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‘I am what they’re scared of’: Transgender youths rally at Kansas Statehouse
Andrew Bahl and cjonline were sources for this.
Topeka Capital-Journal was the basis for this article and review of their coverage.
Over 150 LGBT individuals and their allies rallied Friday at the Statehouse to urge the Kansas Legislature to change course away from passing a slate of bills they believe will erase the transgender community in the state.
After viewing Tik Tok videos and other pictures of the rally, the figure of “150 individuals” is in doubt. Other sources indicated the number was closer to 3-=50/ This could mean any number of things, but the most likely reason for such a small turnout is the same as its always been in Topeka: The LGBTQ community has always done a piss-poor job of communicating, networking, and promoting their events. And in the earl 00’s The Topeka Capital Journal and its homophobic staff full of anti=gay bigots such as Sherman Smith and “Agnostik” and other newspaper-connected cowards did a great deal to drive wedges and splinter the LGBTQ community as we fought against the Westboro Baptist Church, and anti-Gay group calling itself “Unity Blvd” and pretending to be “Anti Phelp” where really just a scam to grab money from a sympathetic pubic and for a few politicians to grab power. And here we are 20 years later and can barely get a crowd to demostrate at the capital building; Because of those wedges driven long ago by Sharman Smith and the coward
Agnostik” that Smith still shills for and protects.
Lawmakers are expected to vote next week on whether to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports and officials must also make a decision about a bill that would require transgender individuals use the bathroom corresponding with their birth sex, as well as an effort to criminalize gender affirming care for minors.
These bills will have further reaching effects than just making sure that two people who are extrremely uninterested in whats between each others legs can use the same bathroom.
More:Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes transgender athletes ban, setting up legislative showdown
The activists at the Statehouse demanded legislators back off that agenda and instead take steps to make the state more inclusive for transgender youths. It corresponded with dozens of other events across the country, including at least two others in Kansas, on Transgender Day of Visibility.
Justin Brace, executive director of Transgender Kansas, said the group’s staff had faced threats over showing up at the rally. Brace received threatening letters in the male, and two Black, transgender staffers opted not to come after receiving death threats over social media.
Oh HAH HAH! We see what you did there! How droll!: “Brace received threatening letters in the male,”. Get it “Male”? Not “Mail”? Oh hardy har har~!
While Brace communicated with police about the rally, showing up was never in doubt.
“We knew we were going to come out no matter what,” Brace said. “When trans rights are at issue, you can’t let threats stand in the way.”
They should extend this ideal to the rest of the LGBTQ community, many of us would have loved to come out and shown our support….But due to policies put in place years ago by the likes of Staphanie Mott and other anti-Gay TERFS, outreach to the much larger community is just not on their agenda.
Dozens of transgender youths and their allies spoke, expressing fears that the legislation — particularly the bill to criminalize hormone therapy and other care for trans young people — would cause a rise in depression and suicidal ideation and would effectively erase transgender individuals across Kansas.
And they need to keep speaking out, and not hide in fear, but support each other and reach out for the support of the rest of the LGBTQ community. And if their “adult” :Leaders” try to prevent that from happeneing, then these youth need to find new leaders.
More:Kansas proposals to limit transgender athletes and health care advance in Legislature
Ian Benalcázar, a 13-year-old transgender male from Lawrence, said the Legislature was going to do away with a crucial freedom for him and his friends, many of whom are also transgender or gender nonbinary.
The freedom to decide when and how to transition, he said, should be an individual choice that lawmakers should not interfere with.
Rev Fred Phelps was simply a jackass phantasm, he never actually DID anything as dangerous and harmful as these legislators are trying, yet the anti=Gay bigots like
Agnostik” and Sherman Smith and the Unity Blvd cowards would have us endlessly shadow-boxing with the Phelps (And Chrometuna) rather than dealing with the real threats to our community.
“I am what they’re scared of,” Benalcázar said.
