#LGBTQI+ foster care

[cksaksen-blog]

Child Welfare Reforms and SSI Updates – What You Need to Know About the Latest U.S. Welfare Changes

Today, several significant updates have been announced in the realm of U.S. welfare programs, especially surrounding Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and child welfare. Breaking: New SSI Rule Changes Could Impact Millions – Find Out How! 1. Changes to SSI Eligibility Rules Starting from September 30, 2024, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has introduced important changes to SSI…

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Trudy Ring at The Advocate:

President Joe Biden’s administration has moved to protect LGBTQ+ and intersex children in foster care, ordering, among other things, that they be placed in supportive homes. The protections come in the form of a rule finalized Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its Administration for Children and Families. It was proposed last September.

“This final rule makes clear that all children in the child welfare system, including LGBTQI+ children, are entitled to protections against harassment, abuse, and mistreatment, regardless of their placement,” says an HHS press release. “Additionally, this final rule specifies that as part of meeting the existing statutory requirement to provide safe and proper care for all children in foster care, state child welfare agencies must ensure that LGBTQI+ children have access to specially designated foster care placements.” To be considered a designated placement for LGBTQ+ and intersex children, the provider must commit to establishing an environment that supports the child’s status or identity; and be trained with the appropriate knowledge and skills to provide for the needs of the child related to the child's self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression; and facilitate the child’s access to age- or developmentally appropriate resources, services, and activities that support their health and well-being.

The rule doesn’t require any care provider to become a designated placement for LGBTQ+ and intersex children, nor does it penalize providers who don't wish to receive this designation, but it does require that state and tribal child welfare agencies offer enough of these placements to accommodate the children who need them. LGBTQ+ and intersex children are overrepresented in the foster care system, face more bullying and harassment than their straight and cisgender peers, and have significantly worse outcomes, HHS notes.

The Biden Administration moves to protect LGBTQ+ children placed in foster care and be placed in supporting homes where possible.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Joseph Figliolia and Leor Sapir

Published: May 14, 2024

Ted Hudacko’s fate was sealed when his son’s court-appointed counsel, Daniel Harkins, wrote in his notes, “[t]hese parents have a choice, they can either continue to believe that they should be in total control of their child’s life or they can come to an understanding that those days are past . . . and give their children some independence and the ability to make some of their own decisions.”

The decisions in question? Whether to start Hudacko’s trans-identified 16-year-old son on a puberty-blocker regimen, followed by a course of estrogen.

As Abigail Shrier recounted in a 2022 City Journal investigative report, shortly after returning from a trip to New York with their two sons, Hudacko’s wife, Christine, told him that she wanted a divorce—and that their oldest son identified as transgender. During divorce proceedings, the presiding judge, Joni Hiramoto, granted Hudacko shared legal and physical custody of his youngest, but stripped him of all custody of his trans-identified son. Hudacko was concerned about administering experimental drugs and preferred to wait and see if his son’s gender issues might resolve on their own, as usually happens in such cases. To the California judge, this confirmed his unfitness as a father.

Hiramoto’s view is shared by a growing social movement bent on deeming parents “abusive” for declining to “affirm” their child’s “gender identity.” The idea that failing to endorse a child’s identity constitutes psychological abuse has spread across major American institutions and power centers and is reflected in recent court precedent, school “social transition” policies, journal publications, and several proposed state laws. Illinois’s House Bill 4876, for example, would redefine child abuse to include denying minors “necessary medical . . . gender-affirming services,” meaning parents who take a more cautious approach to their child’s dysphoria—an approach endorsed by a growing number of European countries—could become targets of investigation by the Illinois Department of Children and Families, with some even losing custody.

The Biden administration is seeking to entrench this redefinition of “abuse” with its recently published foster-care regulations. Guided by misleading characterizations and omissions of existing research, the new rules from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) enshrine activist talking points about what constitutes a child’s “best interest,” with dire implications for foster children and parents alike.

Under the new rules, state agencies must follow specific protocols when placing “LGBTQI+” foster children in residential settings. Given what the ACF describes as the “specific needs” of these children, the agency requires federally funded providers to qualify as “Designated Placements” to serve such youth. To obtain this designation, providers must undergo specialized gender-identity and sexual-orientation training, facilitate access to “age- or developmentally appropriate resources, services, and activities that support the [child’s] health and well-being,” and “commit to establishing an environment that supports the child’s LGBTQI+ status or identity.” State foster agencies, to get federal funds, must develop and submit to the ACF case plans that ensure each child is placed in the most “appropriate setting available.”

Repeating popular activist talking points, the ACF claims that refusing to use a child’s chosen name and pronouns is linked with poor mental-health outcomes. The agency then follows a familiar pattern of citing self-reported survey data to show a supposed connection between “gender affirmation” and positive mental-health outcomes in trans-identifying kids. Surveys of this kind, however, cannot support the ACF’s conclusion that “significant mental health disparities” facing “LGBTQI+” youth “result from experiences of stigma and discrimination.”

One of the ACF’s sources, a research brief from the Trevor Project, claims that “LGBTQ youth” who say they have been in foster care had nearly three times greater odds than non-foster youth of reporting a past-year suicide attempt (notably, the final rules incorrectly cite the wrong Trevor Project survey for this claim instead of the correct survey cited in the proposed rules). The agency’s purpose in citing this study is to imply that youth suicidality is driven by how foster parents deal with the “gender identity” of those in their care. But the correlation has an alternative explanation: Youth who enter the foster system have more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than do non-foster children, a fact linked to increased suicidality. It’s possible that foster youth with more ACEs and higher suicidality are also more likely to adopt a transgender identity as a maladaptive coping mechanism. This makes sense, given the weakness of the “minority stress” hypothesis and the mounting evidence of elevated rates of co-occurring, suicidality-linked conditions in trans-identified populations that predate their trans-identification.

The U.K.’s recent Cass report bolsters this view. In that review, foster youth were overrepresented in the first clinical cohort seen at the nation’s gender-identity clinic, with nearly a quarter of referrals having spent time in foster care. A systematic review cited in the report found that among children referred to gender clinics, maternal mental illness (53 percent) and substance abuse (49 percent), paternal mental illness (38 percent) and substance use (38 percent), and combined neglect and abuse (11 percent to 67 percent), were very common—meaning that kids at the clinic likely had a higher-than-average number of ACEs, and may have identified as transgender as a coping mechanism.

A different survey question in the same ACF-cited brief tries to establish that trans-identified foster youth are “kicked out, abandoned, or run away” at disproportionate rates because of their “gender identity.” The survey question, though, conflates running away with being kicked out or abandoned; the actual reason for running away is not specified, and the results are not reported separately for each item. The group even disclaimed that its “data isn’t [sic] able to establish whether youth were kicked out, abandoned, or ran away prior to, during, or after being in foster care.” All we can conclude from this survey is that youth in foster care, who, for whatever reason, experience dissociation from their bodies or their sex are more likely to report negative family experiences compared with their peers.

Apparently unphased by these issues, the ACF used another Trevor Project survey to justify the agency’s claim that living in supportive homes results in fewer suicide attempts among trans-identified youth. Significantly, though, the Trevor Project report does not define the term “support,” effectively leaving it up to the child respondents to define it for themselves. Based on the most common ways youth in a separate item self-reported feeling supported—having parents use the correct names and pronouns, and supporting their gender expression—however, it seems reasonable to conclude that the respondents often conceive of “support” as affirming their identity. “Un-supportive” parents could therefore refer to anything—parents who are actually neglectful, or those who refuse to use their children’s preferred pronouns, or even those who do something as banal as not letting their children buy cell phones. Given the muddled inputs, the data are unpersuasive. Elsewhere in the document, the authors disclose that the self-reported suicide-attempt rate didn’t change much between youth who reported living in an a “gender-affirming” home (14 percent) compared to those who lived in a “not gender-affirming” home (20 percent).

Further, a child’s perceptions of “support” may be conditioned by his mental-health history, independent of his trans-identification status. A study by the Family Acceptance Project, for example, concedes that, “Independent of levels of family acceptance, transgender young adults reported lower social support and general health.” This is one weakness of the “minority stress” theory and the associated research, as noted by J. Michael Bailey: it never empirically tests for the possibility that the group in question has greater sensitivity to stressors to begin with, trading on the classic correlation/causation confusion. It is possible, therefore, that youth with more severe psychiatric issues are both more likely to identify as trans and to perceive and report familial situations as unsupportive.

The ACF later asserts that “research consistently shows that when LGBTQI+ youth experience supportive environments and services, they experience the same positive mental health outcomes as other youth.” It cites a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) report to justify this claim.

The citations SAMHSA uses to support its view that “access to gender affirmation can reduce gender dysphoria and improve mental and physical health outcomes among transgender and gender diverse people,” however, are two “conceptual framework” papers, not rigorous empirical studies. These documents cannot possibly provide the required evidence. Meantime, so-called social transition—publicly recognizing a trans-identifying child’s chosen identity, a practice the SAMSHA report endorses—has not been shown to be necessary in improving mental health in high-quality research. A 2023 study from the U.K., for example, found “no significant effects of social transition or name change on mental health status.” That finding is corroborated by a new systematic assessment published as part of the final Cass Review, which found no credible evidence that social transition is either helpful or harmful. Other emerging evidence suggests that “social transition” may interfere with the natural resolution of gender dysphoria and greatly increase the chances that a passing phase becomes the basis for lifelong and potentially harmful medical interventions.

The Cass Review alludes to this possibility, emphasizing that social transition is “an active intervention because it may have significant effects on the child or young person in terms of their psychological functioning and longer-term outcomes.” The Review recommends consulting a clinician when deciding whether or how to facilitate social transition for children. The Biden administration’s ACF, in contrast, instructs state recipients to ensure social transition on demand, no clinical input required.

The SAMHSA report—which, as mentioned, also endorses social transition—claims that “[e]xtensive research indicates that even just one supportive adult, such as a family member, teacher, or mental health provider, can have a positive impact on the mental health of youth of diverse sexual orientation and/or gender identity; such support can reduce adverse mental health impacts including suicide.” However, the research SAMHSA cites in support of this claim looked only at acceptance of sexual orientation, not of “gender identity.”

This points to another concern about social transition: the most common outcome of dysphoria is not a transgender identity, but homosexuality. As the DSM-5 observes, among childhood “desisters”—people who once identified as transgender or experienced dysphoria but later revert to identifying as their biological sex or cease having dysphoria—63 percent to 100 percent of natal males and 32 percent to 50 percent of natal females turn out to be gay.

The ACF guidance compares objections to child gender transition with “conversion practices” and claims that multiple professional organizations agree that gender-identity conversion efforts have been “rejected as harmful.” This comparison is spurious, however, and has been addressed by psychologist James Cantor in response to an American Academy of Pediatrics’ policy statement on “gender-affirming care,” which made the same argument. Cantor said that the AAP’s claim about “conversion” practices “struck me as odd because there are no studies of conversion therapy for gender identity. Studies of conversion therapy have been limited to sexual orientation, and, moreover, to the sexual orientation of adults, not to gender identity and not of children in any case.” He added, “it simply makes no sense to refer to externally induced conversion. The majority of children ‘convert’ to cisgender or ‘desist’ from transgender regardless of any attempt to change them.”

The ACF’s rules treat “LGBTQI+” youth as a monolith. They assume that research done on gay and lesbian youth applies seamlessly to youth who identify as transgender. This is a well-known strategy of transgender activism: to exploit the ignorance of well-meaning Americans about the differences between sexual orientation and gender dysphoria. 

The finalized rules also fail to address the actual problems in the U.S. foster system. Data on foster-care capacity show a critical shortage of available homes. State foster systems remain generally underfunded, and the average annual turnover rate at U.S. child welfare agencies is almost 30 percent. The ACF could have endeavored to solve these problems.

Instead, the Biden administration seeks to use federal policy to cajole foster families and agencies into affirming a child’s mistaken gender identity, entrenching the idea that failing to do so constitutes abuse. The policy will compound the challenges facing some of the nation’s most vulnerable children.

[uirukii]

So tell me again how ‘both sides are the same’ or ‘just as bad’?

In the agenda, “our administration will release federal funding to support programs that help parents affirm their LGBTQ+ kids and advance new regulations to protect LGBTQ+ youth in foster care”.

More of the progressive agenda under the cut that includes youth mental health and homelessness help, tackling the epidemic of bigoted book bans and creating a partnership specifically for LGBTQ safety that works with LOCAL LGBTQ community organizations.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will partner with the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to form a new LGBTQI+ Community Safety Partnership, to provide safety resources to local LGBTQ+ community organizations and help them prevent and respond to threats.

It also admits cops have been problematic with the LGBTQ+ community and will work towards fixing that massive problem.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will take the lead with initiatives to protect the health and safety of LGBTQ+ kids and their families. Pointing to a nationwide mental health crisis among LGBTQ+ youth, the administration will strengthen mental health resources and launch a new federal initiative to address LGBTQ+ youth homelessness.

The Department of Education will address the epidemic of book bans targeting LGBTQ+-themed content in schools and libraries. “Book banning erodes our democracy, removes vital resources for student learning, and can contribute to the stigma and isolation that LGBTQI+ people and other communities face,” the White House said.

The Department’s Office for Civil Rights will appoint a new coordinator to address “the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students,” and ensure local stakeholders understand how targeting specific communities, LGBTQ+ and communities of color among them, may violate federal civil rights laws.

[kgreen200]

Our Young People Are Still at Risk

Nov 13, 2024

Even after winning the White House and Congress, our values are still being threatened by events that have the power to completely destroy our nation. Both the White House and U.S. senators are in talks about destroying the 60-vote filibuster rule, which will make a path to enact the most radical agenda before the end of this year. They have nothing to lose in these final months.

When the Congressional Progressive Caucus released its plan, it put in print exactly what we’ve been warning about. They want “LGBTQI” mandates with ZERO “accommodations” for people of faith. This bill states:

LGBTQI Equality: Ensure nationwide, consistent, explicit non-discrimination protections for LGBTQI people and people with HIV at work, school, and public spaces. Codify the rights of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people, including gender affirming care and health care. Prohibit conversion therapy. (emphasis added)

By using the word “consistent,” they mean that no one will be allowed to opt out or receive any accommodation from being forced to celebrate “LGBTQI.” By “public spaces,” they mean much more than government buildings. These spaces include your church, church daycare, foster care, schools, abuse shelters, lodging, sports, restrooms, locker rooms, private property, and much more.

All of this is exactly how the “Equality Act” will be used against us. With the filibuster hanging in the balance, Democrats are just ONE VOTE AWAY from abolishing it and then passing this bill in the Senate along with a host of other truly horrible bills on election fraud, abortion, open borders, and much more.

https://faithandlibertydc.org/detail/241113-our-young-people-are-still-at-risk

[dankusner]

FOSTER CARE Paxton argues against LGBTQ protection rules

Filing says guidelines meant to keep youth safe a threat to funding

AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration twice this week to stop federal rules designed to strengthen protections for LGBTQ Americans.

Paxton filed a petition Tuesday to block a rule requiring state welfare agencies to protect LGBTQ youth in foster care.

He joined 16 other states Thursday in a separate lawsuit to stop gender dysphoria from being classified as a disability.

Both rules, enacted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, could affect state access to federal funding.

HHS in May finalized a rule that barred discrimination against people with disabilities, including those with gender dysphoria, a condition describing the extreme discomfort felt by those whose gender identity differs from their sex at birth.

In the rule, the administration said gender dysphoria can be a disabling condition, causing “significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” Complaint

The multistate complaint, filed in Lubbock federal court, argued that under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, gender identity disorders that don’t result from physical impairments or other sexual behavior disorders are not protected disabilities.

The states are seeking a court order stopping the Biden administration from implementing or enforcing the rule.

The filing said the expanded definition of what qualifies as a disability would require Texas agencies to “expend time, money, and resources to provide” accommodations or risk “being subjected to investigations, charges, or lawsuits by allegedly aggrieved employees or the federal government.”

Likely accommodations, the lawsuit said, include using preferred pronouns and allowing employees to “dress as a member of the opposite sex” and use bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t align with their biological sex.

“All these requirements impose substantial costs and injuries on Texas,” the lawsuit said, adding that failure to comply could cost states hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

Paxton statement

In a statement, Paxton said he sued HHS because it lacks authority “to unilaterally rewrite statutory definitions and classify ‘gender dysphoria’ as a disability.”

“The Biden Administration is once again abusing executive action to sidestep federal law and force unscientific, unfounded gender ideology onto the public,” he said.

HHS finalized another rule in April that the administration said would strengthen protections for LGBTQ children in foster care by clarifying statutory requirements for federal funding.

HHS said LGBTQ children are overrepresented in foster care, bullied and harassed more than other children and experience worse outcomes, such as mental health-related hospitalizations and homelessness.

The rule requires state welfare agencies to ensure LGBTQ children have access to specially designated foster care placements.

Such placements require providers to create an environment that supports the child’s LGBTQ status or identity; to be trained to care for a child’s needs related to their self-identified sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; and to help a child access appropriate resources, services and activities that support their well being.

The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Tyler accused the administration of “trying to shoehorn gender identity into the statutes governing our Nation’s foster care system by requiring States like Texas to provide special treatment and special placements for so-called ‘LGBTQI+’ youth.”

In a footnote, Paxton dismissed the administration’s use of “LGBTQI+” and “similar euphemisms to refer to individuals who identify themselves based on the contested metaphysical concepts of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services receives roughly $432 million a year in federal funding to “support casework services for children in foster care, residential childcare services, and placement services,” the lawsuit said.

‘Exacerbate’ shortage

The lawsuit said the sections under Title IV of the Social Security Act that cover child and family services and federal grants for foster care make no mention of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Title IV’s anti-discrimination provisions do not include protections for sex, much less the derivative categories of gender identity and sexual orientation,” the complaint said.

It also said the rule would “exacerbate a growing shortage of foster care providers by compelling states to recruit new providers to comply.”

“The Biden Administration is attempting to hold the Texas foster care system hostage to force unscientific, fringe beliefs about gender upon the entire country,” Paxton said in a statement.

“The new rule directly violates federal law and threatens to undermine our vital foster care programs, putting children who need safe, loving homes at risk.”

[eriegaynews]

With New Rule, Biden Administration Strengthens Protections for LGBTQI+ Youth in Foster Care System http://dlvr.it/T6Ltb3

[personal-blog243]

Copied from “now this”. On June 8, the Biden administration announced new measures to protect the LGBTQIA+ community.

'LGBTQ Americans are being targeted for who they are and that, simply put, is discrimination,' said Neera Tanden, the White House domestic policy adviser, according to USA Today. 'As an administration, we will never stop fighting for their freedom.'

Some of the measures are aimed at helping LGBTQIA+ youth, such as strengthening mental health resources, a federal initiative to help youth experiencing homelessness, federal funding for programs that assist parents with affirming their children, and furthering new regulations to protect youth in foster care.

Other measures include the launch of the LGBTQI+ Community Safety Partnership, a joint effort between the Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and Justice departments. The Partnership will work with LGBTQIA+ organizations to 'provide critical safety resources to ensure these organizations can remain safe spaces for the community,' according to a statement from the Biden admin. It will provide those organizations with safety trainings and increased federal threat briefings.

Biden's new measures also address the growing number of book bans across the country. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will appoint a coordinator 'to address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students.' The coordinator will 'work to provide new trainings for schools nationwide on how book bans that target specific communities and create a hostile school environment may violate federal civil rights laws.'

Biden was expected to discuss the new protections on June 8 during a Pride Month celebration on the White House lawn—which the WH has said is the largest Pride celebration to ever be held there—but he postponed the event due to unhealthy air quality from the Canadian wildfires. The event will now be on June 10.

‘We know that there’s more work to do, but these meaningful steps will help protect our communities, they will help protect Americans, and they demonstrate our commitment to standing proudly with the LGBT community in the enduring struggle for freedom, justice and equality,’ Tanden said, according to the Washington Post.

[hardtchill]

https://twitter.com/838_carlisle/status/1542917965737328643?s=21&t=-N-8JYAwywEnqo8zw-xIxQ

Please don’t give a hateful reply. I need to know. Are some of you guys genuinely not understanding the black perspective as well as the outrage on any of this? It’s not personally against Pinoe. It’s bigger than that and always has been

Sigh.

You can criticize the system, which literally everyone i know is doing, without personally attacking Pinoe which 99% of tweetiebirds are doing.

I don't know why, but people in the comments you link to are solely focussing on kneeling and racial justice. The reason for Pinoe getting the medal was said to be about much more? Just like it was for Simone Biles btw.

About Pinoe

"She is a prominent advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice, and LGBTQI+ rights,"

About Simone "prominent advocate for athletes' mental health and safety, children in the foster care system, and victims of sexual assault."

Saying Pinoe is just getting the award because she kneeled and saying that this isn't fair because Crystal couldn't kneel or that Colin should have gotten it instead just makes no sense. Just like Simone, Pinoe is being honored for her work in multiple area's, not just on racial justice.

Out of all women's football players Pinoe by far does the most work on the LGBTQI+ rights front (and this goes back a decade). She is also definitely one of the most important voices in the equal pay debate AND she is a very important ally for racial justice. It's the combination of all those things that got her the medal. Pretending that she is only getting it because she was the first white athlete the kneel, is disrespectful as fuck.

Does Colin deserve a medal? Yes. Should people stop being idiots and realize Pinoe is getting this medal for work in way more area's than just racial justice? YES.

[yourreddancer]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

July 7, 2022 (Thursday)

Today, President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 individuals who Biden says “demonstrate the power of possibilities and embody the soul of the nation—hard work, perseverance, and faith. They have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities—and across the world—while blazing trails for generations to come.”The seventeen appear to have been chosen quite deliberately to provide a snapshot of a multicultural, nonpartisan society in which people work to overcome hardship and contribute to the public good. 

Biden praised decorated gymnast Simone Biles, who has won 19 World Championship gold medals and 4 Olympic gold medals, for her advocacy for the mental health and safety of athletes, children in the foster care system, and victims of sexual assault. 

Sister Simone Campbell is “a prominent advocate for economic justice, immigration reform, and healthcare policy.” Dr. Julieta García “was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president and dedicated her career to serving students from the Southwest Border region.”

  Former Member of Congress Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate and later a U.S. representative, survived gun violence and co-founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to gun violence prevention.

Attorney Fred Gray “represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP, and Martin

 Luther King, who called him ‘the chief counsel for the protest movement.’” Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, led both Apple, Inc., and Pixar. “His vision, imagination and creativity led to inventions that have, and continue to, change the way the world communicates, as well as transforming the computer, music, film and wireless industries.”

Father Alexander Karloutsos has been a Greek Orthodox priest for more than 50 years, “providing counsel to several U.S. presidents.”

  Khizr Khan is a Gold Star father (which means he lost his son Captain Humayun Khan in the military service of the U.S.) and “is a prominent advocate for the rule of law and religious freedom.”

Sandra Lindsay was prominent in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, working as a critical care nurse in New York. She was “the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials and is a prominent advocate for vaccines and mental health for health care workers.”

  Senator John McCain, who died in 2018, was a prominent Republican politician from Arizona, famous as an independent thinker who often bucked his party to do what he considered right.

  Diane Nash helped to found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that “organized some of the most important civil rights campaigns of the 20th century.”

 Olympic and two-time World Cup champion soccer player Megan Rapinoe works “for gender pay equality, racial justice, and LGBTQI+ rights.”

  Former Wyoming senator Alan Simpson, a Republican, has been “a prominent advocate on issues including campaign finance reform, responsible governance, and marriage equality.”

  Richard Trumka, who died in 2021, led the AFL-CIO for more than a decade and worked for social and economic justice.

  Brigadier General Wilma Vaught broke gender barriers as she rose through the ranks of the U.S. Air Force. “When she retired in 1985, she was one of only seven women generals in the Armed Forces.”

Award-winning actor, director, and producer Denzel Washington has “served as National Spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for over 25 years.”

 And civil rights advocate Raúl Yzaguirre, who was a U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, led the National Council of La Raza for 30 years.

 “Decorated athletes and military heroes, artists, civil rights giants, activists and trailblazing representatives, intellectuals, and innovators,” Biden tweeted. “That's America. And these are our 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.”

President John F. Kennedy established these awards for ​​”especially meritorious contributions to… [t]he security or national interests of the United States, or…world peace, or…cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” “

In a period when the national government must call upon an increasing portion of the talents and energies of its citizens,” Kennedy said, “it is clearly appropriate to provide ways to recognize and reward the work of persons, within and without the Government, who contribute significantly to the quality of American life.” And yet for all their apparent civic-minded origins, a 2018 study by political scientists E. Fletcher McClellan, Christopher Devine, and Kyle C. Kopko showed that the medals have become increasingly political since 1981 as presidents seek to reward donors and associate their presidencies with individuals who will appeal to their voters or show their administrations in a good light. 

The difference between Biden’s first 17 award recipients and those former president Trump honored reflects their different visions of the country. Trump favored white people and focused on athletes, especially golfers; cultural icons (Babe Ruth and Elvis Presley); or icons in the Republican Party’s rightward swing (media figure Rush Limbaugh, economist Arthur Laffer, jurist Antonin Scalia). Trump also awarded a medal to Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) on January 4, 2021, and, on January 11, 2021, to Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH).  

That vision of the government as a way to reward loyalists might have moved past legal boundaries.

  New York Times journalist Michael S. Schmidt yesterday reported that both former FBI director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe were tapped for extremely rare invasive tax audits by the Internal Revenue Service during the Trump administration. Those audits are supposed to be random, and the chances that both Comey and McCabe, whom Trump singled out as enemies for their role in the Russia investigation, were randomly chosen seem small. The two men were unaware the other had gone through the deep audit until a reporter told them. 

Today, the IRS director Charles Rettig, the Trump appointee under whom the audits took place, asked the inspector general of the Treasury Department to investigate the matter. 

There was international condemnation of right-wing policies in the U.S. today, when the European Parliament voted 324 to 155, with 38 abstaining, to condemn the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion

. It also demanded that the European Union recognize the right to abortion in its charter, and to provide "safe, legal and free abortion services, pre-natal and maternal healthcare services, voluntary family planning, youth-friendly services, and HIV prevention, treatment and support, without discrimination." 

U.S. Secret Service director James Murray announced his retirement from the agency today to take a position as security chief at Snapchat’s parent company, Snap. Former president Trump appointed Murray to the head of the Secret Service in May 2019. Questions about the loyalties of certain Secret Service agents have swirled since January 6, but the White House said the resignation was not connected to the recent testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, who mentioned hearing of a physical altercation between Trump and an agent after Trump spoke at the Ellipse on January 6.  

In the U.K. today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson stepped down as head of the Conservative Party after dozens of officials in his government resigned over repeated scandals. He says he will step down as prime minister when the party chooses his replacement, likely this fall. Party leaders may force him out sooner. In a statement, Biden said that “the special relationship between our people remains strong and enduring…. I look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the government of the United Kingdom, as well as our Allies and partners around the world, on a range of important priorities. That includes maintaining a strong and united approach to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Putin's brutal war on their democracy, and holding Russia accountable for its actions." (HE RESIGNED)

Tonight, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot in the chest while he was giving a campaign speech in the city of Nara. His condition is critical. Police have arrested a male suspect in the shooting. Washington Post Tokyo/Seoul bureau chief Michele Ye Hee Lee tweeted: “Can't overstate how shocking this shooting is—not only because Abe is very popular and prominent, but also because gun violence is extremely rare incident in Japan, a country with some of the world's strictest gun laws.” (ABE WAS NOTED TO BE THE JAPANESE TRUMP, VERY CORRUPT AND NOT WELL LIKED)

President of the European Council Charles Michel tweeted that Abe is “a true friend, fierce defender of multilateral order & democratic values.” He promised that the European Union stands with Japan and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Finally, former president Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter celebrated their 76th wedding anniversary today. Theirs is the longest presidential marriage in our history. They were married in Plains, Georgia, on this date in 1946.

[theclaravoyant]

Good You Can Do (AUS version)

It’s important at times like this that we don’t let our most vulnerable slip through the cracks - whether it be of the virus, or of the consequences (income and job losses, etc.). So I am compiling a list of charities that will be helping people who are vulnerable to COVID-19 and its impacts. I encourage people to add! (*note: this list is Australia focused, but I don’t mind if you add others - please be clear about where your charity operates if specific)

I know not everyone is in a position to give right now, but those of us that are will be critical to empowering some of these charities (and the people they help) to deal with this crisis. Please give if you can spare, and/or share.

EDIT: To stop this from clogging people’s dash I have put a cut below the general charities, but I have added more below the cut in the following categories:

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Refugees & Asylum Seekers

Health Workers & Essential Services

The Arts

Animal Welfare

-

GENERAL / MISC

Ozharvest - Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, they frequently work with supermarkets etc. to ensure edible food gets to people who need to eat. They have many branches throughout the country. You can donate money or food, or organise food drives here.

Foodbank Australia - Another food rescue organisation specialising (but not exclusively for) disaster relief eg. the recent bushfires. They have many branches throughout the country. You can volunteer, or donate money or food or services here.

Youth Off the Streets - is a non-denominational charity (Christian origin) that helps homeless youth and youth at risk in NSW with branches also in Brisbane and Melbourne. They offer accommodation and educational assistance as well as running Food Van, distributing hot meals to homeless people in need. You can purchase items from their shop, volunteer, or donate here.

The Kindness Factory - This organisation focuses on sharing and encouraging small acts of kindness and faith in humanity. They have launched a “Cart Buddies” program to help people who are self-isolating or otherwise at risk from COVID-19 be paired up with healthy people who are able and willing to shop for them. To sign up as a helper OR a helpee (they are looking for both!) email admin@kindnessfactory.com with your name, post code and suburb.

Royal Flying Doctor Service - provides healthcare and medical transport for rural & remote Australians nationwide.

-

ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLES

Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service - DYHS provides culturally secure primary health, mental health and dental services for Aboriginal families living right across the Perth metropolitan area.

Wungening Aboriginal Corporation - is an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation which provides culturally secure, confidential and free of  charge services to Aboriginal people in the Perth metropolitan area. Donate money here or drop food or goods at their East Perth office.

-

REFUGEES & ASYLUM SEEKERS

Asylum Seeker Resource Centre - based in Melbourne, the ASRC provides legal advocacy and case support, social support, social enterprise (jobs) and food assistance to refugees and asylum seekers within or coming into Australia. You can donate money or food/goods here.

RISE: Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees - based in Melbourne, this is an organisation for & by refugees and ex-detainees of Australia’s immigration detention centres. They offer social, educational, recreational, and advocacy support for members as well as a food bank. Donate here or volunteer here.

CARAD: Centre for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees - based in Perth, CARAD independent, community-based organisation providing essential welfare and advocacy support to asylum seekers, refugees and detainees in Western Australia. Volunteer here or donate money or food/goods here.

Queer Sisterhood Project - An organisation comprised entirely of LGBTQI+ women with refugee and/or asylum seeker background in Australia. They are based in Sydney but doing their best as a small organisation to provide social & other support to people with this experience nationwide. They are running a Covid-specific fundraiser here.

-

HEALTH WORKERS & ESSENTIAL SERVICES SUPPORT

Adopt a Healthcare Worker - A grassroots effort to connect health workers with people who can offer support with childcare, grocery shopping etc. to help them cope with the long hours, stress etc. required of them at this time. There are currently pages for Perth/WA, Sydney, Regional NSW, QLD, Victoria & Tas

Frontliners - Based in Melbourne, this organisation pulls together the support of the community, enterprise, government, financial services and local business to send care packages to health care workers nationwide. Donate here.

-

THE ARTS

Support Act - Australia’s only charity delivering crisis relief services to artists, crew and music workers as a result of ill health, injury, a mental health problem, or some other crisis that impacts on their ability to work in music.

-

ANIMAL WELFARE

RSPCA - Nationwide charity protecting, promoting and enforcing animal welfare. You can adopt a wide variety of animals (including farm animals), volunteer, or donate here.

SAFE: Saving Animals From Euthanasia - Western Australia’s largest volunteer-based animal rescue and rehoming service using the foster care model - the Western Australian arm of Animal Welfare League Australia. They operate regionally too! You can adopt, foster, donate or volunteer here.

Shenton Park Dogs Refuge Home - Perth-based charity that promotes animal welfare and rescues and rehomes dogs. You can adopt, foster or donate here.

Cat Haven - Perth-based charity that promotes animal welfare and rescues and rehomes cats. You can adopt, foster or donate here.

[mullercells]

The Texas Senate has passed a bill that protects state-funded foster care and adoption agencies that want to make decisions about child care and child placement based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

House Bill 3859, which passed the state Senate on Monday, would protect religious-based child-welfare providers that choose to turn away same-sex couples or families with certain religious views. The bill also would protect foster parents or group homes that decline for religious reasons to provide certain services to the children in their care — such as emergency contraceptives or abortions or, some worry, vaccinations.

The issue has become a flash point between proponents — who argue that such religious protections give agencies the ability to help an overburdened state welfare system while sticking to their bedrock principles — and those who worry that the bill’s broad language could create an environment of discrimination that will harm children.

“We think the primary purpose of this is to permit lesbian, gay and transgender parents to be turned away, but there’s nothing in the bill that prevents agencies from turning away, for example, people who have been divorced, people who are single, or people who don’t go to church enough,” said Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director for the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “At every point where a decision about a kid’s care is being made, you could have the rights of the child-welfare provider take precedent over the best interest of the child.”

Robertson said that putting personal religious beliefs ahead of the best interests of children means the state is taking away a primary layer of protection for children. “The state needs to have the ability to always put the best interest of the child first, and this bill undermines that protection,” she said.

Continue Reading

[hsavinien]

[ID: OP has a screencap from the linked article with a photo of Biden at a press podium smiling and speaking. The text reads:

“Details: The order will protect LGBTQ youth from conversion therapy, a practice which is banned in at least 20 states and Washington, D.C., according to Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that tracks LGBTQ policies across the U.S.

It will also set up programs to address the LGBTQ youth mental health crisis and prevent suicide within this population “by expanding access to suicide prevention resources,” senior administration officials said.

The order will launch a new initiative “to address the discrimination that children and parents face in the foster care system.”

Biden is also direction the Department of Health and Human Services to develop “a new bill of rights for LGBTQI+ seniors.”

Senior administration officials said that the actions will be taken “withing the existing budgets of agencies.” /id]

This is genuinely a major good story that needs to be shared! Biden has also been active in pushing the DOJ to fight in the courts the Republican laws that have been set up against lgbt youths and their families across republican led states.

[ryydcr]

RYDER MATTEN  is a SEVENTEEN year old JUNIOR student at Northlake High. They sit with the LOSERS CLUB at lunch and are commonly known around school as the INSURGENT, because they’re +ADAPTABLE and +RELAXED, but also -TROUBLED and -RASH.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL DRUG DEALER.  it’s ryder. he’s your local drug dealer.

call/text him for all of your party needs. he “knows a guy” about anything and everything.

he was in and out of the foster system since he was three but was officially adopted when he was 12 to an amazing lesbian couple that he loves so fucking much. he’ll fight anyone for them.

Member of the LGBTQI+ club in support of his mothers though he currently identifies as straight (i say currently bc idk how to have hetero muses. let’s see if it works)

sits in the back of class wearing a leather jacket and smelling like pot.

ALWAYS HIGH.

he skateboards. all of the time. it’s annoying. how many times has he gotten yelled at for skateboarding around the halls? too many. he got his skateboard taken away once from the vice president

he’s lowkey sad but doesn’t acknowledge it?? see him falling asleep with lit cigarettes or driving through red lights and basically always being self-destructive.

introvert. he was cyber schooled for all of middle school (literally disappeared after fifth grade. everyone assumed he passed). HE THEN DISAPPEARED again sophomore year and all of summer and just returned back to northlakerp

PLOTS/CONNECTIONS

regular costumer - someone he sells to a lot !!   let him be an enabler

SOMEONE HE SELLS TO THAT HE STARTED TO CARE ABOUT AND WILL MAKE COMMENTS LIKE “you sure you need that” or “you don’t look so good, maybe you should take a break” PLS

ex girlfriend ended on good terms - it was a sweet “we’re better friends” break up and they still care for each other

friends with benefits - pretty self-explanatory. give iT to me. he’s open to more than one!

someone he’s crushing on - um ?? unrequited love hurts the soul? let’s do it

we used to be friends - preferably someone from another clique? they used to be close friends, pros if they were “Sandbox friends” but high school rolled around and labels started getting thrown

[katherinemacbride]

GHOST + Tender Center Study Group: Reading and…(Rotterdam, 2019/2020)

This text is also available as a captioned video with sound. https://vimeo.com/533486814

 The reading group is small: each time around ten people come, some returning, others new, an accumulation that fits round the pink and green and yellow table. We’re reading Edouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation, little chunks of poetic density that build world-making thinking. I imagine him carefully choosing his words, fostering their multiple meanings, crafting the fluid, viscous opacity. I see pleasure and care, by which I mean care as worry, want, attention, and protection. “[T]hinking needs care…and that thinking and care need to stay in the wake,” wrote Christina Sharpe in In the Wake, her work on the reverberations of anti-Blackness. This is a call to read with feet and fingers and all the skin between.

I first watched Manthia Diawara’s film Edourard Glissant: One World in Relation soon after I started listening out for Glissant’s writing. When my ears were open, it formed a connective ocean of reading touching self-organised spaces, communities reflexively building tools, academics with epistemological heartaches, and art organising, with either abolitionist or appropriative ends. The film shapes a piece of methodological ground, something that holds in motion.

Diawara and Glissant cross the Atlantic Ocean on a cruise ship and walk on Martinique. They have one long conversation, or many conversations, depending on how you think about time and ends and beginnings. The edited fifty minutes offer a viewer a qualitative possibility of understanding Glissant’s work in a highly accessible form, as if his thought were a character in the film. 

Around that time, I was reading Daniel Stern’s elaboration of a therapeutic method based on staying with what he called “present moments,” fragments of relation experienced as “now” where meaning is consciously or unconsciously made. A structured interview repeatedly parsing a thirty to sixty second piece of someone’s everyday experience can hold the density of the person and introduce therapeutic themes meaningful to them that would more frequently be opened with a biographical conversation. Parsing the same material, working through a different register or mode on each pass – affect/movement/cognition/emotion/feeling – supports approaching and sitting with parts of experience it's harder to stay close to. The chosen material is so everyday and seemingly simple that it’s not as initially threatening as investigating a theme or event that is already narrativised. This supports the staying close, the sitting with. The whole structure is a Möbius binding of care and therapeutic possibility where “moments of meeting” – transformation – can occur.

Both of these methods – interview as filmmaking, interview as healing – perform a fractal thinking. The smaller carries the larger, the smaller contains the larger, the smaller is the larger. A relation of compression and expansion. What is being compacted isn’t forced to lose parts, or the uncertain but co-constituting space between those parts. The density is just still there, no matter how small the scale goes. To feel another part of the fractal, imagine holding diamond in one hand and coal in the other, and feel the extractive double helix of the histories of geology and capitalist value burying death and trauma in the carbon atoms. For much of the film, Diawara and Glissant are passing through the space of Middle Passage, the sea that holds particulate memory in its eternal movement and burnt carbon in its acidity. 

Glissant describes his concept of opacity with broccoli. He doesn’t like broccoli. Why is an opacity to him, he just knows he doesn’t like it. Neither the other parts of himself nor other people who may find this preference opaque and seek reasoning for it need to be given clarity. Other people do like broccoli, and that’s ok. This opacity is the basis for an ethics of relation.

We can only trust that the complexity of someone’s experience, and what they know about, can be held enough in a conversation for someone else to be able to understand something of it. Can only trust that this inevitable partiality, this edit, this mis/understanding that may occur for the listener is enough. Must trust that what is opaque also constitutes what is transparent or possible to get. This is a call to responsibility.

In Portuguese, the verb “ficar” is used, amongst other things, for “to stay” or “to remain” (I stayed at home) and something like “to become/to get/to end up” (I got wet, I got angry, I got drunk). It can do this because it has multiple forms that work on subjects and objects in different ways. In “to become/to get/to end up,” it is a copulative form, linking things, gathering mass around a subject without the need for an object. Sometimes, I translate this sense into English as “to get.” In English, “to get” is also used as a passive auxiliary for things being done by unclear subjects (the bed got made, I got found out); for straight up mercantile receiving of nouns, property (I got a book at the library, I got dinner); and for understanding: Do you get it? Eu fiquei. Remain. Get different. Hold. In motion.

What I don’t understand is present in what I do. This is a call to responsibility. Experience is made of understanding, misunderstanding, not understanding, and overstanding in its different Black and white etymologies. The moment of vibration. The moment of listening. The different feels of time passing at different scales and simultaneous possibilities.

In the reading group, we read aloud. Music. Reading in unison, we don’t take in much meaning but focus hard on the circle round the table, keep time, hold ourselves back from speeding up too much, still racing. Reading in turn, we go paragraph by paragraph. Some read smoothly, some bumpily, different decisions each time as to footnotes, pronunciation, and volume. Some prefer to listen and not voice. 

A person holding a large parcel stops and looks in the window. They ask about the space, note the website, and leave. They come bundling back and say they will join. An older couple arrive, they read about it on an LGBTQI++ listings page. Someone travels from afar to be seen in the clothes that fit how they feel. A neighbour comes to feel more comfortable than in other places. People are gentle with one another, make tea and conversation, make the space.

The group is developing its own structures. Asking questions. Sharing information about related subjects. Speaking quietly. Bringing different life experiences to the reading, thinking about it in relation to colonialism here. We’re speaking English so we talk about this awkward tool that lets us share here. We talk about the Dutch hospitality of speaking English that carries within and around it quiet hostility or open racism depending on skin colour. 

The group gathers bodies: non-binary, female-identifying, pregnant, chronically ill, neurodiverse, white, mestiza, brown. The early evening timing and small group attracts people who can’t stay up late or socialise in large numbers. Everyone came alone and is here together. 

A reading group is a piece of punctuation where relations can grow; it’s not a set of parentheses but could be if parentheses could contain infinity. Commas can form parentheses around the words or break the words into an infinite parenthesis around the point, a black hole. They accumulate matter. Commas make pauses, connections, gaps, breaks – moments where what can’t be contained in the language meets the words on the page, reminding the reader of what is there in opacity. Commas gently and violently pin transparency to what can’t be known. They collapse and explode simultaneously.

Thank you to S, who was there and is no longer here.

References

Diawara, Manthia. Édourard Glissant: One World in Relation. K’a Yéléma Productions, 2010. Distributed by Third World Newsreel.

Glissant, Édouard. Poetics of Relation. Translated by Betsy Wing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Stern, Daniel. The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life. New York: Norton, 2004

[rymatten]

RYDER MATTEN  is a SEVENTEEN year old JUNIOR student at Northlake High. They sit with the LOSERS CLUB at lunch and are commonly known around school as the INSURGENT, because they’re +ADAPTABLE and +RELAXED, but also -TROUBLED and -RASH. 

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL DRUG DEALER.  it’s ryder. he’s your local drug dealer.

call/text him for all of your party needs. he “knows a guy” about anything and everything.

he was in and out of the foster system since he was three but was officially adopted when he was 12 to an amazing lesbian couple that he loves so fucking much. he’ll fight anyone about them.

Member of the LGBTQI+ club in support of his mothers though he currently identifies as straight (i say currently bc idk how to have hetero muses. let’s see if it works)

sits in the back of class wearing a leather jacket and smelling like pot.

ALWAYS HIGH.

he skateboards. all of the time. it’s annoying. how many times has he gotten yelled at for skateboarding around the halls? too many. he got his skateboard taken away once from the vice president

he’s lowkey sad but doesn’t acknowledge it?? see him falling asleep with lit cigarettes or driving through red lights and basically always being self-destructive.

introvert. he was cyber schooled for all of middle school (literally disappeared after fifth grade. everyone assumed he passed). HE THEN DISAPPEARED again the summer after freshman year

PLOTS/CONNECTIONS

regular costumer - someone he sells to a lot !!   let him be an enabler

SOMEONE HE SELLS TO THAT HE STARTED TO CARE ABOUT AND WILL MAKE COMMENTS LIKE “you sure you need that” or “you don’t look so good, maybe you should take a break” PLS

ex girlfriend ended on good terms - it was a sweet “we’re better friends” break up and they still care for each other

ex girlfriend ended on bad terms - they haaate each other for the most part. she could hate him because  he randomly vanished

friends with benefits - pretty self-explanatory. give iT to me. he’s open to more than one!

someone he’s crushing on - um ?? unrequited love hurts the soul? let’s do it

we used to be friends - preferably someone from another clique? they used to be close friends, pros if they were “Sandbox friends” but high school rolled around and labels started getting thrown.