Breathless Sunday

via Tomb of Null

It's great to see all the laws and news about trans people lately. Did I say great, because I meant horrifying. I've been around for 40 years and I don't think I've ever seen a group of people so hated by the government and a small minority group of people. I mean, other groups have come close, but the transgender community are the first that are being legislated out of existence.

Since January, there has been 21 anti-trans bills introduced in Congress including bathroom bills, keeping men out of women sports bills, and protecting minors from transitioning bills. Even states are getting in on the act. There have been over 550 bills coming out of the states. Even my state of Kansas is doing the protecting minors from transitioning and teachers better not use your preferred pronoun or name without parental consent garbage. We've seen these before, minors are not undergoing major transitioning, it's normally just puberty blockers and hormone therapy. No minors are getting top or bottom surgery. As for the name/pronoun thing, teachers would need parental consent to use the student's preferred name or even a nickname. So, Mr. and Mrs. Gatsby would need to give permission for the school to use their child's (Mark William) nickname of Willie.

The biggest thing that has been happening over the last couple of days is transgender inmates in federal prisons are to be moved to prisons according to their biological gender. For years, transgender prisoners have been held in prisons corresponding to their current gender. It has been that way because of the number of assaults and rapes of transgender inmates. Many people against the move claim it's basically "death by rape". Trans inmates will either be killed or kill themselves to make it stop. It's interesting to note that this comes from an executive order. Executive orders are not laws, they are guidelines to follow. The Bureau of Prisons doesn't need to follow the order but are choosing to. Both the BOP and President Trump are just being needlessly cruel, which has been the point for much Republican legislation for years.

Call me crazy, but I don't feel we should be bothering people that aren't bothering us. If you can explain how someone being transgender affects and hurts you I am very willing to listen, but all the arguments I've heard aren't real arguments. Transgender people don't molest children (at least at the rate seemingly religious people do) and transgender people aren't taking over women's sports.

I've contacted by Congresspeople (all 3 Republican) and thanked my state legislators (I'm lucky to have Democrats represent me in my statehouse) to let them know my thoughts on any and all anti-trans legislation. We all need to contact our representatives and let them know how we feel. I've had students that were trans, I have family members that are trans, I've had coworkers who are trans. I worry about them and want them to be safe and I don't understand why people who consider themselves good people would want to hurt other people. Trans people deserve to be safe.

Please follow trans journalists who do a much better job of reporting on trans and other LGBTQ+ issues than the mainstream media does. Some of my favorites are Erin Reed, Imara Jones, Frankie de la Cretaz (who mainly focuses on sports), and Samantha Riedel.

October 12, 1986

Wilberforce just announced to everyone that he is home alone. All you criminals know what to do!

Does this guy think Ms. Kewpie is a maid or housekeeper? If you are Brutus' financial advisor, then you should know Brutus can't afford anyone like that.

"Keep holding it. Hold it...Hold it..." Mother Gargle passes out, falls out of the chair, hitting her head on the table before hitting the floor. Brutus looks down at her unconscious body. "Keep holding it..."

It is eight o'clock in the morning. What could you possibly have to complain about so early? It's not as bad if you leave off the first panel and you can pretend it's mid-afternoon or whatever, but starting out with "Good morning" and then immediately jumping in with "Here's a list of why I hate you!" is just cruel.

Saturday's post was a mostly pictorial one about the Salt Creek Bridge in Osage County. If you would like to support me or this website, you can buy me a cup of coffee over on Ko-fi.