Washington Times: Transgender People Are ‘Messed Up, Mixed Up, Insane’
The Washington Times on Monday published an ignorant and downright offensive editorial criticizing transgender people as “messed-up,” “mixed-up,” and suggested they are insane, in response to a recent discrimination lawsuit filed against the New York City Health Department.
Questioning the validity of the terms transgender and transition by placing the words in quotes, The Washington Times’ piece, “The latest birth certificate scandal,” went on to state transgender individuals are part of a “radical agenda,” while referring to the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association as “confused medical circles.” The Times, an ultra-right wing D.C.-based broadsheet with an immovable national readership, identified members of the latter group as “shrinks” who offer “scientific (or pseudo-scientific) mumbo-jumbo.”
“The claimants want the bureaucracy to make it easier to change the sex that was recorded at birth, noting that parents fixing mistakes (typos) in listing a child’s sex only have to provide a letter from the birth hospital,” the Times editorial states, adding, “Knowing that it was a mistake in the first place, and having that fixed, is pretty important to me,†said Joann Prinzivalli, who was born Paul yet lives as a woman.
“Calling the accurate sex recorded at a birth ‘a mistake’ is the misleading yet predictable result of a creeping activist agenda quietly transforming the country.”
I decided to reach out to Joann Prinzivalli, the person The Times pointed to as someone who evidently, somehow, some way, is responsible for “a creeping activist agenda quietly transforming the country.”
Joann, a lawyer, was very generous in sharing a treasure trove of information related to transgender issues, and offered this response to me (via email) about the Times editorial. She writes,
“I wonder why the Washington TImes editors never bothered to take the time to look at the scientific studies that show that transgender people have brain structures that are the same as those of the sex not assigned, or the scientific studies that show genes that code for enzymes that explain why it is possible for an embryo’s brain to follow one sexed developmental path, while the genital tract follows the other path. My birth certificate should never have said ‘male’ in the first place. It is a scientific fact that my birth certificate is in error on that point. I have made it clear that I am asking for a correction, not a change. At the time I was born, neither the doctor nor my parents knew about the error. Based on the medical knowledge of the time, it was impossible for them to know. Now we know better.”
Indeed!
More offensive stereotypical snark from the Times editorial. “The old saying about giving an inch and losing a mile comes to mind. As Sam Berkley, born Samantha, complained in a press conference about the lawsuit, ‘I don’t feel comfortable with the government deciding whether I’m a man or not,'” state the editors, adding, “[s]trike ‘man’ and replace with ‘human’ or ‘sane’ and there’s not much of a difference.”
Really?
The piece goes on to ignorantly and falsely warn, “we’re accommodating mental illness in the name of misplaced sensitivity, inclusiveness or political correctness.”
“Misplaced sensitivity,” “inclusiveness,” and “political correctness,” all being right-wing key words for “we don’t like you.”
Not satisfied with taking a bigoted and ignorant swipe at the entire transgender community by calling them a “conflicted group,” and thus, the LGBT community at large as well, the Times editorial goes on to take a birther swipe at President Obama too, claiming the “continuing furor over President Obama’s birth certificate underscores the importance these pieces of history have for recording the truth.”
It should be noted that the only “continuing furor over President Obama’s birth certificate” comes from people who are generally ignorant — or wanting the votes of those who are.
Is this a relevant place to mention that The Washington Times reportedly is the newspaper Ronald Reagan read every day when he was president?
Michael Silverman, Executive Director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund — the group that filed the NYC discrimination lawsuit that so bothered the editors at The Washington Times — told me via an email that there is “nothing radical about an agenda for equal rights and equal treatment.” He rightly calls a birth certificate “a fundamental form of identification,” and says by “refusing to give transgender people accurate birth certificates that reflect who they are, the government subjects transgender people to harassment and discrimination in areas like employment where ID is essential to proving eligibility to work.”
Silverman says that “[p]roper ID is essential for full participation in society,” adding, that “as long as the government discriminates against transgender people by denying them accurate ID, transgender people will continue to be pushed to the margins of society.”
The Washington Times, for those unfamiliar with the ultra-right-wing rag, is extremely homophobic and transphobic. Founded and funded by Unification Church founder Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the Times has recently published editorials like, “Obama’s homosexual-Muslim conflict,” and “Obama’s homosexual America.”
(If anyone has seen Obama’s homosexual America, I’d like to know where it is. I’ve been looking everywhere! I won’t call it MIA, after he signed the bill for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal and decided to not defend DOMA in court, but, come on. “Obama’s homosexual America?” Really? I’d be married by now!)
Reverend Moon, just so you know, is most-famous for holding thousands of “mass weddings” over the past 50 years, during which he the matches tens of thousands of men and women who have never before met and marries them in a “blessing ceremony.” The largest of these was in 2009, during which Moon “married” 80,000 men and women, creating 40,000 couples.
Moon, who has spent at least a reported two billion dollars keeping the paper running since 1982, once professed, “The Washington Times is responsible to let the American people know about God” and “The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world.”
When you spend two billion dollars on an instrument spreading the “truth” of God, perhaps it would be best to actually know what truth is before you print it?
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U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, Republican of Georgia, is under fire after praising University of Mississippi students, some wearing American flag outfits, mocking a Black woman protester by making monkey sounds and shouting, “lock her up.”
“Counter-protestors at the University of Mississippi made racist remarks — including monkey noises and comparisons to Lizzo — towards a Black woman who was part of a planned protest against the war in Gaza,” Los Angeles Magazine reported Friday.
Collins, who tried to defund Vice President Kamala Harris’ Office in November, declared his support for the counter-protesters at “Ole Miss,” as the University is called.
“Ole Miss taking care of business,” he wrote on social media, atop the video (below).
The counter-protesters, as evidenced in the video, appear to be mostly white.
A large number of users on the social media platform X responded, accusing the Congressman and the counter-protesters of racism.
“When is the inevitable ‘I don’t have a racist bone in my body’ tweet coming,” wondered Rewire News Group editor-at-large Imani Gandy.
“Which part is your favorite, Mike?” asked Fred Wellman, the former executive director of The Lincoln Project. “Is it the white kid acting like a monkey at the black woman or the white security guy acting like she’s a threat? I’m trying to figure out which flavor of racism has you all excited the most?”
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Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic clinical instructor Alejandra Caraballo responded to the Georgia GOP congressman, “Thanks for confirming you’re a massive racist piece of sh*t.”
Mississippi Free Press news editor Ashton Pittman wrote: “Rep. Mike Collins, R-Georgia, praises a video showing a University of Mississippi frat boy dancing like a monkey and making monkey noises near a Black woman student who was protesting for Palestine while other frat boys chant ‘lock her up.'”
In a separate post describing a separate video taken of the same group Pittman wrote: “Frat bros at @OleMiss chant, ‘Lizzo! Lizzo!’ and shout, ‘F**k you fatass, f**k you b*tch’ at a Black woman who was protesting for Palestine. Do people really think these counterprotestors are doing it to support Jews?”
Journalist John Harwood did not mince words, writing, “Congressman proud of the racism.”
“Okay, Mike. We get it,” wrote podcast host, documentary director, and author W. Kamau Bell. “You want to be famous for being a racist. Fine. I’ll help you become a famous racist. You’re welcome.”
The original video is here.
See Rep. Collins’ post and the video below or at this link.
Caution: the video is disturbing.
Ole Miss taking care of business. pic.twitter.com/JiL9hs2pHz
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) May 3, 2024
READ MORE: Noem Heads to Mar-a-Lago After Branding Kids She Ministered in Church ‘Little Tyrants’
Amid more damning revelations from her soon-to-be released book, embattled South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem will head to Mar-a-Lago this weekend as ex-president Donald Trump auditions potential vice presidential picks in front of high-dollar donors. Noem was also slated to attend a Republican fundraiser in Colorado this weekend but it was canceled over alleged safety concerns after news broke she had bragged about shooting her 14-month old dog.
While Noem’s shooting to death of her wirehaired pointer, Cricket, which she detailed in the book, is still making headlines overnight a new revelation made news: Noem falsely claims in her book she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
A spokesperson for Noem “seemed to concede that the Kim story was false Thursday night,” and notified her publisher, Politico’s Ryan Lizza reported in his exclusive.
But less noticed appears to be the actual text of Noem’s false story, in which she brands children she ministered in church “little tyrants,” and compared them to the murderous North Korean dictator.
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“Through my tenure on the House Armed Services Committee,” Noem wrote, according to Politico, “I had the chance to travel to many countries to meet with world leaders. I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants (I’d been a children’s pastor, after all).”
CNBC reported this week Trump “will mingle with potential vice presidential running mates and wealthy Republican donors at the Republican National Committee’s spring donor retreat. The meetings are likely to act as informal tryouts for a short list of politicos in the running to join the Trump ticket.”
The list of Republican “special guests” includes U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and J.D. Vance, Rep. Elise Stefanik, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
Also expected to attend are House Speaker Mike Johnson, U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and other elected Republicans along with RNC co-chair Lara Trump.
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NBC News, which says Rep. Donalds is also under consideration, on Friday added there will be “a fundraising retreat that could serve as a screening session” for potential vice presidential running mates.
Meanwhile, the Jefferson County, Colorado Republican Party chair announced a fundraising dinner Noem was slated to attend was canceled after threats were made, The Denver Post reports.
“We understood there was a planned organized protest outside of the hotel, led by Progress Now,” Nancy Pallozzi said. “I felt that our event would be negatively impacted, and we could not take the risk that those who made threats would cause physical harm.”
Over the weekend independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at a fundraiser for a far-right anti-government group in Erie County, New York – a slice of the country that had a large proportion of residents arrested and charged for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection. Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine denialist, increasingly is embracing the far-right.
“That group, Constitutional Coalition of New York State, has founders who not only have ties to Donald Trump but are also connected to the stop-the-steal movement through their activist network, which includes groups that had a presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” The Daily Beast reported Friday. “It’s yet another instance of Kennedy—who is mounting one of the most well-funded third-party presidential threats in decades—serving as a peculiar bridge between his own anti-establishment movement and Trump’s.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center includes the Constitutional Coalition of New York State (CCNYS) on its page of anti-government groups. Political Research Associates, which detailed the high proportion of January 6 residents arrested and charged, included the Constitutional Coalition of New York State in its February report on “The Rise of the Far Right in Western New York.”
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“If you don’t think the government is lying to you, you’re not paying attention,” Kennedy told attendees at the CCNYS fundraiser, The Buffalo News reports.
“CCNYS founders Nick and Nancie Orticelli are also affiliated with the Watchmen, a nearby militia who Nick has encouraged his social media followers to join. The Watchmen had several members at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and one member, Pete Harding, is still facing charges for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds,” The Daily Beast noted. “Nancie Orticelli has also hosted the Watchmen’s founder, Charles Pellien, on her weekly radio show on several occasions.”
One of Kennedy’s goals in traveling to New York was to get on the ballot for the November presidential election. Various polls show him taking votes from both President Joe Biden and ex-president Donald Trump, but Kennedy currently has only qualified to be on the ballot in three states, Utah, Michigan and Hawaii, the newspaper reported.
But The Washington Post on Thursday reported The American Independent Party of California, which has a history of “far-right ties,” and “backed segregationist and former Alabama governor George Wallace in 1968, nominated Kennedy for president.”
Kennedy “said this week that he has qualified to be on the ballot in California and will accept the nomination of the American Independent Party, which has a history of associating itself with far-right figures and individuals who have expressed racist views.”
Some news reports and RFK Jr. himself say the Trump campaign was actively courting Kennedy, attempting to convince him to consider being the ex-president’s 2024 vice presidential running mate.
“That MAGA dalliance with Kennedy could be coming back to bite the Trump campaign, some Republicans close to the former president worry,” The Daily Beast also reported.
“’They can only blame themselves,’ a Trump-aligned strategist told The Daily Beast, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about private conversations about the risk Kennedy poses, ‘because they cozied up to him and thought it was funny.’”
Watch WIVBTV’s report on Kennedy’s trip to New York below or at this link.
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Congressman Pummeled for Praising Students Mocking Black Protester With Monkey Sounds
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