Marsha Blackburn Makes It Clear: KOSA Is Designed To Silence Trans People
from the it's-a-fucking-censorship-bill,-wake-up dept
It still amazes me that KOSA has any Democratic co-sponsors, let alone 21 Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate led by lead Democratic sponsor (and embracer of any bill that will undermine the internet it it lets him ignorantly grandstand about how terrible the internet is), Senator Richard Blumenthal. This includes some big names who purport to be more “reasonable” Senators, like Brian Schatz, Chris Murphy and more.
As we noted, Republicans haven’t been shy that their plan for KOSA is to label all sorts of content they dislike as “harmful” and make sure that KOSA bars it from social media. The Heritage Foundation made it clear that KOSA would be useful in driving LGBTQ content offline.
Of course, it’s one thing for a think tank (even one that has become the intellectual underpinnings — if there was such a thing — of Trumpism) to say this. It’s another for the bill’s lead Republican sponsor to say it.
But, she has.
As first pointed out by Erin Reed, Senator Marsha Blackburn, who co-authored the bill with Senator Blumenthal, finally admitted what other GOP Senators had been keeping quiet. That they fully intend to use KOSA in their war against trans people:
In perhaps the clearest example of red flags against this law, one of the biggest sponsors of the bill, Senator Marsha Blackburn, stated that the bill would be used to “protect minor children from the transgender [sic] in our culture.”
She says it in this video, which actually goes further than the quote from Reed:
The full transcript is way worse. When asked by the “Family Policy Alliance” about the “top issue” that “conservatives” should be “taking action” on, Blackburn starts out with the line above, before talking about how social media is “exposing” kids to such content, suggesting that it’s turning the kids trans (which, um, is not how any of this works).
Well, there are a couple of things, of course, protecting minor children from the transgender and this culture and that influence. And I would add to that watching what’s happening on social media.
And I’ve got the kids online safety act that I think we’re going to end up getting through, probably this summer. This would put a duty of care and responsibility on the social media platforms.
And this is where children are being indoctrinated. They’re hearing things at school and then they’re getting onto YouTube to watch a video. And all of a sudden this comes to them, um, and they’re on Snapchat, or they’re on Instagram and they click on something and the next thing you know, they’re being inundated with it.
Parents need to be watching this. Teachers need to be watching and protecting our children and making certain that they are not exposed to things that they are emotionally not mature enough to handle.
The whole statement is a bit of a wandering word salad without complete thoughts, but it seems pretty clear that Senator Marsha Blackburn believes that YouTube, SnapChat, and Instagram are turning the kids trans, and that she’s hoping KOSA will be useful in “protecting children” from that.
While most of the media ignored it when folks pointed out the Heritage Foundation saying flat out how KOSA would be used, at least some in the media are finally picking up on this now that Blackburn is being so upfront. NBC News had an article highlighting Blackburn’s comments, as did Mashable.
But will any of the mainstream media, maybe, ask Democratic Senators like Blumenthal and Schatz how they feel about this? Will they ask President Biden, who recently scolded Congress to “pass it, pass it, pass it” when asked about KOSA?
How hard is it for the NY Times or the Washington Post or CNN or whoever else to ask this question: “The sponsor of KOSA says that the bill will be used to ‘protect’ children from ‘the transgender.’ How can you support a bill that will be used to censor and harm transgender individuals?”
While we’re at it, can someone ask that of other supporters of the bill, like Dove Soap and Lizzo? Or how about Common Sense Media, who says they “strongly support” KOSA? I didn’t realize that Common Sense Media is anti-trans. Or that Senators Blumenthal, Schatz, Murphy, Durbin and others are. But if they’re supporting this bill, their actions make it clear that they have no problem passing bills that will be used to harm trans people.
Filed Under: kosa, lgbtq, marsha blackburn, richard blumenthal, transgender
Comments on “Marsha Blackburn Makes It Clear: KOSA Is Designed To Silence Trans People”
"Think of the children", right?
Anyone following a republican bill “for the children” should be extremely suspicious.
Republicans have proved many times in recent months that “protecting children” is not in their priorities. At all. Think school shootings, child labor, child marriage… and probably more that I missed.
So when they suddenly pretend to be sooo concerned about child safety, you should check, double-check and triple-check their bill. With a hazmat suit on.
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… Ah, right. I missed a big one. Abortion.
Like in the case of a 10yo rape victim.
What did republicans have to say about that?
“We would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child.”
Great “protection” there.
Re: Re: Truly the most telling/horrifying of priorities
The republican view of children: Mature enough to be forced to give birth and be a parent after being raped, work a job and/or get married, but not mature enough to be exposed to such controversial content as ‘gay and trans people exist and there’s nothing wrong with being one.’
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.. and the ten year old is financially responsible for the medical bill I bet.
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Well of course, the state giving financial assistance(to anyone but those already overflowing with piles of cash like large companies) would be Socialism, a blight upon the US to be avoided at all costs.
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There’s one word too many in this. ANy time you have a bill “for the children”, you should take it with several grains of salt. And look to see who is most affected by the bill.
KOSA is irrepressibly indefensible.
I’m baffled. But not for the reasons you may think.
I’m not really shocked that Marsha Blackburn is a bigot, at this point what she said is consistent with her character. Nor am I shocked that KOSA is designed to be abused and Bluthmenthal being an amoral piss baby who can’t handle criticism. But the one question I have is, why did she announce this now? I mean this is a critical time for KOSA, it’s possibly primed for a senate vote. KOSA is already under fire, under a ton of scrutiny from every reasonable source you can think of, but the last thing that it needs is confirmation that the abuses are not just guaranteed, but is the point of KOSA. Is it supposed to be a flex? Like “I tricked all of these organizations, senators, and the president into supporting a bad-faith bill that will be abused against minorities like the Transgenders.” Schumer’s looking for an easy victory, do you really think that he’d bring a garbage can on fire out on the senate floor and call it a day? It won’t matter how many cosponsors you’d have, KOSA is indefensible. It was always been that way, it’s just been now confirmed by the leading co-sponsor herself.
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This is why bigotry is bad for the human mind. It doesn’t just make you hate people for no reason, it also makes you stupid.
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I think that’s backwards.
The stupid comes first, then the bigotry and arrogance.
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Republicans don’t care about policy. They just care about signaling to their base that they hate the right people.
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Republican policy these days is “own the libs at any cost”. The party doesn’t have an actual policy platform beyond grievance politics, which would sure as hell explain why it’s not doing well with young voters.
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That’s not fair.
Grievance politics and tax cuts for the rich.
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The grievance politics attracts the unwashed masses who vote them in, then they can implement the tax cuts for the rich. They don’t really care about all the culture war stuff, it’s just a means to an end.
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Some of them don’t care about the culture war stuff. Some do (more in the House than the Senate) but it’s usually a secondary concern to the rich-people stuff.
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Culture war stuff, like stirring anger at some group or nation is often advantageous for rich people, as it diverts attention away from the inequities caused by the rich hogging more and more of the countries resources.
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Because she doesn’t expect any pushback due to naive at best and egotistical and spineless at worst congresspeople and a mass of stupid people who can’t be bothered to do the slightest bit of research.
Also, they know that as long as they mask their agenda with a benign, “well intention” or “cutesy” sounding name, it makes their propaganda more effective and the thing as a whole harder to fight back against. “No way a bill with a name like that is bad! You’re a groomer and pedophile supporter if you’re against it.”
When everything is rigged in your favor and anyone that can stop you is silenced or chickenshit, you can be as reckless and idiotic as possible with no consequences.
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With the Herritage situation, sure. But I don’t think it worked this time. Just because this is what she thinks doesn’t mean that’ll translate in reality.
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Sesta?
Fosta?
Those are examples of what the dude described.
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👆😲
👇😐
Good point.
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Besides, if this doesn’t work out, I can see them putting and/or sneaking this into a omnibus bill next week.
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That Defeatist attitude isn’t going to help anyone. There’s a saying that’s shared around here, “if you give up, KOSA will pass; if you don’t, it might not pass.” SOPA need I remind you was just as guaranteed to pass like KOSA, but that was stopped by the Blackout protests. Now I’m not saying that there needs to be a Blackout to stop KOSA, but trying to stop bad bills like KOSA, even through the smallest things like calling your representatives, is preferable to giving up. KOSA is not like Sesta-FOSTA.
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True.
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Unlikely they will be able to sneak it into the omnibus bill, they already failed to do that.
KOSA will allow action on any moral panic, like Harry Potter, or Dungeon and dragons etc, or anything else deemed bad for children by repressive adults.
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Or hate and fascism, maybe.
do i need an /s?
'... And you are still supporting the 'trans-bashing' bill why again?'
When no less than the co-author of the bill itself is publicly admitting that it not only will be used against trans people but is intended to be used as such the democrat supporters really have no excuse left.
Being as generous as possible if they’re still supporting it after that admission they are signalling that they don’t care that it will be used against trans people, with a less generous reading of their support being that it’s because it will be used that way that they are supporting it. Whatever the case both press and public really need to start holding their feet to the fire by repeatedly asking why they are still supporting such a reprehensible bill after a public admission like that.
Where is GLAAD on KOSA
From what I heard it seems GLAAD the organization trying to fight for civil rights for LGBTQ people supports the Kids Online Safety act even after Senator Blackburn made her comments. The question I have is where is Senator Ron Wyden on KOSA seems he may be supporting KOSA to or am I wrong?
Guaranteeing this will pass in a spending bill, regardless.
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I believe KOSA was considered as a rider on the omnibus bill last year, and didn’t make it in. Now that it’s knowledge that RWNJs think they can use it to censor LGBTQ+ topics online, I don’t think Richard Blumenthal’s contradiction of Blackburn’s statement will allay any concerns that at least some Democratic backers of the law may now have, now that Blackburn made the mistake of saying the quiet part out loud.
Blackburn’s brazenness is a classy far-right Republican mistake. They think by saying the quiet part out loud that no one will make them pay consequences. Saying too much has backfired against Republicans more than once… a recent example being the recent Ohio constitutional amendment proposition (a legislator basically admitted the point of the Issue 1 measure that failed in July was to make it more difficult for voters to amend the state’s constitution, purposefully tanking the proposed amendment enshrine reproductive rights by requiring a 60% majority vote to pass… basically a pretext for the GOP-controlled legislature to later swoop in and pass a bill banning abortion statewide). It also will doom you in court, especially when it comes to legislation impacting speech.
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True.
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Unlikely but we will have to see, its will likely be hard for them to put it in a spending bill.
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Well that’s a cast iron guarantee if ever I saw one.
Anonymous poster on techdirt? Take it to the bank…..
How is this whole thing not a first amendment violation?
It’s really weird how Republicans feel so emboldened to be hate mongering bigots right now, and how somehow, they’re not filling your comments here with transphobic nonsense. What gets me about all of this, is how they think this will hold up when it inevitably gets challenged in the courts. I don’t even think the current supreme court would let something like this stand. Trans hate isn’t winning them votes. According to recent polls, Republican voters are sick to death of hearing about it. And it did them no favors in the midterms. And yet, these morons can’t seem to help themselves
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Turning Kids Trans
The way it works is that mentally ill and distressed children are looking around for something to grab onto, and the trans delusion being popularized on social media and YA and children’s literature just becomes the latest thing. The suffering expresses itself in all sorts of other ways too – eating disorders, cutting, drugs and alcohol, promiscuity, outlandish dress – anything that feels like it relieves stress and provides a feeling of control.
None of this is an excuse for censorship – not for sex, not for the trans delusion, not for pro-ana groups. But it is the job of parents and schools to notice children who have problems, get them into treatment for mental illness, and to the extent the children will listen, provide them with true information to help them make better decisions.
Teach children that bring trans is a delusion. Don’t censor the trans stuff.
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Fuck off with your antiquated way of thinking.
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Even the Victorians weren’t this stupid and bigoted, which is saying a lot.
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This is the weirdest argument I’ve ever encountered. So you’re saying trans kids are just kids that spend a lot of time on social media apps that gravitate towards becoming trans because it was popular. But it’s not grounds for censorship, but grounds for… reeducation? Wtf?
Let’s make this clear, the trans experience is not a delusion. Gender dysphoria is a very real thing, but do you know how to make that disparity worse? By removing the option for the child to choose between their biological sex and the gender they want to be. It’s okay for a kid to choose their identity, but suppressing that choice ultimately harms kids you (supposedly) swear to protect even more.
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There’s not such thing as “trans kids,” you disgusting groomer.
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Accusation = confession bro
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You dweebs are some of the lamest dorks populating pro-Democratic Party comment sections like here on TD.
I openly confess to hating the proponents of gender ideology and believing w/ all my heart and soul that anyone who works to spread or profit from it (including ghoulish doctors who conduct medical experiments on otherwise physically healthy children) should literally be sent to death camps.
I take this position not because I’m secretly transgender (I would kill myself rather than pollute the world with my evil presence were I “trans”). Rather, it’s because I think transgender people (mostly porn-sick males) are despicable, evil, predatory freaks who should be ostracized (or at least shunned) and not celebrated/praised (unless it’s for self-terminating).
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Better to be a dweeb and lame dork than someone who is so full of hate he thinks death-camps is something to aspire to.
I hope you reap what you sow, sociopath.
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shut it transphobic hyman
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Sounds more like a “you problem.”
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and you keep confessing that your transphobic
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You don’t become a transphobe without your creepy obsession with childrens’ genitals outing you as the real pedophile here.
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That’s a whole lot of words to say “I like chicks with dicks” bro.
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How am I the disgusting groomer when you’re policing and railroading the choices of children and demonizing trans kids.
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.. said no functional human being, ever.
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They literally can’t choose to be what they want to be, because people can only ever be the sex of their bodies, and none of costuming, medicine, or surgery can do anything but make superficial alterations. Reality does not respond to wishful thinking.
In a free society, we do not suppress speech, even when the speech is pernicious lies. If we were to do that, we would have to banish all religion, for one thing, and we know from Communist nations that it fails. Education is the proper solution for a free society. As long as the truth is not censored it has some chance of winning over lies. And since lies are counter to reality, they cannot last anyway; even the most entrenched religions have been reduced to mostly not making truth claims about the real world.
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hi hyman you trans phobic bitch
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And who has the true information, the professionals helping such kids become the gender they are driven to be, or you with your delusion that sex and gender are the same thing?
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Me.
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no you don’t transphobe idiot
Re: Grab an entire bag-full
It’s ok to suck all the dicks you want herman. As long as it’s consensual and of age. Knock/choke yourself out.
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Just curious what qualifications and experience you have to back up your views expressed above, seeing as it is completely at odds with actual medical professionals and sounds a lot more like religious and/or transphobic hatred.
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I read it on the internet.
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oh no you read transphobic bullshit on the internet oh joy hyman shut the fuck up
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Trans people should be silenced. They’re literally the most degenerate, disgusting, predatory and mentally deranged abominations polluting the body politic.
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Someone is in denial who they really are.
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Another truly moronic commenter.
How you could possibly think I’m “in denial” about my visceral loathing and hatred of gender ideology and its proponents (including “trans” people who don’t recant) is beyond me.
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hyman your outright confessing that your a trans phobic scum
Re: Re: Re: Not just a river in Egypt son
Because it’s blinding obvious to everyone here but you.
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Yeah, this sounds a lot more like self-loathing than a genuine belief.
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As opposed to the degenerate, disgusting, predatory and mentally deranged abomination that’s dehumanizing a minority.
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[Projects facts contrary to extensive evidence]
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Let me fix that for you:
Religious people should be silenced. They’re literally the most degenerate, disgusting, predatory and mentally deranged abominations polluting the body politic.
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At the risk of saying #notallreligiouspeople, I’ll say literally that: There are more religions than just Christianity, and even among Christians, there are also those who accept queer people for who they are, such as Dolly Parton and Mr. Fred Rogers (Here’s substantiation of the latter). That being said, I do agree that Christian Fascists’ monopoly on discourse and political power (not to mention arrogance on claiming that only they speak for Religious people, let alone Christians) is indeed a problem.
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So, Hyman.
Why do you side with the same religious folk who WILL put you in an unmarked grave right after us?
Rather than the religious folk who DON’T?
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As I’ve said many times, my opinions are my own. It does not matter to me that some people who share these opinions hold other opinions which I do not share, and I will not modify my correct beliefs because of those others.
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lmao he thinks he doesn’t live in a society
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Again, Hyman.
Why do you side with the same religious folk who WILL put you in an unmarked grave right after us?
You’re the smooth-brained Nazi here, at least try to explain your position.
And we don’t need another of your lessons about your delusions about 1A.
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I have my own opinions, and sometimes other people hold those same opinions while at the same time holding others with which I disagree. They’re allowed to do that, and their doing that doesn’t change my mind about the opinions we mutually hold.
I know people like you hate the 1st Amendment. You hate freedom of religion, of speech, of association, and the right to petition. All of those run counter to the totalitarian state that you would impose, a left boot stamping on the face of humanity forever.
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hyman you really trying to blame others for your own actions nazi freak
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Hyman.
If I actually HATED free expression, the right to associate AND private property rights, I’d be repeating Russian, Chinese and Singaporean propaganda that would FURTHER your Nazi agenda.
Because, yanno, some of us actually know what the suppression of free expression looks like, and you, sir, tick all the damn boxes.
So take the fucking hint.
GET THE FUCK OUT.
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[Projects facts contrary to evidence]
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Forget the ISS, if they were projecting any harder it would be visible outside of the solar system.
Re: Re: Re:6 So much projection that it’s visible to…
“Oh for my son’s sake, what the hell is going on down there?” — God, probably
Sometimes the shtick actually contains the truth…
Humans do the same things over & over pretending it never happened before.
Irish
Italians
Polish
Jews
Chinese (but this ones getting a round 2)
Africans
The list it goes on and on and on…
These loving god fearing people turn their ire towards their fellow humans claiming they are the problem.
Still 200+ priest/pastor/church leaders have molested children since nov 1 2022 but we aren’t passing laws about that.
Instead they pretend all trans people are dangerous because they are different and different is bad.
As the resident immortal, I guess I’m the only one who recalls a time when christians were those who were different & were attacked without reason… but now that reason is crystal clear.
Love One Another… EXCEPT…
I don’t hate them for their religion, I don’t hate them because they are conservatives, I hate them because they are exploiting both to remake the world in their twisted image where they matter more than anyone else & you must fit into what they demand or be murdered.
All men are created equal… EXCEPT…
It's really very simple.
Allowing kids access to the resources to let them feel comfortable and safe in their sexual orientation or gender identity makes them harder to manipulate and exploit sexually.
It’s that simple. That’s what all this transphobia and homophobia is all about at its core. Opposition to measures which make it harder to molest kids.
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Resources on “gender identity” need to explain that no matter what children feel, they will always inhabit the same body, and they will only ever be the sex of that body, because bodies do not respond to wishful thinking. No amount of arm flapping will give a person wings.
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…said no human, ever.
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Ehh, that might be part of it but I suspect the majority is simple bigotry and scapegoating.
‘Those people are different and that’s wrong, and the fact that I’m not like them makes me inherently better without me having to do anything.’
‘My life sucks because the Others did something to me, not because of anything I did, those I agree with did or something beyond my control. They are different and therefore to blame for my bad life/luck.’
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👍