep or repeal the state’s 2016 antidiscrimination law is expected to be the first statewide referendum on transgender rights, taking the national temperature on a fiery hot social issue.

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Leading the repeal effort are conservative and religious activists and some of the same groups that tried unsuccessfully for years to prevent or stop same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Their Keep MA Safe campaign — whose website features the bathroom video — suggests that the rights afforded by the state’s antidiscrimination law are infringing upon others’ privacy and potentially endangering women and children.

“A man can enter a woman’s space at any time, without any proof of any sort of medical or psychological condition, merely based on his internal sense of self if he says he identifies as a woman,” said Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

I have no problem with transgender people being in the same bathroom as me.  I’d be much more worried if Beckwith was in a stall next to me, he seems overly conscious of exactly who is in the bathroom with him.

Donald Trump and Political Correctness

Here’s more political correctness from the Trump Whitehouse:

The words “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” and “diversity” were among seven terms and phrases reportedly banned from use in some official documents at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Documents related to federal budget proposals that contained those words were sent back to the agency for “correction,” according to the CDC’s Alison Kelly. She told The Washington Post that four other banned words and phrases — “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” and “science-based” — were communicated verbally.

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The Trump administration in its early days quickly scrubbed information related to LGBTQ people from the Health and Human Services website, and the Associated Press reported in March that the US Census Bureau would not include a category for LGBTQ people in its proposal for the 2020 census.

And just days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Reuters reported that his administration told the Environmental Protection Agency to remove mentions of climate change from its website. Trump has previously made clear his personal doubts about climate change, at points insisting it’s an “expensive hoax.” The president’s views on the matter helped inform his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change in June.

Donald Trump is fond of saying that he hates political correctness but he really means he likes insulting people. This type of stuff is the real thing and he’s all for it.

 

Trump contradicts himself

During the campaign Donald Trump proclaimed that he was a friend to the LGBT community, but this still isn’t surprising:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reversed a three-year-old Justice Department policy that protected transgender workers from discrimination under federal law.

In a memo to his US attorney offices and agency heads, Sessions said that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect transgender people from workplace discrimination by private employers and state and local governments.

‘‘Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status,’’ Sessions wrote in the memo dated Wednesday.

Trump lies all the time so you should never trust what he says and he has surrounded himself with cultural warriors (Pence, Sessions, …).

Republicans always claim that they are against abortion but won’t go against contraception. You can trust them about as much as you can trust Trump:

The Trump administration issued a rule Friday that sharply limits the Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage mandate, a move that could mean many American women would no longer have access to birth control free of charge.

The new regulation, issued by the Health and Human Services Department, allows a much broader group of employers and insurers to exempt themselves from covering contraceptives such as birth control pills on religious or moral grounds. The decision, anticipated from the Trump administration for months, is the latest twist in a seesawing legal and ideological fight that has surrounded this aspect of the 2010 health-care law nearly from the start.

And then there’s foreign policy. North Korea is a mess, especially now that it has nuclear weapons, so it’s a great time to try to pull out of the treaty with Iran that has kept Iran from developing nuclear weapons:

But Trump, after twice certifying the deal, has warned his aides that he would not do so again. As a result, the administration is looking for ways to claim Iran is in violation of the “spirit” of the accord, even if it has complied with inspection criteria.The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that Iran was in compliance. When the agency has found minor violations, they have been quickly fixed.

This will indeed isolate a country but it might not be the US:

Britain, France, and Germany, all signatories to the agreement, are watching Trump’s deliberations with deepening concern. Diplomats from the three countries, as well as from the European Union, met with dozens of senators this week to warn them that if the United States withdrew, Europe would not follow.

Trump has no problem with being inconsistent:

The United States is poised to permanently lift sanctions on Sudan, US officials said on Thursday, recognizing the long-estranged country’s progress on human rights and counterterrorism after decades of war and abuses.

Sure, Sudan has done a lot more worse things than Iran but … Trump just doesn’t like Iran.

For fun (if you like worrying about nuclear war):

‘‘You guys know what this represents?’’ Trump asked. ‘‘Maybe it’s the calm before the storm. Could be the calm, the calm before the storm.’’

‘‘What storm Mr. President?’’ one reporter shouted. ISIS? North Korea? Iran?

‘‘You’ll find out,’’ the president said.

Finally, via Kevin Drum, let’s look back at that IRS scandal where they targeted the Tea Party groups. Here’s KD’s summary:

In total, the IRS audited 111 left-wing groups and 19 right-wing groups based on BOLO criteria. (It’s unclear how the “healthcare” category broke out between left and right.)

The vast majority were left-wing groups, but the IRS was being so unfair to the TEA Party groups.

Trump supports the troops some more

This is Trump supporting the troops:

President Trump is preparing to give the Defense Department authority to expel transgender people from the military in an upcoming order, barring the Pentagon from recruiting transgender troops, and cutting off payment for sexual reassignment surgery and other medical treatments for those already serving.

A White House memo that is expected to be sent to the Pentagon in the coming days gives Jim Mattis, the secretary of defense, six months to enforce the transgender ban that Trump announced abruptly last month in a series of tweets. The directive was confirmed Wednesday by a person familiar with its contents but who was not authorized to discuss its details and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The authority has not been finalized. Once it is approved, it would allow Mattis to force out transgender service members by setting a legal standard of whether they would be able to deploy to war zones or for other lengthy military missions.

So when he tweets something like this:

 GREAT HONOR to spend time with our BRAVE HEROES at the @USMC Air Station Yuma. THANK YOU for your service to the United States of America!

remember that he doesn’t include everyone in the military, only the ones that appeal to him. Don’t be surprised if the list of people in the military he supports decreases as time goes along. More here.

This is how Trump supports the troops

Here’s a series of tweets from the President:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

As with anything Trump, this is a series of lies, bluster, and bigotry.

• They aren’t his generals.
• He didn’t consult with them before the decision:

Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, was given only a day’s notice about the decision.

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His decision was announced with such haste that the White House could not answer basic inquiries about how it would be carried out, including what would happen to openly transgender people on active duty. Of eight defense officials interviewed, none could say.

• The cost involved is minimal:

It estimated that health care costs would rise $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year, representing an infinitesimal 0.04 to 0.13 percent increase in spending.

• Allowing transgender people to serve in other countries has had little or no effect in the military:

Studies based on the experiences of other countries that allow trans military service, such as Israel, Canada, and the UK, show that, in fact, allowing trans people to serve openly has little to no effect on military readiness or costs.

Remember that there are currently thousands of transgender military personnel, so he has just said that he doesn’t support them even though they are serving their country right now.

Oh, it also turns out that you can’t change policy by tweet so this isn’t even a real thing. It’s just a punch to the LGBTQ community (remember that Trump had he was a big supporter of them when he was campaigning) and it was followed by another:

In the latest and most significant anti-LGBT action yet from the Trump administration, the Justice Department last night filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit arguing that federal civil rights laws do not protect individuals from discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

I stand with the LGBT community

Another terrible event in the US:

A gunman who pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State opened fire in a crowded gay nightclub here early Sunday, killing 50 people and injuring 53 others in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

The man who did this had good reasons:

‘‘We were in downtown Miami, Bayside, people were playing music. And he saw two men kissing each other in front of his wife and kid and he got very angry,’’ the father told NBC News. ‘‘They were kissing each other and touching each other and he said, ‘Look at that. In front of my son they are doing that.’ ‘‘

Oh, a family man:

But there also were early signs of emotional trouble and a volatile temper, according to a woman who was briefly married to Mateen. The woman, who spoke on the condition on anonymity, citing fears for her safety, described Mateen as an abusive husband who beat her repeatedly while they were married.

‘‘He was not a stable person,’’ the ex-wife told The Washington Post. ‘‘He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.’’

You know what, that’s enough about him because fuck him.

But think about it, he was investigated by the FBI twice, beat his wife, and had no trouble getting guns. Fuck the NRA

You knew Trump would have something to say:

Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!

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Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism? If he doesn’t he should immediately resign in disgrace!

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I have been hitting Obama and Crooked Hillary hard on not using the term Radical Islamic Terror. Hillary just broke-said she would now use!

When he says he was right, he means in calling for an end to allowing Muslims to immigrate to the US, but this guy was born and grew up in the US. And I’ve always found the whole ‘they won’t use the correct words’ stupid. Is Osama bin Laden less dead because President Obama doesn’t want to antagonize all Muslims?

For fun, let’s look at a small side story from yesterday:

A New Mexico man is accused of fatally shooting his wife and four daughters in their home and then fleeing in his car, according to authorities Sunday.

Juan David Villegas-Hernandez remained at large a day after the five victims were found dead, Roswell police said.

A relative who went to check on the family late Saturday discovered the bodies, police spokesman Todd Wildermuth said.

This type of thing, a woman and her 4 daughters that were 14, 11, 7, and 3, is not big news.  Mass shootings, even ones involving multiple children, are normal.

Fuck that.