It seems the US Republican Party has lost all sense of decency, as it is now doing its best to destroy the lives of all LGBTQA people. They are terrorizing transgender kids in particular .
(No, this is not “unnecessary strong language.” This is exactly what they are doing.)
They have now expanded their war to LGBTQA people in general, using the old tactic of insinuating that queer and trans people are grooming and seducing kids to be queer.
It is time for good Americans to fight back
I must admit that I am more than a little disappointed in the moderate conservatives of the US, as well as the centrists and left wing progressives.
While the right wing extremists are threatening the very democracy of the US, and states like Florida and Texas become increasingly Fascist, the decent part of American politics (which remains the majority) seems unable to counter-attack in any efficient way.
Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow shows the way
This is why I liked the way Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow replied when a when a Republican colleague implied she was a “groomer.”
Earlier this week, McMorrow — a Democrat representing Michigan’s District 13 — was mentioned by name in a fundraising email from Sen. Lana Theis (R-22) that accused McMorrow and her party of child abuse. “Progressive social media trolls like Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Snowflake) […] are outraged they can’t teach can’t groom [sic] and sexualize kindergarteners,” the email read, warning parents of teachers who were supposedly introducing “gender bending indoctrination” to children and “stealing their innocence” with sexual material.
On Tuesday, McMorrow hit back with a blistering speech in the Senate chamber that struck at the core of Republican bigotry, and almost immediately went viral.
“I realized I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful, scheme,” McMorrow said, addressing Theis obliquely, “because you can’t claim you’re targeting marginalized kids in the name of ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up to say ‘no.’”
McMorrow presented her own bona fides as a “straight, White, Christian” woman whose faith is based in service, referencing examples set by her mother and Father Ted Hesburgh, whose religion led him to help construct the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Call me whatever you want […] I know who I am,” McMorrow said. “I know what faith and service means, and what it calls for in this moment. We will not let hate win.”
“The Culture War” has become a war against culture
The Republican extremists are right when they say that there is a culture war going on. They have, like Putin in Russia, Orban in Hungary and the TERFs in Britain, declared war on all the progress we have seen in recent years as far as marginalized groups are concerned.
You do not negotiate with evil. If we have learned anything from the war in Ukraine it is this: You do not try to placate Fascists. You fight them with everything you’ve got. And in this case you rip off their masks and show the world their true nature.
I refuse to believe that the majority of Americans want to turn back the clock to a time when it was OK to erase the identities of trans and queer people.
this is also how i became a leftist after being raising very traditional/conservative/catholic tbh
hearing them break down ‘bad’ leftist ideas and i was just sitting there waiting for the bad part that didn’t come…and i’m like….yes? you should probably give free lunches to kids when their parents can’t afford to feed them dinner? why do you not want this?
trying to figure out politics was me just moving further to the left the more i learned about pretty much every single issue because of the traditional/catholic parts of my upbringing which is why i’m so baffled that so much of my family falls much more red than blue and i’ll probably never understand how that happened
i’ve had family straight up ask me why i support programs like free lunch and i had to explain that i support them because they taught me that i should care about other people and try to make the world a better place and the golden rule…they never seem to have an answer for when i ask them back why they don’t support those same programs
[Image caption for original post: tweet by The Irony Giant (@PrettyBadLefty) reading: “Some of my best ideas for leftist policies come from the irrational fears shared by conservatives on twitter tbh. They be like ‘Leftists want the post office to also sell weed and make mail carriers deliver it’ and you gotta jot that down”.
Image caption for pengychan’s comment: tweet by Riley (@kayraisabitch) reading: “It’s so weird being raised by christians and spending your entire childhood being told to care about others then one day they’re just like you’re not actually supposed to care about others you stupid socialist.” End caption.]
