The Oklahoma legislature is, by my reckoning, certifiably bonkers. Their ideas about what is and what is not constitutional are just consistently off-base. Not too long ago, they had to be corrected by the judiciary when they tried to enact a state Constitutional amendment banning Sharia Law from being considered in judicial decisions. Now they want to impeach President Obama and pass a measure “that would allow students to claim a religious right to have separate but equal bathrooms and changing facilities to segregate them from transgender students.”
Some might question why the Obama administration would choose to introduce this controversy into a presidential campaign, but it’s really as simple as doing the right thing. I don’t know if the strong reaction was predictable. Who can predict the what will set the nuts off? The Sharia Law freakout certainly came out of nowhere, as did the sudden groupthink rejection of anthropogenic climate change.
We can’t wait around to do the right thing every time these folks might raise holy hell about it. It will be a long wait if Democrats try to find a time when defending transgender people will be uniformly popular. They are the most misunderstood and marginalized minority group in the country.
When people look back, though, they’ll have no choice but to give the Obama administration credit for being courageous and determined defenders of the LGBT community. They’ve gone further than I think anyone thought they would or could.
Transgender are the current OTHER to hate for these people.
They’ve ridden the ‘Gay’ as far as they could.
Exactly.
And then it will be back to immigrants (that one never gets old).
someone at BJ posted the following, and I think that they are right:
The chemicals in the water from fracking???
No, they were crazy before fracking started.
In point of fact, the Obama administration did not initiate this issue, the North Carolina GOP-run General Assembly did to try to bail out Pat McCrory’s miserable reign.
And if you look at the details of the arguments, it is clear that legislators haven’t a clue what “transgender” means. Or want to conflate it with other shiny GOP hate objects.
They didn’t initiate it, but they did respond as aggressively as anyone could ask, no?
We have to wait and see. The US DOJ has pulled punches before on civil rights enforcement.
What the DOJ has done so far is amazing. To have the AG say, “We see you, and we will protect you,” is a powerful message. I know a lot of trans kids who are feeling safer because their government acknowledged and defended their existence. The fight isn’t won, but it’s no longer being fought alone. Thanks, Obama!
Too bad they didn’t do that with the victims of police assassination under color of law.
You know, if you refuse to acknowledge and reward when people do the right thing, they stop trying. It also makes your life far sadder than it needs to be.
I heard a blurb on the NPR last weekend. The main commentator – I believe someone from NC (who sounded sensible) – said something to the effect that many NC citizens are very very confused about what Transgender even means. The commentator went on to say that some have confused Transgender with pedophiles due to the insanity around bathroom use. This person seemed to indicate that if people actually knew what it all meant, many would not be that upset.
But of course! The goal is to confuse, upset and sow as much fear, Fear, FEAR!!!111!! as possible.
Transgender is just the lastest “it” thing to hate.
I’m not sure when the white supremacists and the GOP (a very over-locking Venn diagram anymore) are going to run out of “things” to hate.
My uncertainty is when they will lose power sufficiently that the rest of us can get a decent society again.
The way it works is this: Whatever position liberals take, the wingnuts take the opposite, even if doing so if self-destructive.
There were a couple of “me too” Dems who voted for HB2.
The Dem candidate for governor, Roy Cooper, however put the legislature on notice that in his opinion the bill was contrary to both the state and US constitutions and he would not defend it in court.
I think people know what transgender means just fine. They’re just worried about losing another sanctioned target for bullying.
The get confused over the sexual targets for bullying.
“A guy who puts on a dress” is the way that the feared “predators” are described by the NC GOP messaging operation. Don’t tell them about J. Edgar Hoover.
So a post-op trans-female is going to protest in NC by sitting on the urinals in mens restrooms — because birth certificate. That should raise some anxieties among the locals.
Oklahoma, from what I understand, is sh*t out of money, and they’re having to capitulate and ask Unca Sugar to bail them out. Ergo, the only thing they can do is to continue to sow seeds of hatred for the blah Kenyan Usurper in “their” WHITE house, plus it’s a blow against Transgenders, too, whatever the eff they happen to be (does it matter? no, it doesn’t. let’s just hate and fear them).
And anyhow, this is their last chance to Impeach Obama, since Obama is leaving office soon. Not ones to let a good opportunity to waste everyone’s hard earned tax dollars go to waste on an ignorantly futile impeachment process.
Thanks, Obama!
It’s certainly caused Rod Dreher to turn his entire blog into the Transgender Menace Alert. He might have a stroke when this is all said and done.
Now where have I heard that before?
That phrasing was hard to miss and definitely barf inducing.
Did you miss them making abortion a felony?
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/19/478743035/oklahoma-lawmakers-pass-bill-that-makes-
performing-an-abortion-a-felony
Their governor vetoed that today. Amazing for Mary Fannin.
Yes, but the peanut gallery did it. Wasn’t there talk of override?
TheOklahomalegislatureisby my reckoning, certifiably bonkersbatshit crazy.Been there many times. You are correct.
Basically Texas without the cities and diversity.
In 2004, they ginned up laws and referendums to ban same-sex marriage. Now it’s this transgender nonsense. It’s always about stirring up the fundamentalist voters. Always, and only.
Not news here but
Sarah Kendzior: How state politicians are quietly working to steal the US presidential election
Think how the transgender issue might cause a wrinkle in the way that voting is suppressed.
Great that Obama’s on board folks being able to use the bathroom. Doubt he gives a shit about the Ts in LGBT though (nor much really for the Ls, Gs, or Bs neither, except for convenient political gain). If he did, he would have acted much sooner ending DADT, supporting gay marriage, and demonstrating a serious commitment to economic justice not just for us gays and all, but for all tortured minorities.
And hard to take anything he does in re anything L, G, B, or T seriously when he allows torture to continue. Those stains on his administration will never be washed away. His treatment of Chelsea Manning isn’t just unforgivable, it’s damning. Do you suppose Obama cares whether or not Chelsea Manning gets to use the bathroom she chooses?
What has freed Obama to act is that it is getting too late to start an impeachment proceeding. And Clinton is a Presidential candidate, putting Bill in the spotlight again.
That son of a bitch also hasn’t done a damn thing to stop tooth decay or the heartbreak of psoriasis.