Lawsuits will follow.
NCAA may boycott.
The only people benefitting fromj the hateful demagoguery are cynical political consultants, right-wing fundraisers and their captive Republican Party of Florida.
Hate is not a "family value."
As Saint Augustine of Hippo, wrote, "An unjust law is no law at all."
I believe in America, and it hurts my heart to see more unjust laws being proposed to hurt people.
Bigotry is the stock in trade of today's Nasty Republicans, who resemble an electronic Ku Klux Klan.
"Be not afraid." (It's in the Bible some 106 times -- first words spoken by Saint John Paul II after his election as Pope.)
GLBTQIA+ bashers control today's Republican Party.
Until 2015, there were some thirty (30) states that passed state constitutional amendments banning Gay marriage. Those were all held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court; last year, enforcing Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Court outlawed anti-GLBTQIA+ discrimination in employment,
- State Rep. CYNDI WARD STEVENSON has a lot to answer for.
- I called and left a message for State Representative CYNTHIA STEVENSON, but she never called me back.
- She has a lot of explaining to do about her voting record, 2004-2021, first as a County Commissioner, then as a State Representative.
- She's evidently forgotten that she works for us.
Footnote: Our Florida Secretary of State has sent me the paperwork to qualify to run agains STEVENSON.
"As scarce as truth is, the supply seems greater than the demand," in the words of former United Nations Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson.
IF elected, I would look forward to "speaking truth to power" in our State House of Representatives.
It's about time we had more of that.
Hate is not a "family value."
From Orlando Sentinel:
Florida’s ‘shameful’ push to ban transgender athletes could prompt lawsuits, critics sayLeslie Postal, Orlando Sentinel 12 hrs ago
Newly passed legislation that would ban transgender females from playing on girls’ and women’s school sports teams in Florida was criticized Thursday as “despicable,” “full of hate” and a “solution in search of a problem” by opponents, some of whom said the proposal could face a legal challenge should Gov. Ron DeSantis sign it into law.
The Florida Legislature late Wednesday revived and then passed the transgender ban, which last week appeared to be dead in the Senate. In doing so, Florida joined a nationwide push by conservatives who tout what they call “fairness in women’s sports” acts as a way to protect girls and women from unfair competition from athletes who were born male.
Idaho, the first state to ban transgender females from school sports teams, quickly had its 2020 law challenged in court. That law is now on hold after a federal judge ruled Idaho could not keep transgender athletes from playing.
The ACLU helped challenge the Idaho law in court. Kara Gross, legislative director of the ACLU Florida, said she could not say whether a Florida lawsuit would be filed but told reporters during an online press conference, “We are fighting these types of bans throughout the country, and we will continue to fight these bans where they pop up.”
Gross and other critics said the measure is bigoted, unnecessary and unfair to transgender children, already marginalized and often bullied, who want to play team sports like other students. They urged DeSantis to veto it.
“Transgender girls have the right to participate in school sports just like everyone else,” Gross said, adding the bill was unconstitutional and “helps no one.”
It is, she added, “shameful” and “a solution in search of a problem.”
DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment but previously told The Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald that the governor liked the idea.
Bills similar to Florida’s has been proposed in more than 25 other Republican-controlled states. Governors in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia have signed them into law.
Former President Donald Trump signaled his support at his Feb. 28 speech at CPAC, or the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was held in Orlando this year.
“It’s just crazy what’s happening,” he told the audience, saying women and girls were being “forced to compete against biological males” and that if things didn’t change “women’s sports as we know it will die.”
But critics say such complaints aren’t grounded in facts and only serve to harm transgender youngsters.
“It’s a solemn day,” said Lakey Love of the Florida Coalition for Trans Liberation, during the press conference. Love called the Legislature’s action a “backroom deal” that was “full of hate” and “targeted the most vulnerable.”
Critics of the legislation note that both the Florida High School Athletic Association and the NCAA already have policies that provide ways for transgender students to join school sports teams and that there have been no documented problems since those policies were enacted.
Lawmakers said they know of just 11 transgender students cleared to play high school sports in the state.
Most transgender females are taking hormones to suppress testosterone, the male sex hormone, so do not have an unfair advantage over others on the team, they added.
“There’s never been any problem noted in the state of Florida of a transgender student negatively impacting female sports,” said Emily Gray, transgender outreach coordinator for the LGBTQ Center of Bay County, who also took part in the online press conference.
“We’re talking about children. Children that just want to play with their friends. Just want to play. We’re not talking about Olympic gold medalists here,” Gray said.
The FHSAA requires documentation of “consistent identity and expression” and medical information as part of its process to clear transgender students to play on school sports teams. The NCAA allows transgender women to compete on women’s teams after a year of hormone therapy. The International Olympic Committee also allows transgender women to compete based in part on testosterone levels.
The FHSAA did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation.
A spokeswoman for the NCAA said the organization’s statement from earlier this month still stands. On April 12, the NCAA said that it was keeping tabs on the push to change state laws and only would look to hold its championships in states that are “free of discrimination.” Its own policy, it added, was based on “inclusion and fairness.”
The NCAA has a number of championship events scheduled in Florida in the coming year. But Republican lawmakers who supported the transgender ban said they aren’t worried about NCAA threats.
“The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act has passed the House and Senate and is now headed to the Governor. Your turn to do nothing, NCAA,” tweeted Rep. Chris Latvala, R-Clearwater.
These transgender sports ban bills have not prompted the outcry there was after North Carolina passed its so-called “bathroom bill” in 2016, which was assailed by critics as an attack on transgender people and repealed a year later. That law prompted the NBA to move its all-star game out of the state, and high-profile college sports events left the state, too.
But many prominent companies have signed a petition in opposition to the sports bills, and other legislation viewed as anti-transgender, now being pushed nationwide. The petition, signed by Amazon, Apple and Nike, among others, said the bills’ passage could influence where they “invest and grow” and urged state leaders to abandon the “discriminatory” legislation.
Republicans who supported the bills acknowledged there were no documented problems in Florida but said they were being proactive and trying to prevent situations like that in Connecticut. In that state, four girls and their families sued the state high school athletic association after two transgender girls won numerous track events.
A judge on Sunday dismissed that case on procedural grounds, saying the two transgender students had graduated and those who sued had identified no other transgender athletes who would be their competitors in the upcoming track season, making their complaint moot, the Hartford Currant reported.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group, represented the girls and said they will appeal, arguing a policy “that allows males who identify as female to compete in girls’ athletic events” have deprived their clients of “honors and opportunities to compete at elite levels.”
The alliance helped the Idaho Republican lawmaker who filed that state’s transgender sports ban bill craft her legislation, which later served as a model for bills filed in Florida and across the country.
A spokesperson for the alliance did not respond to a request for comment. But the group Wednesday commended West Virginia’s governor for signing his state’s bill into law “in the face of ongoing pressure from woke corporations and special interests to reject this type of legislation.”
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