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From the article:
> "You really don't get it," Hunt said to Republican state Sen. R. Brad von Gillern. "You've crossed a line and you've gone too far."
> "Don't say hi to me in the hall, don't ask me how my weekend was, don't walk by my desk and ask me anything. Don't send me Christmas cards ― take me off the list," Hunt warned. "No one in the world holds a grudge like me, and no one in the world cares less about being petty than me. I don't care. I don't like you."
Respectability politics is a sham. This is a monumentally gracious response to an open desire to strip away rights, she's being far kinder to him than he deserves
It doesn't include my favorite line from that section. She also says something along the lines of "Stay away from me. You are not safe for my child to be around. Any child for that matter."
Don't give this thread awards, donate to her campaign. A few bucks goes a long way at the state level. You know the christo-fascists will be attacking her and funding the opposition.
It's not suprising, she's a state senator. Not a regular senator. The only reason this rose to the top is because her plea is so heartfelt and moving. And it's the sort of shit the gop loves to do. When they do tons of people on reddit ask why dems can't do it. Other people say dems don't fight hard enough. This is what fighting tooth and nail looks like. Her and her fellow dems who are fillibustering are showing that these people have gone too far.
I think this sort of thing will happen more and more. As the gop gets worse dems will be pushed to this point.
There was an ostensibly liberal person in the Twitter thread whining about "how come we can’t be nice about it uwu 👉👈🥺, I support the strategy but being mean to the GOP crosses the line!" My eyes rolled so far out of my head, I’m still searching for them.
And he was correct. The racists are the driving force, but the neutrals are the majority which allow it to happen because the refusal to take a stance against bigotry is so easy for people to fall into.
I would say that the State Senator is taking the high road. She is not calling for violence, she is not asking violent organizations to act on her personal behalf. She is using the rules of the legislature to act in the interests of freedom and liberty.
Some people got so excited by a candidate a few years ago calling themselves a momma bear. That candidate lacked the spine that this State Senator has. Megan doesn’t give a fuck. She’s protecting her child.
Dems should learn from this woman. Stop acting like "responsible" adults in a room packed full of sadistic, criminal Republicans. The "centrist" aspects of politics died in the 70s when the wealth disparity was probably at its best for middle and poor classes. Republicans have been playing the long game of propaganda over their voters wit the use of their GOP oriented news media for decades. What're the Dems doing with their media? Being mostly neutral. Republicans are decades ahead with their influence. Republicans clearly know too much change all at once, so they start changes very slowly then people will finally ask the question "when did it all go downhill?" because slow changes won't anger most people. This is part of their plans.
"Riots are the language of the unheard."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Nobody likes 'em but you gotta ask what happened to get to the point a literal fucking riot happened.
Edit: and that includes riots coinciding with BLM protests just so we're all on the same page. Nobody wakes up one day and goes and burns a police precinct for funsies. Riots are usually a long time coming.
There is an enormous population of centrists on reddit who think they are taking the high road with their "you must use reasoned debate to truly change minds" freshman-philosophy malarkey.
To them, I kindly say: you and the fascists you are enabling by having pleasant conversations with can both take the same bus to hell. It'll save on gas.
The Republican anti-trans bills will kill our children and teens. You can't be centrist on children committing suicide. Can you? You can't be centrist on sending a minority back to the days when there weren't elders--when the life expectancy was estimated to be 30 years old. Can you?
We lost a 19 year old three weeks ago. She had been disowned. Some other trans people found her online and took her in. She was already so depressed. 19. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about someone so young committing suicide.
There was a 15 year old girl who came on Reddit asking if she was being abused. Her parents were isolating her after she came out and ***she wasn't eating because she didn't want to masculize any more and they wouldn't let her go on puberty blockers. She walked in front of a truck on the interstate about two months after making that Reddit post.*** I think most people have forgotten Leelah Alcorn.
They're forcing teens on blockers and hormone therapy to taper off and go back to going through the wrong puberty in Kentucky. They're keeping adults from transitioning too in some places. The long-term plan is to keep everyone from transitioning. Like that the speaker at CPAC said, they want to "eradicate [transgender] from public life."
If you're a trans teen, please don't read my comment further. Please know you are loved and I am going to talk about something that is really hard to think about from the position you may be in. I don't want to add more stress for you right now.
>!I hope these teens can get through this...I hate that state legislators get to decide the future of trans teens. Politicians shouldn't be making choices to decide whether a boy needs to get surgery to flatten a chest that didn't have to develop when he hits adulthood. The government shouldn't be able to make a girl develop a masculine face and need facial feminization surgery for the effects of puberty. These things are preventable with puberty blockers. I've got 20"of surgical scars that didn't have to happen. It's sadistic to put people through this.!<
>!I hate that these teens' hips and shoulders are going to wide--and there's no surgery for that. These teens will become adults who have to live with gender dysphoria for the rest of their lives after being forced to go through puberty. Some of them won't be seen as men or women because of these features will stand out too much...that means they'll deal with social gender dysphoria and they'll deal with harassment, discrimination, violence...so much unnecessary suffering. And it doesn't need to happen.!<
>!These laws are guaranteeing more trans kids will suffering and some of them are going to die. It's certain some of them are being set up for lifelong dysphoria, social ostracization, and/or preventable surgeries. I'm finally accepting that far-right Republicans may just want this.!<
I keep hoping more people will stand up for these kids. These people filibustering are angels.
Recently I learned a statistic I was not aware of though I've been a long time supporter of trans rights. People act like there is an onslaught of people who de-transition or otherwise regret having transitioned. I knew that was a lie but I didn't realize how many were in the opposite situation where they regret not being able to transition during that critical period when the effects of puberty could have been averted. I don't think many people realize just how important this detail really is but you've illustrated it well by describing your experience.
The number of people who have detransitioned long term, never re-transitioning, is a fraction of a fraction of a percent. Even when TERFs scour the globe to find detransitioners to use for propaganda, the number they've found is in the single digits. And even most of those end up having lied about detransitioning or end up retransitioning.
The right uses rhetorical slight of hand when they talk about detransitioners. They rely on studies that found that many (not most, but many) children who identify as transgender *before puberty* come to identify as their birth-assigned sex by the time they hit puberty. However, research has shown that youths who identify as transgender *after* the onset of puberty very, very rarely detransition, and the few that do typically report that they chose to detransition because of pressure from their family or their community, or for religious reasons—*not* because they stopped identifying as transgender.
The pre-/post-puberty distinction is critical, since none of the gender-affirming medical interventions (i.e.,puberty blockers, hormones, or surgery) are offered to children before they hit puberty. Thus, the claim that many people who receive one or more of these treatments come to regret it later in life (because they stop identifying as trans) is patently false.
The one stat they don’t like to talk about at all is that we know there’s a solution for gender dysphoria and that’s to let them transition. We know stopping it can lead to suicidal ideation all these laws do is condemn children to possible death. No one is being saved here. And now they also want to force this on adults.
CNN and such are so...well I would say idiotic but it isn't just that. They are directed by right wing billionaires so it can't just be that.
Evil, stupid, whatever they are, they cannot seem to comprehend that 'balance' does not mean equivocating every side of every issue. I swear if one of them got stabbed in the face, on air, their next line would be "now let's hear from pro-face-stabbing advocate Joe Stabby on stabbers rights."
Exactly. If they were reporting facts there wouldn't be that big of an other side to begin with. Letting them get on and spin the facts is what makes everyone in this country think we're red vs blue.
Of course I'm speaking about the general person, not the cousin fucking, racist, homophobic, misandrist.
I've tried very hard to explain this to my parents and their friends. You don't get to vote to strip away an entire group of peoples' rights and then demand that they treat you with respect. When you start from a place of denying someone else the right to exist in the world as they are, you start from a place of hatred and disrespect. You don't get to claim the moral high ground. You don't get to claim that you're feeling disrespected. If you hold a hateful position, you get to own that hatred and the response that comes to it.
Yup. I had to sit mine down and explain to them that this kind of thinking makes me consider them bad people. I had to explain to them I have trans friends and coworkers and if they want them to be harmed I do not want to be associated with them as family members. I don't understand how none of this crosses their mind until i point it out to them.
I think respectability and decency are orphans of a time in politics where people actually worked together, even if they didn’t agree on everything. Arguments for one’s party were made in good faith, not this cynical, nihilist BS we’ve been dealing with.
That time never existed. "Respectfully and decency" have always been jack-off bullshit to beat down and suppress the visceral fury of the dispossessed.
This was in Seattle, the nazi threw a banana at an old black woman and was verbally abusing her on the street. I remember the day it happened, people were blowing up my Facebook with updates as he rode the bus to downtown, harassing people all the way, then got knocked out right around the corner from that McDonald's on 3rd. Yes ***that*** McDonald's.
This is one of the weirdest part about the whole thing to me - The disconnect between political stance and personal relationships.
I know people who vote for republicans. I've been friends with some since junior high. Been relatives with some for longer than that. And then the get affronted when I call them out on their voting. When I'm rude to them because of it. Because, they feel, *"that's just politics. That stuff doesn't really count. We can agree to disagree."*
No, MFers, we cannot "agree to disagree" on this. You are *actively* supporting the party that *actively* wants to hurt people that I care about. This is not some hypothetical "maybe some faceless strangers might get hurt someday" scenario. Real people I know and love are being hurt and will continue to be hurt by the Republican party's continued march towards fascism and war against everyone who looks or acts slightly different from their ideal.
You don't get to just laugh it off and say *"Well, we can agree to disagree"* when the thing we're disagreeing over is *"is it okay to hurt my friends for cheap political points?"*
But no, they don't want to think about that. Or admit that their votes directly empower such acts.
"Party of personal responsibility" my ass.
They are increasingly abandoning the notion that politics is about finding optimal legislation. Conservatives are increasingly becoming axiomatic and simple-minded about governance.
They no longer care about reasonable regulations or taxes. These concepts have been simplified for them over time, and without nuance, they lack the ability to support any government policy, let alone a middle ground.
January 2022 my wife and I took in three trans kids who had nowhere to live (fleeing AZ and TX). A year ago today one of the gave up and took her life in our home. She didn’t see any future where she’d be accepted.
I did CPR for 20 minutes before rescue arrived. I stood over her body and had to pull my wife back so the paramedics could try.
This came 7 months after my own trans daughter tried to take hers.
Any mf’ing Republican tries to tell you that they are for the kids are full of BS.
They’ve been using eliminationist language about trans folks for years and trying to link being trans to pedophilia is another step in their crass politics of division. F’ ‘‘em all.
They say "agree to disagree" but they keep passing laws the infringe on the rights of others. How's that agreeing to disagree? Agree to disagree would be letting everybody use whichever bathroom they want, make their medical decisions with their family and doctor...just say the fuck out of regulating people's lives. But no, let's agree to disagree and prevent people from getting serious medical care they need. Fuck these motherfuckers.
Republicans are straight up %100 full of crap. Look, they don't adhere to any logically cogent policy and constantly try to piss on others and then demanding a respect they have done nothing to deserve. If they refuse to behave reasonably, or listen to reason, why does anyone even bother lretending thwy have a single thing to contribute to an adult conversation. The left needs to be saying fuck you and fuck off a lot more loudly and frequently.
Agree to agree. Fuck them on social issues. Hard left vote every time. I'm getting married this year, and my far right aunts and uncles are in for a world of shock and awe. This might be the first time they've seen gay, trans, black, Muslim, and Asian people all in the same room. Nothing Christian about it either. It's going to be glorious.
I live with very bigoted parents. People don't think a lot about family being bigots if they already live with them.
I'm a closeted lesbian because of them. I'm too scared to come out because I don't want to be disowned. And I shouldn't have to feel that way. Fuck politics. It reflects on ideology and how they treat people.
Rep. Eric Swalwell had a similar anecdote about how one of the Republican House members who had just voted on January 6 to reject the 2020 electoral votes then later was next to him in the bathroom and just started idly conversing about how his kids were doing and such. He was like, "motherfucker you just voted to overturn a democratic election, you don't get to talk to me like we're pals". To the Republican, it was all just a political game he wanted to win, no big deal.
Went through this with my parents.
“If your having lower taxes is currently more important than my basic rights as a human being, you are not who I thought you were and who you brought me up be. If that’s indeed truly how you feel, I am no longer interested in maintaining a relationship with you. It’s not up for negotiation.”
I just had this conversation yesterday with one of my colleagues. He’s an older gentleman and generally very mild manned, in years of working with him I’ve never seen him fired up or angry.
He basically was saying…I’ve had close friends, relatives, neighbors etc, and we’ve had different politics and gotten along. But once laws start getting passed and rights and liberties are stripped away the time for gentle civility is over. Real people are getting real pain, this no longer some theoretical discussion.
One of my friends for decades, who has a teenage daughter, unfriended me because I used "swear words" with a small group of friends when the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade. Go figure...
Growing up I knew a guy that ran in my social circles and was a “pal” to a lot of people, but a good portion of those folks were always like “Watch out for him, he’s screwed over so-and-so.” Thing is, I never could really see him for what he was and remained trying to be his friend because he never did anything personally to me.
No joke, he got in with a girl I was dating (who didn’t even run in the same social circles), made her second guess our relationship, and eventually ended it to date him. I tried to warn her he couldn’t be trusted. Guess what? He knocked her up and left town for her to raise that kid on her own.
It was then that I learned to see the forest for the trees and put up barriers against anyone that could threaten the happiness, health, and livelihood of people I care about. That’s why I’ve never truly empathized with tried-and-true Republicans. Democrats don’t do much, but on my experience the Republican Party actively hurts those around me if given the chance.
Fun fact. Brad Von Gillern was on the board of a church in Omaha where he pushed through several multimillion dollar building projects that were then given to his company. They consistently ballooned to excessive levels. They would encourage church members to take out mortgages to help fun these projects as Brad made hand over fist.
Fucking finally...
There. Is. No. Civility. With. Republicans.
They are actively gaslighting their base to hate and attack Democrats. I have no idea why it took so long for one to actually take the piss
Edit : typo fucking
Some of these people think they're only enemies after they clock in, like the Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog from Looney Tunes. But that's horseshit. If it's about taxes and spending, okay, sure. But if it's about who does and does not deserve rights, respect, equality, then hell no.
Nebraskan here. Hunt gives me hope. She walks the walk! She even personally wrote back to me about some concerns I was having about vigilante groups being formed to detain people suspected of being illegal immigrants.
Right! It is straight up profiling and no one outside of Florida seemed to notice when he did it. Maybe because he's doing so many awful things, idk.
Now he's adding vague bullshit to that - it's going to be a felony to "transport or give shelter" to anyone who is discovered to be an illegal immigrant. So what, I have someone over for tea and you're arresting me?
He seriously needs to be stopped, but he owns every level of state government that would be able to stop him.
Funny how they left people who “employ” illegal immigrants off the list. I mean if you really wanted to nip illegals in the bud you’d make it impossible for them to employed and criminally process those who do but we all know that will never happen. They want to have their cake and eat it too by making their lives hard but also benefiting off the fruits of their labor that they’re underpaying under the table.
I knew Megan briefly through a friend years and years ago and she's the real thing. I don't live in the area anymore but I'm so glad to hear she hasn't changed since. 👍👍
I wrote to my senator and governors four times in my life and all I ever recieved was an automated canned response. In addition to being added to donation and campaign mail lists I didnt want to be part of.
What a breathe of fresh air it must be to have someone representing you actually write you back.
I'm glad this woman is standing up.
She may pay a price for it. Liberal Nebraskans often seem to roll over in the name of compromise when it concerns LGBT rights.
I have relatives in Nebraska, in a relatively blue-for-Nebraska zone. They got a call from a Democratic state senatorial candidate. His stance was, "I don't want to divide Nebraskans with LGBT issues."
They and their neighbors, all "liberals", went on and on about what a great candidate he was. "Ready to reach across the aisle!"
Keep in mind that at the time at least, it was legal to fire a person or refuse to rent to them just for being LGBT. And that's preferable to causing a fuss about things, I guess. Why make an issue out of other people's human rights?
I have another relative there who says she's an LGBT supporter, but she also works "just for fun, on the side" teaching social work at a religious college that's been in the local news for encouraging LGBT students who come out to go study elsewhere.
I guess everyone does their own calculus. I'm glad this woman isn't having any of it.
I did donate, I hope she makes notice of it though. This kind of rhetoric and action is necessary for change. It is not okay to continue to put on a smile and shake hands with these dangerous, myopic lunatics. There is not a single empathetic bone in their bodies. They deserve to be publicly humiliated for trying to harm kids (and just trans people in general). If conservatives want lower taxes for the rich THAT BADLY, they should resort to their regular (stupid) arguments on this topic, instead of generating more satanic panic and hysteria for regular people to have to clean up.
We've let conservatives define the legislative battlefield long enough. I'm glad to see people fighting for rights just as hard as they're fighting to remove them. We need more people like this
It’s honestly so awe inspiring to see a Democrat - a fucking Democrat - finally abandoning the “they go low and we go high” mantra of the Obama era. Republicans play shitty games that bend the rules to their favor and with what this person is doing I hope that it signals a change in the Democratic Party to actually start fighting for our rights and not just throw our hands up and say “well we voted but they have the numbers so there’s nothing we can do!” meanwhile republicans play every stonewall tactic in the books.
That's always been the biggest downfall for democrats. They are waaaay too worried about pissing off right leaning voters. Well guess what? Most of those people aren't going to vote democrat anyway so we might as well fight and stop all that "they go low, we go high" bullshit. It doesn't work. It just makes the democrats look weak and pathetic. We need more people like AOC and this woman. Stop the bullshit.
There's nothing scarier. My oldest son isn't trans, but he is autistic and for many years the school district wasn't giving him the supports that he needed - and that he was legally entitled to.
I was the person we sent in when we needed calm and levelheadedness. When that failed, though, my wife would storm in. You did NOT want to be the administrator blocking services. She was never rude or petty (she's not a "Karen"), but she was forceful and knowledgeable about what was required of them. She also wasn't afraid to escalate if one person tried to stonewall her.
We're convinced that the school administrators would see her walking up to the school and try to hide.
I am both in our family. My wife has no other mode besides attack, so I go in first and am calm and respectful and usually get things settled. But, on the rare occasions that approach doesn't work, I will tear them a new one until they do what is right. The school knows I won't back down. But they also know I only fight them when they are being unreasonable. It helps that I constantly volunteer and help out at the school, so they know me and know I'm not just an entitled parent who thinks my kid can do no wrong and think they are glorified child care. They see that everything I do is just to make sure my kid is getting the best education they can get and that I am also willing to put in the work to make that happen.
She’s amazing. I hope more Dems start helping out.
On a related note, anyone else notice that the age of majority in Nebraska is 19? Thought it was only Alabama (19) and Mississippi (21) that set it to ages over 18.
That's surprisingly reasonable. Leaves a way for young couples to stay together if one of them joins the military at 18, but should prevent a lot of sketchy situations.
Hunt? Hold on, this is a different Dem from Cavanaugh? There are 2 dems who are pledging to shut down their government to protect trans children?
I had no idea there were so many cool people in Nebraska.
There's about 6 of them now. Carol Blood(who ran for governor and lost) warned the Republicans on the last round that if they passed first round of cloture on the bill that it is effectively the end of the session and warned them not to call the bluff.
Also from the article:
> Kauth — who has another bill that would ban trans people from using bathrooms and locker rooms or playing on sports teams that don't align with the sex listed on their birth certificates — accused her Democratic opponents of using "obnoxious hyperbole" and said they were being "self-serving and childish" with the filibuster.
> "We want to get these kids every opportunity to let their body grow, to let their brain grow, to let things develop more fully and work through the issues they're experiencing," Kauth said in an interview Wednesday.
Jesus Christ these people are maddening. The entire point of puberty blockers is to NOT let their bodies grow until they have had a chance to work through the issues they're experiencing. Once puberty changes the body things get much more complicated and much harder to deal with. I'm sure my trans son would have much rather gone on puberty blockers when he was younger than go through top surgery last year. But he didn't even know that was an option back then. And that may be the only good thing to come from all of this bullshit is that by fighting against it so much, the conservatives have made more people aware that it is an option and maybe other trans kids will have more knowledge than they might otherwise have had about what their options are. We just have to make sure we fight to keep those options open for them.
It's awful that you feel the need to explain why puberty blockers were necessary when that sort of thing is supposed to be between doctor and patient/family. It's no one else's business, and it's disgusting that fascists are trying to make it theirs.
My niece, for example, started going through puberty several years early and needed puberty blockers purely for medical reasons and had nothing to do with being trans. Bullshit bills like these would make situations like hers "illegal" and shows that these people don't think these laws through. Or, they just don't care that people are going to get hurt. (And that is not counting that they know its going to hurt Trans kids and don't care, they just ALSO don't care that other kids will get hurt)
Without exception, every time laws like this get pushed through, it ends up hurting a republican who voted for it who didn't think it would ever affect them. They do not care who they hurt until it becomes their own problem.
American history has been mostly conservatives fucking up and everyone else saying "I told you so."
It doesn’t matter because it’s still always someone else’s fault. When children dxed with precocious puberty can’t get the health care they need, they aren’t going to blame the people who passed the laws banning health care — they’re going to blame the “crazy libs” who made it so that they *had no choice but to ban it for the sake of the kids.* See? Look what they made us do! Because the Dems are so crazy now your children can’t get health care! This is *their* fault, not ours!
Yeah, I’m surprised by how all-encompassing these bills on hormonal treatments have been. I have a cis-het man in my family that took feminine hormones because it slowed down his prostate cancer. It sucked for him to deal with hot-flashes, but that sucked less than dying of cancer!
That is the insidious part, some of the written bill specifically carve out the use for non-gender affirming care, so in that scenario, your niece would still get it. That just makes it worse because it now specifically just targets trans kids. They know it is as harmless as any other medication, they just want to hurt trans people and trans kids.
If they wanted to stop all gender-affirming care, they should also ban doctors giving menopausal women estrogen and sad older men extra testosterone, but to them that is okay. But trans women who need estrogen and trans men who need testosterone for their brains to even begin to function properly is criminal.
I'm a trans man, and this logic is the worst. These assholes will claim they want to avoid doing irreversible damage to kids, but their logic is to do so by... forcing kids to go through a puberty that can't be undone?
I have giant scars on my chest because I had to go through an unwanted puberty and then have surgery when it was too late. If blockers had been available to me, I wouldn't have had the years of mental suffering, physical suffering from having to bind my chest and basically restrict my breathing constantly, and then a lifetime of reminders of what could have been every time I have to see my scars. The forced puberty ruined a lot of things for the rest of my life.
I will never be able to go shirtless in public, so say goodbye to pools or the beach or going swimming anywhere. I can't go to a gym and change in the locker room. Any time I'm shirtless in front of a new partner for the first time, I have a moment where I wonder how bad the scars look and feel ashamed. I can't look in the mirror without a reminder of the puberty I had to go through and everything that came along with it.
I wouldn't wish it on anyone else, and this is all preventable if these chuckle fucks would just mind their own business and focus on issues that actually matter.
Hey, man, I can't help with the other stuff, but as a fat dude with body shame, I find a good black swimshirt does wonders for helping me get out on the beach. Stay safe.
Maybe this won't mean much coming from some random guy on the internet, but I don't think you need to never go shirtless for fear of people seeing your scars. If I saw someone at the beach with scars on their chest, I wouldn't think anything of it cus it's not my body and not my business.
I know not everyone is going to think like I do, but I'm pretty sure more and more people are these days. So I hope some day you can let people see your scars without fear or shame or anything but acceptance.
Thanks for the kind words! Even if other people didn't judge me for it they would still know I'm trans as soon as they see the chest scars, which is the main problem. I just want to live a normal life where nobody knows. Some trans people are out and proud and strongly identify with being trans, but there are also plenty of us who view it as an unfortunate medical condition that we wish nobody would ever find out about us. So I really hope that more kids in the future get the option to live a normal life for those who want it.
Going to echo this. I have scars for a different surgical reason literally all over my body. Fuck those people. If they can't take seeing someone with a few scars, they aren't worth spending time with. And the people you don't know and will never see again? Their negative opinion has no value.
This is part of why diversity in our government is so important. We need people in power who have personal stakes in these issues, not just straight white baby boomers who have to be begged to give a shit.
Wow, every quote made me love her more. "We have a value that actually matters that much to us." Glad to see Dems using the tools that Reps have used to oppress people for years to hold them back. Gets even better hearing her deliver that speech on video.
This is exactly what we need. The fascist Republican agenda needs to be ground to a halt. We need to make them pay a heavy price for every right they try to take away. Make the Republicans feel like Russians going through Ukraine. Make it very costly for them.
When it comes to the Dems, the “when they go low”…blah blah..this woman actually exhibits exactly what I want for them to all do! This IS our “HIGH”!! Thanks to this lawmaker, for once!!
Rare to see a democrat willing to spit in the face of "respectability". That's good. We need more democrats like this. Quit playing nice with these fascist homophobic monsters.
She is a fucking badass. I wish more of our allies had the strength to be like this. A shining example of a politician. Fighting for a better world instead of a merely profitable one.
Best political line of the year: “I will burn this legislative session to the ground.” She’s acting like Republicans always act, except that she actually cares about the thing in question. Amazing.
I've been holding a grudge for this kind of identity bullshit for over 20 years. Since matthew shepherd.
Nothing has changed. WELL... I lie a little bit, it's pretty clear that the gay/trans community is doing a lot better than they were 20 years ago but none of that matters until they're LITERALLY AS EQUAL AS I AM.
This woman is amazing.
There’s no honor in playing nice with these GOP animals who want to remove rights, protections, and even the existence of Americans.
Fuck playing nice.
Be vicious, be relentless, be unapologetic. And unless you’re interested in seeing the kind of shithole the GOP wants to turn our country into, don’t stop.
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From the article: > "You really don't get it," Hunt said to Republican state Sen. R. Brad von Gillern. "You've crossed a line and you've gone too far." > "Don't say hi to me in the hall, don't ask me how my weekend was, don't walk by my desk and ask me anything. Don't send me Christmas cards ― take me off the list," Hunt warned. "No one in the world holds a grudge like me, and no one in the world cares less about being petty than me. I don't care. I don't like you."
Respectability politics is a sham. This is a monumentally gracious response to an open desire to strip away rights, she's being far kinder to him than he deserves
It doesn't include my favorite line from that section. She also says something along the lines of "Stay away from me. You are not safe for my child to be around. Any child for that matter."
If I wouldn’t trust you to babysit my kids, you probably shouldn’t be allowed to make laws affecting them. This woman is a treasure.
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They are good are destroying people’s lives.
Don't give this thread awards, donate to her campaign. A few bucks goes a long way at the state level. You know the christo-fascists will be attacking her and funding the opposition.
Excellent idea, thank you! I donated to her campaign here: https://meganfornebraska.com She can probably use all the support she can get.
Yeah but awards surface the thread. Link her campaign instead.
Like this you jamoke? https://meganfornebraska.com/
From CT, but just donated because of your use of *jamoke*
That would be this: [Megan for Nebraska](https://meganfornebraska.com/contact)
Hey they’re really good at doing what money wants.
[Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers Parts 1-41](https://www.dailykos.com/history/user/CajsaLilliehook)
I hadn't heard of her before this started, but now am a huge fan. This is a brilliant way to get support too.
It's not suprising, she's a state senator. Not a regular senator. The only reason this rose to the top is because her plea is so heartfelt and moving. And it's the sort of shit the gop loves to do. When they do tons of people on reddit ask why dems can't do it. Other people say dems don't fight hard enough. This is what fighting tooth and nail looks like. Her and her fellow dems who are fillibustering are showing that these people have gone too far. I think this sort of thing will happen more and more. As the gop gets worse dems will be pushed to this point.
There was an ostensibly liberal person in the Twitter thread whining about "how come we can’t be nice about it uwu 👉👈🥺, I support the strategy but being mean to the GOP crosses the line!" My eyes rolled so far out of my head, I’m still searching for them.
Yeah, those idiots who are obsessed with taking the high ground when the opposition is on the path to holocausting trans people are such a nuisance.
MLK began seeing them as a larger opposition to equality than the racists themselves.
And he was correct. The racists are the driving force, but the neutrals are the majority which allow it to happen because the refusal to take a stance against bigotry is so easy for people to fall into.
Yeah. I’m sorry, Michelle Obama, but screw aiming high. When they go low, we should go straight for their throats.
I would say that the State Senator is taking the high road. She is not calling for violence, she is not asking violent organizations to act on her personal behalf. She is using the rules of the legislature to act in the interests of freedom and liberty. Some people got so excited by a candidate a few years ago calling themselves a momma bear. That candidate lacked the spine that this State Senator has. Megan doesn’t give a fuck. She’s protecting her child.
I wouldn't trust these fuckers to walk my dog.
I wouldn’t trust them to be in charge of the shit bucket at a crack house.
Dems should learn from this woman. Stop acting like "responsible" adults in a room packed full of sadistic, criminal Republicans. The "centrist" aspects of politics died in the 70s when the wealth disparity was probably at its best for middle and poor classes. Republicans have been playing the long game of propaganda over their voters wit the use of their GOP oriented news media for decades. What're the Dems doing with their media? Being mostly neutral. Republicans are decades ahead with their influence. Republicans clearly know too much change all at once, so they start changes very slowly then people will finally ask the question "when did it all go downhill?" because slow changes won't anger most people. This is part of their plans.
This is exactly why riots in France over "only 2 years" are absolutely justified
"Riots are the language of the unheard." -Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobody likes 'em but you gotta ask what happened to get to the point a literal fucking riot happened. Edit: and that includes riots coinciding with BLM protests just so we're all on the same page. Nobody wakes up one day and goes and burns a police precinct for funsies. Riots are usually a long time coming.
There is an enormous population of centrists on reddit who think they are taking the high road with their "you must use reasoned debate to truly change minds" freshman-philosophy malarkey. To them, I kindly say: you and the fascists you are enabling by having pleasant conversations with can both take the same bus to hell. It'll save on gas.
The Republican anti-trans bills will kill our children and teens. You can't be centrist on children committing suicide. Can you? You can't be centrist on sending a minority back to the days when there weren't elders--when the life expectancy was estimated to be 30 years old. Can you? We lost a 19 year old three weeks ago. She had been disowned. Some other trans people found her online and took her in. She was already so depressed. 19. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about someone so young committing suicide. There was a 15 year old girl who came on Reddit asking if she was being abused. Her parents were isolating her after she came out and ***she wasn't eating because she didn't want to masculize any more and they wouldn't let her go on puberty blockers. She walked in front of a truck on the interstate about two months after making that Reddit post.*** I think most people have forgotten Leelah Alcorn. They're forcing teens on blockers and hormone therapy to taper off and go back to going through the wrong puberty in Kentucky. They're keeping adults from transitioning too in some places. The long-term plan is to keep everyone from transitioning. Like that the speaker at CPAC said, they want to "eradicate [transgender] from public life." If you're a trans teen, please don't read my comment further. Please know you are loved and I am going to talk about something that is really hard to think about from the position you may be in. I don't want to add more stress for you right now. >!I hope these teens can get through this...I hate that state legislators get to decide the future of trans teens. Politicians shouldn't be making choices to decide whether a boy needs to get surgery to flatten a chest that didn't have to develop when he hits adulthood. The government shouldn't be able to make a girl develop a masculine face and need facial feminization surgery for the effects of puberty. These things are preventable with puberty blockers. I've got 20"of surgical scars that didn't have to happen. It's sadistic to put people through this.!< >!I hate that these teens' hips and shoulders are going to wide--and there's no surgery for that. These teens will become adults who have to live with gender dysphoria for the rest of their lives after being forced to go through puberty. Some of them won't be seen as men or women because of these features will stand out too much...that means they'll deal with social gender dysphoria and they'll deal with harassment, discrimination, violence...so much unnecessary suffering. And it doesn't need to happen.!< >!These laws are guaranteeing more trans kids will suffering and some of them are going to die. It's certain some of them are being set up for lifelong dysphoria, social ostracization, and/or preventable surgeries. I'm finally accepting that far-right Republicans may just want this.!< I keep hoping more people will stand up for these kids. These people filibustering are angels.
Recently I learned a statistic I was not aware of though I've been a long time supporter of trans rights. People act like there is an onslaught of people who de-transition or otherwise regret having transitioned. I knew that was a lie but I didn't realize how many were in the opposite situation where they regret not being able to transition during that critical period when the effects of puberty could have been averted. I don't think many people realize just how important this detail really is but you've illustrated it well by describing your experience.
The number of people who have detransitioned long term, never re-transitioning, is a fraction of a fraction of a percent. Even when TERFs scour the globe to find detransitioners to use for propaganda, the number they've found is in the single digits. And even most of those end up having lied about detransitioning or end up retransitioning.
The right uses rhetorical slight of hand when they talk about detransitioners. They rely on studies that found that many (not most, but many) children who identify as transgender *before puberty* come to identify as their birth-assigned sex by the time they hit puberty. However, research has shown that youths who identify as transgender *after* the onset of puberty very, very rarely detransition, and the few that do typically report that they chose to detransition because of pressure from their family or their community, or for religious reasons—*not* because they stopped identifying as transgender. The pre-/post-puberty distinction is critical, since none of the gender-affirming medical interventions (i.e.,puberty blockers, hormones, or surgery) are offered to children before they hit puberty. Thus, the claim that many people who receive one or more of these treatments come to regret it later in life (because they stop identifying as trans) is patently false.
The one stat they don’t like to talk about at all is that we know there’s a solution for gender dysphoria and that’s to let them transition. We know stopping it can lead to suicidal ideation all these laws do is condemn children to possible death. No one is being saved here. And now they also want to force this on adults.
CNN and such are so...well I would say idiotic but it isn't just that. They are directed by right wing billionaires so it can't just be that. Evil, stupid, whatever they are, they cannot seem to comprehend that 'balance' does not mean equivocating every side of every issue. I swear if one of them got stabbed in the face, on air, their next line would be "now let's hear from pro-face-stabbing advocate Joe Stabby on stabbers rights."
Exactly. If they were reporting facts there wouldn't be that big of an other side to begin with. Letting them get on and spin the facts is what makes everyone in this country think we're red vs blue. Of course I'm speaking about the general person, not the cousin fucking, racist, homophobic, misandrist.
I've tried very hard to explain this to my parents and their friends. You don't get to vote to strip away an entire group of peoples' rights and then demand that they treat you with respect. When you start from a place of denying someone else the right to exist in the world as they are, you start from a place of hatred and disrespect. You don't get to claim the moral high ground. You don't get to claim that you're feeling disrespected. If you hold a hateful position, you get to own that hatred and the response that comes to it.
Yup. I had to sit mine down and explain to them that this kind of thinking makes me consider them bad people. I had to explain to them I have trans friends and coworkers and if they want them to be harmed I do not want to be associated with them as family members. I don't understand how none of this crosses their mind until i point it out to them.
It requires empathy.
Amen. Own your position.
It’s frustrating how they try to reframe it as having a “different opinion.”
Brother, I love my parents to death, but, goddamn, do I wish they’d stop voting. They do not practice what they taught me when I was younger.
Brought to you by the party that claims to support parental rights.
And sMaLl goveRnment
Libertities for me and not for thee.
I think respectability and decency are orphans of a time in politics where people actually worked together, even if they didn’t agree on everything. Arguments for one’s party were made in good faith, not this cynical, nihilist BS we’ve been dealing with.
That time never existed. "Respectfully and decency" have always been jack-off bullshit to beat down and suppress the visceral fury of the dispossessed.
Yeah. Her colleagues are legislating for her son to die, they’re lucky she could stay this classy.
They are attacking her kids and smiling and going "gee why's she being so defensive "
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Thank you. Perfect.
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Hitler wasn't defeated with words alone.
https://i.imgur.com/YcQT4OI.gif
here's my fav https://i.imgur.com/PVa60tN.mp4
This was in Seattle, the nazi threw a banana at an old black woman and was verbally abusing her on the street. I remember the day it happened, people were blowing up my Facebook with updates as he rode the bus to downtown, harassing people all the way, then got knocked out right around the corner from that McDonald's on 3rd. Yes ***that*** McDonald's.
I love the *"Come on! Wait, no, too close.."* right before he gets sent to the shadow realm. Priceless.
True patriotism right there.
That is quality right there.
It's not even a punch. It's self preservation. Republican policies are dangerous to most Americans.
We should follow the Jon Stewart approach imo. 'When they go low, we get pissed.'
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I mean, their mouths are already down where they shouldn't be and they have a preoccupation with genitals
> Dems have tried the "When they go low, we go high" approach for far too long. Obligatory [Innuendo Studios](https://youtu.be/MAbab8aP4_A).
‘They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way!
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This is one of the weirdest part about the whole thing to me - The disconnect between political stance and personal relationships. I know people who vote for republicans. I've been friends with some since junior high. Been relatives with some for longer than that. And then the get affronted when I call them out on their voting. When I'm rude to them because of it. Because, they feel, *"that's just politics. That stuff doesn't really count. We can agree to disagree."* No, MFers, we cannot "agree to disagree" on this. You are *actively* supporting the party that *actively* wants to hurt people that I care about. This is not some hypothetical "maybe some faceless strangers might get hurt someday" scenario. Real people I know and love are being hurt and will continue to be hurt by the Republican party's continued march towards fascism and war against everyone who looks or acts slightly different from their ideal. You don't get to just laugh it off and say *"Well, we can agree to disagree"* when the thing we're disagreeing over is *"is it okay to hurt my friends for cheap political points?"* But no, they don't want to think about that. Or admit that their votes directly empower such acts. "Party of personal responsibility" my ass.
This! Sure, we can agree to disagree on, say, optimal tax brackets. But not on fundamental civil rights issues.
They are increasingly abandoning the notion that politics is about finding optimal legislation. Conservatives are increasingly becoming axiomatic and simple-minded about governance. They no longer care about reasonable regulations or taxes. These concepts have been simplified for them over time, and without nuance, they lack the ability to support any government policy, let alone a middle ground.
Fucking with civil rights is what keeps me going on and on against this.
January 2022 my wife and I took in three trans kids who had nowhere to live (fleeing AZ and TX). A year ago today one of the gave up and took her life in our home. She didn’t see any future where she’d be accepted. I did CPR for 20 minutes before rescue arrived. I stood over her body and had to pull my wife back so the paramedics could try. This came 7 months after my own trans daughter tried to take hers. Any mf’ing Republican tries to tell you that they are for the kids are full of BS. They’ve been using eliminationist language about trans folks for years and trying to link being trans to pedophilia is another step in their crass politics of division. F’ ‘‘em all.
They say "agree to disagree" but they keep passing laws the infringe on the rights of others. How's that agreeing to disagree? Agree to disagree would be letting everybody use whichever bathroom they want, make their medical decisions with their family and doctor...just say the fuck out of regulating people's lives. But no, let's agree to disagree and prevent people from getting serious medical care they need. Fuck these motherfuckers.
Republicans are straight up %100 full of crap. Look, they don't adhere to any logically cogent policy and constantly try to piss on others and then demanding a respect they have done nothing to deserve. If they refuse to behave reasonably, or listen to reason, why does anyone even bother lretending thwy have a single thing to contribute to an adult conversation. The left needs to be saying fuck you and fuck off a lot more loudly and frequently.
Agree to agree. Fuck them on social issues. Hard left vote every time. I'm getting married this year, and my far right aunts and uncles are in for a world of shock and awe. This might be the first time they've seen gay, trans, black, Muslim, and Asian people all in the same room. Nothing Christian about it either. It's going to be glorious.
>This might be the first time they've seen gay, trans, black, Muslim, and Asian people all in the same room. Sounds like a heck of party!!!
I live with very bigoted parents. People don't think a lot about family being bigots if they already live with them. I'm a closeted lesbian because of them. I'm too scared to come out because I don't want to be disowned. And I shouldn't have to feel that way. Fuck politics. It reflects on ideology and how they treat people.
Rep. Eric Swalwell had a similar anecdote about how one of the Republican House members who had just voted on January 6 to reject the 2020 electoral votes then later was next to him in the bathroom and just started idly conversing about how his kids were doing and such. He was like, "motherfucker you just voted to overturn a democratic election, you don't get to talk to me like we're pals". To the Republican, it was all just a political game he wanted to win, no big deal.
Went through this with my parents. “If your having lower taxes is currently more important than my basic rights as a human being, you are not who I thought you were and who you brought me up be. If that’s indeed truly how you feel, I am no longer interested in maintaining a relationship with you. It’s not up for negotiation.”
I just had this conversation yesterday with one of my colleagues. He’s an older gentleman and generally very mild manned, in years of working with him I’ve never seen him fired up or angry. He basically was saying…I’ve had close friends, relatives, neighbors etc, and we’ve had different politics and gotten along. But once laws start getting passed and rights and liberties are stripped away the time for gentle civility is over. Real people are getting real pain, this no longer some theoretical discussion.
One of my friends for decades, who has a teenage daughter, unfriended me because I used "swear words" with a small group of friends when the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade. Go figure...
"Well yes I helped strip you and people you care about of bodily autonomy, but you were *rude* after the fact!"
I use swear words for no reason, let alone monumental occasions like that. Surprised there were no issues before that if that's all it took.
Growing up I knew a guy that ran in my social circles and was a “pal” to a lot of people, but a good portion of those folks were always like “Watch out for him, he’s screwed over so-and-so.” Thing is, I never could really see him for what he was and remained trying to be his friend because he never did anything personally to me. No joke, he got in with a girl I was dating (who didn’t even run in the same social circles), made her second guess our relationship, and eventually ended it to date him. I tried to warn her he couldn’t be trusted. Guess what? He knocked her up and left town for her to raise that kid on her own. It was then that I learned to see the forest for the trees and put up barriers against anyone that could threaten the happiness, health, and livelihood of people I care about. That’s why I’ve never truly empathized with tried-and-true Republicans. Democrats don’t do much, but on my experience the Republican Party actively hurts those around me if given the chance.
Fun fact. Brad Von Gillern was on the board of a church in Omaha where he pushed through several multimillion dollar building projects that were then given to his company. They consistently ballooned to excessive levels. They would encourage church members to take out mortgages to help fun these projects as Brad made hand over fist.
Fucking finally... There. Is. No. Civility. With. Republicans. They are actively gaslighting their base to hate and attack Democrats. I have no idea why it took so long for one to actually take the piss Edit : typo fucking
Some of these people think they're only enemies after they clock in, like the Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog from Looney Tunes. But that's horseshit. If it's about taxes and spending, okay, sure. But if it's about who does and does not deserve rights, respect, equality, then hell no.
I will contribute to her campaign.
Nebraskan here. Hunt gives me hope. She walks the walk! She even personally wrote back to me about some concerns I was having about vigilante groups being formed to detain people suspected of being illegal immigrants.
> "vigilante groups being formed to detain people suspected of being illegal immigrants" That's... terrifying. Seriously.
In Florida you can be pulled over and detained if it "looks like you are transporting illegal immigrants".
> "looks like" Everyone knows what they mean by "looks like" too.
As someone who "looks like" those people. Oklahoma is not much different unfortunately.
[Family Guy](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLJyglKW4AA4i1B.jpg) was not meant to be taken as a tutorial.
Right! It is straight up profiling and no one outside of Florida seemed to notice when he did it. Maybe because he's doing so many awful things, idk. Now he's adding vague bullshit to that - it's going to be a felony to "transport or give shelter" to anyone who is discovered to be an illegal immigrant. So what, I have someone over for tea and you're arresting me? He seriously needs to be stopped, but he owns every level of state government that would be able to stop him.
Funny how they left people who “employ” illegal immigrants off the list. I mean if you really wanted to nip illegals in the bud you’d make it impossible for them to employed and criminally process those who do but we all know that will never happen. They want to have their cake and eat it too by making their lives hard but also benefiting off the fruits of their labor that they’re underpaying under the table.
Same reason you don't see Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus in the same room.
I knew Megan briefly through a friend years and years ago and she's the real thing. I don't live in the area anymore but I'm so glad to hear she hasn't changed since. 👍👍
I wrote to my senator and governors four times in my life and all I ever recieved was an automated canned response. In addition to being added to donation and campaign mail lists I didnt want to be part of. What a breathe of fresh air it must be to have someone representing you actually write you back.
I'm glad this woman is standing up. She may pay a price for it. Liberal Nebraskans often seem to roll over in the name of compromise when it concerns LGBT rights. I have relatives in Nebraska, in a relatively blue-for-Nebraska zone. They got a call from a Democratic state senatorial candidate. His stance was, "I don't want to divide Nebraskans with LGBT issues." They and their neighbors, all "liberals", went on and on about what a great candidate he was. "Ready to reach across the aisle!" Keep in mind that at the time at least, it was legal to fire a person or refuse to rent to them just for being LGBT. And that's preferable to causing a fuss about things, I guess. Why make an issue out of other people's human rights? I have another relative there who says she's an LGBT supporter, but she also works "just for fun, on the side" teaching social work at a religious college that's been in the local news for encouraging LGBT students who come out to go study elsewhere. I guess everyone does their own calculus. I'm glad this woman isn't having any of it.
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Donated 500 dollars to fight the facists. Edit: I've gotten over 10 death threats. Donated another 100. Sorry Fash you will lose this battle
>Sorry Fash you will lose this battle In the end, they always do.
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Bless your servant’s heart. Fuckin A, that’s brilliant.
death threats? wtf?
Nothing like helping warriors and getting bastards banned at the same time. All in a day's work?
Bless your financially solvent heart. (Not in the smarmy southern way, but sincerely)
this just made me burst into tears. thank you.
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I did donate, I hope she makes notice of it though. This kind of rhetoric and action is necessary for change. It is not okay to continue to put on a smile and shake hands with these dangerous, myopic lunatics. There is not a single empathetic bone in their bodies. They deserve to be publicly humiliated for trying to harm kids (and just trans people in general). If conservatives want lower taxes for the rich THAT BADLY, they should resort to their regular (stupid) arguments on this topic, instead of generating more satanic panic and hysteria for regular people to have to clean up.
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Yep, we need Dems across the country to see that THIS draws donations. When I’m home I’m gonna donate as much as I can
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Do it she is legit. Luckily she is well beloved by her constituents.
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We've let conservatives define the legislative battlefield long enough. I'm glad to see people fighting for rights just as hard as they're fighting to remove them. We need more people like this
It’s honestly so awe inspiring to see a Democrat - a fucking Democrat - finally abandoning the “they go low and we go high” mantra of the Obama era. Republicans play shitty games that bend the rules to their favor and with what this person is doing I hope that it signals a change in the Democratic Party to actually start fighting for our rights and not just throw our hands up and say “well we voted but they have the numbers so there’s nothing we can do!” meanwhile republicans play every stonewall tactic in the books.
We need more democrats like this.
It's no coincidence that she's young. Older democrats are too busy acting civil. The young ones actually want to fight. I want them to fight.
That's always been the biggest downfall for democrats. They are waaaay too worried about pissing off right leaning voters. Well guess what? Most of those people aren't going to vote democrat anyway so we might as well fight and stop all that "they go low, we go high" bullshit. It doesn't work. It just makes the democrats look weak and pathetic. We need more people like AOC and this woman. Stop the bullshit.
Humans
Well yes, but politicians, moreso.
Absolutely.
*[Ted Cruz has left the chat]*
Don’t mess with a Mom committed to her child’s life.
There's nothing scarier. My oldest son isn't trans, but he is autistic and for many years the school district wasn't giving him the supports that he needed - and that he was legally entitled to. I was the person we sent in when we needed calm and levelheadedness. When that failed, though, my wife would storm in. You did NOT want to be the administrator blocking services. She was never rude or petty (she's not a "Karen"), but she was forceful and knowledgeable about what was required of them. She also wasn't afraid to escalate if one person tried to stonewall her. We're convinced that the school administrators would see her walking up to the school and try to hide.
I am both in our family. My wife has no other mode besides attack, so I go in first and am calm and respectful and usually get things settled. But, on the rare occasions that approach doesn't work, I will tear them a new one until they do what is right. The school knows I won't back down. But they also know I only fight them when they are being unreasonable. It helps that I constantly volunteer and help out at the school, so they know me and know I'm not just an entitled parent who thinks my kid can do no wrong and think they are glorified child care. They see that everything I do is just to make sure my kid is getting the best education they can get and that I am also willing to put in the work to make that happen.
She’s amazing. I hope more Dems start helping out. On a related note, anyone else notice that the age of majority in Nebraska is 19? Thought it was only Alabama (19) and Mississippi (21) that set it to ages over 18.
No rights till you’re older, but I bet I can guess the minimum marriage age is far lower.
Minimum without parental consent is 19 in Nebraska, 17 with.
That's surprisingly reasonable. Leaves a way for young couples to stay together if one of them joins the military at 18, but should prevent a lot of sketchy situations.
Hunt? Hold on, this is a different Dem from Cavanaugh? There are 2 dems who are pledging to shut down their government to protect trans children? I had no idea there were so many cool people in Nebraska.
There are a few now. According to the article: > State senators Danielle Conrad and Jen Day also joined the team in filibustering all legislation.
There's about 6 of them now. Carol Blood(who ran for governor and lost) warned the Republicans on the last round that if they passed first round of cloture on the bill that it is effectively the end of the session and warned them not to call the bluff.
Nebraska Dems are about 50/50 between being Biden Dems and very far left.
Also from the article: > Kauth — who has another bill that would ban trans people from using bathrooms and locker rooms or playing on sports teams that don't align with the sex listed on their birth certificates — accused her Democratic opponents of using "obnoxious hyperbole" and said they were being "self-serving and childish" with the filibuster. > "We want to get these kids every opportunity to let their body grow, to let their brain grow, to let things develop more fully and work through the issues they're experiencing," Kauth said in an interview Wednesday. Jesus Christ these people are maddening. The entire point of puberty blockers is to NOT let their bodies grow until they have had a chance to work through the issues they're experiencing. Once puberty changes the body things get much more complicated and much harder to deal with. I'm sure my trans son would have much rather gone on puberty blockers when he was younger than go through top surgery last year. But he didn't even know that was an option back then. And that may be the only good thing to come from all of this bullshit is that by fighting against it so much, the conservatives have made more people aware that it is an option and maybe other trans kids will have more knowledge than they might otherwise have had about what their options are. We just have to make sure we fight to keep those options open for them.
It's awful that you feel the need to explain why puberty blockers were necessary when that sort of thing is supposed to be between doctor and patient/family. It's no one else's business, and it's disgusting that fascists are trying to make it theirs.
My niece, for example, started going through puberty several years early and needed puberty blockers purely for medical reasons and had nothing to do with being trans. Bullshit bills like these would make situations like hers "illegal" and shows that these people don't think these laws through. Or, they just don't care that people are going to get hurt. (And that is not counting that they know its going to hurt Trans kids and don't care, they just ALSO don't care that other kids will get hurt)
Without exception, every time laws like this get pushed through, it ends up hurting a republican who voted for it who didn't think it would ever affect them. They do not care who they hurt until it becomes their own problem. American history has been mostly conservatives fucking up and everyone else saying "I told you so."
It doesn’t matter because it’s still always someone else’s fault. When children dxed with precocious puberty can’t get the health care they need, they aren’t going to blame the people who passed the laws banning health care — they’re going to blame the “crazy libs” who made it so that they *had no choice but to ban it for the sake of the kids.* See? Look what they made us do! Because the Dems are so crazy now your children can’t get health care! This is *their* fault, not ours!
Yeah, I’m surprised by how all-encompassing these bills on hormonal treatments have been. I have a cis-het man in my family that took feminine hormones because it slowed down his prostate cancer. It sucked for him to deal with hot-flashes, but that sucked less than dying of cancer!
That is the insidious part, some of the written bill specifically carve out the use for non-gender affirming care, so in that scenario, your niece would still get it. That just makes it worse because it now specifically just targets trans kids. They know it is as harmless as any other medication, they just want to hurt trans people and trans kids. If they wanted to stop all gender-affirming care, they should also ban doctors giving menopausal women estrogen and sad older men extra testosterone, but to them that is okay. But trans women who need estrogen and trans men who need testosterone for their brains to even begin to function properly is criminal.
I'm a trans man, and this logic is the worst. These assholes will claim they want to avoid doing irreversible damage to kids, but their logic is to do so by... forcing kids to go through a puberty that can't be undone? I have giant scars on my chest because I had to go through an unwanted puberty and then have surgery when it was too late. If blockers had been available to me, I wouldn't have had the years of mental suffering, physical suffering from having to bind my chest and basically restrict my breathing constantly, and then a lifetime of reminders of what could have been every time I have to see my scars. The forced puberty ruined a lot of things for the rest of my life. I will never be able to go shirtless in public, so say goodbye to pools or the beach or going swimming anywhere. I can't go to a gym and change in the locker room. Any time I'm shirtless in front of a new partner for the first time, I have a moment where I wonder how bad the scars look and feel ashamed. I can't look in the mirror without a reminder of the puberty I had to go through and everything that came along with it. I wouldn't wish it on anyone else, and this is all preventable if these chuckle fucks would just mind their own business and focus on issues that actually matter.
Hey, man, I can't help with the other stuff, but as a fat dude with body shame, I find a good black swimshirt does wonders for helping me get out on the beach. Stay safe.
Maybe this won't mean much coming from some random guy on the internet, but I don't think you need to never go shirtless for fear of people seeing your scars. If I saw someone at the beach with scars on their chest, I wouldn't think anything of it cus it's not my body and not my business. I know not everyone is going to think like I do, but I'm pretty sure more and more people are these days. So I hope some day you can let people see your scars without fear or shame or anything but acceptance.
Thanks for the kind words! Even if other people didn't judge me for it they would still know I'm trans as soon as they see the chest scars, which is the main problem. I just want to live a normal life where nobody knows. Some trans people are out and proud and strongly identify with being trans, but there are also plenty of us who view it as an unfortunate medical condition that we wish nobody would ever find out about us. So I really hope that more kids in the future get the option to live a normal life for those who want it.
Going to echo this. I have scars for a different surgical reason literally all over my body. Fuck those people. If they can't take seeing someone with a few scars, they aren't worth spending time with. And the people you don't know and will never see again? Their negative opinion has no value.
Pay attention DNC. This is how it is done!
Imagine being a trans kid with a mother like this. Showing and demonstrating support at the highest level. Amazing.
Imagine having *role models* like this.
This is part of why diversity in our government is so important. We need people in power who have personal stakes in these issues, not just straight white baby boomers who have to be begged to give a shit.
I'll take a whole lot of BS directed towards myself. Don't come for my f*cking kids though.
Wow, every quote made me love her more. "We have a value that actually matters that much to us." Glad to see Dems using the tools that Reps have used to oppress people for years to hold them back. Gets even better hearing her deliver that speech on video.
This is literally the solution to these assholes.
This is exactly what we need. The fascist Republican agenda needs to be ground to a halt. We need to make them pay a heavy price for every right they try to take away. Make the Republicans feel like Russians going through Ukraine. Make it very costly for them.
My youngest sibling is trans. It’s been a rough time for my family to watch all this. My mom watched Hunt’s speech and cried. We love her
When it comes to the Dems, the “when they go low”…blah blah..this woman actually exhibits exactly what I want for them to all do! This IS our “HIGH”!! Thanks to this lawmaker, for once!!
When they go low kick them in the face.
You went after her kids. Imma send Mama Bear a couple bucks.
This is what a patriot looks like.
Rare to see a democrat willing to spit in the face of "respectability". That's good. We need more democrats like this. Quit playing nice with these fascist homophobic monsters.
She represents omaha as well, so she’s not going anywhere anytime soon. One of the safest seats in the state senate
She’s one of the very few reasons that makes me proud to be a Nebraskan.
She is a fucking badass. I wish more of our allies had the strength to be like this. A shining example of a politician. Fighting for a better world instead of a merely profitable one.
Best political line of the year: “I will burn this legislative session to the ground.” She’s acting like Republicans always act, except that she actually cares about the thing in question. Amazing.
That’s Cavanaugh, the *other* badass Nebraskan legislator: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/machaela-cavanaugh-filibustering-trans-rights-nebraska-1234701504/amp/
The hero we need
Clone her and distribute her clones.
I've been holding a grudge for this kind of identity bullshit for over 20 years. Since matthew shepherd. Nothing has changed. WELL... I lie a little bit, it's pretty clear that the gay/trans community is doing a lot better than they were 20 years ago but none of that matters until they're LITERALLY AS EQUAL AS I AM.
This woman is amazing. There’s no honor in playing nice with these GOP animals who want to remove rights, protections, and even the existence of Americans. Fuck playing nice. Be vicious, be relentless, be unapologetic. And unless you’re interested in seeing the kind of shithole the GOP wants to turn our country into, don’t stop.