Wingnuts Still Addicted To Trans Panic

What is these people's damage?

A school board in Texas voted Monday night to adopt a bunch of policies aimed at making LGBT people just disappear, although the chances that anyone will actually turn straight because of them seem slim. The new policies were adopted after two rightwing candidates were elected in May to the board of trustees for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District (GCISD), which is located in between Dallas and Fort Worth. You could say it's not entirely one or the other, but if you did, they might shoot you.

In addition to yet another ban on teaching "Critical Race Theory," the new policies ban teaching or "promoting" what the board calls "Gender fluidity," or as the policy puts it,

any theory or ideology that (1) espouses the view that biological sex is merely a social construct; (2) espouses the view that this it is possible for a person to be any gender or none (i.e., non-binary) based solely on that person’s feelings or preferences; or (3) espouses the view that an individual’s biological sex can be changed to “match” a self-believed gender that is different from the person’s biological sex.

Unable to actually ban trans and nonbinary people from existing, the rules boil down to saying their existence must not be acknowledged — even by trans school district staff themselves, it seems. The policy is being derided as "Don't Say Trans," which means Twitter will be full of assholes pointing out that phrase doesn't appear in the policy.

Texas: School Board Passes 'Don't Say Trans' Policy

The policy says the district "will not promote, require, or encourage the use of titles or pronoun identifiers for students, teachers or any other persons in any manner that is inconsistent with the biological sex of such person," as it appears on someone's birth certificate. (And just to make sure no sneaky sneakertons show up with a revised birth certificate from some weirdo state that allows people to update their birth records, the policy only accepts certificates issued at the time of birth, or changed to correct a clerical error.)

Now before you get your nonspecific undergarments in a twist, you perverts and abominators, the policy generously allows staff to acknowledge a parent or guardian's written directive to call a kid by their preferred name and pronouns, but only if the teacher chooses to. But a principal dare not require the parents' wishes be followed because respecting kids' identities would be tyranny.

As of yet, the trustees have not yet passed a policy allowing the public stoning of LGBTQ students, possibly due to liability issues that might result if a rock hurled at a gay kid went astray and damaged private property.

Oh yes, the policy also bans trans students from taking part in school athletic events that are “designated for the biological sex opposite to the student’s biological sex” and requires students to use only restrooms and locker rooms for their birth-certificate-designated sex, despite a clause saying schools would not be prohibited from "providing reasonable accommodations upon request."

Another policy passed yesterday will give the school board greater ability to restrict what books are allowed in schools.

A majority of public comments at the board meeting prior to the midnight 4-3 vote opposed the policies, but that's only because for the time being, Texas law allows people with wrong opinions to voice them publicly.

 Among those who spoke was a former GCISD student who said the anti-LGBTQ policies would endanger students, as if that weren't the point.

“By implementing these policies you are preventing our kids, the kids who were trusted into your care, from getting the help and support that they need,” the teenager said. “You will alienate them even more from getting help ... Help my friends. Don’t tell them they should be erased.”

A fourth-grader also urged the trustees not to restrict access to books, saying he learned new things from reading and didn't want his teachers to be kept from having books in the classroom. The kiddo said, "My mom said the trustees are changing some rules to make it hard for my teachers to keep books at school. I think this is a bad idea because kids want to read books."

We fully expect the board to call for the investigation of the boy's mother and teachers, because clearly the poor child has been brainwashed by radical Marxists.

Utah: Good News For Trans Kids, If You Can Believe That

In Utah, a state judge temporarily blocked a law banning transgender teens from competing on high school teams that match their preferred gender. The bill had been vetoed by Gov. Spencer Cox (R) in March, because as Cox said, it was the right thing to do; Cox noted the high rate of suicide among trans teens and pointed out that out of 75,000 participants in high school sports in Utah, only four are trans anyway. But the state Legislature overrode the veto, because apparently those four kids threatened to completely ruin all sports for all time.

In Friday's ruling, Judge Keith Kelly said that the ban likely violated Utah's constitution by preventing equal opportunity for the girls.

“The ban singles out transgender girls and categorically bars them from competing on girls’ sports teams,” he wrote. “At the same time, other girls are free to compete. This is plainly unfavorable treatment.”

There's still one more hoop trans student athletes will have to jump through, even though hoop-jumping is not a recognized interscholastic sport in Utah. A new state commission

will make decisions on which transgender athletes can compete. The members are set to evaluate a player’s wingspan, weight and height — and whether a player is taking hormone blockers — to determine if a transgender girl, in particular, might have an unfair advantage in a sport by being born male, according to the Legislature’s plan.

There are not any actually any members on that commission yet, either. Maybe the membership — which by law is supposed to include experts in sports, psychology, gender identity health care, and the like — won't be made up of raving anti-trans loonies, although the appointees will be chosen by the House Speaker, Senate president, and the governor, so who knows?

Whatever you do, don't read the comments replying to the Washington Post's coverage, which are full of people raving that boys are choosing to "become trans" primarily so they can have an easy ticket to winning high school competitions. Because sure, it's such a breeze being a trans kid in high school in Utah, don't you know.

In conclusion, good for Judge Kelly, fuck the bigots, and Texas, please just go blue already so we can love you again.

[ Dallas Morning News / Texas Tribune / BookRiot / Salt Lake Tribune / WaPo ]

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