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Boreal's avatar

The Alliance Defending Fascism is filled with people who think about what gay folks do with their genitals 24/7.

foofaraw & Chiquita(ARF!)'s avatar

I doubt I think about my own as much as these pervs thinks about the genitals of total strangers they "hate".

Troublesh00ter's avatar

It's called "OBSESSION" for a reason! 😉

foofaraw & Chiquita(ARF!)'s avatar

When I used the term "pervs", I certainly meant in the context of each of these individual's own little "power trip".

Imagining genitals of people one knows and loves, and possibly with permission, harms no one. The article references something less wholesome.

Claudia's avatar

Mrs Hawley is involved with that outfit?

They also do a lot of anti-abortion work.

Whatever happened to 'Live & Let Live'??

Claudia's avatar

It made me think of the Bee Gees ‘Tragedy’ and I went looking for a video clip. The Youtube algorithm offered me ‘Hot Stuff’ as well, which of course leads to ‘The Full Monty’. Which is a cracking film, if you haven’t seen it, really try and get hold of it.

And then it made me think of what those good people of the Alliance Deafening Fu*kwits would make of it …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6bjW9OwSQc

Grimm Eric C.'s avatar

Authoritarian followers are fixated on conformity-enforcement, not “live and let live.” And they prefer violence as the means to enforce conformity upon people who do not share their pathological personality traits. Josh and Mrs. Hawley, alas, are authoritarIans, but not authoritarian followers. They are what Professor Altemeyer would call “double high” personalities. https://theauthoritarians.org

Ethereal Fairy's avatar

She is also his beard, did you ever see the obviously staged photo of him kissing her? His body is so far away only the lips are (barely) touching, and his facial expression reminds me of if Alfalfa was forced to kiss Darla and hated every second!

Len Koz's avatar

He would prefer that she was Mr. Tumnus.

oraxx's avatar

The so-called religious right is comprised primarily of professional victims who are determined to control everything and everyone around them in order they might feel better about themselves.

Joe King's avatar

[𝑇]ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦’𝑣𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒.

That's all we need to know about them. They want all trans people to at a minimum go back into the closet and live as who they are not. The end goal (whether or not they will admit to it) is the death of anyone who is trans, by suicide or by the state. Several reich-wingers have been highlighted on these pages for calling for the execution of anyone who is not straight and cisgender. While most of the far right are not quite that extreme yet, they keep dragging the Overton windows that way.

I expect that the charges against these school officials will eventually be dropped as unfounded, but not until they have spent thousands defending themselves. Just like the R̶W̶N̶J̶ ADF lawsuit will go away after the grifters have milked the rubes for a while. The process is the punishment. They want the school officials to start prohibiting trans athletes so they won't face criminal charges again.

Claudia's avatar

They're utterly forgetting that the people they don't like are human beings and are thus entitled to respect and the ability to live their lives.

Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

They aren’t forgetting, they are actively trying to make them inhuman so they can keep them from living their lives. To justify their inhumane treatment of them.

Claudia's avatar

Othering.

It’s the first step.

Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

No, they are not. Since they are not comporting to gawd's will they are asking for it.

Ethereal Fairy's avatar

They need to make these professional organizations pay for these nuisance lawsuits.

Bensnewlogin's avatar

As a former wrestler and wrestling coach, I can say unequivocally that this whole thing is right wing Christian garbage, and nothing else. By it’s very nature, wrestling requires close physical contact, almost unregulated physical close contact. There are rules, of course. Most wrestlers know and respect those rules.

The issue is people who see everything as sexual, no matter how not sexual it might be. Although I wasn’t out in high school 60 years ago, I was well aware of who I was. As I said the last time this thing came up, if you have time to think about sex when you’re wrestling, you have time to lose. And I didn’t like losing.

This is the same crap they use about transgender people using public restrooms. The very presence of a transgender person, like the very presence of a gay person, makes everything sexual, because that’s how they think. This is the filth in their minds, not the reality for most LGBT people.

I wrote this just yesterday: “ Where to begin? First here. If your concern for female prisoners begins and ends with excluding transgender women from women’s prisons, then your concern is not for the female prisoners, it’s for causing harm to transgender women. You know that once-a-year phenomenon of a transgender person walking around a woman’s locker room waving a penis around? Sorry, that sounds like a heterosexual man. But why state the obvious when it’s so much easier to call someone else a threat?

If your concern for women's sports begins and ends with excluding a handful of transgender women from competition, especially based on the whining of a bio woman who placed TIED for fifth, then maybe you’re really not concerned about women’s sports at all, but about excluding transgender people from participation in society. Transgender women who are in transition have been shown to have no biological advantage. Or maybe they do. But what I see is nobody wants to actually have a conversation where the facts are laid out and people can make up their minds. What they want is propaganda. If your concern for women's safety in public facilities begins and ends with excluding transgender people from using public facilities, when there isn’t the slightest bit of evidence that they pose any danger to women and children, then once again, what you care about is excluding transgender people from life. They just need a place to pee, same as anyone else.”

Or a place to wrestle.

But this is where I see the great evil that evangelical Christianity, obsessed with sex and purity and control and money, is now committing on a regular basis. It’s the same goddamn and goddamning story.

As I wrote yesterday, I get close to 500 reports every year — probably a vast underrepresentation of the actual figure — of children who have been molested or assaulted by the men of God. These men of God are arrested, or convicted, or sentenced for these crimes. If you google gay men molesting kids*, Or drag queens molesting kids, or transgender people molesting kids— you might get a few reports every year. Might. And as I wrote yesterday, this is what makes me beyond furious, because I’ve been listening to this garbage for longer than many of these molesting assholes have been alive. LGBT people are not the threat, but the unending fecal bleating is that gay people ARE the threat— not the ministers, not the priests, not the professional Christians, not the churches and entire denominations that cover up the sexual assault, not the hyper conservative reactionaries infesting the Republican Party, not the Epstein class. Here is the reality: if transgender wanted to groom or molest your children, they wouldn’t be going through years of therapy, surgery, social ostracism and political attack from malicious assholes. They would simply join your church and become a youth minister.

Why would rapists bother to pretend to be trans in a culture that treats rapists better than trans women? Or for that matter, a society and the culture that will not believe women when they say they have been assaulted, but will believe the man who has been credibly accused, if not adjudicated to be a rapist or a child molester? And yet, that’s precisely what we have happening. A blogger wrote: “And yet — when an actual woman or child is harmed? When the abuse isn’t hypothetical, but sitting right in front of them (sometimes at the same dinner table)?” The president of the southern Baptist convention claims it’s all a hoax. The Catholic Church has for decades, if not centuries, tried to blame gay men somehow infiltrating the priesthood— not possible by their own theology— for their thousand-year-old sexual abuse crisis.

Pure and simple evil. Or impure and simple evil. But evil

Troublesh00ter's avatar

The Asshats Demonstrating Fuckupery are in the habit of taking ANY situation which may involve ANY hint of sexuality and blow it ridiculously out of proportion. They've done it before and they've done it here.

What they clearly need is a proper SPANKING, preferably from a judge who has had enough of their noise.

Bensnewlogin's avatar

No, no spankings. That might get them turned on

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Perhaps I should have said, "A VERBAL spanking!" 😉

Bensnewlogin's avatar

But that would just be talking dirty, and they might like that as well

NOGODZ20's avatar

Spank their upper cheeks. Not so pleasurable.

Bensnewlogin's avatar

I’m told that if you do it backhanded and then forehanded, it saves pain in your hand.

Claudia's avatar

On the point of toilets - I have used the Gents on occasions and I did not come to any harm!

Let me explain: At least once was when I was a student and we were drinking in Curlers in Byres Road. Curlers is a very old pub, which in this context means that the provision of facilities is a bit skew-whiff. The architects clearly did not anticipate the number of female students who'd be frequenting the pub and who might then be needing to use the facilities. On one such occasion the queue for the Ladies was just too ridiculous, so a pal and me just dashed into the Gents. Used the loo, washed our hands and went back to our drinks.

And on one other occasion we were travelling in Northern Spain. Stopped off at a Services, where I found a large sign on the door of the Ladies that they were out of order and that we should use the Gents. Ok, walked into the Gents, used a cubicle, washed my hands and then went back on my way.

Now, according to some of those bathroom ordinances which exist in some places in the USA, I broke the law. And, let me tell you, I am utterly unrepentant: I would do it again!

Bensnewlogin's avatar

When you have to go, you have to go.

Guerillasurgeon's avatar

Was on holiday in a small provincial – well actually not that small – town a while ago and was doing a tourist thing. Went into a public toilet which turned out to be all cubicles and Uni sex. If you can do that in one of our more conservative towns, that are surrounded by conservative voting farmers and the like, you can do it anywhere can't you?

The Epistler's avatar

Gasp! STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!

Claudia's avatar

Talking of Curlers has taken me a bit down memory lane ... here's a pic:

https://glasgowgallery.co.uk/curlers-byers-road-glasgow-by-david-marshall-sold/

Anyone wanting to go, take the Underground and get off at Hillhead, it's just next door.

Len Koz's avatar

I went to the Les Miserables World Tour recently at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. At intermission there was quite the line for both the men's and the ladies'. I was close to the end of the line so that by the time I was washing my hands the men's room was nearly empty. The staff diverted the ladies' room line into the men's room. I stood to one side as the first wave of ladies entered and pointed them towards the stalls.

Claudia's avatar

That would be enabling crime in some areas who have passed these bathroom bills.

Len Koz's avatar

Stupid laws deserve to be broken.

Die Anyway's avatar

> "They would simply join your church and become a youth minister."

Excellent observation. 👏👏

The Epistler's avatar

Very well said!

I'd love to see them try to slant sex-repulsed asexuality as being sexual since our thing is... uh, not having sex. Whee, look at me, I'm a pure untouched virgin! Except that also means no husband and children, which is ungodly. Like which way d'you want it, you lunatics? Because it can't be both.

Ethereal Fairy's avatar

I quoted your last paragraph and gave you credit of course, hope that is okay.

David Graf's avatar

I appreciate your insight given your background as a wrestling coach.

Bensnewlogin's avatar

Thanks David. It’s funny enough, but when I was coaching, they were just starting to float the idea of girls and women wrestling. It seemed terribly outlandish at the time, but my reaction was, “well, why not?”

David Graf's avatar

ADF is claiming in so many words that her opponent stuck fingers into her vag**a. I don't really see that in the video. I would have thought that their safety gear would prevent something like that.

Bensnewlogin's avatar

It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if that’s what they’re claiming. Hands go all over the place. Several moves require the hand to be right near the genitalia. It’s not unlikely that someone who knows absolutely nothing about wrestling might interpret it that way, but then that is what they tend to do. I’m not aware that women wear the female equivalent of a jock strap. My wrestling career ended 45 years. But I’m pretty sure they’re wearing something, so it really could not actually happen except in passing.

But this is where their minds always go.

Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

The trans panic we are currently experiencing will only make everyone less safe. They attack transgender people, anyone they assume is transgender, anyone who stands up for transgender people, and all the folks who are in positions to protect transgender people. How many stories have we seen of RWNJs accosting women trying to use the facilities because they aren’t performing femininity to their standards? I’ve experienced one such attack on someone else first hand. And hell, recently I ticked some idiot on Facebook off and he slid into my DMs to say I look transgender, and he doesn’t date transgender people. As if I cared.

The threat is directed at transgender people and we have to protect them for their sake. We also have to protect them for our own safety. And if someone can’t bring themselves to do it for the sake of the transgender people, then they should be doing it for their own sake. But these vile bigots can’t see the forest for the trees.

Claudia's avatar

Yes. There's a reason that little poem of 'First they came for ....' is a classic!

NOGODZ20's avatar

"The bigots are always desperate for stories that make trans people appear threatening, predatory, or dangerous."

Bigots want these kinds of stories? We've got stories galore about bigots and religious people actually BEING threatening, predatory and dangerous. The fact that the designated hate group ADF has taken this up is yet another example.

Joe King's avatar

As a percentage of the demographics, trans people are far less predatory than youth pastors. When is the ADF going to start suing churches that hire handsy youth pastors? (I know, it has nothing to do with actual predation and a lot to do with forced conformity.)

NOGODZ20's avatar

ADF will simply argue that said pastor was practicing the biblical "laying on of hands."

Joe King's avatar

As for the other body parts he used, they will argue "she tempted him".

Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

If these typical wrestling moves and touching are sexual assault for a transgender wrestler, then wrestling is sexual assault altogether. So let’s just ban the sport. And any other sport that also has touching that could accidentally get inappropriate.

Is that what you want?

Joe King's avatar

What sports would be left? Badminton, maybe?

NOGODZ20's avatar

But...but...they use shuttleCOCKS!

larry parker's avatar

Never been hit in the shuttlecock by a shuttlecock have you.

Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Well, swimming is no contact, but apparently it is not immune to the controversy.

These women are hell bent on making life miserable and dangerous for everyone.

Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

Don't forget what happened with Greg Louganis.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Marbles. Oh wait, the marbles touch one another.

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Gymnastics is pretty safe, I would think. 🤔

Claudia's avatar

Synchronised swimming.

Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Played in full corsets and floor length dresses, like the Victorians who created it. (Did the Victorians create badminton? I just assumed.) maybe croquet?

NOGODZ20's avatar

Yup, the Vickies invented badminton in India circa 1870.

Lissa's avatar

They don’t care whose lives they destroy. More Riley Gaines bullshit.

Gwen Pryce's avatar

I disagree. They get off on destroying people’s lives.

Ethereal Fairy's avatar

As always with them, the cruelty is the point.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Don't you just love how these religious haters claim they are "defending" freedom when the exact opposite is true?

splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/alliance-defending-freedom/

Joe King's avatar

They are defending the freedom of white christofascists to oppress others.

Donrox's avatar

I don't trust any group that includes the words "liberty "freedom" or "moms for"

Ethereal Fairy's avatar

Or "Patriot". All are besmirched.

Joan the Dork's avatar

I'm reminded of a quote from a game I played rather a lot of back in the day... the game itself (Starsiege) has no bearing on the subject at hand; it's the third (well, technically fourth) in a humans-vs.-robot-apocalypse series... but I replayed its singleplayer campaigns recently out of nostalgia, and this particular quote just popped into my head when I read the article. The context is that the character being quoted is an authoritarian bootlicker tasked with putting down a rebellion, who is slowly losing his mind, resorting to ever more brutal tactics to maintain whatever semblance of control he can as his appendage of the overarching Imperial government goes down in flames.

The quote goes thusly: "𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳, 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘢𝘸-𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘵. 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯."

What an eerie echo. Funny how something from a nearly thirty year old unrelated video game would just trip over relevance like that, but... well, it's a classic authoritarian divide-and-conquer tactic, isn't it? A tried-and-true formula for turning neighbor against neighbor, breaking down community solidarity so that the hate and fear you're peddling can have free reign. If you see something, say something- and even if you 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 see something, you'd still better 𝘴𝘢𝘺 that you did see something, and it had better incriminate 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 people we don't like, because if not we're coming for 𝘺𝘰𝘶 instead.

Ronald Furr's avatar

If there are any good Christians out there ( I know that there are some) you need to do the hard work of redefining Christianity. The Christian Nationalist evangelicals are making it so that nobody is going to trust Christians to be honest anymore. It is up to you to define what it means to be Christian. It is not up to me to try to figure out your brand of that religion. There are over 40 thousand variants (denominations) of that religion because nobody including Christians knows what it means to be Christian anymore. Now that the Federal government and Justice dept are a Christian backed mafia I am going to assume the worst until Christian organizations improve themselves.

Linda's avatar

Don’t hold your breath!

Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

One thing I’ve noticed is that of the folks fighting transgender rights, men are the ones making physical threats in the moment at bathrooms and sporting events, but women are the ones doing legal actions and speaking engagements. The men are cosplaying the protector in the complimentarian system, by acting tough and threatening. They recognize that the women, ironically supportive of the systems that denied them the ability to speak in court, are the only people who can credibly make a claim in court of being harmed by transgender people existing. This is an intentional choice by the folks orchestrating the attacks on our freedoms (they are going after more than transgender people and using this hot button issue to gain traction). Their solutions are also quite predatory, genital inspections, genetic testing, or just policing and threatening women’s bathroom doors.

OT- I setup a new Facebook page for a project I’m working on and I chose not to allow access to my contacts to find friends, nor have I followed or friended anyone on the page yet. I’m still in the setup stage and not ready to share yet. Anyway, the things that have just automatically come up on my feed is alarming. It’s all generic right wing nonsense. Just unknown folks making wild claims about LGBTQ people, sexism, super religious, a bunch of AI slop, reminiscing about the fantasy of the olden days. It’s pretty clear that the default on Facebook is bigotry. I’m waiting for Ben Shapiro, Fox News, Matt Walsh to appear, but I have gotten plenty of the White House and related posts. Yeah, Facebook is a fascist company pushing the right wing agenda on everyone. Even my cultivated feed needs weeding from time to time to eliminate the worst of the right’s propaganda.

Joan the Dork's avatar

It was never about fairness or safety; they've as good as admitted it, first by targeting "sports" in which physical ability is irrelevant, like chess, and they confirmed it beyond a shadow of a doubt when the Heritage Foundation aimed its crosshairs at Title IX. They got traction on excluding trans women from sports; now they're coming for women's sports in general, because sports are a man thing and anyhow all that physical activity might make women less fertile (yes, they're really resurrecting 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 bunk). Scratch any part of this culture war, and it's all misogyny underneath.

They can't help it seeping into everything they do, from the framing of the issues (trans women as scary male predators; trans men as naive female victims, when they're mentioned at all) to their own offensive tactics. Men are big and strong and pick fights; women are little and weak and hide behind lawyers. Girls have to have big strong grown-up men protecting them (by leering at and groping them, naturally), while boys are presumably expected to deal with non-conforming interlopers in the same abusive ways jocks have always put outcasts in their place.

Ethereal Fairy's avatar

🎯I keep telling the self-proclaimed feminists (who are obviously TERFS) this was the goal.

Ethereal Fairy's avatar

Yeah when they put Dead Breitbart in as a credible news source, I knew my Facebook days were over.

Maltnothops's avatar

I’ve never had a FB account. Or any of the other social media.

Linda's avatar

Interesting, I’ve never once been concerned about my safety or worried about being assaulted by any trans person. I have however felt more than concerned around many hetero cis-men?

Troublesh00ter's avatar

Do da woyd, "Testosterone" strike a familiar note? 😉

Joe King's avatar

Bigots today, bigots yesterday. Tomorrow's story? 75% chance it's bigots. I really hope the community rallies around these school officials to show the bigots that they aren't welcome.

NOGODZ20's avatar

Pierce County is slightly liberal/moderate-Democratic overall (56% Dem to 44% Rep), but it functions as a swing county. As a result, Puyallup is considered moderate-to-conservative.

Still, even the right are saying "What's the big deal over this touching? It happens all the time."

Joe King's avatar

So, we should expect the shift to cries of persecution by sometime next week?

Maltnothops's avatar

I'm somewhat confused. Prosecutors did not file criminal charges against the wrestler. ADF is suing a bunch of people for ..... something.... but ADF cannot file charges against the school officials. So prosecutors (??) have filed charges against school officials for not reporting an alleged sexual assault that almost no one thought was a sexual assault?

Maltnothops's avatar

From the ADF lawsuit that Heman linked to:

"3. But because she didn’t know, she wrestled. And during the match, the

male athlete sexually assaulted K.M.K., shoving his fingers through her spandex

clothing, digitally penetrating her vagina, and holding the position for several

seconds. Visibly distressed, K.M.K. shouted to her mother, who was videorecording

the match, that the opponent’s fingers are “in my c***hie!”"

Then I watched the video of the wrestling match. It's the last 10 seconds or so that are relevant. I watch those seconds several times. KMK did not appear visibly distressed to me. Did not look in the direction of the mother who was recording. And I could not hear her shouting anything.

larry parker's avatar

Just to be safe, I called the local police department. I told them that I haven't seen anything that needs to be reported.

Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

You better call back just to be sure.

NOGODZ20's avatar

This is why trying to mix law with religion is always a bad idea.