Monthly Archives: August 2023

School Days with Ron DeSantis – An Editorial Sarcasm

Posted on by

Photo Courtesy of AP

With the new school year starting up across the country, what are some typical classroom and school discussions we’d see under the leadership of current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis?

Let’s start with 6th GRADE US HISTORY

Teacher: When the American Colonies got started, Black people came to America from Africa came to find a better life. They believed they could gain some valuable skills by working as slaves for the Southern Plantation owners. Despite that, some Americans believed that these Black slaves should be freed.
Student: So who is Dr. Martin Luther King and what is the Civil Rights movement all about?
Teacher: That one is quite puzzling. Black people really had it good, especially in the South with the Jim Crow laws of the first half of the 20th century. Black children got to attend their own schools so they could learn better with their own kind. And you know those long lines women often face a events like concerts? Black women and men did not have to wait in those lines; they had their own special bathrooms, and they had their own water fountains, and they had their own special entrance in the back of restaurants where they often ate in the kitchen area and could watch the food being cooked.
Student: Cool!
Teacher: And Black people got the best seats in the movie theater; they got to sit in the second balcony. I guess Dr. King felt that Black people should not be treated special, but should be treated equally as everyone else.
Student: Gosh, if I were a Black person, I wouldn’t want Dr. King to take away all these special rights.
Teacher: You got it. And tomorrow we will talk about the excellent facilities we housed Japanese-Americans in to keep them safe during World War II, and next week we will learn about how settlers came over from Europe to bring the savage natives that were living here a better life.

Then we move to a DISCUSSION IN A FIRST GRADE CLASSROOM

Student: Jimmy just shared with me that he has two mommies instead of a mommy and daddy. How can that happen?
Teacher: We are not allowed to talk about this.
Student: But can two women fall in love and get married like my mommy and daddy?
Teacher: Please be quiet, we are not allowed to discuss this.
Student: But why not?
Teacher: Because our government said so.
Student: But why?
Teacher: I guess it is because people like Jimmy’s mommies are bad, abnormal people and we should not be talking about them.
Student: I am glad I have a good mommy and daddy instead of two bad mommies.

In many states, parents will be unable to provide their trans children with necessary healthcare.

And finally to a JUNIOR HIGH LUNCH ROOM DISCUSSION:

Teen 1: Guess what? I used to have a sister, but now he’s my brother. Angela shared with my parents that he always felt like he was a boy inside and wants to be treated like a boy, so now his name is Andrew.
Teen 2: That’s cool that he gets to be who he feels he is.
Teen 1: Yea, my parents have been working with a physician and a psychologist, and he is taking hormones which make him feel even more like a boy. But we may need to move to another state since the state government is making this illegal.
Teen 2: What? How? I thought they passed a parent’s bill of rights stating that parents have the right to guide their children’s lives; to know what books they are reading in school and stuff. Why doesn’t this apply here? Shouldn’t parents have the right to help their kids with their gender?
Teen 1: I don’t think it works that way. I think this parents bill of rights crap only applies to parents who agree with these politicians.
Teen 2: Damn! I can’t wait until I am old enough to vote.

Seven “Trigger Words” against the LGBTQ+ Community

Posted on by

Using “trigger words” with LGBTQ+ people is like hurling a grenade at them.

What is a trigger word? A trigger word, also known as a power word, is a word or phrase that evokes a certain emotion in the reader.

Trigger words can be either positive or negative. Examples of positive trigger words are:
• Free: everyone loves free stuff
• Amazing: especially if someone uses it in reference to you
• Everyone: makes you want to join the crowd.

And trigger words can also be negative, such as never, cruel, dangerous, prohibited …

Recently after performing my “Totally Gay” figure skating program (link to the 2 minute video) at a competition, an irate woman came up to me to tell me that she was offended with me shoving my agenda down her throat. Yep, she did it, used one of the stereotypical negative trigger words that are offensive to the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Plus) community.

Here is my list of seven negative anti-LGBTQ trigger words and phrases:

1) The one used by this irate woman … referring to my celebrating being a gay man as “my agenda.” Just being myself in not an agenda.

2) Referring to my being queer as “my lifestyle.” This is not my lifestyle, it is who I am. A person’s sexual orientation or gender identity is an inherit characteristic of a person like race and ethnicity. If you want to discuss lifestyle, then maybe watch old reruns of “The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”  I thank Susie Silver of The Diversity Movement for providing this analogy.

3) Using the label “sexual preference” instead of sexual orientation. Sexual preference is often used by the far right to make the point that someone prefers to be gay or chooses to be gay. The medical and psychological scientific fields are practically unanimous in their findings that sexual orientation in an inherit characteristic; as Lady Gaga sang, “I was born this way.”

4) Using the language “normal man” / “normal woman” or “real man” / “real woman” to refer to someone who is not transgender, e.g cisgender. Nothing can be more insulting to transpeople than implying they are not real women nor men. Transwomen and transmen are real women and men legally and in all senses of the word.

5) Accusing queer people of demanding “special rights.” We never have asked for special rights; we want equal rights. As a tax paying American citizen, I deserve the same rights as straight cisgender Americans; the right to marry, the right to employment nondiscrimination, etc. Do read my sarcastic blog about what LGBTQ special rights would really entail.

The updated “Progress Flag” recognizes the transgender people and people of color in the LGBTQ+ community.

6) Referring to LGBTQ+ people as sick or abnormal. The great diversity of the human family is something special that should be celebrated, and the wide range of sexual orientations and gender identities are a part of the normality of the diverse human race.

7) Equating gay with pedophilia. That same irate woman even asserted that the colors on the new progress flag (updated version of the pride flag that recognizes transpeople and LGBTQ+ people of color) celebrated pedophilia. This came from a horrific and disgusting false news story this past June on Fox News.

Please be careful to avoid these trigger words and phrases, and also please be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community by speaking out when you hear others use them.