Each June there’s a weeks-long donnybrook in the Letters to the Editor section of our crappy local paper because someone will write to complain about a Pride Month display at the public library or something else that offended them, and others will call the bigot out, and the bigots will angrily respond and so forth.
The paper isn’t picky about what they print unless they think it impugns the (nonexistent) integrity of a local Repub near election time or puts businesses that advertise in their paper in a negative light. I’ve seen material that readers literally copy-pasted from white supremacist manifestos and submitted as part of their letter to the editor, including the “Great Replacement” theory and the “14 Words.”
So my expectations are low. Here’s a snippet from a current letter in which the writer chides a previous letter writer for encouraging folks to respect their LGBTQ neighbors and quit being hysterical, intolerant ninnies: “You may want to consider the Satanic nature of the people you so desire to defend.”
(Matt Spriggs of Homosassa, Florida — you’re a sanctimonious bigot and a goddamned moron who makes Jesus puke, and I hope you choke on a bag of zesty Cajun-fried dicks very soon!)
Anyhoo, when you live in a fascist-run state like I do, sometimes it feels like there are no federal protections. But the Biden admin published a fact sheet today that announced a new set of initiatives to protect LGBTQ communities nationwide. You can read it all here, and here’s the summary:
Protect LGBTQI+ communities from attacks on their rights and safety by launching a new LGBTQI+ Community Safety Partnership and announcing that the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department will serve as the Department’s liaison to the LGBTQI+ community on issues related to protecting the rights of the community.
Support LGBTQI+ kids so they can thrive by strengthening mental health resources for LGBTQI+ youth, launching a new federal initiative to address LGBTQI+ youth homelessness, releasing federal funding to support programs that help parents affirm their LGBTQI+ kids, and advancing new regulations to protect LGBTQI+ youth in foster care.
Shield LGBTQI+ Americans from book bans that threaten their rights by announcing that the Department of Education will appoint a new coordinator to address the growing threat that book bans pose for the civil rights of students.
I don’t know what will come of it. It sounds like advisory boards and committees will look into this and provide resources for that. But queer people are under siege in multiple states, and it’s good to see the admin acknowledge that and outline a plan to address it. It’s a start. I think that matters.
Open thread.
PS: I love Tampa Bay Rays first baseman Luke Raley. He’s a big guy who runs like a dump truck on the Autobahn, and I am so here for it.
Lifeinthebonusround
Matt Spriggs is from Homosassa?? If I were him I’d move…
C Stars
I’m glad to see this. And will forward it to my local school board which is dragging its feet on some much needed policy redirection regarding LBTQ+ students (yes, in the Bay Area!).
I’ve noticed that this is a common “talking point” among the right wing wackos: connecting LGBTQ support to Satanism. I’ve seen it a few times. In a way, it’s a relief because it makes me realize that many of these people aren’t sophisticated fascist hate manipulators, they’re just, well…superstitious weirdos.
Chris
I don’t know if Pat Robertson being dead counts as an LGBTQ protection, per se, but it certainly can’t hurt.
bbleh
You bet it’s good. Just think what The Other Guy and his people would be doing about now. And the worst of it is, they don’t care, but they know it keeps the idiots riled up.
Republicans: mindless bigots or cynical manipulators? Or … los dos!
Baud
Very little the president can do to fight red states without new legislation.
Alison Rose
One thing that aggravates the shit out of me every time is how often the bigots complain about “ShOvInG iT dOwN oUr ThRoAtS” as though straight people don’t do exactly that all the fucking time. Forget hydrogen, heteronormativity is the most abundant element in the universe. They’re okay with queers as long as we never say or do anything at all to indicate our queerness.
(Also…we can pause to appreciate the sexual tone of their complaint. Ahem.)
Chris
@C Stars:
The hysteria over DND in the eighties was by no means the worst or more harmful moral panic in our nation’s history. It wasn’t even in the top 100. But it was undoubtedly the most ridiculous.
Jackie
Sadly, due to unhealthy air quality, this is being rescheduled:
“President Joe Biden will host the largest White House Pride Month celebration in history on Thursday, in a deliberate contrast to a cascade of Republican legislation and other attacks targeting LGBTQ+ people,” Reuters reports.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: No, gay Teletubbies was the most ridiculous.
Alison Rose
@C Stars: At my previous job as a CSR for a mail-order company that sold Montessori materials and supplies, some loon sent in a ranting email complaining about our denigration of God and our “rainbow garbage” and twisted gender role promotion. 1) At that time, we had like three items that had rainbow colors, and they were like, the baby ring stacking toy and shit, things literally every home with a baby has in it. 2) I’d spent that very morning in a Zoom session with my local synagogue for Rosh HaShanah services, singing praise to God for like two hours. Of course I’m sure this dude would consider Jews heathens since he calls us Christ-killers, but you know…
His full message (which I’d copy/pasted to FB because I needed to share this wealth):
Baud
@Jackie:
That’s why Pride is a month long thing.
Alison Rose
@Alison Rose: The Christmas stuff was because our FSH catalog, which was aimed at families with items for use in the home that were in line with Montessori ideals, would come out in the fall in advance of holiday shopping, but we tried to keep it vaguely “holiday season” and not “Christmas” because, you know, not everyone is a Christian.
Chris
@bbleh:
I used to think that Republican politicians started out as cynical manipulators and turned more and more into mindless bigots as time went by and people raised in the Fox bubble grew up and went into politics. But reading enough of the crap that Nixon and Bob Dole and all those others were putting out fifty years ago, it’s not really any less loony or bigoted.
I think the bottom line is simply that it’s not possible to be a bullshit artist without swallowing your own bullshit. People like this are often vaguely aware that they’re not telling the truth and they’re manipulating others, but their own grasp on the truth is much more tenuous than they’re aware of.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Wasn’t that Pat Robinson?
Citizen Alan
@Chris: When I was 12, my mother made me watch Rona Jaffies’ Mazes and Monsters. Twice! For those of you unfamiliar, the book was the (mostly) true story of a college freshman who mysteriously disappeared from school for several weeks, resulting in his hysterical parents starting a statewide manhunt. The boy (a) had previously been institutionalized, (b) was coming to grips with his homosexuality, (c) was flunking all his classes, and (d) was really into D&D. Guess which of those 4 data points the movie decided was the root cause of the kid’s problems.
On edit: Part of my bitterness over that was that around that time, my First Edition D&D books disappeared after she gave them to her preacher to “look over.” I’m pretty sure they were burned or something.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Open thread? I know this isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but I think it’s fascinating!
Tony Jay
@Alison Rose:
Oh, hell yes. To listen to them, their lives consist of an endless line of rude, dominating Liberals stuffing legislative sausages through their pearly gates. Somehow, despite all their macho posturing and tough-guy orneriness, it just keeps… on… happening.
Maybe they should, I don’t know, get off their knees or something.
bbleh
@Alison Rose: well, he certainly sounds like a secure and well-informed individual in complete control of his faculties. Pity he wanted to be taken off your mailing list.
@Alison Rose: isn’t this what used to be referred to loosely as a “Freudian slip”?
Baud
@Alison Rose:
Sounds like ground zero in the War on Christmas.
Chris
@Omnes Omnibus:
There was a moral panic over gay Teletubbies…?
I’ve never been so happy that I was living overseas (and also a pre-teen) in the late nineties.
japa21
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep, even worse than gay Bert and Ernie.
Alison Rose
@bbleh: It was funny too, because I had looked him up in our system to see if he was there (some people get the catalog because we got their name from a mailing list), and he had ordered a glass citrus juicer from us a few months prior. So I guarantee his old ass just went online and googled “order juicer online” and our site was the first that came up and he clicked through and ordered without paying attention to where he was. It happened constantly and then people would get all pissed like WHY ARE YOU SENDING ME YOUR CATALOG I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE and I’d be like , bitch you ordered [x] from us on [date].
Alison Rose
@Baud: And a few years before I started working there, they’d gotten complaints about the catalog being “too Christmassy”!! Can’t win for losing.
Jackie
@Baud: Yes. I hope the rescheduled celebration has at LEAST the same attendance as today’s event had expected!🌈
Chris
@Alison Rose:
Actually, Christmas is about early Christians adapting to local pagan customs by deciding that they were going to celebrate God’s birthday and make a big to-do out of it at the same moment that just happened to be the big pagan mid-winter celebration. And in so doing, making the adoption of Christianity easier to swallow.
So yeah, thank the pagans, actually.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
Ironic, since he ended up contacting a gay Juicer.
C Stars
@Alison Rose: Yuck, the god vomit. Used to work as a news assistant at a newspaper and we got messages like this on a daily basis. Usually with a little (or a lot) of racism thrown in. And it would be over something completely benign like a listing for a planetarium show or some shit. They’re off the deep end.
Our family is probably more active with our church than 75% of these weird white dudes terrorizing Target with their talk of Satanism. I know there’s the hardcore evangelical cohort that’s in church like every minute, but my guess is that the majority of these folks just talk the talk.
Chris
@Citizen Alan:
It was for your own good! If they hadn’t done it, you might have turned out as the kind of leftist liberal woke politically correct heretic who comments on sites like Balloon Juice!
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: The purple one’s antenna was a triangle and it carried a purse, so GAYGAYGAY!!!
C Stars
@Chris: Exactly! I was trying to formulate a reply to that effect. Our celebration of Christmas and Easter IS pagan–they are unquestionably Pagan celebrations, but it seems these folks don’t have a preponderance of historical perspective.
Alison Rose
@Baud: LOL I was sooooo tempted at the time to respond to him and tell him this queer Jewish woman would happily remove his bigoted ass from our lists.
I’d forwarded it to our product manager because she was often the one to deal with awful customers complaining about the catalog, and she was like “Oh fuck this, we’re not responding to him, just take him off the list”. She was great.
Alison Rose
@C Stars: They refuse to believe anyone who is a liberal or queer or anything they hate could possibly have religious beliefs, other than maybe Wicca or something.
Chris
@C Stars:
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the polling, but apparently the religious demographic that was most enthusiastically pro-Trump wasn’t just “white evangelicals;” it was “white evangelicals who don’t go to church much.”
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: IIRC, the purple Teletubbie’s name was Tinky Winky, so make of that what you will. If I set out to create a panic about the Teletubbies, I’d probably start with the fact that they had televisions embedded in their abdomens! Also, that terrifying Sun Baby!
Dorothy A. Winsor
Another Russian official has fallen from a window:
Irishweaver
@Dorothy A. Winsor: what a find!
bbleh
@Baud: “Dear Sir, thank you for your recent message. According to our records, you ordered a [brand name] juicer from us on [date]. As we adhere to the highest ethical standards at [company], we feel obliged to inform you that it was, in fact, a GAY juicer, that being a gay juicer it passes on some of the Gay to any juice it produces, and hence that you or others may have been drinking GAY juice. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. Sincerely…
(Ok mocking the innocent is a sin. But still…)
Alison Rose
Okay, y’all, I’m sorry, I know this has no place here but I started scream-laughing and I need to share this. Yes, I am immature sometimes. But this is a brilliant match-up of song and video.
Ruckus
@Chris:
I don’t think they are mindless bigots, they work at their bigotry and they seem to work hard at it. It seems that their bigotry is their overwhelming trait and it takes work to be a bigot at the cost of everything else in one’s life.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
He dances better than me.
Jay
@Baud:
try pants,…….
Omnes Omnibus
@C Stars: Blasphemer! Jesus in his tomb was the first Easter egg.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: The only time I watched the show was when I was on Percocet after knee surgery. I enjoyed it.
Alison Rose
@Baud: He’s got a lot to work with!
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: A woman I know who worked at an old folks home told me dementia patients love it.
Kelly
Open Thread:
Deepest sympathy from the western Oregon Cascade foothills to Canadian and eastern US folk suffering from the wildfire smoke. Living in that murk is uncomfortable and frightening. We consider our activated carbon air purifier and essential tool to have on hand for when (not if) the next big smoke comes our way. Right up there with the Go Bag. A Corsi-Rosenthal Box is an inexpensive and helpful substitute for a commercial air purifier. Wikipedia’s article includes a diagram you can use to build one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsi%E2%80%93Rosenthal_Box
gene108
@Chris:
I don’t think this is considered true by scholars.
The current scholarly interpretation of Jesus’s birthday.
Much more at the link.
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/how-december-25-became-christmas/
Leto
Apparently the 700 Club is running a clip of ole Pat being welcomed to the after life. Seems appropriate.
Gin & Tonic
You know, zesty Cajun-fried dicks might not be half bad, if we want to be honest. I’ve eaten sketchier things in my life.
Alison Rose
@Gin & Tonic: Haven’t we all.
Metaphorically speaking, at least.
Gin & Tonic
@gene108: I was once in Bavaria during the big pagan mid-winter celebration of Perchten, and that was *way* more fun than Christmas. And not very likely to be confused with the birth of Jesus.
Manyakitty
@Dorothy A. Winsor: that is super cool!
Chris
@gene108:
Correction accepted!
Layer8Problem
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Fascinating indeed. Thanks!
Princess
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wow!! Fascinating to me too!
moonbat
@Citizen Alan:
My mom too and I wasn’t even into DnD at that point in my life! But there was never a Satanic cult endangering the youths that my mom wasn’t into.
Poor Tom Hanks was in that silly movie if memory serves.
Gretchen
Matt Spriggs of Homosassa sure pulled out his thesaurus for that little missive. Why do these people ,think that if it only happens to a small percentage of people, whether Covid deaths, necessary later abortions, or trans people, the majority doesn’t need to protect them?
Jay C
@gene108:
Also fascinating. I recall reading somewhere that most of the early Christian “fathers” (or the ones that wrote stuff down, anyway) more-or-less accepted that Jesus had actually been born in the middle of Spring – something to do with the shepherds-in-the-fields-at night, I think – with May 6 being an accepted date for quite a while. Though by some time in the early 5th Century CE (I think), the by-then-Established Church decided to codify the Sacred Calendar, and sever the schedule of Christian observances from Jewish (and/or pagan) origins, and so set up the rota of holidays and observances which most Christians still follow.
One of which, I recall, was to formalize a new calculation for the celebration date of Easter, separate from the Jewish Passover (which had been the marker for the feast for a couple of centuries): the other, being shifting the “official” date of Christ’s birth to Dec. 25 (befitting the Annunciation on March 25) so as to lock in the dates of Christian festivals to the solar-based Roman calendar, vs. the lunar (and seasonally-shifting) Jewish one.
RaflW
Betty, I agree that it matters that the Biden Admin is taking these steps. They’re of course only as durable as a Dem presidency, but the attacks against trans — and all LGBTQI+ people — are particularly intense right now and top Dem leaders saying “We’ve got your back” is crucial. It stiffens the spines of some wavering folks and gives some mild succor to queer folk.
I noticed that FL House Minority Leader Driskell has voiced ongoing support for LGBTQI+ Floridians. Giving voters real alternatives to DeSantis’ fascism, rather than the defensive crouches Dems offered a generation ago, matters. I make a modest contribution a couple times a year to Fentrice, because I appreciate her leadership in a position of hardscrabble opposition.
trnc
He can split them with Pat Robertson in hell.
NotMax
Homos-ass-a.
I swear you can’t make this sh*t up.
S Cerevisiae
@gene108: Interesting! I had always heard that one clue that Jesus was born in the spring is because lambing season is when shepherds were watching their flocks by night.