Tag: lgbt

Mississippi Gov. Signs Bill Prohibiting Boys in Girls’ Sports: Girls Deserve a ‘Level Playing Field’

Michael Foust – March 11, 2021

Mississippi’s governor signed a bill into law on Thursday prohibiting biological males from competing in girls’ or women’s sports, making the state the first in 2021 to act on the issue.

More than 20 states are considering similar bills, which supporters say are needed in light of a push on the national and state levels to allow transgender girls and women to compete alongside biological females in sports.

Two high school athletes in Connecticut who are biologically male but who identify as female won a total of 15 state track championships. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has taken initial steps in requiring schools to allow transgender athletes to compete according to their gender identity.

The Mississippi bill passed in the state House 81-28 with bipartisan support, although a 34-9 vote in the Senate fell along partisan lines.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, signed the bill into law Thursday. Supporters call it the “Mississippi Fairness Act.”

“Athletic teams or sports designated for ‘females,’ ‘women’ or ‘girls’ shall not be open to students of the male sex,” the text of the bill says.

The new law, which takes effect July 1, also allows athletes to file suit if their school violates the law.

“This important piece of legislation will ensure that young girls in Mississippi have a fair, level playing field in public school sports,” Reeves said during a signing ceremony.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Mississippi Passes Bill Banning Transgender Athletes in Girls’ Sports

Jay Greenberg – March 5, 2021

The Mississippi House of Representatives has passed a bill that bans transgender athletes from competing in female sports events.

The state’s House passed the bill 81-28 on Wednesday to ban transgenders from competing on sports teams based on the gender they “identify” with.

Seven representatives voted “present,” while six did not vote, which counts neither for nor against the bill.

The ban would apply to teams at all schools and universities across the state.

The bill now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.

Reeves has expressed support for the move and is expected to sign the legislation into Mississippi state law as soon as possible.

The Republican-controlled state Senate passed the bill 34-9 on Feb. 11, with five senators not voting, and four voting “present,” according to Fox News.

Mississippi is now one of more than 20 states where lawmakers have proposed restrictions on athletes playing on sports teams that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth or for gender-reassignment health care for minors.

https://neonnettle.com

House Passes ‘LGBTQ’ Equality Act Despite Serious Concerns Over Its Constitutionality Relating to Religious Liberty

– February 26, 2021

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed the controversial Equality Act in a 224-206 vote on Thursday despite growing concerns over how the legislation would affect religious liberty, women’s sports, as well as other concerns. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

The Equality Act’s passage included the support of three Republicans, including Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and John Katko and Tom Reed of New York, who joined the Democratic majority in voting to pass the bill.

“The LGBT community has waited long enough,” said Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., who is a homosexual and the lead sponsor of the bill. “The time has come to extend the blessings of liberty and equality to all of Americans regardless of who they are and who they love,” Cicilline asserted.

The purpose of the Equality Act as set forth by Cicilline and its sponsors is to expand the legal protections afforded under existing civil rights law in employment, housing, education, public accommodations, as well as in other areas, to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes and making it illegal to discriminate against the added classes regardless of religious or conscience objections.

The bill, which was opposed by the majority of Republicans in the House, has been met with much opposition from Christian groups, as well as social conservatives, who express that the bill will inevitably lead to Christian persecution, conscience violations and other actions that will result in the loss of freedom.

https://christiannews.net

Australian Christians In Shock: Ten Year Jail Sentence For Preaching Repentance

Evangelical Focus – February 08, 2021

The parliament of Victoria (Australia) is about to conclude the process of the Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill.

The law has been approved by both the Lower House and the Legislative Council of the Victorian parliament and could be soon ready to be implemented.

Any practice that aims to “change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity” will now be illegal.

According to Australian evangelical magazine Eternity News, this ban includes “prayer conversations suggesting change, and counselling when targeted at an individual”.

Melbourne, the State’s capital, is known for being Australia’s region with a strongest support for LGBT movements – as seen in the Pride Marches and other demonstrations in the last years.

The law becomes a real challenge to churches that hold to a traditional and biblical view of sexuality. Jail sentences up to ten years and large fines can be imposed by courts if there is a perception that a ‘conversion’ practice has caused injuries to a LGBT person.

According to the analysis of Eternity News, the law distinguishes between general teaching and personal counselling. “Sermons and general discussion of same-sex and gender issues which might take a conservative line” would not be prosecuted but “activities which are directed at an individual, on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and have the aim to change or suppress that person’s identity” would.

The law will not come into effect right away, but there will be one-year period in which the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission will lead consultations to clarify the details of how the law would be applied in different scenarios.

Several church denominations in Victoria have expressed their concern about the law.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com

Professor Asserts That Heterosexual Relationships Are ‘Tragic’

Milton Quintanilla -January 28, 2021

A professor from University of California-Riverside asserted that heterosexuality is a tragedy due to toxic masculinity, misogyny and bad opposite-sex relationships, The Blaze reports.

Jane Wade, who is a lesbian and professor of gender and sexuality, told Insider in December of the dislike men and women have for one another.

“It really looks like straight men and women don’t like each other very much, that women spend so much time complaining about men, and we still have so much evidence of misogyny,” or woman-hating behavior, Ward explained. “From an LGBT perspective, [being straight] looks actually very tragic.”

Ward also published a book, The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, last September.

She explained to Insider as to how the COVID-19 pandemic “is revealing the tragedy of heterosexuality to people who might not have otherwise paid attention to it.”

Regarding gender binary, the concept that teaches that male and female are the only two genders, Ward noted how it’s infused into everyday life.

“It’s that straight culture is based in a presumption that men and women are really different kinds of people, that they want different things, that they have different interests, and that they are sort of opposite,” she said. “And they come together sexually and romantically because opposites attract.”

https://www.christianheadlines.com

President Biden Signs Transgender Executive Order

ETH – January 21, 2021

(OPINION) ETH – President Joe Biden has a pen and has signed a slew of executive orders in just 48 hours of being sworn into office. One of these executive orders that Biden just signed is an executive order mandating all educational institutions receiving federal funding to now permit biological males to join female sports teams, use ladies’ locker rooms, and restrooms, and be eligible for women’s scholarships.

The order has even triggered may into creating a now trending hashtag #BidenErasedWomen on Twitter. The executive order stated, “every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love.”

It continued: “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” According to Faithwire, Several social media users, including journalist and author Abigail Shrier, wasn’t too happy with the order and wrote

“Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” which pointed out how inherently sexist the policy is. Shrier argued the order “unilaterally eviscerates women’s sports,” adding, “A new glass ceiling was just placed over girls.” However, One transgender activist, named Charlotte Clymer, tweeted “transphobes are claiming this attacks the rights of cis women,” meaning biological women. Clymer said that’s not the case and instead accused those concerned of invoking “tragic logic” and “sad bigotry.”

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Biden: Next Week He’ll Give Transgenders ‘Access to Sports…and Locker Rooms in Accordance With Their Gender Identity’

CNSNews.com Staff – January 14, 2021

(CNSNews.com) – President-elect Joe Biden is promising that on “his first day in office” he will issue an order requiring all schools that receive federal funding to let transgenders play on the sports teams and use the bathrooms and locker rooms that accord with their “gender identity.”

Biden will take office next Wednesday, January 20.

On his campaign website Biden promised to: “Ensure young LGBTQ+ people are supported and protected in our schools and college campuses by: Guaranteeing transgender students have access to facilities based on their gender identity.”

“On his first day in office,” says Biden’s website, “Biden will reinstate the Obama-Biden guidance revoked by the Trump-Pence Administration, which will restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity. He will direct his Department of Education to vigorously enforce and investigate violations of transgender students’ civil rights.”

Biden’s campaign website links to the “Obama-Biden guidance” this passage references. It was issued by the Obama Justice Department and Department of Education on May 13, 2016.

It says in part: “Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) and its implementing regulations prohibit sex discrimination in educational programs and activities operated by recipients of Federal financial assistance. This prohibition encompasses discrimination based on a student’s gender identity, including discrimination based on a student’s transgender status.”

“Gender identity refers to an individual’s internal sense of gender,” says this Obama-Biden order. “A person’s gender identity may be different from or the same as the person’s sex assigned at birth.”

https://www.cnsnews.com

‘A Direct Threat to Christian Education’: LGBT Activist Group Calls for Biden to Target Christian Schools

Steve Warren – December 9, 2020

A prominent LGBT rights group is trying to persuade former Vice President Joe Biden and his presumptive administration to adopt guidelines that could lead to the closing of private Christian colleges and universities.

Activists at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) have written a document titled Blueprint for Positive Change, which gives 85 pro-LGBT policy and legislative recommendations for a potential Biden administration to enact.

One of the proposals in the HRC’s document calls for the US Department of Education to eliminate all exceptions for faith-based colleges and universities if they “discriminate or do not meet science-based curricula standards.”

Last month, Dr. Al Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, warned about the HRC’s document in a commentary, which he called “a direct threat to Christian education.”

The word “discrimination,” he advised, is the key to what could come next.

“The Blueprint is not ambiguous—it makes detailed policy positions and recommendations, department by department, for the Biden Administration to deploy once the president-elect assumes office. From the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Human Rights Campaign demands the enactment of policies to prohibit what is identified as discrimination,” Mohler wrote.

Mohler also notes the HRC is camouflaging sexual orientation and gender identity politics as “science.”

“The Human Rights Campaign is not known for any particular agenda on the creation-evolution front, nor is the group preoccupied with particle physics. The Human Rights Campaign is targeting issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, cloaking them in the language of ‘science.’ This is an undisguised effort to require Christian schools and colleges to abandon biblical authority or lose accreditation,” he explained.

https://www1.cbn.com

Australian Teen Taken From ‘Dangerous’ Parents Who Disagree With Daughter Pursuing Sex Change

– December 3, 2020

An Australian teen who was born female but identifies as male has been removed from her parents’ care after a judge ruled that it is unsafe for her to remain at home considering her risk of self-harm and the parents’ disagreement with pursuing a sex change.

“[The authorities] say we will not allow her to change gender, so it’s dangerous for her to come back to our house because we will mentally abuse her,” the unidentified father told The Australian. “They want us to consent to testosterone treatment.”

Attorneys for the parents have filed paperwork appealing a protective order from October, in which a Children’s Court magistrate cited the risk of self-harm the teen as she had posted about suicide online last year. He also found it probable that the child was enduring verbal abuse over her “feelings and expression of gender identity,” which the parents deny.

According to reports, the family moved to Australia 10 years ago and have been aware that their now 15-year-old daughter suffers from depression. They state that she also struggles with social skills, her eating and body image, and puberty was a difficult transition for her.

However, instead of pursuing a “sex change,” they prefer for the teen to be seen by an independent psychologist to find the root cause of her feelings and to provide help that is less invasive, considering the permanency of the alternative option.

On Nov. 7, attorneys for the teen filed paperwork seeking for the child to be allowed to begin “hormone therapy,” but the parents have requested a second opinion first. Child protective officials have reportedly consented to obtaining a second opinion.

“Especially Australians, they just can’t believe that it happens in Australia,” the mother stated.

“The end of parenting as we knew it. We have no rights. Our children can be seriously harmed by the government and medical profession and we are powerless to stop it,”

https://christiannews.net

US Senators Introduce Bill to Prohibit Males Who Identify as Female From Competing in Girls’ School Sports

– September 24, 2020

WASHINGTON — Five U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would prohibit biological males who identify as female from competing in girls’ school sports.

Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, Mike Lee of Utah, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Tom Cotton of Arkansas presented the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” on Tuesday, which amends Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to specifically note that the definition of “sex” is based on the individual’s “reproductive biology and genetics at the the time of birth.”

“It shall be a violation … for a recipient of federal funds who operates, sponsors, or facilitates athletic programs or activities to permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls,” the bill reads.

Read it in full here.

According to Loeffler, the measure would penalize schools that violate the law and could also threaten their funding altogether.

She points to a case out of Connecticut in which the Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) implemented a policy allowing students to compete in accordance with their stated “gender identity.”

Two biological boys, who go by the names Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, were consequently permitted to join the girls track team at their school and compete as females — moving on to the New England regionals.

One of the female competitors, Selina Soule, who attends Bloomfield High School, wasn’t able to qualify for the 55-meter race at the regionals because Yearwood and Miller took two of the top spots. She came in eighth.

She and her mother, along with fellow runners Chelsea Mitchell and Alanna Smith and their parents, lodged a complaint last year with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which agreed to investigate.

https://christiannews.net