A friend of mine posted about this on Facebook and I commented how my family can’t visit FL due to concerns for my trans son’s safety and I started getting attacked for providing care for my kid. Now I know it’s the home of mom’s for liberty makes sense. I live in the area where they fired the teacher for reading a book.
You do whatever is necessary to keep your child safe and ignore the haters. I have a trans grandson who lives with me and is about to go off to college. We told him we will help him pay for college, but he cannot attend a red-state school. He gets it.
There are states where I’ll never visit in solidarity with my adult trans daughter. Yet we too are in that pot of water, will we notice in time to leap, and will a sanctuary state be far enough?
Honestly, the federal Bureau of Prisons policies during Dump 1.0 were enough to convince me that these MFers want me dead. When those guidelines were revised in 2018, I stopped researching blue state destinations and started looking abroad. I decided to watch and wait, but to always have my passport ready and to prepare to run.
Then with Project 2025 and Dump 2.0, I became convinced this guy is Hitler, and I left before he was inaugurated. I HOPE I'm wrong. But at least here in Europe, I don't have to worry anymore. I'm safe.
I don't want to share that publicly, but if you have more than idle curiosity, I'm happy to share via DM.
FAIW, it's much cheaper to live here than in the US. Of course the trick is finding the right visa. Many countries have fairly generous visa programs. Non-lucrative visas allow you to live here, but not work, as long as you can show that you have adequate income to support yourself. Digital Nomad visas allow you to live and work remotely here. Golden visas allow you to buy an expensive property or make other investments to live here. I believe Ireland is accepting American trans people for a year of protected status, which can give them time to find more permanent residency elsewhere. And if you can show very recent ancestral roots in some countries, you have a claim to citizenship. In my case, I was able to sue for paternity. I won my case and will be recognized soon as a dual citizen, with the ability to live and work almost anywhere in the EU.
No one should be surprised this has happened because after all, it’s Florida. However, it’s important for the supportive community, as always, to fight back. Submitting and kow-towing to bullies - whether on the national stage or on a more local scale such as in FL - is the worst thing. Give bullies an inch, they’ll take a mile. Offer them your lunch money, tomorrow instead of being appeased they will stuff you into a locker and shut the door.
A good reminder for any students or parents of students is that if they want to really hurt the school for this don't show up on count day. Let them know your demands beforehand and even if you just organize a large group to skip count day it'll heavily harm their funding. Just the threat of doing so is powerful.
That sounds like a great tactic! I'm not familiar with count day so I looked it up and found this -
-----------
Count Day dates vary by state, but they are usually set by state education departments. In Michigan, for example, Count Days happen twice a year—once in October and once in February. The fall Count Day typically determines 90% of a school’s funding, while the spring Count Day accounts for the remaining 10%.
To find out when Count Day is in your state, you can:
Check your state’s Department of Education website.
Ask your local school district for their official Count Day schedule.
Look at school calendars, as districts often highlight Count Days to encourage attendance.
This is fantastic information, thanks for sharing more about it! I only knew a bit from my time in highschool (I'm 22 so it wasn't super long ago) but one of my partner's teachers made a point to drill home the power striking has using student count as an example. I can't help but feel like he saw what was on the horizon. I'm very grateful to anyone helping students and their families realize the power they have in our increasingly bleak political climate.
You're welcome! I'm 48 and no kids, so I had no idea about count day (or if I did, I forgot long ago), so I'd have had no idea about it if you hadn't mention it. I'll sure to bring it up every time school protests under discussion.
I'm an athiest and a person who is transgender AND I go to church. There are pockets of good people even in red states. Some people actually life by the teachings of Jesus. They are loving and not judgemental. It certainy doesn’t need to be a church. In my town we have a group that call themselves "Free Thinkers" My church is in the denomination is called "The United Church of Christ". I might also suggest "Unitarian Universalists" as a denomination that would give you a community of loving supportive people.
Floridiots only care about low taxes, cheap real estate, and growth, growth growth. Also football and Jesus - in that order. They are perfectly happy being Luddites and bigots who lack basic social services or safe work places, if they can have sunshine and sprawl. I grew up in that wasteland, and it has only worsened over the last 20 years since I left. Florida used to be a purple bellwether state. I won’t set foot in that state. I won’t even take a flight that has a layover in that state on the way to a destination not intentionally stuck in the 1850s.
I'm relieved to finally hear of anything actually coming about after everything focused so rampantly in Florida. And god am I happy to see people putting support and action toward detesting it.
I want to say we have been here fighting this. We are ground zero for all this shit in the country, but know there is a huge community of people here who are fighting it daily and have for years. For example, what many don’t know - There were 28 (maybe 29? 😖) anti-trans bills that went through the legislature last year, and we had hundreds go to the Capitol to protest, speak with legislators, and comment at hearings in mass. Most of those bills did not progress. Many really horrible ones obviously did, but those are all being fought as well in other ways. We are trying. Everyone, everywhere must push back.
Real sad. Trans kids should be able to live normally like cisgender kids particularly just to be called by their desired name. Trans rules in Ohio, where I live, are almost as bad!
No wonder 19th century diseases and poverty are rampant in this country when the priority of our "educational system" is punishing teachers for using students' nicknames. America doesn't want students to be educated. They all bitch about the Chinese economy surpassing the US's (which it did years ago, to be frank, and it's only by fixing the numbers and utilizing compliant domestic media that Americans have been able to delude themselves otherwise), but they ignore the fact that while the US has been busy dismantling our educational system and turning it into a prison for young people and a place that serves little purpose besides inculcating right-wing ideology, China was massively investing in their primary, secondary, and higher education systems. So they have a highly skilled workforce while the US has one that vacillates between being highly depressed and anxious (for its more naturally talented citizens) to one of sheer idiocy and incompetency matched only by their sociopathic fascist politics. Truly the worst of all nations.
This is crazy. I used to live in Cocoa Beach in the 70s when my Dad worked on the Space program and my Mom taught English at Melbourne HS and never got in trouble for making her students read Ellison’s Invisible Man. I have friends still in the area that are in a little blue bubble and can’t move. It didn’t used to be this way. I don’t even visit any more.
These “people” and I use that term loosely because real humans have Empathy for others not Vitriol and HATE! These people are so OBSESSED With what’s in our collective panties or briefs that they’ve gone psychotic about it! They are disgusting, lying, Pathetic Trolls! And they are being paid off for voting for their “Dear Leader” with the same disdain and contempt Trump has for Everyone! But lacking the ability to empathize with others they have to have a scapegoat to Hate because of their own Self Hatred! And when this Administration collapses around their collective Heads they’ll still be in there blaming others for their failures as Human Beings! It’s really sad that they had to FAFO that they hitched their wagons to a Horse that’s Hell Bent on running over the proverbial Cliff but at the same time I have no empathy left for them! They have to find their own way out of this Quagmire of their own making! Some will but most won’t!
Umm it’s pronounced Flo Rida. Do we know what the students preferred name was? It could have been something like Fire or Hurricane. It could get real confusing down there. If it’s not those two names then Fuck Florida. I’m sick of hearing it’s not the people’s fault. It kind of is. I find it hard to believe they’re voting dem across the board
Florida is turning into a fucking cesspool, so it’s good to see that their communities are actually fighting back
Left over 40 years ago and I'll never go back. Thought that it was bad then...
A friend of mine posted about this on Facebook and I commented how my family can’t visit FL due to concerns for my trans son’s safety and I started getting attacked for providing care for my kid. Now I know it’s the home of mom’s for liberty makes sense. I live in the area where they fired the teacher for reading a book.
You do whatever is necessary to keep your child safe and ignore the haters. I have a trans grandson who lives with me and is about to go off to college. We told him we will help him pay for college, but he cannot attend a red-state school. He gets it.
There are states where I’ll never visit in solidarity with my adult trans daughter. Yet we too are in that pot of water, will we notice in time to leap, and will a sanctuary state be far enough?
Yes, many of us in red states are watching and waiting because we can’t afford to move twice.
Honestly, the federal Bureau of Prisons policies during Dump 1.0 were enough to convince me that these MFers want me dead. When those guidelines were revised in 2018, I stopped researching blue state destinations and started looking abroad. I decided to watch and wait, but to always have my passport ready and to prepare to run.
Then with Project 2025 and Dump 2.0, I became convinced this guy is Hitler, and I left before he was inaugurated. I HOPE I'm wrong. But at least here in Europe, I don't have to worry anymore. I'm safe.
I wish we could move there today. I agree, out of the country is the best choice. Where in Europe are you?
I don't want to share that publicly, but if you have more than idle curiosity, I'm happy to share via DM.
FAIW, it's much cheaper to live here than in the US. Of course the trick is finding the right visa. Many countries have fairly generous visa programs. Non-lucrative visas allow you to live here, but not work, as long as you can show that you have adequate income to support yourself. Digital Nomad visas allow you to live and work remotely here. Golden visas allow you to buy an expensive property or make other investments to live here. I believe Ireland is accepting American trans people for a year of protected status, which can give them time to find more permanent residency elsewhere. And if you can show very recent ancestral roots in some countries, you have a claim to citizenship. In my case, I was able to sue for paternity. I won my case and will be recognized soon as a dual citizen, with the ability to live and work almost anywhere in the EU.
Can I DM you as well? It sounds like you know a lot about European visa options and would love to ask some questions.
Absolutely! DM away. :-)
💯 understand not wanting to discuss it publicly. I would love insight into all this, so I will definitely message you. Thank you!
I’m old enough to remember when Anita Bryant was the stupidest, most vile thing to come out of Florida. Good times!
No one should be surprised this has happened because after all, it’s Florida. However, it’s important for the supportive community, as always, to fight back. Submitting and kow-towing to bullies - whether on the national stage or on a more local scale such as in FL - is the worst thing. Give bullies an inch, they’ll take a mile. Offer them your lunch money, tomorrow instead of being appeased they will stuff you into a locker and shut the door.
A good reminder for any students or parents of students is that if they want to really hurt the school for this don't show up on count day. Let them know your demands beforehand and even if you just organize a large group to skip count day it'll heavily harm their funding. Just the threat of doing so is powerful.
That sounds like a great tactic! I'm not familiar with count day so I looked it up and found this -
-----------
Count Day dates vary by state, but they are usually set by state education departments. In Michigan, for example, Count Days happen twice a year—once in October and once in February. The fall Count Day typically determines 90% of a school’s funding, while the spring Count Day accounts for the remaining 10%.
To find out when Count Day is in your state, you can:
Check your state’s Department of Education website.
Ask your local school district for their official Count Day schedule.
Look at school calendars, as districts often highlight Count Days to encourage attendance.
This is fantastic information, thanks for sharing more about it! I only knew a bit from my time in highschool (I'm 22 so it wasn't super long ago) but one of my partner's teachers made a point to drill home the power striking has using student count as an example. I can't help but feel like he saw what was on the horizon. I'm very grateful to anyone helping students and their families realize the power they have in our increasingly bleak political climate.
You're welcome! I'm 48 and no kids, so I had no idea about count day (or if I did, I forgot long ago), so I'd have had no idea about it if you hadn't mention it. I'll sure to bring it up every time school protests under discussion.
Even in Florida, they've had enough.
There’s a LOT of us here who have had enough for a very long time, and we’ve been fighting these battles for years now.
Florida is crazy
I'm an athiest and a person who is transgender AND I go to church. There are pockets of good people even in red states. Some people actually life by the teachings of Jesus. They are loving and not judgemental. It certainy doesn’t need to be a church. In my town we have a group that call themselves "Free Thinkers" My church is in the denomination is called "The United Church of Christ". I might also suggest "Unitarian Universalists" as a denomination that would give you a community of loving supportive people.
Floridiots only care about low taxes, cheap real estate, and growth, growth growth. Also football and Jesus - in that order. They are perfectly happy being Luddites and bigots who lack basic social services or safe work places, if they can have sunshine and sprawl. I grew up in that wasteland, and it has only worsened over the last 20 years since I left. Florida used to be a purple bellwether state. I won’t set foot in that state. I won’t even take a flight that has a layover in that state on the way to a destination not intentionally stuck in the 1850s.
I'm so damn disgusted with these closed minded people (I should said mindless and heartless); breathtaking ignorance!
Good on the people who stood up and took action!
Bravo to the students who protested!
I'm relieved to finally hear of anything actually coming about after everything focused so rampantly in Florida. And god am I happy to see people putting support and action toward detesting it.
RESIST!
I want to say we have been here fighting this. We are ground zero for all this shit in the country, but know there is a huge community of people here who are fighting it daily and have for years. For example, what many don’t know - There were 28 (maybe 29? 😖) anti-trans bills that went through the legislature last year, and we had hundreds go to the Capitol to protest, speak with legislators, and comment at hearings in mass. Most of those bills did not progress. Many really horrible ones obviously did, but those are all being fought as well in other ways. We are trying. Everyone, everywhere must push back.
Thank you for fighting the good fight for all of us!
Many thanks to you and the others for doing this!
Real sad. Trans kids should be able to live normally like cisgender kids particularly just to be called by their desired name. Trans rules in Ohio, where I live, are almost as bad!
No wonder 19th century diseases and poverty are rampant in this country when the priority of our "educational system" is punishing teachers for using students' nicknames. America doesn't want students to be educated. They all bitch about the Chinese economy surpassing the US's (which it did years ago, to be frank, and it's only by fixing the numbers and utilizing compliant domestic media that Americans have been able to delude themselves otherwise), but they ignore the fact that while the US has been busy dismantling our educational system and turning it into a prison for young people and a place that serves little purpose besides inculcating right-wing ideology, China was massively investing in their primary, secondary, and higher education systems. So they have a highly skilled workforce while the US has one that vacillates between being highly depressed and anxious (for its more naturally talented citizens) to one of sheer idiocy and incompetency matched only by their sociopathic fascist politics. Truly the worst of all nations.
This is crazy. I used to live in Cocoa Beach in the 70s when my Dad worked on the Space program and my Mom taught English at Melbourne HS and never got in trouble for making her students read Ellison’s Invisible Man. I have friends still in the area that are in a little blue bubble and can’t move. It didn’t used to be this way. I don’t even visit any more.
These “people” and I use that term loosely because real humans have Empathy for others not Vitriol and HATE! These people are so OBSESSED With what’s in our collective panties or briefs that they’ve gone psychotic about it! They are disgusting, lying, Pathetic Trolls! And they are being paid off for voting for their “Dear Leader” with the same disdain and contempt Trump has for Everyone! But lacking the ability to empathize with others they have to have a scapegoat to Hate because of their own Self Hatred! And when this Administration collapses around their collective Heads they’ll still be in there blaming others for their failures as Human Beings! It’s really sad that they had to FAFO that they hitched their wagons to a Horse that’s Hell Bent on running over the proverbial Cliff but at the same time I have no empathy left for them! They have to find their own way out of this Quagmire of their own making! Some will but most won’t!
Umm it’s pronounced Flo Rida. Do we know what the students preferred name was? It could have been something like Fire or Hurricane. It could get real confusing down there. If it’s not those two names then Fuck Florida. I’m sick of hearing it’s not the people’s fault. It kind of is. I find it hard to believe they’re voting dem across the board