#new church policies for transgender members

[crossdreamers]

Escaping from the US to Europe. A Transgender Man's Story.

James S tells the story about his journey from Alaska to California and then to the Netherlands in search of a safe place to live. He reflects on the way transphobia and anti-trans policies affect transgender Americans.

By James S.

In Summer of 2024, I decided to move back to the Bay Area. Before that, I’d been living in my hometown of Kodiak for the previous two years, living pretty comfortably in my first one bedroom apartment.

I worked as a special ed aide at the same school I had attended for kindergarten and first grade, and I had a pretty decent support network considering the remoteness of a little town on an island in Alaska.

There had of course been some struggles, because I’m a trans man and for quite a few years now trans people and our lives have been a hot button issue to say the least.

Kodiak religious transphobia

I had been on a committee of educators and medical professionals to review and help update the school district’s health curriculum since 2022, because the whole process had been started, stopped, and slowed as community members and some committee members complained about anything that so much as resembled an acknowledgement of trans people’s existence in the presence of children (an incredibly surreal and painful thing to witness over and over again as a trans person who made my living helping my community raise and care for their children).

Early on, a petition from a local new apostolic reformation church to stop the ‘indoctrination’ of children was passed around in many local venues over the health curriculum committee meetings, which along with direct complaints to the superintendent, caused the review process to be shelved for almost a year.

An ‘incident report’ was even posted on the Parents Defending Education’s IndoctriNation Map (in the tradition of maps targeting abortion providers, often for terroristic threats) over the committee's first meeting, where I brought up the importance of gender neutral, medically accurate language when discussing anatomy.

After the process of making decisions and then attending every school board meeting to hear and provide my own public comment, I began to feel anxious.

I watched the church’s services out of morbid curiosity and observed the pastor’s sermons grow increasingly hateful and arguably quite violent. He repeated at every opportunity that trans people were not real and alarmingly, aggressively (but very much in line with the new apostolic reformation) pushing the idea of ‘taking Kodiak for Jesus’.

Moving to San Francisco, but is California safe?

All of this, along with what I saw when I read the Project 2025 Mandate For Leadership led me to decide that maybe I should move somewhere more welcoming for a trans person.

I found an elementary special education aide position in San Francisco and a room to rent in Emeryville and was on my way.

In the back of my mind I held on to the understanding that this might not last. I remember having arguments with friends who insisted that California would be just fine despite the very clear intention laid out by Project 2025 to overhaul everything on a federal level.

Part of me had believed that California would somehow be safe as well though, which was the whole reason I’d moved. I knew that given everything that was probably untrue. But I felt desperate. 

Trump & Co wants to ban "transgender ideology"

In the Mandate For Leadership document (which is now being put into action largely by way of executive orders), says  “Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology” (read: media or information about trans people, likely including trans influencers and people publicly talking about their experiences) “has no claim to First Amendment protection” and claims that “it’s purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women”.

This idea of misogyny and harm to women especially is heavily reflected in the title and text of the first executive order to be signed by Donald Trump during this term.

The conflation of transgender people with pornography and child exploitation is alarming, because it would mean that anyone who talks about trans people around children could be classified as a sex offender.

I personally worry that this could extend to simply existing as an openly trans person around children, which is the biggest reason I decided to leave. I fear that this will be part of another executive order eventually, and that having just done my job would make me a criminal.

The 2024 election

When Kamala Harris ran for president, I let myself feel a little bit hopeful that maybe I would be okay and able to settle down safely and permanently in California. I got comfortable for that small window of time, and then it was election day.

I went to a friend’s apartment and we watched some shows together to keep our attention off of the results, but of course we gave in and occasionally checked our phones, nervously watching the numbers move in a very foreboding direction. I told myself that the full count would probably be done in a matter of days rather than overnight, and did my best to relax and enjoy myself. 

Things didn’t pan out the way I’d hoped. Now it was time to decide what to do.

Going to Europe

My initial plan was to try to go to Norway and go to college and maybe get a foothold there, because I’d heard long ago that Norwegian colleges didn’t charge tuition for foreign students. They do now, and there was no way that I was going to be able to raise tens of thousands of dollars by January.

I discussed with coworkers what to do and where to go, because I was not the only trans person working at the school who wanted to get out of the country. 

Eventually, a friend sent me a tumblr post about the Dutch American Friendship Treaty visa. It ended up being pretty inaccurate and I really wonder whether the person who wrote it actually got that visa, but it led me to look further into it and find factual information.

I already had been taking art commissions for both commercial and private clients since I’d graduated high school, so all I had to do now was save money and get ready to really commit to what had once been a side hustle.

 I started crowdfunding to raise money for my required business deposit of 4,500€, and before I knew it it was January 18th and I was on my first ever flight off of the continent.

In the days leading up to my departure I had started to seriously doubt my decision, had stayed up for days at a time panicking and shaking, said very tearful goodbyes to friends, and even considered canceling everything, refunding all of the money and staying put. 

That sense of having made the wrong decision turned abruptly on its heel the day after my arrival when Trump signed an executive order titled “DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT”.

This order aimed to enshrine in federal law the idea that there are only two genders (assigned, according to the order, ‘at conception’ which if you know anything about fetal development is nonsense on its face), make it impossible to get an X as a gender marker on passports and other documents, and that such documents could only use an M or F marker reflecting what a person was assigned at birth. 

Passport worries

I became very anxious about the status of my own passport, which says Male. I legally changed my name and gender markers all the way back in 2013. If I was sent home would I be detained? How much harder would it be now for other trans people to leave the US? Would my passport be taken away? Everything was now terrifying and uncertain.

Since then I have learned that, supposedly, I would only have an issue if I tried to renew my passport. Unfortunately I will have to renew mine during this administration, and I really don’t know what will happen. In all likelihood, I will have to have an F on it until I can get Dutch citizenship and a new passport. 

I have heard of at least one trans person being denied a new passport at all, although negative attention and a lawyer were enough to move her passport office to give her one. It seems like the processes of renewing and getting new identification documents as a trans person is now very up in the air and ambiguous.

Living in the Netherlands

Now that I am in the Netherlands, I’ve made many friends who are also here on the DAFT visa as well as folks who were born and raised here.

It is a very small, accessible country with wonderful public transportation and it would be very easy to create a support network of trans and queer people looking for safety.

Right now the main obstacles are money and the requirement that you have your own business, as well as an inability to receive any government assistance on the DAFT visa, which have kept my closest friends from being able to escape with me.

I hope that soon they will have a clear road to safety and the ability to imagine a happy, secure future that they deserve, and that the current president is violently ripping away from them. 

This is our first follow up article to "Let us make Europe a safe haven for American transgender refugees."

Illustration photo of passport: goodmoments

[loveerran]

The 99 (plus 1)

On September 9th, President Russell M. Nelson, prophet and leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, will turn 100 years old. His has been a full life, dedicated to service and a desire to improve the lives of others.

As part of that ministry, the prophet has invited us to help celebrate his birthday by reaching "out to 'the one' in need", "'the one' in our lives who may be feeling lost or alone". This invitation references the parable of the lost sheep (Matthew 18 and Luke 15), which emphasizes the value of one that is lost.

This is interesting to me as a transgender disciple of Christ. Transgender individuals generally make up no more than 1% of the overall population, making us (in some very real ways) 'the one'. If a typical ward has 100-200 active members, then there should be approximately 1 transgender individual in every congregation of the church. It is sad there are far, far fewer than that. Most leave. They feel alone, lost, isolated and discriminated against despite the council President Nelson has given.

There will be a special broadcast commemorating the prophet's 100th birthday. During the broadcast, "Examples of what people around the world have done over the past 100 days to commemorate his birthday will be shared through stories from people who were 'the one.'"

Throughout his ministry, I see the Savior ministering to those who felt lost or alone, forgotten or marginalized. I imagine that the broadcast will show outreach efforts that look familiar to us. When I think about the people the Savior ministered to, I often think on those who were rejected or discriminated against by the society around him, including:

Those who may have been considered enemies, like the Samaritans - including the good Samaritan of the parable or the woman at the well,

Those who may have been considered outsiders, like the centurion's servant - or tax collectors and sinners like Levi and others,

Those who may have been considered unclean, like lepers (at least one of whom was another Samaritan) and the woman with the issue of blood,

Those who may have been considered sinners, like the woman taken in adultery or the woman who washed his feet, and others.

We also read of several times where Jesus' followers didn't want him to interact or minister with a certain class of people, from the blind man who called after him "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me" to the little children he instructed should be suffered to come unto him.

I am grateful for the church's emphasis on (and exercise of) ministry and outreach, and for the good that it will bring to the world. I am grateful for those who try to make the world a better place, as President Nelson has. I hope someday we will see inclusion of LGBT people in our outreach narratives, including stories of truly sensitive, kind, compassionate and Christlike ministry - even when some in our society may consider us to be enemies, outsiders, unclean and sinners.

Love, Erran

[queerstake]

Good morning, Queerstake! Thank you to everyone joining us for our community fast and letter writing campaign in response to the 2024 Church Handbook update with regards to transgender people. The policy update has shaken all of us. It is exclusionary and degrading. But we will find strength in each other as a community and courage in our efforts to effect change in this church that belongs not only to the General Authorities who authorized this policy update but also to all of us. Change in the Church happens from the ground up. Harmful policies have been issued and redacted before in our own lifetimes! We deserve to be treated with respect.

Today, we will fast together as a community that the Lord softens the hearts of the First Presidency. We will also write and send letters expressing our grief. Please don’t be quiet about your feelings today. Share your heartbreak with as many of your fellow ward and Queerstake members as you feel comfortable doing. Please post your feelings as well so we can inspire and uplift each other as we write our letters. It’s important that our grievances are heard.

Please send physical letters to:

The Office of the First Presidency

47 East South Temple Street

Salt Lake City, UT 84150

If you are unable to send a paper letter to Salt Lake, because I was not able to find an appropriate email, please instead email your letters to me at QUEERSTAKEONTUMBLR@GMAIL.COM. I’ll print and mail them myself.

Edit: @nerdygaymormon found an email address! Please feel free to send email to lgbt@churchofjesuschrist.org. However, you are still more than welcome to send them to me to print. In fact, why not do both!

A quick word of caution: Of course, no one can guarantee the type of responses we might receive for these letters. In fact, I urge you to consider using a pseudonym in order to avoid potential church discipline. Please take care to note what legal name or return address might be associated with your membership records. I don’t want to scare anyone, especially because we’re doing nothing wrong, but it’s always good to be very aware of what might make it back to your bishop.

Thank you again to everyone for joining. I’ve always felt so supported and uplifted by Queerstake. I know that our Heavenly Parents love us just as we are and that they don’t want us excluded and humiliated in our wards. We have unique and valuable testimonies to share. We don’t go unheard by our Heavenly Parents.

I’ve included a few sample letters and templates below the cut for people who might need a shortcut for one reason or another. You are welcome to send them verbatim or modify them.

#1

Dear First Presidency,

I'm writing to express my grief and concern over the 2024 handbook policy update on transgender people.

I believe that Christ invites all to come unto him and that as Christ's church, we have a responsibility to embrace people from all walks of life. No other demographic within the church is being treated with such severity as our transgender siblings under this new policy. I fear our transgender siblings in Christ will feel excluded and degraded, and we will lose many great members.

I believe it's of the utmost importance that we express Christlike love and charity even to people we don't understand. There is no excuse for asking transgender youth to leave activities with their peers as though they are a danger. There is no excuse for not allowing transgender people to work with children or humiliating them in our bathrooms. This is a demographic of people who have suffered in our society and Christ would want us to reach out to them with open arms. I humbly and respectfully ask that you reconsider these policy changes with regards to the doctrine of unconditional love that the church espouses. I beg you to consider the church experience of our transgender siblings in Christ and to prioritize their feelings over the feelings of people that wish to hurt them.

Thank you for your time.

#2

Dear First Presidency,

I feel deeply grieved by the Handbook update on transgender people. As a transgender member myself, I am doing everything I can to remain in the church and exclusionary policies like these make me feel deeply unwanted and deeply unloved.

I understand very well the church's position on gender, but I hope that despite that position that I might still be able to feel Christ's love at church. Our Heavenly Parents put me on this or Earth as a transgender person. I am not a danger to children and I am not a predator in bathrooms. I am your sibling in Christ. I want to serve in church. I want to serve in teaching positions. I want to serve the youth. I believe that we attend church with the purpose of uplifting each other and studying our religion together as a ward family. I want to be edified and I want to edify.

President Hinckley said every member needs a calling, a friend, and the word of God, and if I'm treated this way at church, I'm not receiving any of those things. If I can't have a real role to play within my ward, then I have no responsibility. If I am treated as an outsider and an enemy and a predator by policy and by my fellow church members, then I don't have a friend. If I can't also receive Christ's gospel through the love of the people around me, then I'm not receiving the real word of the Lord.

I seriously urge you to reconsider this policy update. I beg you on behalf of myself and my transgender siblings in the church to not hate us and to not exclude us.

Thank you for your time.

#3

Dear First Presidency,

I felt ______ when I heard about the new policy update to the handbook about transgender individuals. I believe we should treat our transgender members with the love and respect they deserve as our siblings in Christ.

I urge you to reconsider this policy update because ______

Thank you for your time.

#4

Dear Leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,

I'm writing to express my grief and concern over the 2024 handbook policy update on transgender people, which I have been made aware of due to the negative impact it is having on my [friend(s)/family/loved ones].

The reputation of love, kindness, and family values that your church fosters with its programs, teachings, and community outreach is undermined by your continued exclusion of LGBT+ members and specifically with this policy change of your transgender members.

My [friend(s)/family/loved ones] have expressed _____ in regards to the August 19, 2024 changes to the handbook that relegate transgender members of your church to second-class citizens within the organization, and deny them the full capacity of worship and belonging within your church; all because of something so insignificant to their capacity to worship and belong to a community as their gender being different than the gender that they were assigned at birth. This decision _____ me/ negatively impacts my view of your church.

Thank you for your time.

I believe that there is no excuse for asking transgender youth to leave activities with their peers as though they are a danger. There is no excuse for not allowing transgender people to work with children or humiliating them in your bathrooms. This is a demographic of people who have suffered in our society and I believe that every person needs to reach out to them with open arms. I respectfully ask that you reconsider these policy changes with regards to the doctrine of unconditional love that the church espouses. I beg you to consider the church experience of your transgender members and to prioritize their feelings over the feelings of people that wish to hurt them.

[gay-mormon-wizard]

these new policies are awful. without question, people will lose their testimonies, their communities, and their families. some members on-the-fence with allyship will swing back into transphobia. many people will be driven to self-harm and suicide.

as a "socially transitioned" nonbinary member, I feel the sting of everything I've just been newly hit with. but I also have hope.

up until now, central Church leadership has been content to try and prevent people from being transgender by preaching that it's morally wrong, and justifying that belief with doctrines about God creating individual people - "God made you to be a woman because that's His purpose for you, you're offending Him by saying He was wrong," etc. They were happy to believe that there were so few of us trans people in the Church that "dealing with" us could be done on a case-by-case basis. Why make a policy for such a rare situation, when most such circumstances can be prevented by teaching moral doctrines?

These policies are the lashing out of a wounded animal with nothing left except its claws and teeth to defend itself. Trans church members coming out and being loud and proud have backed up central leadership into a corner. The Church has resorted to harshly punishing us because they've realized that they can't stop us. the Church is being forced to confront the fact that their transphobic rhetoric is weak against the power of people's personal experiences. The Church is trying to isolate and exclude us because people who get to know us typically realize that we are not the evil that they say we are.

the Church's desperate clambering for lost power here is a reaction to all of the progress we've made. I won't blame anyone for saying "fuck this" and spending their life on other things. but I will be continuing to be loud and proud, advocating for queer people in the church, and putting pressure on central leadership to accept us.

[nerdygaymormon]

I wrote a letter to the church leadership already, and I wanted to share the last part, because I feel like it would be appreciated.

"This brings me to my final point: that these new additions to the handbook, which embolden and encourage members to exclude, hate, or harm those who are LGBTQ+, go against the core of the gospel, which is love. Jesus said the first great commandment is to love God with everything that we have and are, and the second is to love our neighbors as ourselves. These commandments are the anchor of my faith, and I strive to only ever act out of love. I believe that if you can only strive to follow the commandments of love, the other commandments aren’t even a question. But the policies and stances of the church on the allowed participation of transgender and gay members make us feel unloved and unwanted.

I find no love in the policies that exclude my transgender siblings from all the major ordinances of the gospel. I find no love in your words telling my gay siblings that they are expected to marry someone they do not love, or to not marry at all. I find no love in the church for the straight members who feel lonelier and more unwanted than ever when they discover they unwittingly married someone who is not actually attracted to them because their spouse felt pressured into it. And I find no love in the words “love the sinner, hate the sin,” because every part of me, including my attraction and potential for love toward both women and men, is God-given and divine.

One final note: I try to give others the benefit of the doubt, but if you promote and stand on these harmful policies because you fear the alienation of the queerphobic members of the church more than the emotional, physical, and mental harm you are causing the rest of us, you will one day find your olive tree producing only wild fruit. May the Lord of the Vineyard be merciful and just."

(I had to add the last part because I sometimes wonder if they have had revelation for the full integration of LGBTQ+ members, but that they're withholding it to keep other people happy.)

😭💖😭💖

Thank you for sharing

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mira Lazine at LGBTQ Nation:

Yesterday, a group of “gay furry hackers” known as SiegedSec released 200 gigabytes of leaked data from the Heritage Foundation on their Telegram, a group texting application. “This breach can help shine light on who exactly is supporting Heritage, and also encourage people to fight against them even more than before,” said a member of the group known as “vio” to LGBTQ Nation. “I believe it’s also worth noting, this could help show the amount of support Heritage has that’s provided by malicious users or bots from China,” she said while linking to a thread on X by journalist Jackie Singh, which analyzes the leak’s data.

The leak resulted from a string of hacks carried out by the group’s “#OpTransRights,” which targets groups opposed to trans civil rights. The Heritage Foundation in particular was targeted for its creation of Project 2025, a plan to install ultraconservative policies if former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. Project 2025’s desired policies include strong restrictions on transgender care and denying any legal recognition of trans people’s gender identities.  LGBTQ Nation obtained access to the leaked data. It contains information from between 2007 and 2022, and it focuses primarily around the Heritage Foundation’s news wing, The Daily Signal. The data includes information on commenters’ email and IP addresses, along with information regarding those who had articles posted on the site.

[...] SiegedSec has targeted other groups and individuals earlier this year as part of #OpTransRights, including the ultraconservative outlet Real America’s Voice and a Minnesota church pastor who was accused of transphobia.

Project 2025 architects The Heritage Foundation got targeted by a gay furry hackers collective called SiegedSec. These heroes shined a light on Heritage’s bigoted ways.

See Also:

The Advocate: Gay furry hackers target Heritage Foundation

PinkNews: Heritage Foundation exec rages against ‘degenerate’ Gay Furry Hackers following hack

[us-cj]

President Trump is correct. I watched her "sermon." She is a liberal LGBTQ activist who flies the rainbow flag and marched for George Floyd and said Trump should leave office. Then, in 2020 when Antifa-BLM tried to burn down her church - she blamed President Trump - when he was the one that actually called to save it.

Who picked her to say this Communist garbage to President Trump from the pulpit:

"In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on people in this country who are scared now. There are gay and lesbian transgender children among Democratic, Republican and Independent families. Some fear for their lives.

And the people who pick our crops, clean office buildings, labor in poultry farms & meatpacking plants, wash dishes after we eat, work night shifts at hospitals - they may not be citizens or have proper documentation - but most immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues and temples.

I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. That you help those who were fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands. To find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger. For we all want strangers in this land.

May God grant us strength & courage to honor the dignity of every human being. To speak truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God. For the good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen."

BEN CARSON: "These are words you would expect to hear from a barista, not a Bishop. She isn’t brave, or strong, or a unifier. She’s another pawn of the left whose Trump Derangement Syndrome has blinded her from truth or reason. She’s an activist. It’s disgraceful on many accounts."

FRANKLIN GRAHAM: "The National Cathedral has fallen into the hands of LGBTQ activists. So, it's not surprising this "lady bishop" spewed hate at Donald Trump today. National Cathedral has become a sanctuary of Satan."

GIORDANA: "Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is a lesbian radical woke & DEI activist who believes she is chosen by God to scold President Trump regarding his TRANS policies."

MATT WALSH: "Just take one look at this witch and you know everything you need to know about her, even before she starts talking."

MEGYN KELLY: "Trump & Vance handled it perfectly - total class. This “bishop” who apparently prefers we mutilate children in the name of gender ideology & allow young girls to get gang raped by illegals at our open S border, however, is a rude, ignorant, TDS afflicted hack."

SCOTT ADAMS: "Lesbian Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde chose to pander to the LGBT whose movement has been wrecked by trans mental illness. She’s the same B who trashed Trump for saving her historical Episcopal church from burning to the ground after Trump hating liberals set it on fire."

CHARLIE KIRK: "Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. She's the first woman to hold the position. She was given a great honor today, a chance to unify America around a Christian message at the dawn of a new administration. Instead, she disgraced herself with a lecture you'd hear on CNN or an episode of The View. What an embarrassment."

PAUL SPERRY: "FEC filings reveal Mariann Budde & family have given exclusively to Democrats and collectively contributed several thousand dollars to Kamala, Obama, Biden. While she claims to champion the poor - property records show she lives in a $2 million+ colonial mansion with 6 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms in a leafy DC neighborhood. Her church claims that it receives no operating support from the federal government, but it does get grants from the federally funded nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation. Her family funded George Soros, worked for OBAMA FOR AMERICA and with Jack Smith at the Hague."

ERIC METAXAS: "Exactly WHO is responsible for setting the trap of Pres Trump attending that ridiculous service to hear the preposterous "bishop" insult him and the American people? Can we get to the bottom of that one ASAP? Seriously. We need answers. Who???"

Did the hack Bishop know that Trump danced with the VILLAGE PEOPLE the night before his inauguration? Did they look scared?

Scott Bessent, Trump's nominee for Treasury Secretary, an openly gay man, defended Trump and wrote this today:

https://x.com/mirandadevine/status/1882134235462742052

PS: THIS IS WHAT I WAS WRITING YESTERDAY FOR MY NEWSLETTER WHEN SUBSTACK WENT DOWN SYSTEMWIDE. LOOK AT JD'S FACE.

I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO SHARE THIS WITH YOUR PASTOR.

[eternal-echoes]

“… leaders within schools and churches face their own unique set of pastoral challenges. Youth ministers ask, "What do we do when a boy in the youth group won't go on the retreat if he's forced to be a part of the male-small group sessions?" What's a teacher to do if a child and her parents-who are attorneys-insist that the school accommodate their request to use her new name and preferred pronouns? Or, what about the priest who has a teenage boy in his parish who wants to be confirmed with a female confirmation name? Each of these leaders genuinely care for children, but often aren't sure what do to without compromising the truth or alienating the child — and perhaps his or her entire family-from the Church.

While some situations have clear answers, many require prayerful discernment to form creative and reasonable accommodations. For example, in the case of the boy who wants to attend the retreat without being included in the boys' small group, perhaps the youth minister can have co-ed small groups instead of ones that are segregated by sex. If the Church is going to create a welcoming environment for individuals who are gender nonconforming, the Church cannot wait until such individuals are "done" with their dysphoria before they are invited to sit in the pews. If that's the case, they're likely never to come. In the same respect, leaders have an obligation to the other children who have been entrusted to them to avoid causing unnecessary confusion regarding their understanding of being made male and female.

The first step in creating a warm welcome is to accept the fact that Christians have much to learn about this subject. The Church does have answers, and ones that are eternally true, good, and beautiful. But when it comes to the pastoral care of individuals who experience gender dysphoria, there's much work to be done. Some churchgoers might spend one hundred hours hearing news about transgender issues for every one minute that they spend talking to someone who identifies as trans. These numbers need to be inverted because both parties have a great deal to learn from each other. As one young woman named Kat said, "I didn't need a know-it-all Christian. I needed a Christian who desired to know me, and who had the humility to admit that they didn't have it all figured out.''(11) Preston Sprinkle remarked, "Some people might enjoy being instructed by a person who seems to have all the right answers-a two-legged Google with a mouth that never seems to shut. But I think most people are like Kat. They want to know the truth, but they want to find it with a friend."(12)

This posture of humility is not a style that one adopts, however. It’s an acknowledgment of reality. This is why Dr. Mark Yarhouse recommends to pastors that if they have a member of the congregation who identifies as trans (or someone who is considering joining the church), they should invite him or her out for coffee, and say, "It seems like I'm meeting you at about chapter seven or eight of your life, but I haven't had the opportunity to hear about chapters one through six, but I'd like to.”(13)

With this having been said, it should be clarified that offering a warm welcome does not mean that parishes and intuitions of Catholic education can endorse or promote gender theory. They cannot, because it is based on a false understanding of what it means to be human, and therefore will not lead to true human flourishing in this life or the life to come. Therefore, dioceses, churches, and schools have a responsibility to formulate policies that clearly explain the Church's teaching to parents, faculty members, parish staff members, students, and parishioners.

For schools, this means more than offering a quick Q & A session on the topic of gender in a high school theology class. It requires a continuous curriculum that teaches authentic Catholic anthropology, preferable rooted in the Theology of the Body. It also requires that school leadership prayerfully discern the employment of every staff member-and not only in the religion department-to ensure that they not only believe what the Church teaches but live out that teaching in their own vocations. It would also require that the school clearly outline their policies in the student and parent handbooks, so that anyone who chooses to attend the school would know in advance where the school stands on issues such as bathroom usage, pronoun usage, and the use of one's baptismal name (or at least a name that does not contradict the reality of one's sex). For examples of such policies, visit chastity.com/gender.

Finally, leaders and educators would also do well to assess the language they use. Because language has evolved dramatically in the last few years, teachers often slip into the habit of adopting terminology that undermines Church teaching without realizing it. Leaders who employ such terms unwittingly give credence to gender theory. Here are six ways Christians ought to be more precise with the language they adopt:

One: When discussing the topic of gender, a teacher might speak about someone being a "biological male." But are there males who aren't biological ones? This is as redundant as it would be to speak of a four-sided square, as if there are some squares that have three or five of sides. It should suffice to speak of one who is male. Anything more obfuscates reality.

Two: Some people assume that there's no harm in using the term "cis" as a prefix or adjective to describe one's sex. Again, this is redundant. The prefix is a newly minted adjective, coined to facilitate the idea that a cis male is one kind of male, and a trans male is simply another way of being male. But to concede this point is to concur that some females are males, which is untrue.

Three: Consider the problem with using terms such as "assigned" female at birth. If a person's sex is assigned by an external authority, then why couldn't it be reassigned by someone who has more authority, such as the individual herself? While the terms could be useful within a clinical setting for certain individuals who have disorders of sexual development, it's misleading to generalize all individuals as having been "assigned" a sex. Likewise, it's problematic to speak of someone who is "born male," because this subtly undermines the fact that one's sex was determined before birth, recognized after delivery, and will remain stable for all eternity.

Four: When leaders and teachers slip into the habit of universally adopting anyone's preferred pronouns out of a false sense of compassion, they immerse themselves into another's delusion instead of lovingly holding firm to reality and gently drawing others back toward it. Even when the individual is not around, when leaders adopt incorrect pronouns, they foster an intellectual milieu that is untethered from reality. However, sometimes it is most prudent to find agreeable nicknames or avoid gendered language to maintain the possibility of accompanying an individual through what is likely to be an already distressful time of life.

Five: The idea that a person can "transition" from male to female is false. This would be like saying a person can transition from human to fish. While a person can certainly swim, no one can transition into something that they are not. Therefore, regardless of how many medications or operations a man receives, he cannot transition to a woman. It is unloving to lead people to believe that this is possible. Granted, there is some utility in using the term when describing actions that a person has taken to present as the other sex, but care must be taken to avoid giving the impression that such actions create an actual transition.

Six: Rather than referring to a person as "trans," it is more accurate to refer to him or her as someone who "identifies as trans" or who experiences gender dysphoria (if that is true). If religious leaders and educators begin adopting the idea that certain individuals "are trans," it does not merely affirm that some individuals experience a discord between their sex and their identity. Rather, it affirms that this discord is the identity of certain people. But the Church does not believe that some people are inherently cis and others are trans. Rather, all people are beloved children of God, and that is the deepest truth of one's identity.

Taking a loving and logical approach to the delicate subject of gender isn't easy. But it helps to keep in mind that the job of educators and pastors isn't merely to defeat infernal ideologies, but to care for those who have been impacted by them. As Dr. Mark Yarhouse wrote, "Most people who are gender dysphoric are not trying to deconstruct norms regarding sex and gender. They're just trying to survive.”(14) He adds, "Most are not meaning to participate in a culture war; most are casualties of the culture war.”(15)

-Jason Evert, Male, Female, or Other: A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender

—

Work cited:

11) Preston Sprinkle, Embodied (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2021), 62.

12) Sprinkle, Embodied, 62.

13) "What Is Gender Dysphoria," https://youtu.be/CMqiD_4KslA.

14) "Gender Dysphoria, Dr. Mark Yarhouse," https://youtu.be/0-I2eMpHfo8?si=U1ob0V1T2kVWEY_3

15) Yarhouse, Understanding Gender Dysphoria, 41.

[karadin]

while you were sleeping ...

The U.S. Army has told units to prepare for deployment at the U.S.-Mexico border in the next 24 to 48 hours.

Trump declared a 'state of emergency' at the border, despite the fact that we have a fully staffed border patrol and we are not in a wartime footing with Mexico.

National Science Foundation freezes grants in response to Trump executive orders

Native Americans concerned that they may be rounded up in mass deportation efforts due to racial profiling

Trump states that GAZA should be 'swept clean' and over one million refugees to be moved to Egypt and Jordan. (these countries have refused by the way)

Trump also mentions that Gaza has 'great beachfront property' and his son in law Jared Kushner, a friend of Netanyahu since childhood, has made the same statements that Gaza would be great place to build condos (and not for Palestinians)

Despite a 'cease fire' attacks have continued in Gaza, many by settler groups with police esorts, as soon as Trump lifted Biden era sanctions on settler incursions.

some USAID officials were put on leave for not abiding Trump's order to halt all international aid.

Trump has placed all Diversity and Inclusion federal employees across agencies on paid leave for 30 days until their positions are terminated.

The US Air Force took down a video for new recruits showcasing the Tuskegee Airmen, a famous all black fighting force from WW2, as well as the WAVES, women who joined the service during WW2.

The advisory office of DOGE now run solely by Elon Musk, a US government contractor puts him in nominal charge of government programs, a conflict of interest, however he has been booted from an office next to Trump in the White House to another building.

This Department of Government Efficiency now is taking over the US Digital Service in charge of all US gov websites, including the new IRS Free File (where you can do your taxes online for free, a holdover from the Biden Administration.)

Trump is paving the way for the Pentagon to remove transgender service members

The Quaker faith have taken the Trump administration to court over a new policy to enter churches and religious spaces in mass deportation efforts.

Trump puts hold on refugees - hundreds of thousands of people fleeing strife in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Haiti and Venezuela have been stopped from entering the US - the program was bipartisan and many have waited years in a legal process to enter.

Trump has revoked a Biden admin program that allowed 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans and nearly 1 million migrants allowed into the country through an app called CBP One, all of these individuals are now targeted for deportation.

Vice President Vance complained when U.S. Catholic bishops condemned ICE entering places of employment, churches and schools in mass deportation raids (lifting an Obama era restriction)

Vice President Vance states that Big Tech is too powerful in the US, at the same time Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, along with other 'tech bros' were featured at Trump's inauguration, seated in front of his cabinet picks.

Trump fires DOJ employees who worked on Trump's prosecution for insurrection on Jan 6 as well as his stolen US government 'eyes only' documents. Republicans are investigating the bi-partisan Jan 6th investigations under the Biden administration.

Trump pardoned more than 1,500 individuals for their crimes during the Jan 6th insurrection, this has lead to backlash among a bi-partisan Congress as well as the public. One of the insurrectionists was killed by police at a conflict on his day of release, another was re-arrested for breaking his parole for previous convictions.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 19, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 20, 2024

Yesterday morning, NPR reported that U.S. public health data are showing a dramatic drop in deaths from drug overdoses for the first time in decades. Between April 2023 and April 2024, deaths from street drugs are down 10.6%, with some researchers saying that when federal surveys are updated, the decline will be even more pronounced. Such a decline would translate to 20,000 deaths averted.

With more than 70,000 Americans dying of opioid overdoses in 2020 and numbers rising, the Biden-Harris administration prioritized disrupting the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. They worked to seize the drugs at ports of entry, sanctioned more than 300 foreign people and agencies engaged in the global trade in illicit drugs, and arrested and prosecuted dozens of high-level Mexican drug traffickers and money launderers. 

In March 2023 the Biden-Harris administration made naloxone, a medicine that can prevent fatal opioid overdoses, available over the counter. The administration invested more than $82 billion in treatment, and the Department of Health and Human Services worked to get the treatment into the hands of first responders and family members. 

Addressing the crisis of opioid deaths meant careful, coordinated policies.

Also today, markets all over the world climbed after the Fed yesterday cut interest rates for the first time in four years. In the U.S., the S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 of the biggest companies on U.S. stock exchanges, the Nasdaq Composite, which is weighted toward the information technology sector, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an older index that tracks 30 prominent companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, all hit new records. The rate cut indicated to traders that the U.S. has, in fact, managed to pull off the soft landing President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen worked to achieve. They have kept job growth steady, normalized economic growth and inflation, and avoided a recession. 

As they have done so, the major U.S. stock indices have had what The Guardian's Callum Jones calls “an extraordinary year.” Jones notes that the S&P 500 is up more than 20% since the beginning of 2024, the Nasdaq Composite has risen 22%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gone up 11%.

Bringing the U.S. economy out of the pandemic more successfully than any other major economically developed country meant clear goals and principles, and careful, informed adjustments.

And yet the big story today is that Republican North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson frequented porn sites, where between 2008 and 2012 he wrote that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography; referred to himself as a “black NAZI!”; called for reinstating human enslavement and wrote, “I would certainly buy a few”; called the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a “f*cking commie bastard”; wrote that he preferred Adolf Hitler to former president Barack Obama; referred to Black, Jewish, Muslim, and gay people with slurs; said he doesn’t care about abortions (“I don’t care. I just wanna see the sex tape!” he wrote); and recounted that he had secretly watched women in the showers in a public gym as a 14-year-old. Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck of CNN, who broke the story, noted that “CNN is reporting only a small portion of Robinson’s comments on the website given their graphic nature.”

After the first story broke, Natalie Allison of Politico broke another: that Robinson was registered on the Ashley Madison website, which caters to married people seeking affairs. 

Robinson is running for governor of North Carolina. He has attacked transgender rights, called for a six-week abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest, mocked survivors of school shootings, and—after identifying a wide range of those he saw as enemies to America and to “conservatives”—told a church audience that “some folks need killing.”

That this scandal dropped on the last possible day Robinson could drop out of the race suggests it was pushed by Republicans themselves because they recognize that Robinson is dragging Trump and other Republican candidates down in North Carolina. But here’s the thing: Republican voters knew who Robinson was, and they chose him anyway. 

Indeed, his behavior is not all that different from that of a number of the Republican candidates in this cycle, including former president Trump, the Republican nominee for president. Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) embraced Robinson’s candidacy, and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) welcomed “NC’s outstanding Lt. Governor” to a Republican-led House Judiciary Committee meeting “on the importance of election integrity.” “He brought the truth with clarity and conviction—and everyone should hear what he had to say!” Johnson posted to social media. Robinson spoke at the Republican National Convention.

The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in this election is stark, and it reflects a systemic problem that has been growing in the U.S. since the 1980s. 

Democracy depends on at least two healthy political parties that can compete for voters on a level playing field. Although the men who wrote the Constitution hated the idea of political parties, they quickly figured out that parties tie voters to the mechanics of Congress and the presidency.

And they do far more than that. Before political thinkers legitimized the idea of political opposition to the king, disagreeing with the person in charge usually led to execution or banishment for treason. Parties allowed for the idea of loyal and legitimate opposition, which in turn allowed for the peaceful transition of power. That peaceful exchange enabled the people to choose their leaders and leaders to relinquish power safely. Parties also create a system for criticizing people in power, which helps to weed out corrupt or unfit leaders.

But those benefits of a party system depend on a level political playing field for everyone, so that a party must constantly compete for voters by testing which policies are most popular and getting rid of the corrupt or unstable leaders voters would reject. 

In the 1980s, radical Republican leaders set out to dismantle the government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, and protected civil rights. But that system was popular, and to overcome the majority who favored it, they began to tip the political playing field in their direction. They began to suppress voting by Democrats by insisting that Democrats were engaging in “voter fraud.” At the same time, they worked to delegitimize their opponents by calling them “socialists” or “communists” and claiming that they were trying to destroy the United States. By the 1990s, extremists in the party were taking power by purging traditional Republicans from it.

And yet, voters still elected Democrats, and after they put President Barack Obama into the White House in 2008, the Republican State Leadership Committee in 2010 launched Operation REDMAP, or Redistricting Majority Project. The plan was to take over state legislatures so Republicans would control the new district maps drawn after the 2010 census, especially in swing states like Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It worked, and Republican legislatures in those states and elsewhere carved up state maps into dramatically gerrymandered districts.

In those districts, the Republican candidates were virtually guaranteed election, so they focused not on attracting voters with popular policies but on amplifying increasingly extreme talking points to excite the party’s base. That drove the party farther and farther to the right. By 2012, political scientists Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein warned that the Republican Party had “become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”

At the same time, the skewed playing field meant that candidates who were corrupt or bonkers did not get removed from the political mix after opponents pounced on their misdeeds and misstatements, as they would have been in a healthy system. Social media poster scary lawyerguy noted that the story about Robinson will divert attention from the lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets, which diverted attention from Trump’s abysmal debate performance, which diverted attention from Trump’s filming a campaign ad at Arlington National Cemetery. 

When a political party has so thoroughly walled itself off from the majority, there are two options. One is to become full-on authoritarian and suppress the majority, often with violence. Such a plan is in Project 2025, which calls for a strong executive to take control of the military and the judicial system and to use that power to impose his will.    

The other option is that enough people in the majority reject the extremists to create a backlash that not only replaces them, but also establishes a level playing field.  

The Republican Party is facing the reality that it has become so extreme it is hemorrhaging former supporters and mobilizing a range of critics. Today the Catholic Conference of Ohio rebuked those who spread lies about Haitian immigrants—Republican presidential candidate Trump and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance were the leading culprits—and Teamsters councils have rejected the decision of the union’s board not to make an endorsement this year and have endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Some white evangelicals are also distancing themselves from Trump. 

And then, tonight, Trump told a Jewish group that if he loses, it will be the fault of Jewish Americans. "I will put it to you very simply and gently: I really haven't been treated right, but you haven't been treated right because you're putting yourself in great danger."

Mark Robinson has said he will not step aside.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[coochiequeens]

If the Catholic Church was going to allow men who identify as women into a woman only college would they eventually allow women who identified as men into thepriesthood? No because the they have too many centuries worth of traditions based on biological sex.

INDIANA

Catholic women's college in Indiana reverses policy change allowing applicants who ‘identify as women’

Saint Mary's College president wrote, 'We lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division where we had hoped for unity... For this, we are deeply sorry'

Published December 21, 2023 7:38pm EST

Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, reversed a recent decision to allow biological males to attend the university if they have a history of identifying as a woman.

Last month, President Katie Conboy told the faculty about the policy change in an email obtained by Fox News Digital.

"Saint Mary’s will consider undergraduate applicants whose sex assigned at birth is female or who consistently live and identify as women," Conboy emailed.

The school’s policy change drew harsh criticism from people like Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop Kevin Rhoades, who reportedly urged the school to reverse course because the policy went against Catholic teachings.

On Wednesday, Conboy and the chair of the school’s board of trustees, Maureen Smith, emailed the Saint Mary's College community saying the school would return to its previous admission policy.

"When the board approved this update, we viewed it as a reflection of our college’s commitment to live our Catholic values as a loving and just community," the letter read. "We believed it affirmed our identity as an inclusive, Catholic, women’s college."

The two acknowledged in the letter that not all members of the community took the same position, with some worried it was more than a policy decision. Instead, some saw the move as "a dilution" of the school’s mission or even a threat to the school’s Catholic identity.

"As this last month unfolded, we lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division where we had hoped for unity," the letter read. "For this, we are deeply sorry.

"Taking all these factors into consideration, the Board has decided that we will return to our previous admission policy," the president and chairperson added.

The school was opened by four Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1844.

Earlier this year, Pope Francis told journalist Elisabetta Piqué for the Argentine daily newspaper La Nación, that "Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations."

"Why is it dangerous? Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women," he added.

He also noted that there is a major difference between caring for people who identify as transgender versus actually endorsing their values, noting the contrast "between what pastoral care is for people who have a different sexual orientation and what gender ideology is."

Fox News Digital's Alexander Hall contributed to this report.

I can't believe that not only am I posting from Fox, I still refuse to call it news, and agreeing with the Pope

If the Catholic Chuch wants to be inclusive in a meaningful way they can continue to provide shelter to speak up for refugees in Palestine and other war torn reigns

[loveerran]

What does 'Sensitivity, kindness, compassion and Christlike love' feel like?

A new church policy affecting transgender members of the LDS church has recently been implemented. This new Policy of Exclusion severely restricts or eliminates baptism (38.2.8.9), fellowship and opportunities for service for transgender members - including transgender children. Insofar as I am able to tell, it treats transgender members, who have transitioned in any way, worse than convicted child molester members (treatment of convicted child abusers who are members, including child sexual abuse, in 38.6.2.5 vs. guidance for church participation of transgender members, including transgender children).

If the default setting for a transgender member, including a transgender child, is to be treated by their congregation more severely than a convicted adult sexual predator of children, can you see why some of us are having difficulty feeling the church's stated 'sensitivity, kindness, compassion and Christlike love' for us? Why we may feel we are not part of 'All are welcome'?

[queerstake]

I wrote my own email to the First Presidency, at the email nerdygaymormon provided, and I wanted to share it here:

To the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Your new policies on transgender adults and children run counter to the most fundamental principles of the Gospel and of God's teachings: to love God and to love thy neighbor. Christ's teachings were given not to religious leaders but to women, to publicans, to sinners, to the poor and the needy--in sum, to the marginalized, the outcasts, the forgotten and abused. Today Christ would teach and minister to the queer, the gay, the trans, the people of color, the poor, the sex workers, the ex- and post-Mormons. When Alma and Amulek go to teach the Zoramites, the ones who are ready to receive the word of God are those who have been cast out of the synagogues, much like how you tried to bully gay members away and how you are now trying to bully trans members away.

But I promise you this: you will not bully me away. You cannot bully me away. My very existence is a beacon to my fellow trans Mormons. My visage exposes your hypocrisy and callousness to everyone with eyes to see. You cannot hide the blood on your hands for much longer; in the face of God, your earthly power will not allow you to escape the consequences of your actions. For remember what Christ said: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

- A Transgender Mormon.

And remember: God loves the outcast.

What a beautiful and passionate letter! Thank you so, so much for sharing. <33 You're right--we uplift each other. Regardless of the institutional church, queer Mormons have a community amongst ourselves and your presence in it edifies us all. <33 Thank you again for sharing.

[misfitwashere]

September 19, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

SEP 20

Yesterday morning, NPR reported that U.S. public health data are showing a dramatic drop in deaths from drug overdoses for the first time in decades. Between April 2023 and April 2024, deaths from street drugs are down 10.6%, with some researchers saying that when federal surveys are updated, the decline will be even more pronounced. Such a decline would translate to 20,000 deaths averted.

With more than 70,000 Americans dying of opioid overdoses in 2020 and numbers rising, the Biden-Harris administration prioritized disrupting the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. They worked to seize the drugs at ports of entry, sanctioned more than 300 foreign people and agencies engaged in the global trade in illicit drugs, and arrested and prosecuted dozens of high-level Mexican drug traffickers and money launderers. 

In March 2023 the Biden-Harris administration made naloxone, a medicine that can prevent fatal opioid overdoses, available over the counter. The administration invested more than $82 billion in treatment, and the Department of Health and Human Services worked to get the treatment into the hands of first responders and family members. 

Addressing the crisis of opioid deaths meant careful, coordinated policies.

Also today, markets all over the world climbed after the Fed yesterday cut interest rates for the first time in four years. In the U.S., the S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 of the biggest companies on U.S. stock exchanges, the Nasdaq Composite, which is weighted toward the information technology sector, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an older index that tracks 30 prominent companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, all hit new records. The rate cut indicated to traders that the U.S. has, in fact, managed to pull off the soft landing President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen worked to achieve. They have kept job growth steady, normalized economic growth and inflation, and avoided a recession. 

As they have done so, the major U.S. stock indices have had what The Guardian's Callum Jones calls “an extraordinary year.” Jones notes that the S&P 500 is up more than 20% since the beginning of 2024, the Nasdaq Composite has risen 22%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gone up 11%.

Bringing the U.S. economy out of the pandemic more successfully than any other major economically developed country meant clear goals and principles, and careful, informed adjustments.

And yet the big story today is that Republican North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson frequented porn sites, where between 2008 and 2012 he wrote that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography; referred to himself as a “black NAZI!”; called for reinstating human enslavement and wrote, “I would certainly buy a few”; called the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a “f*cking commie bastard”; wrote that he preferred Adolf Hitler to former president Barack Obama; referred to Black, Jewish, Muslim, and gay people with slurs; said he doesn’t care about abortions (“I don’t care. I just wanna see the sex tape!” he wrote); and recounted that he had secretly watched women in the showers in a public gym as a 14-year-old. Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck of CNN, who broke the story, noted that “CNN is reporting only a small portion of Robinson’s comments on the website given their graphic nature.”

After the first story broke, Natalie Allison of Politico broke another: that Robinson was registered on the Ashley Madison website, which caters to married people seeking affairs. 

Robinson is running for governor of North Carolina. He has attacked transgender rights, called for a six-week abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest, mocked survivors of school shootings, and—after identifying a wide range of those he saw as enemies to America and to “conservatives”—told a church audience that “some folks need killing.”

That this scandal dropped on the last possible day Robinson could drop out of the race suggests it was pushed by Republicans themselves because they recognize that Robinson is dragging Trump and other Republican candidates down in North Carolina. But here’s the thing: Republican voters knew who Robinson was, and they chose him anyway. 

Indeed, his behavior is not all that different from that of a number of the Republican candidates in this cycle, including former president Trump, the Republican nominee for president. Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) embraced Robinson’s candidacy, and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) welcomed “NC’s outstanding Lt. Governor” to a Republican-led House Judiciary Committee meeting “on the importance of election integrity.” “He brought the truth with clarity and conviction—and everyone should hear what he had to say!” Johnson posted to social media. Robinson spoke at the Republican National Convention.

The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in this election is stark, and it reflects a systemic problem that has been growing in the U.S. since the 1980s. 

Democracy depends on at least two healthy political parties that can compete for voters on a level playing field. Although the men who wrote the Constitution hated the idea of political parties, they quickly figured out that parties tie voters to the mechanics of Congress and the presidency.

And they do far more than that. Before political thinkers legitimized the idea of political opposition to the king, disagreeing with the person in charge usually led to execution or banishment for treason. Parties allowed for the idea of loyal and legitimate opposition, which in turn allowed for the peaceful transition of power. That peaceful exchange enabled the people to choose their leaders and leaders to relinquish power safely. Parties also create a system for criticizing people in power, which helps to weed out corrupt or unfit leaders.

But those benefits of a party system depend on a level political playing field for everyone, so that a party must constantly compete for voters by testing which policies are most popular and getting rid of the corrupt or unstable leaders voters would reject. 

In the 1980s, radical Republican leaders set out to dismantle the government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, and protected civil rights. But that system was popular, and to overcome the majority who favored it, they began to tip the political playing field in their direction. They began to suppress voting by Democrats by insisting that Democrats were engaging in “voter fraud.” At the same time, they worked to delegitimize their opponents by calling them “socialists” or “communists” and claiming that they were trying to destroy the United States. By the 1990s, extremists in the party were taking power by purging traditional Republicans from it.

And yet, voters still elected Democrats, and after they put President Barack Obama into the White House in 2008, the Republican State Leadership Committee in 2010 launched Operation REDMAP, or Redistricting Majority Project. The plan was to take over state legislatures so Republicans would control the new district maps drawn after the 2010 census, especially in swing states like Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It worked, and Republican legislatures in those states and elsewhere carved up state maps into dramatically gerrymandered districts.

In those districts, the Republican candidates were virtually guaranteed election, so they focused not on attracting voters with popular policies but on amplifying increasingly extreme talking points to excite the party’s base. That drove the party farther and farther to the right. By 2012, political scientists Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein warned that the Republican Party had “become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”

At the same time, the skewed playing field meant that candidates who were corrupt or bonkers did not get removed from the political mix after opponents pounced on their misdeeds and misstatements, as they would have been in a healthy system. Social media poster scary lawyerguy noted that the story about Robinson will divert attention from the lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets, which diverted attention from Trump’s abysmal debate performance, which diverted attention from Trump’s filming a campaign ad at Arlington National Cemetery. 

When a political party has so thoroughly walled itself off from the majority, there are two options. One is to become full-on authoritarian and suppress the majority, often with violence. Such a plan is in Project 2025, which calls for a strong executive to take control of the military and the judicial system and to use that power to impose his will.    

The other option is that enough people in the majority reject the extremists to create a backlash that not only replaces them, but also establishes a level playing field.  

The Republican Party is facing the reality that it has become so extreme it is hemorrhaging former supporters and mobilizing a range of critics. Today the Catholic Conference of Ohio rebuked those who spread lies about Haitian immigrants—Republican presidential candidate Trump and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance were the leading culprits—and Teamsters councils have rejected the decision of the union’s board not to make an endorsement this year and have endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Some white evangelicals are also distancing themselves from Trump. 

And then, tonight, Trump told a Jewish group that if he loses, it will be the fault of Jewish Americans. "I will put it to you very simply and gently: I really haven't been treated right, but you haven't been treated right because you're putting yourself in great danger."

Mark Robinson has said he will not step aside.

—

[nerdygaymormon]

Hi, I'm a young queer mormon living in Utah who finished their first year of college and decided halfway through after lots of prompting that I should serve a mission. The choice brought so much joy into my life and reconnected me with the church, my family, my beliefs, and my self. I felt really lost and unfulfilled at school, and the decision to put my schooling on hold for the next two years or so and bring the joy I felt from the gospel to more of God's children has felt so right every step of the way. I've have my call since March now, and I leave in a couple weeks.

But this new church announcement (the transgender policies) has absolutely shaken me. Obviously from a young age I have struggled with the church's stance on queer identities, and many more aspects. But my heart always felt that Christ cared not about these things and wanted only for us to try and be better and accept his atonement into our life. I also felt like the community of a ward or a church was one of the best parts of the gospel, and so many people need it and could benefit from it even if they did not wish to or choose to carry out sacred ordinances or covenants.

But this handbook change has made me feel like that's not true anymore. How can I stand for and represent a church that is directly excluding and prejudiced against my transgender friends? How am I supposed to tell other families and individuals to come to church when I myself can't even seem to grapple with what it stands for right now? I'm really struggling, I don't know if I should cancel my mission or push through in the hopes that more understanding will come through acting in faith. While every step of this process has brought me closer to myself and my family and brought me a lot of clarity in a confusing time, I feel that right now God is giving me a choice. I listened to Him with full faith and put in my papers and put my school on hold, but now I feel like he's telling me to choose for myself what to do next. And I have no idea what to do.

I'm lucky enough to have parents who will support my decision either way and who are also furious at the handbook change, but that doesn't take away the issues that choosing not to serve a mission brings. All the ward members who will be informed about it, all the explaining I'll have to do. If I don't go, I wish to instead use my mission funds to pay for a humanitarian trip to a place near the mission I was called, so I can still dedicate my time to bringing help to God's children, but I'm already so far in my mission process and I know there is a reason I was prompted to do all of this. But I'm so stuck.

Any advice?

Thank you for sharing all this.

I was just telling a friend that I think God's way is to have us make our own choices, especially the bigger the decision. Sometimes there's times like where you got the prompting to serve a mission, but it's still your choice. Often those promptings are making us aware there is another path available to us, perhaps one we weren't aware might be a good choice for us. However, most of the time God doesn't prompt us what to do, we have to study it out and then pray about the choice we made and ask God to affirm.

I think this way we own the decision. If we marry someone, we have to put in the work to make it a successful relationship and not just assume it will all work out because God said to do it. And when things don't go perfectly, if God told us what to do then we would blame God when it's us who messed things up.

I can see that the prompting you received helped you take a step back from a situation you were in (college) that maybe wasn't the right time for you, and get closer to the Lord. This gave you a firmer spiritual foundation on which to stand when these Handbook changes were announced.

My advice is to not ignore your feelings. If something bothers your conscience, pay attention to that.

Another piece of advice is to think about how you want to serve. A humanitarian mission perhaps is the mission you were being prompted towards, you are in a position now to make that choice because of the decisions you made based on the prompting you received. You can make a list of pros & cons, and as you think about what these different experiences will be like, the proselyting mission or the humanitarian mission, pay attention to which one brings you a sense of peace?

The Spirit is accompanied by feelings, think about how you feel when you're getting a prompting or feel that something is the right direction to go. Keep in mind those feelings when you pray about whichever decision you make.

I admire your desire to serve and to stand for goodness, and I commiserate with you in regards to these steps our church has announced.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lauren Gambino at The Guardian:

In an inaugural prayer service sermon, the Episcopal bishop of Washington appealed directly to Donald Trump to “have mercy upon” communities across the country targeted by the new administration’s immigration and LGBTQ+ policies. Speaking from the pulpit at the Washington national cathedral, the Right Rev Mariann Budde delivered her sermon – and an impassioned plea – as Trump sat stone-faced in the front row, alongside Melania Trump and JD Vance. Asked later about the service, Trump told reporters it was “not too exciting”. “I didn’t think it was a good service, no,” he said as he walked into the White House on Tuesday. “They could do much better.” [...]

Budde’s sermon amounted to a bold public criticism of the new president, who spent his first hours in office signing executive orders rolling back Biden-era protections for transgender Americans and laying the groundwork to carry out his promise of mass deportations. One executive order directed the federal government to recognize only “two sexes – male and female” while his immigration directives moved to dismantle birthright citizenship, send troops to the southern border and suspend the US refugee admissions program. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in both Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for their lives,” Budde said, asking his administration to show compassion. She also spoke of immigrants – those who “pick our crops” and “work the night shift in hospitals” – but “may not be citizens or have the proper documentation.

“The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara and temples,” she said, adding: “Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land.” When Budde finished her sermon, Trump turned and said something to Vance, who responded with a shake of his head.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered an epic sermon right in front of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s faces with this quote regarding immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities being targeted by 47’s harmful edicts: “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.”

See Also:

The Advocate: Watch a bishop scold Donald Trump about attacks on LGBTQ+ and immigrants during inaugural prayer service

The Beautiful Mess: MAGA Christianity is Anti-Jesus. Just ask Jesus.

LGBTQ Nation: Bishop begs Donald Trump to his face to have “mercy” on LGBTQ+ people