Monthly archives: April, 2016

America Opens Its Arms To Our Transgender Brothers And Sisters

Did you ever think it would happen in this country?

I have to admit that I’m not sure I’m there yet.

As a gay man, I’m still becoming comfortable with the notion of transgender men and women. I’m still learning.

Amazed, though, at how quickly America has embraced transgender men and women. In spite of the bathroom laws and the hysteria from the right.

And the cool, compassionate, adult-in-the-room Barack Obama.

Were you as amazed as I to see this?

Incredible.

We’ve come so far as a country the past 7+ years.

As Barack Obama “evolved” on LGBTQ issues–and as some of us lost our patience entirely with him, given his remarkable history on such issues when he was in Springfield, Illinois–as he evolved, we evolved too.

But he led. And continues to lead.

America, hats off to you.

Hats off to you, Mr. President.


A New Direction For Turning Left

Readers no doubt have noticed that I haven’t been posting much over the past several months.

Heck, over the past few years.

Turning Left is always in the back of my mind, but I really didn’t know what to do. What to write.

I didn’t want to be that snarky guy any more who just wrote for the sake of writing, that guy who just made fun of people, or went on rants.

I wanted to be more substantive than that.

I was so angry at times during the Bush years. Many of us were. But to look for people at which I could be angry, or to just be that angry guy during the Obama years, well, that didn’t make much sense.

And I was not always pleased with President Obama.

But, for the most part, I was.

I am.

So what to do with this blog, which has awesome page rank on Google despite the fact that I rarely touch it?

Found my solution today.

We need a new direction.

No, not right. Or center.

Let’s take direction as focus.

We need a new focus. A new plan.

And here it is…

We don’t want to become the anti-Fox News blog. We don’t want to become the anti-conservative blog.

We don’t want to discriminate against people because of who they are.

But we will be critical about people because of what they do.

That will be our new focus.

We will still laugh. We will still likely be snarky at times.

But we can’t be self-righteous. We can’t ignore our own faults.

But we can write.

We invite you to join us for the ride. Please visit often, enjoy, and, please, feel free to share our posts.

We have something to say that needs to be said.

We have words that need to be heard.

We are Turning Left


Trump’s Twits on Twitter Appear To Be Bought

So, perhaps, you were amazed at all of these people on Twitter attacking those who dare to attack their “Donald.”

Guess again.

One analyst has taken a look, and then several more looks, at who these “Defenders of the Donald” might be.

And, it appears, they might all be fake.

Fake Twitter accounts created, bought, to attempt to fool us all.

Check out dailywire.com:

The speculation about the phoniness of the Trump Twitter army began with a post by Erick Erickson in The Resurgent, and he bases his conjecture on three main points:

  • There are professional Internet trolls who have the specific purpose of inciting chaos in the U.S. through social media, such as spreading a hoax Ebola case in Atlanta as well as a hoax story of cops shooting an unarmed black woman. Most of them were shut down, but the ones that are still active are supporting Trump.
  • Numerous reports suggest that Trump bought crowd members for his campaign launch in June.
  • An organization called Crowds on Demand has protesters for sale to appear at various events and harass people on social media.

And then there’s more.

Go here for the complete story.


Watch: Groups Applaud Delaware Gov. Markell for Personal Message on Recent Wave of Anti-transgender Legislation

Today, in response to a wave of anti-transgender legislation in several states around the country, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D) released a personal, detailed video message standing up for transgender equality and combatting the misinformation and scare tactics that proponents of these discriminatory bills use. Gov. Markell—who is the only sitting governor to have signed laws that enforce both sexual orientation and gender identity protections in employment, housing, and public accommodations—is uniquely positioned to address the mean-spirited attempts that seek to undermine lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, nondiscrimination laws and require discrimination against the transgender community.

Equality Delaware, the Center for American Progress, and the National Center for Transgender Equality applaud Gov. Markell for his continued leadership on behalf of transgender people and their families. In response to Gov. Markell’s video message, those organizations released the following statements:

Lisa Goodman, president of Equality Delaware, said, “Gov. Markell has consistently stood on the side of fairness and equality and today is no different. Proponents of H.B. 2 rushed their bill through the North Carolina legislature in a matter of hours because they knew that when the public has the time to learn about trans people, they respond with affirmation and support. By speaking as a governor who has worked on trans issues, and as someone who cares about transgender people in his own life, Gov. Markell has helped insert into the national conversation the compassion and facts that are missing in the actions and statements made by opponents of equality.”

Laura E. Durso, Director of the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress, said, “As the LGBT community, and transgender people in particular, continue to face an unprecedented number of discriminatory state bills, it remains imperative for those of us living in states and communities with protections to stand up and speak out against hate or discrimination wherever it occurs. Gov. Markell’s video message may be one of the most personal and detailed trans-specific statements ever made by an elected official of his stature. We thank him for helping to educate the public on trans equality and urge other elected officials to follow suit and make clear to the transgender community that there are leaders around the country fighting for them.”

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said, “It is so important for elected officials like Gov. Markell to vocally and consistently support transgender people and to do their part to educate the rest of the public on who transgender people are. Gov. Markell has always demonstrated solid leadership, including three years ago when he signed wide-ranging protections for all transgender Delawareans into law.”

Source: http://www.americanprogress.org