A new bill in Florida would make accusations of Transphobia would be treated as defamation. The defendant could not "prove truth" by citing a plaintiff's "scientific or religious beliefs."
You know at this point I expect ghoulishness from these allergic to basic morality and decency freaks. What I want to know is is the opposition asleep at the wheel? If the Florida dems are, that to me is the actual scarier proposition. At least we see the renewal of the liberal spine in places like Michigan and Iowa. If that’s not happening in Florida -- why is it not happening in Florida? Would read 6k words on this. I know you’re more about keeping us on our toes with coverage Erin and thank you for that -- but lord, I want to know what the *plan* is, here.
There's seemingly little to no visible opposition in Florida because the GOP has gerrymandered TF out of the state, and the very few Dems in office have no power. They're horribly outnumbered.
The Dems are very vocal about their opposition to all of this, but the Republicans have a supermajority. The GOP is operating unchecked in Florida, and this is the result.
A friendly reminder that Dems only side with us because we vote for them. There are two parties, the people and the government. The amount of handshaking that occurs between the GOP and Dems would terrify you. The infighting is, quite literally, theatre.
It isn't, and they don't have one. In any challenge this law would be subject to strict scrutiny and would fail that test in any court that is properly applying it. They don't care: they know that some courts will *not* properly apply it. As you said, politically anything is possible. And so they'll try anything, even knowing it is unconstitutional, to try to make as much of the US as they can unlivable for trans people. These people have no restraints or limits, which makes them incredibly dangerous.
Their longer-term strategy seems to be to throw everything they can at the wall of the US legal system in the hope that a challenge against one or more of these laws can be appealed up to the US Supreme Court. That court is so dominated by transphobic right-wing judges that even a clearly unconstitutional law might be upheld via some bullshit legal theory. The Dobbs decision was essentially an invitation to the right to pursue this strategy and a signal that it might succeed.
They don't care. With the way the courts are politicized, especially the Supreme Court, there's a chance (admittedly a very slim chance) that the law doesn't get struck down. But even if it does, they get to rail against liberal activist judges, which thrills their base. Trouble is, this kind of nonsense repels everyone outside the base. We have a long string of election losses to prove it.
They KNOW it's bad to be called transphobic, so they want to remove the consequences. What happens if we call religious people "mentally ill"? Because I get called that often.
Makes me think of that holocaust museum showing all the law changes in the run up to the camps in Germany. The state could replace transphobic with any sort of word. Talk about government weaponization, this state will be even more terrifying to live soon. The legislature will for sure ram all these bills through and the courts won’t be able to keep up.
These bills are getting so bad that they are reaching cartoon villain status, except of course that they are very real and have the capability of doing tremendous harm. As long as the country has a functioning Constitution, I would think this is blatantly wrong and would either not pass, or get invalidated by a court.
So do they believe that transphobia is acceptable (because they say it can have a scientific or religious basis) or unacceptable (because they say it’s defamatory to name it)? It’s OK for someone to do transphobia, but not OK for someone else to observe that it is what it is?
So glad I'm leaving soon. I sincerely hope every LGBTQ+ person and allies finds their way out of FL. The rest of these people can rot. The people here and exceptionally unkind in the 34 years I have been here. When the only safe spots here are individual cities the best thing we can do is leave. We are outnumbered here. If they want their bland Christian Nationalist state, they can have it without us and see how well they do in a place completely empty of diversity.
If you are referring to leaving Florida, I wish you the best, just be careful where you go....I am sure other politically red states are salivating at the thought of doing something similar within their borders. So, unfortunately, might the federal gov’t someday.
I need to get back to working on anonymity systems, so that people can make accusations of transphobia, racism, etc. in safety. (I contributed to the design of the Mixminion remailer protocol back in the day; that never got a lot of use directly, but it influenced later protocols. There's still a lot that can be done to make mixnets more practical, secure, and scalable, and to address moderation and reputation issues in pseudonymous social networks.)
How can this possibly be even argued as constitutional??? I know politically anything is possible. But what in god’s name is their argument?
I think they are purposefully floating these to get more precedent.
You know at this point I expect ghoulishness from these allergic to basic morality and decency freaks. What I want to know is is the opposition asleep at the wheel? If the Florida dems are, that to me is the actual scarier proposition. At least we see the renewal of the liberal spine in places like Michigan and Iowa. If that’s not happening in Florida -- why is it not happening in Florida? Would read 6k words on this. I know you’re more about keeping us on our toes with coverage Erin and thank you for that -- but lord, I want to know what the *plan* is, here.
There's seemingly little to no visible opposition in Florida because the GOP has gerrymandered TF out of the state, and the very few Dems in office have no power. They're horribly outnumbered.
The Dems are very vocal about their opposition to all of this, but the Republicans have a supermajority. The GOP is operating unchecked in Florida, and this is the result.
A friendly reminder that Dems only side with us because we vote for them. There are two parties, the people and the government. The amount of handshaking that occurs between the GOP and Dems would terrify you. The infighting is, quite literally, theatre.
I was just thinking the same thing! It totally goes against the 1st amendment.
It isn't, and they don't have one. In any challenge this law would be subject to strict scrutiny and would fail that test in any court that is properly applying it. They don't care: they know that some courts will *not* properly apply it. As you said, politically anything is possible. And so they'll try anything, even knowing it is unconstitutional, to try to make as much of the US as they can unlivable for trans people. These people have no restraints or limits, which makes them incredibly dangerous.
Their longer-term strategy seems to be to throw everything they can at the wall of the US legal system in the hope that a challenge against one or more of these laws can be appealed up to the US Supreme Court. That court is so dominated by transphobic right-wing judges that even a clearly unconstitutional law might be upheld via some bullshit legal theory. The Dobbs decision was essentially an invitation to the right to pursue this strategy and a signal that it might succeed.
"Gods name" IS their argument. Literally that is the whole basis for the proposed bill. Using his name to escape consequences.
Also, which god's name?
Yahweh? Jehovah? Allah? Jesus? Krishna? Loki? Ra? Shiva? Chtulu? Lucifer? The Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Curious minds want to know!
What god?
BTW, Yahweh = Allah = The Holy Trinity. The Abrahamic god is the god of all three religions.
(I'm Jewish, FWIW)
Their god is an evil psychopath if you ask me.
I don’t have legal expertise but at this point, I doubt the religious fanatics pushing for theocracy care whether it’s constitutional.
They don't care. With the way the courts are politicized, especially the Supreme Court, there's a chance (admittedly a very slim chance) that the law doesn't get struck down. But even if it does, they get to rail against liberal activist judges, which thrills their base. Trouble is, this kind of nonsense repels everyone outside the base. We have a long string of election losses to prove it.
They KNOW it's bad to be called transphobic, so they want to remove the consequences. What happens if we call religious people "mentally ill"? Because I get called that often.
I understand the temptation to do this, but playing to ableist attitudes toward mental health issues is not the answer.
I’m speechless. Wtf. Great reporting as always, Erin. Thank you.
This cycle is giving me no shortage of stories unfortunately.
Leave it to the "Floriduah men" in Tallahassee to keep things busy for you. Thanks for keeping people informed as to what's happening here.
This country is doomed. Planning our move to Europe in the near future.
I live in Texas and I always wonder how long before the Florida stuff comes here. Luckily the legislature meets every other year.
What the heck is “scientific beliefs”
That’s not how science works
This is sooooo unconstitutional
Also the person who wrote this bill is transphobic AF
Yes! That struck me too. What are "scientific beliefs"? It speaks volumes of the mindsets at work here.
I put "scientific beliefs" and a few other phrases in the ngram viewer, just to see. FWIW.....
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=scientific+beliefs%2C+religious+beliefs%2C+scientific+view%2C+scientific+opinion&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=en-2012&smoothing=3
Awww, I’m sooooo sorry you’re worried about being defamed while you’re deliberately harming thousands of innocent people!
That must be super f’ing hard for you!
Stealing
“Free speech for me, but not for thee,” is basically their motto.
A nice and timely parody of the conservative line "rules for thee but not for me" normally directed at the left. The self-burns are unending.
Makes me think of that holocaust museum showing all the law changes in the run up to the camps in Germany. The state could replace transphobic with any sort of word. Talk about government weaponization, this state will be even more terrifying to live soon. The legislature will for sure ram all these bills through and the courts won’t be able to keep up.
These bills are getting so bad that they are reaching cartoon villain status, except of course that they are very real and have the capability of doing tremendous harm. As long as the country has a functioning Constitution, I would think this is blatantly wrong and would either not pass, or get invalidated by a court.
They wanna tie us to the railroad tracks lmao Except they can't do that..... Yet. So this works
So do they believe that transphobia is acceptable (because they say it can have a scientific or religious basis) or unacceptable (because they say it’s defamatory to name it)? It’s OK for someone to do transphobia, but not OK for someone else to observe that it is what it is?
So glad I'm leaving soon. I sincerely hope every LGBTQ+ person and allies finds their way out of FL. The rest of these people can rot. The people here and exceptionally unkind in the 34 years I have been here. When the only safe spots here are individual cities the best thing we can do is leave. We are outnumbered here. If they want their bland Christian Nationalist state, they can have it without us and see how well they do in a place completely empty of diversity.
If you are referring to leaving Florida, I wish you the best, just be careful where you go....I am sure other politically red states are salivating at the thought of doing something similar within their borders. So, unfortunately, might the federal gov’t someday.
I'm getting assistance to get to a Shield state currently
I mean it’s going to be under water soon anyway
I am SO not complaining. It's a cesspool here.
Percentage possibility that being trans in Florida will be illegal by the end of the year?
Higher than 0%
99%
I will call DeSantis and his 4th reichdiots, transphobic garbage, all freaking day.
Replace the term transphobia with antisemitism and see how it sounds.
I need to get back to working on anonymity systems, so that people can make accusations of transphobia, racism, etc. in safety. (I contributed to the design of the Mixminion remailer protocol back in the day; that never got a lot of use directly, but it influenced later protocols. There's still a lot that can be done to make mixnets more practical, secure, and scalable, and to address moderation and reputation issues in pseudonymous social networks.)
An outrageous attack on free speech.