Squeezing Out the Middle

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Yes, new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is anti-gay, opposed decriminalizing gay sex and opposed same-sex marriage. It’s also true that polls show many or most Republicans now disagree with him on these issues (55% of Republicans supported marriage equality in 2021 per Gallup, falling back to 49% in 2023 amid unease over bio males in women’s sports/locker rooms and schools pushing trans identities on gender-nonconforming kids, which, for some, seemed to confirm “slippery slope” fears). Nevertheless, the GOP was hijacked by 8 House members of the ultra-MAGA variety, and they were able to force their will on the Republican’s slim majority because the Speaker must be elected by a majority of the House (not the party) and Democrats were all no votes against any Republican.

If a handful of Democrats had bucked their party’s top-down lock-step tactics and chosen just not to be present for the House vote that ousted the more moderate (certainly on culture-war issues) Kevin McCarthy, then McCarthy could have kept a majority of the House without the 8 insurgents. But that’s not how the game is played in Washington.

Here’s an interesting X thread discussing the awful situation of the Republicans held captive by the anti-gay right (again, a minority of today’s GOP), while the Democrats are captive of the LGBTQ gender ideologues (trans the kids, no guardrails) left.

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The Signs Were There

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“For years, the debate over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians has roiled LGBTQ gatherings and parades where Jewish groups wanted to display symbols of the religion. In 2017, organizers of the Chicago Dyke March kicked women out for carrying the Pride flag with a Star of David, citing its resemblance to the Israeli flag. … At the 2016 [Creating Change] conference, in Chicago, the pro-Israel LGBTQ organization A Wider Bridge shut down its event and evacuated guests because of intense protests. … Some LGBTQ Jews … say if they openly identify as anything other than anti-Zionist, they are unwelcome in certain queer spaces.”

Plus this:

“Cohen points out that in Israel, most LGBTQ people live safely with many rights, even if far from full equality, while many queer people in Palestine cannot live openly. She asks why pro-Palestinian queer people don’t specifically condemn queer oppression in Palestine, noting a report of Hamas executing a gay man in Gaza by throwing him off a building.
Gaines, the Washington march organizer, said that discussion of condemning the reported Palestinian brutality against queer people did not come up in planning meetings for the march, which considered itself “fiercely” pro-Palestinian.”

And this:


Also of interest: Why Hamas Atrocities Lead the Left to Hate Israel More:

Shany Mor writes:

Western activists for Palestinians are dedicated to two nearly theological precepts: that Israel is evil, and that no Palestinian action is ever connected to any Palestinian outcome. Each precept is grounded in longstanding—and borderline racist—conceptions of Jews and Arabs.

This cognitive trap expresses itself in how Israel’s opponents in the West speak about the conflict with the Palestinians. Concern that “time is running out” for reaching a two-state solution never leads to calls for the Palestinians to hurry up and accept a negotiated compromise. They ignore that the Palestinians rejected statehood and peace in 2000, 2001, 2008 and 2014. They ignore that Hamas’s belligerence is the cause of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, a defensive measure by a nation under assault.

Hamas’s gruesome attack poses a threat to this worldview, and the only way to resolve it is by heightening Israel’s imagined malevolence. The terrorist atrocities don’t trigger a recoiling from the cause in whose name they were carried out; they lead to an even greater revulsion at the victim.

Chadwick Moore shares a similar take:

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There Are No Adequate Words

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I don’t usually like to go too far afield from the blog’s focus on gay people and our issues — and, as a counter-voice blog, to take a critical look at the movement that claims to speak in our name. That said, I find it necessary to consider the events of this week in Israel and, in particular, those who are supporting Hamas and its barbarism. A few shared posts calling out this vileness follow below.


And this:

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Another Gay Man Grateful He Isn’t a Gender Noncoforming Kid Now

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Planned Parenthood joins the list of progressive organizations putting gender-nonconforming gay kids at risk.


And worth repeating:

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Coming to Terms with Reality

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Worth repeating: The religious right wanted to “pray away the gay.” Now, the progressive left wants to “trans away the gay,” and gay man and lesbians who defend gender nonconforming gay kids from the new medical-conversion therapy are labeled “transphobes” and “TERFS”—or worse.


Added:


Very true: “‘Trans conversion therapy’ … is essentially an endorsement of gay conversion therapy.”

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A Way Forward

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Countering the Orwellian misuse of language by LGBTQ+ progressives is also vital:


The religious right wanted to “pray away the gay.” Now, the progressive left wants to “trans away the gay,” and gay man and lesbians who defend gender nonconforming gay kids from the new medical-conversion therapy are labeled “transphobes” and “TERFS”—or worse.

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The State vs. Parents

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Who is more likely to protect the wellbeing of gender nonconforming kids, or kids that progressive public school teachers and diversity educrats, in their great wisdom, decide are gender nonconforming and therefore transgender, and therefore should be encouraged to self-identify as their affirming gender identity (as perceived by public school teachers and educrats)?

Sure, some gender nonconforming kids, and many gay kids, have unsupportive parents, or sometimes worse. But giving the state the power, through public school teachers and educrats driven by hard-edged progressive gender ideology, to “help” confused kids to adopt new, “affirming” names and pronouns, and to change into “affirming” clothes once at school and use the “affirming” restroom—putting them on a path toward sterilizing puberty blockers and surgeries—all without contacting or discussing these issues with the parents, crosses all kinds of lines. And, significantly, these policies threaten the otherwise healthy development of gender nonconforming gay kids.

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GLAAD Gets Even Worse

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And some good advice for children with gender dysphoria:

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