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Massachusetts Rejects “Potty Panic” Lies of Christian Right; Noem Not That Smart

While the McCaulley/Noem Administration-Elect decides just how mean it can be to transgender South Dakotans, Massachusetts voters affirmed their state’s law prohibiting discrimination against transgender people for peeing where they want by a 68%-t0-32% vote. Unlike South Dakota’s fundagelical ostriches, Massachusetts voters listen to decency and science:

If you’re the kind of person who is passionately opposed to the state’s 2016 transgender accommodations law, sometimes called a “bathroom bill,” what you really need to believe is that giving trans people access to the restrooms and locker rooms of their choosing is a threat to public safety. Think of the children, say groups who oppose the anti-discrimination law, like one called Keep MA Safe, who urge you in TV commercials to imagine your daughter, gasp, sharing a restroom with a trans woman.

But a new report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law has found that just isn’t the case. Researchers in the peer-reviewed study pored over police records in Massachusetts communities, comparing those that had “bathroom bill” transgender protections on the books in the two years before the law passed with those that didn’t, and found no link between anti-discrimination rules and the bathroom-related crimes that we we’ve been warned about [Spencer Buell, “A New Study Shows the ‘Bathroom Bill’ Hysteria Is Unfounded,” Boston Magazine, 2018.09.12].

Voters in Massachusetts chose fact and the welfare of transgender children over the false scare tactics of grouchy right-wing extremists. If only South Dakota’s incoming Governor and Legislature were that honest, caring, and smart.

77 Comments

  1. Jason 2018-11-12 07:22

    Do you really think the majority of South Dakotans care what Massachusetts does?

    This is why the Democrats are losing in SD.

  2. mike from iowa 2018-11-12 07:29

    Who knew- today ends in Y, DFP has new postings- of course the Troll is going to try to start a belligerent argument just because Cory’s good graces allows it.

  3. Dana P 2018-11-12 08:22

    Jason throws out a few cow pies to distract from the facts. Facts. Stubborn things.

    Of course transgenders + bathrooms are not an issue nor a problem. But, fear mongering and fact-LESS spin and propaganda have worked to stir up stereotyping and tap into the folks that aren’t even the least bit intellectually curious.

    While I didn’t agree with Gov Daugaard on alot, I gave him a standing ovation on his stance reference the potty police. Facts came into play in his decision making.

    Way to go Massachusetts!! They did the right thing supporting then Governor Romney (R) on health care —– they are also now using their brain pans in reference to the potty police stupidity.

  4. Dana P 2018-11-12 08:30

    Cory —

    “Fundagelical Ostriches”

    LOL, perfect

  5. TAG 2018-11-12 09:08

    So because some trolls in academia were able to exploit the peer-review system, your conclusion is…. what? That all peer-reviewed research should be discredited? And we should replace any kind of faith in science with what? … Blindly believing all of the conspiracy theories and Trumps mercurial tweets without asking for any burden of proof?

    Caring what people vote on in Massachusetts and caring what the scientific community has to offer are two completely different things. If a researcher from SDSU publishes a study, does it somehow hold more weight in your mind because it came from SD? Would it have to have been published by a native South Dakotan? Or are you just lumping all of academia as being in your “other” group?

    I get that South Dakota culture is different from Massachusetts culture. That doesn’t mean that discrimination should be acceptable anywhere.

    The assumption of those that want to control the bathroom use of transgender people, is that the construct of transgender is made up. The assumption is that these people are just pretending to be transgender in order to get access to the bathroom, where they can be pedophilic voyeurs. Think about how insane that assumption is. Why would anyone put themselves through that kind of scrutiny and humiliation for that purpose? It simply doesn’t happen. It’s a solution looking for a problem, to put it in Billie’s words.

  6. mike from iowa 2018-11-12 09:29

    Facts and science based evidence is Kryptonite to Trolls. It really upsets them to realize the world isn’t snow white just for them.

  7. Donald Pay 2018-11-12 09:34

    In the old days gas stations had one toilet. Everyone used the same pot. Women tended not to use those facilities unless they were desperate because many men had bad aim, and no one cleaned them. That changed when convenience stores became the rage, and women got their own facilities. Now the trend seems to be unisex, single stall bathrooms. Places that have these tend to have staff that clean them every few hours. I’ve been told that unisex bathrooms tend to shame men into having better aim. I know I tend to pay more attention in these facilities.

    I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not one to peer over the stall to see what equipment someone else has. That’s why I don’t understand how potty laws could ever be enforced. The state would have to hire some perverts to check everyone out, I guess. Hey, where can I pick up an application?

  8. mike from iowa 2018-11-12 09:59

    Drumpf would be eminently qualified to ask to see people’s equipment, even though he would rather grab without permission.

    Maybe Dems in Congress can put a single stall in House Chambers and appoint stoopid wingnut flunkies to assess each member’s thingies right on the House floor.

    Donald Pay, I have fond memories of old gas stations and worked at a few of them back in the early 60’s.

  9. mike from iowa 2018-11-12 10:03

    Speaking of panic, Dems win Arizona Senate seat.

  10. OldSarg 2018-11-12 10:07

    Who uses what bathroom isn’t the actual issue. The issue is denying help to people that need serious mental help.

    If some guy drops his pants and thinks he’s a girl when there is a talleywacker swinging below he needs mental help not bathroom access.

  11. TAG 2018-11-12 10:37

    If who uses what bathroom is not the issue, then I guess you agree with a majority of the Massachusetts electorate, and a minority of the SD state legislature.

    As to the mental health and biological aspect, what about intersex (formerly hermaphroditic) people? Should they ask their pastor what sex to identify with, rather than deciding on their own? Sometimes the “parts” are halfway between. Sometimes the “parts” don’t match the chromosomes. Sometimes the body’s hormones during the development stage create unpredictable results. These are not mental health issues, unless you are referring to the shame they are forced to deal with in an unsympathetic society.

  12. Loren 2018-11-12 10:55

    Old Sarge appears to be just as eloquent as Prez Tramp. I would guess, a graduate of Tramp U.?

  13. Donald Pay 2018-11-12 10:59

    If OldSarg’s point is that people need help when going through gender identity issues, he’s right. That is the standard of care for such matters. People do need to understand themselves, and come to terms with why they feel certain ways. You may not understand it, I might not understand it, OldSarge certainly doesn’t understand it and the person going through these issues may not understand it. All of us need some help getting through this. But what all of us need to understand, as OldSarg does, is, as he says, that “who uses what bathroom is not the issue.” Thank you, OldSarg, for that. There really is no need for any such bill.

  14. chris 2018-11-12 11:12

    Many of the men running south dakota grew up watching each other piss in communal troughs in rural-esque public bathrooms. Toilets and privacy were considered to be expensive luxuries, eschewed everywhere except the county courthouse. That is why male SD legislators commonly ask to watch other people pee, their highest possible form of compliment.

  15. OldSarg 2018-11-12 11:32

    “what about intersex (formerly hermaphroditic) people?” That is a physical oddity.

    The medical profession can deal with a physical issue through medical treatment such as surgery. You can not surgically change a man to a woman or vice versa. The DNA stays the same. For those with sexual identity issues only a mental health professional can help.

    In all seriousness I think if we ignore the unbalanced mental state of people you only add to the probability they will hurt themselves or others. Look at the members of antifa. They are social misfits that are particularly odd and they are causing violence up and down the west coast. They have mental issues. people who commit mass shootings, introverts, social failures and so forth. Sexual identity issues are much the same. Al of these groups would be better served, and our society as a whole, if we dedicated our resources to address their mental issues rather than changing every bathroom across the United States.

  16. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-11-12 12:28

    Jason, one hoax does not discount all science that comes to conclusions you don’t like. Show us the flaws in the study presented or stand down.

    The new Red Rooster in Aberdeen has two bathrooms, both single-holers, both unisex. Come in, lock the door, do your business in peace, and hurry up so the rest of us can use ’em. Life doesn’t need to be complicated… especially not by fundagelical crusades against the bogeyman (bogeywoman? bogey-being?) of the week.

  17. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-11-12 12:30

    TAG, good points. Where people go to the bathroom evidently matters very much to a few religious busybodies who really ought to keep their eyes off other people’s private parts when they’re in the bathroom.

  18. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-11-12 12:31

    We’re going to care what people in other states think when they stop spending their tourist and convention dollars in our state because they don’t want to deal with ignorance and bigotry.

  19. mike from iowa 2018-11-12 12:37

    Hippies caused marijuana fueled violence in the 60’s. Cops see Hippies with pot, cops routinely beat Hippies with pot. Pot therefore causes violence.

    There is as much empirical evidence suggesting being a right wing moron is a mental problem as there is transgenders are mental cases.

  20. Jason 2018-11-12 12:41

    So Cory and the Dems want boys showering with girls in school.

    The majority of South Dakotans do not want that.

  21. bearcreekbat 2018-11-12 12:49

    The idea that transgender folks need mental health treatment may often be true, but the actual cause of most mental health issues for transgenders is difficult to treat.

    Dr. Danielle Ofri addressed the problem in a related context, namely, suicidal ideation of a patient lacking “papers.” This patient immigrated from SE Asia 20 years ago and has spent the last 10 years in the legal system unsuccessfully attempting to obtain whatever “papers” he might need to be safe in our new anti-immigration environment. Meanwhile, he runs a business and pays taxes, along with keeping several people employed. He has children in schools with promising futures, yet he has become suicidal in response to our Country’s amped up hate campaign against people without “papers.”

    Dr. Ofri explained the key difficulty in treating this patient for mental illness:

    I can use my medical training to treat anxiety and depression, but there’s nothing in the medical playbook for acute national rejection. I have tools and colleagues to help a patient with acute suicidal ideation, but there’s no algorithm for the flogging of basic humanity. In medicine, we are taught to seek out and eradicate the etiologic agents of disease. But what do we do when the etiology is our very country?

    https://slate.com/technology/2018/11/trump-racism-anxiety-depression-medicine.html

    Unfortunately, for many transgender folks, rejection by society and public fear mongering about their supposed negative behavior and dangerousness has created a similar problem. How do professionals treat transgender suicidal ideation and related mental problems caused by the widespread societal rejection of their very existence, especially when evidenced by repeated public legislative efforts to codify irrational fear, hatred and rejection?

  22. Jake 2018-11-12 12:49

    Raising a ‘fuss’ over who pees where is just a red herring thrown out by politicos that don’t just know how to deal with the issues that bother and annoy society at large. Time spent on non-sense issues is time not spent having to think on real problems and is less taxing on the brains of those who want to be in the legislature for image only. Personally, I’ve never heard of an instance bordering on the problem.

  23. OldSarg 2018-11-12 14:10

    “Unfortunately, for many transgender folks, rejection by society and public fear mongering about their supposed negative behavior and dangerousness has created a similar problem.” bear, that is that person’s own decision or condition. That does not mean that the rest of society is required to accept their mental condition as normal or even acceptable. It is the very fact that our society does reject abnormal behavior that allows it to be one of the safest and most honest societies on earth. There is not a society I have ever visited that is as safe, orderly and honest as in the Unites States or Canada. Not anywhere in Europe, the far east or South America is even close and those areas are much more civilized than the middle east or eastern Europe. . .

  24. David Newquist 2018-11-12 14:33

    There is a lot of psychopathological fantasizing going on here. Boys showering with girls is one of lesser but more entertaining ones.

  25. bearcreekbat 2018-11-12 15:04

    Old Sarg, if blaming the victims who are harmed by marginalization makes you feel comfortable with negative social treatment of transgenders, so be it. It doesn’t change the reality, however, for the victims of such choices.

    And safety is in the eye of the beholder. Our society certainly is not as safe for marginalized individuals as it is for those who marginalize others. Indeed, the victims of our mass killings are often marginalized by those carrying out the slaughter, such as the murder of people who happen to be Jewish (a choice), or black (not a choice) or of a different nationality (not a choice), or country music fans (a choice).

    Whether those who marginalize people they see as different do so with guns or bombs, or do so by adopting discriminatory laws that are enforced with state sanctioned violence, the result remains the same – they hurt people who have done nothing to harm the person or property of anyone else.

  26. Robin Friday 2018-11-12 15:15

    Many trangender individuals grow up with PTSD. Yes, it’s traumatic to grow up with a disability which causes society to reject you for who you are without your ever having spoken about it. It’s traumatic for a child to grow up with a disability even your parents don’t know you have, so they can’t empathize or protect you or even begin to understand your feelings. The only way to overcome it is to do the transitioning and even the surgery that allows one to live as whom they feel they are. No, that won’t change the DNA but that is immaterial. Unfortunately it may not change the chronic depression and suicidal ideation, or the PTSD. That is especially true if one lives in a society with constant societal and governmental rejection and constant hate, fear, and harassment.

    I really hope Noem is smart enough to reject this kind of governmental nonsense and misery on people innocent of any wrongdoing, and offer hope and help instead. I have little confidence in our science-oppositional legislature.

  27. mike from iowa 2018-11-12 15:19

    So Cory and the Dems want boys showering with girls in school.

    The majority of South Dakotans do not want that.

    As if you would know what a majority would want. I’d be willing to bet the numbers of people willing to shower with high school girls would grow considerably if they could answer truthfully with no chance f being found out. And it wouldn’t just be the younger guys and some of the girls. There are always lecherous old goats lusting after nubile bodies of both sexes.

  28. Jake 2018-11-12 15:57

    Perhaps, MFI, this is exactly why this issue is present!?? Imaginations running wild just
    in the minds of a few: sorta like the imaginings of an ammosexual as he buys his 50 round clip for an AR 15 (I sure don’t need this clip fo plinkin’ prairie dogs, duh!”)

  29. grudznick 2018-11-12 16:07

    Hippies cause violence, not the demon weed.

  30. Kurt Evans 2018-11-12 16:28

    In the tenth chapter of his Gospel, Mark quotes Christ’s teaching that from the beginning of creation God made humans male and female. It’s an obvious reference to Adam and Eve in the first two chapters of Genesis, and this divine order is explicitly cited as the foundational basis for lifelong marriage.

    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=NASB&search=Mark+10:5-9

    Of course, public “education” has now indoctrinated two full generations of Americans into believing the Bible isn’t true, the earth is billions of years old, and human beings are conglomerations of molecules that came together by chance billions of years after the beginning of creation. There’s plenty of scientific evidence to refute this. The government schools just don’t tell anyone about it.

    https://biblicalscienceinstitute.com/origins/creation-101-radiometric-dating-and-the-age-of-the-earth

    Rebellion against gender—pretending we can just ignore it or even change it—seems to indicate the final stages of human rebellion against our Creator.

  31. OldSarg 2018-11-12 16:29

    bear “Old Sarg, if blaming the victims” the transgender person is not the victim. Society is the actual victim in this case. If all of society must pay the price of changing due to the mental instability of a handful of sick people then it s the community that suffers the greatest cost.

    Yes, the transgender person is a “victim” of sorts but, in the largest part, the transgender is a victim on account of those who think the are helping the mentally challenged by not getting the victim the professional mental help they so desperately need.

  32. grudznick 2018-11-12 16:36

    Mr. Evans, if we had been allowed to dig The Borehole in the Name of Science, we would have proof of your bible’s quackery. But, ironically, the heathen liberals stopped us from digging The Borehole.

  33. OldSarg 2018-11-12 16:37

    Robin “The only way to overcome it is to do the transitioning and even the surgery that allows one to live as whom they feel they are.” this is wrong in many ways. 1) Transgenderism is a mental condition. You are calling for the equivalent of a lobotomy for the person. 2) The vast majority of those who do undergo the surgery regret having done so. 3) The surgery does not reduce the attempted suicide rates of transgenders which is vastly higher than the general populous.

    No surgery doesn’t fix what is wrong for the transgender people. Only professional mental health may help.

  34. grudznick 2018-11-12 16:39

    The front of my Xmas sweat shirt hoody says #4Science. The back says “but for the damn whiners and libbies”

  35. OldSarg 2018-11-12 17:20

    It’s good to know you have shirt on now.

  36. grudznick 2018-11-12 17:28

    I have removed it again, as I am about to dine on what appears to be a particularly sloppy batch of spaghetti and meaty sauces.

  37. mike from iowa 2018-11-12 18:14

    Christ, now Grudzilla is gonna have OldSlobberalloverthem humping his leg tonight.

    Let me take a wild guess that OS has never been pregnant but he knows abortions are bad. He has never been transgendered, but he is an internet expert in what these people need. He has never birthed a shoat, but knows good bacon when he eats it.

    Yup, he is a complete, well rounded expert in everything on the internet. Except maybe Lakota culture.

  38. mike from iowa 2018-11-12 18:19

    Jake, ammosexuals have zero sense of humor. They claim they need large capacity clips (and have you noticed how they finally gave up claiming magazines was the proper term, not clips) for self defense and did not find it funny when I mentioned they could save beau coup bucks by making the first shot count.

    They are more of a threat to people and people’s bathrooms than any transgendered mob you can find.

  39. bearcreekbat 2018-11-12 18:53

    OldSarg, your argument has transcended reason when you claim that society is somehow the “actual victim” of forced change. I know that in the days of Trumpism, Trump always claims to be a victim of the folks his policies are designed to harm, but society a victim of the harm it has inflicted on transgenders?

    If society is the “actual victim,” who do you designate as the perpetrator, a transgender high school kid? And if the harm you perceive to society is “forced change,” whom is forcing society to change, another scared teen or maybe Chas Bono?

    You haven’t contested the fact that the transgender community is generally marginalized. I doubt you can contest the fact that they are also pretty much without any power to force society to do anything.

    And you argue for treating mental problems, but as usual dodge the question raised by Dr. Ofri: “In medicine, we are taught to seek out and eradicate the etiologic agents of disease. But what do we do when the etiology is our very country?”

  40. Robin Friday 2018-11-12 19:22

    Transgender (they don’t say transgenderism any more) is NOT simply a mental condition. It is a biological condition that causes mental anguish and everything that comes with it, like PTSD. We’re just in th process for the last 40 years or so of learning about the causes, but there is NO evidence, NONE, that it is purely a choice or a mental condition. It wouldn’t hurt some people to come with us behavioral health workers to learn a little bit by reading the books and medical/psychiatric tracts that are out there, and come into the 21st century with us, and leave their “I know everything I need to know and always have” attitudes behind.

  41. Robin Friday 2018-11-12 19:24

    Well said as always, BCB.

  42. Robin Friday 2018-11-12 19:34

    New light is dawning every day. But only for those who care to take part in the light that’s out there.

  43. RJ 2018-11-12 19:44

    OS, has your therapist found a cure for being a “douche bag, yet?” Here’s the difference..for Kurt, Jason and OS..people don’t choose to be gay or transgender or black or white. Bottom line, no one chooses to be targets of your intolerance and inhumanity. You guys have the ability to choose when you wake up in the morning “am I going to be kind to people or am I going to be cruel and intolerant?”

  44. Debbo 2018-11-12 19:55

    I’ve had the privilege of knowing a few transgender people, both man to woman (most common) and woman to man. They were generally nice people who never wanted to be trans, but came to accept the hand nature dealt them.

    BTW, as with the domestic terrorist attacks/mass murders, the large majority of sexual offenders are straight males, not trans, bi or gay. That’s per FBI stats.

    The religious fanatics who are endangering the well-being of trans folks with these attacks are the same ones who scream about sexual orientation being a “choice” too, though the screamers never chose their own sexual orientation. (Seems odd?) And they are really, really desperate to control women’s sexual behavior.

    I have never really been able to figure out why they are so obsessed with sex. No other segment of U.S. society suffers from such a pronounced maladaption, for that is what it surely is. I am certain mental health professionals could help them find relief from their obsession.

    The religious right’s sexual obsession is what drives these national distractions from the real concerns of this nation. What is their problem?

  45. grudznick 2018-11-12 20:51

    You sure hate men, Ms. Geelsdottir.

  46. Roger Cornelius 2018-11-12 21:15

    Debbo, I am a man do you hate me?
    I’ve met several trans people and the only way I knew they were trans is that they confided in me their situation.

  47. grudznick 2018-11-12 21:18

    Mr. C, are you suggesting that Ms. Geelsdottir’s hatred of most men and friendship with you might be based on some other criteria? I sure hope you’re not going to call her what I think you are calling her.

  48. Debbo 2018-11-12 21:26

    Roger, when Grudz cannot/will not address the issue of the deadly violence of the mostly white male culture he falls back on the old “man hater” thing. That was old in the 1950s and used then for the same reason, to avoid the issue. I’ve yet to see him address the cold, hard facts. He gets very wimpy about it. I guess his feelings are hurt.

  49. Roger Cornelius 2018-11-12 21:46

    grudz,
    You owe Debbo an apology for what you are implying.
    I have not suggested anything about Debbo and resent that implication

  50. Robin Friday 2018-11-12 22:36

    The reality is that transpeople are just as individual as the rest of us are. Most people want to express the gender that they are inside their heads, and that comes from the infusion of hormones into the human embryo at about three months of gestation. As some people say, “god doesn’t make mistakes”, but nature does, they are all around us. The reality is that growing up trans is more difficult mentally than most people can do. It isn’t a choice, it’s biological AND mental. So both kinds are help are needed.

    Some can be mellow and and relatively free of anxiety and just cover who they are. And most know something is very wrong with their bodies when they are three or four. Some are filled with anxiety and anguish and must go the “whole way” and have not only the hormonal transition and every change that goes with it cosmetically and outwardly, and some must have the “completion” surgery. We’re all individuals. We are all different psychologically as well as every other way, and so are they.

    They are maladapted to society only because society is maladapted to them. To help them be who they are requires both physical and psychological help. They’re no more likely to bother your grandkid in the bathroom than the rest of us heteros.

    But those of us who are cis-gendered must learn too. You don’t have to accept that if you don’t want to, but if you don’t want to learn, then you have no idea what you’re talking about.

    So just tone down the rhetoric when you’re not quite as informed as you thought you were.

  51. o 2018-11-13 09:00

    Jason writes: “So Cory and the Dems want boys showering with girls in school.”

    So Jason, you take the position that boys (identified through OldSarg’s eloquent “swinging talleywacker” standard) ought to only shower with — even be forced to shower with boys? How about a decent respect for privacy period?

  52. o 2018-11-13 09:45

    Kurt, what race were Adam and Eve? If gender/gender identity cannot go beyond the first Biblical account of people, can race?

  53. OldSarg 2018-11-13 10:20

    o~ why does “race” matter so much to you? This is exactly what is so wrong with the leftist; You are a racist. You can’t get past the color of someone’s freaking skin! Skin color does not matter except to the simple minded fools who still measure people by the color of a person’s skin. Pathetic.

  54. TAG 2018-11-13 10:33

    This topic has been thoroughly discussed, but I’d like to make one final point. Molecular biologists are now coming to understand that “Disorders of Sex Development” or DSD’s are likely much more common than we previously thought. Some are now saying as many as 1 in 100 people have some form of DSD. Many people are not even aware of it.

    There is a very complex interaction of DNA and hormones in our bodies, both during fetal development, childhood and at puberty. Any small deviation in hormonal balance, or genetic expression can result in a wide variety of sex-linked abnormalities. Some conditions are obvious, some not so much.

    I guess what I’m saying is that we should be open to new concepts when we get new information. A black-and-white binary concept of biological sex may not be scientifically accurate. Here’s a long read on the subject, if you are interested:

    https://www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943

  55. Debbo 2018-11-13 10:45

    Aaaaaand the right continues with its sexual obsession while any mention of the realities of skin color drives OS wild. Meanwhile his brothers on the right go on racist attacks virtually and physically. I think this is where the word “convoluted” needs to be inserted.

  56. o 2018-11-13 11:01

    OldSarge, “race” matters to me in the context of my question to Kurt to make the point that although, even in a Biblical view of creation, there is a starting point that need not be also interpreted as the finishing point. Whatever “race” Adam and Eve were then is not the end point of the multitude of races we see in the world now. I spoke to race only as a identifiable difference people have. I do not care what their race was — only that humanity have grown beyond that singular staring point. My line of reasoning was that sex/gender may well be the same.

    And to take you bait, yes race is important. Race determines a degree of a person’s experiences in the United States because race affects how people are treated and viewed (just as gender is). To say that race makes no difference in a person’s life is to speak ignorance.

    BTW, while dragged into the topic, let me take one swing at christianity’s whitewashing: neither Jesus nor Mary were anglo — no matter what their statues and portraits look like in churches around here.

    I am not a racist; you went off half-cocked.

  57. bearcreekbat 2018-11-13 11:22

    o & debbo, I wouldn’t take OldSarg’s purported concern about color too seriously. As with his comments supporting the marginalization of transgender people, and people based on their place of birth, rather than the content of their character, he has demonstrated a tendency to bully the weakest among us, which he often seeks to justify by projecting his own self-perceived shortcomings on others.

    For example, he has never even attempted to explain why he categorically rejects a sworn allegation of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh based on the “presumption of innocence,” while in the same breath alleging that Russell Means is guilty of rape based on an unsworn allegation. Some difference between these two men has motivated such disparate treatment and with no response by OldSarg to a request to explain why the “presumption of innocence” is ignored for this Native American accused of the same conduct as the white man, deep seated prejudices rise to the surface as the likely reason.

  58. mike from iowa 2018-11-13 11:31

    Hormonal difference between the left and wingnuts couldn’t be clearer. Libs deal with hormones in a scientific capacity. Wingnuts, like Drumpf refuse to pay the ladies and that makes them moan.

  59. Ryan 2018-11-13 11:42

    This would be less of an issue if those disgusting religious people would quit with the child molesting already. They have everyone nervous about who can see or reach our genitals. Religious leaders and their sheep are the biggest threat to our country, hands down.

    I don’t think we need laws telling people what toilet their waste belongs in, but it doesn’t surprise me that so many average joes and average joans are concerned. Just like this conversation has nothing at all to do with mass shootings or race, but it doesn’t surprise me that some of the same old tired mouthpieces are flapping their same old tired songs.

  60. OldSarg 2018-11-13 12:59

    I agree with Ryan. new law doesn’t solve an issue it only creates new issues.

    As far as the racism goes, Debbo, o and bear display, I suppose I’ll just have to learn to accept they will never believe in treating others equally. It is only when you become blind to the color of a person’s skin that you can move past always looking for victims.

  61. o 2018-11-13 14:52

    OldSarge: ” . . . new law doesn’t solve an issue it only creates new issues.”

    That is the mantra of the right – pass laws that do not help or make things worse so that you can then make the argument government is ineffective. Instead, how about just pass effective laws for the common good. Saying the government and laws do not work is not an indictment of government and laws, it is an indictment of YOUR implementation of government and laws. The right believes that laws are blunt tools to fan the flames of the culture war.

  62. Robin Friday 2018-11-13 19:04

    mike from iowa–lol

  63. Robin Friday 2018-11-13 20:04

    And the rest of us aren’t perfect either.

  64. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-11-14 06:03

    “new law doesn’t solve an issue it only creates new issues”—said no Republican with moral consistency ever.

  65. Jason 2018-11-14 12:25

    Oh look. Teachers making up rules and laws without telling the school board and parents.

    I would sue every school administrator and teacher involved.

    School Punishes Male Teacher For Refusing To Watch A Naked Girl In The Boys’ Locker Room

    With a “gag order,” school administrators forbade teachers from talking about the change, and ordered a male P.E. teacher to supervise the potentially undressed girl in the Chasco Middle School locker room, the letter says. When he refused to “knowingly place himself in a position to observe a minor female in the nude or otherwise in a state of undress,” administrators told him “he will be transferred to another school as discipline for ‘not doing your job in the locker room.’”

    It appears Pasco schools adopted their transgender policies with no notice to their elected school board, parents, or voters. Instead, they were implemented after the district hired Jackie Jackson-Dean, a school psychologist, as a LGBT liason.

    Pasco parents have yet to be informed by the school of this situation, yet the transgender student continues to have open access to private male areas, according to Liberty Counsel. Despite the initial September incident, then legal contact in October, the elected board for the district with 70,500 students has so far taken no action and administrators have refused to budge.

    http://thefederalist.com/2018/11/14/florida-school-district-gags-p-e-teachers-telling-parents-girl-watching-naked-sons/

  66. Cory Allen Heidelberger Post author | 2018-11-14 12:46

    Jason hates teachers, but his anecdote says nothing about transgender students posing a threat to fellow students or to the moral order. Jason’s anecdote says nothing about the hard data that fair transgender access laws do anything to increase crime or harm to youth.

  67. mike from iowa 2018-11-14 14:11

    The Federalist and Jerry Fatwell’s incompetent lawyers. What could possibly go wrong with this pairing.

  68. Jason 2018-11-14 22:40

    Cory,

    Is it illegal for school administrators to adopt policies and hide them from the school board in SD and the parents in SD?

    I don’t hate teachers. I hate people who think they are above the law and who think they are able to decide for a child instead of that child’s parents.

  69. o 2018-11-14 23:05

    Jason, you mean you believe a child’s parents can make decisions until you do not agree with those either. If I as a parent ask a school to identify my child as male (or female), you still want to second guess that request based on your view of what determines gender.

  70. Jason 2018-11-14 23:11

    NO o,

    I’m saying that special accommodations can be made for your child.

    My child has a right to privacy also and I have a right to be told what is happening concerning my child. There is no ifs and or buts about that.

    This case is about the school administrators wanting two teachers to break child pornagaphy laws.

    This case is about administrators making policy and not telling the school board.

    This case is about parents not having a choice to what happens to their children at school.

  71. o 2018-11-15 08:15

    Jason, “My child has a right to privacy . . . ” I agree; in fact, I believe this has been the core, intrinsic issue in the whole discussion which has been sacrificed for the stoking fo a culture war fire.

    I we would choose to define this as a student privacy issue, then we question all current practices: why is it a good idea for 30 children of ANY gender to be forced to be naked together? Why is there the unquestioned assumption that from-birth-gender-determined-alike groups are OK relinquishing all privacy? The smartest thinking on this issue (from the LGBTQ community — to give fair credit) is to look at issues like going to the bathroom through a privacy/modesty lens — rather than a mass use/economic efficiency lens. We ought to be making decisions during the very construction of public buildings — especially schools.

    And not for nothing, what is going on in the bathrooms OldSarge and Jason use? You all make it sound like all public bathrooms have genitals out and waving on public display like Confederate flags at a Clan convention.

  72. bearcreekbat 2018-11-15 10:53

    o, you made me smile today with your clan/flag analogy – thanks!

  73. mike from iowa 2018-11-15 11:23

    And one could rightly assume, with the empirical evidence of Catholic priests and child molestation that certain religious schools
    would be equal opportunity molesters, not just of the girls.

    Under Drumpf, I’m not sure these religious schools have to perform under the same rules as public schools.

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