LBGTQ

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13570]

1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

I thought that maybe I would find on this thread some reality based dive into the findings of the final cass report

This was the first Google hit for Cass Report that took me to a link that said "Final Report" at the top. 

https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/

I guess it's safe to assume you'll refuse to explicitly state your point while existing in your perpetual, monotonous state of amazement without any sense of irony. 

Carry on, amigo. 

[Anastasis 23458]

4 hours ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

This was the first Google hit for Cass Report that took me to a link that said "Final Report" at the top. 

https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/

I guess it's safe to assume you'll refuse to explicitly state your point while existing in your perpetual, monotonous state of amazement without any sense of irony. 

Carry on, amigo. 

Yeah. That’s good background reading. Maybe to the second part as well. Top hits from the news feeds when you type WPATH in. 
 

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/06/27/research-into-trans-medicine-has-been-manipulated

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/health/transgender-minors-surgeries.html
 

[Captainant 27628]

Yeah Annie, we know your overseers don't want to pay out claims for gender affirming care. It's bad for profit margins

Being a cunt about it is just a bonus for you

[troph 24781]

Cass Report - let’s keep moving forward, carefully with trans care - including medical treatments such as hormones for minors. 

State of Texas - fuck that, and while we’re at it let’s outlaw trans adults too - we already have the road map with prior abortion laws through convoluted and draconian legislation made to regulate the medical profession making care in Texas next to impossible. The concurring opinion quoted above made it crystal clear - Republicans see trans existence as a moral and political issue not a psychological and medical issue. 
 

discussion on this topic with anyone who won’t rebuke that concurring opinion is a fool’s errand.  ONLY when trans care is seen as PURELY medical and psychological will any broader discussion with non-experts about protocols be fruitful. Until then, we trans people have to walk through mine fields to find doctors and therapists that can help us.

 

 

Edited July 1 by troph

[Longhorn_Fan68 33859]

10 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Oh I understand. Sorry to interrupt. 

oh, so you admit you're an asshole. a lot of people have you on ignore. does that make you feel welcome?

Edited July 1 by Longhorn_Fan68

[troph 24781]

58 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

oh, so you admit you're an asshole. a lot of people have you on ignore. does that make you feel welcome?

I made the mistake of checking out his response to mine last night, that’s the only reason why we got into it.  I’m trying to disengage again. ignore is a wonderful feature for the concern trolls.

Edited July 1 by troph

[safe sex 11696]

Was Ana who acted offended when you were like, "nah I don't even want to engage with you in person" to his bullshit?

[troph 24781]

Just now, safe sex said:

Was Ana who acted offended when you were like, "nah I don't even want to engage with you in person" to his bullshit?

something like that yes.

[Brian Fantana 6679]

Joe Serock wearing a trans pride T-shirt at the WSOP final table today.

Now he gets points back after losing them all by eliminating Kristen Foxen yesterday.

[safe sex 11696]

That's a dope shirt

[Brian Fantana 6679]

3 minutes ago, safe sex said:

That's a dope shirt

It is. I haven't seen anyone comment on it on Twitter yet, but it's absolutely inevitable one of the chuds figures it out.

['stache 21795]

So Bud Light drops to 3rd, but guess what, the individual brand name doesn't mean shit. AB InBev's market share still rose last year. Oh, and the new No. 1, Modelo, is owned by AB InBev, lol.

Bunch of virtue signaling morons. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/972647/leading-beer-suppliers-market-share-us/#:~:text=Major beer vendor market share in the United States from 2022 to 2023&text=The market shares of both,23 percent to 25.3 percent.

https://eu.elpasotimes.com/story/money/business/2023/06/28/who-owns-modelo-mexican-lager-beats-bud-light-as-americas-top-beer/70342506007/

[troph 24781]

Wait I thought it was about protecting the children? 
 

 

Quote

Transgender Texans can no longer change the sex on their driver’s license to align with their gender identity — even if they present the state with a certified court order or an amended birth certificate verifying the change, according to an internal agency email.

The internal email directs driver license employees to send the names and identification numbers of people seeking to change their sex on their license to a particular email address with the subject line “Sex Change Court Order.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/21/transgender-texans-drivers-license-DPS/#:~:text=Transgender Texans can no longer,to an internal agency email.

 

Anybody got a place we can rent in Colorado so we can change our residency? 

[Paper_jam 831]

So an executive branch agency can just ignore the courts when they want to? Is there an underlying statute that DPS can point to, giving it the authority to ignore such a court order? Checks, balances, branches of government--it's all moot now. The Texas Republican Party Platform is the ultimate law of the land.

Counting down to when I can retire and GTFO this corrupt banana republic.

 

[safe sex 11696]

Don't forget to mention that anyone who attempts to have their gender marker changed will also have their name/application added to a list

[troph 24781]

34 minutes ago, safe sex said:

Don't forget to mention that anyone who attempts to have their gender marker changed will also have their name/application added to a list

fucking chilling. like seriously worried they will come knock on my door chilling shit.

1 hour ago, Paper_jam said:

So an executive branch agency can just ignore the courts when they want to? Is there an underlying statute that DPS can point to, giving it the authority to ignore such a court order? Checks, balances, branches of government--it's all moot now. The Texas Republican Party Platform is the ultimate law of the land.

Counting down to when I can retire and GTFO this corrupt banana republic.

 

autocratic failed state. We're Texas!

[Satchel 6925]

Heard tonight that there are 800 LGBTQ+ delegates in attendance.

[safe sex 11696]

26 minutes ago, troph said:

fucking chilling. like seriously worried they will come knock on my door chilling shit.

autocratic failed state. We're Texas!

Had several patients in tears about it today

[troph 24781]

9 hours ago, Satchel said:

Heard tonight that there are 800 LGBTQ+ delegates in attendance.

would

[troph 24781]

9 hours ago, safe sex said:

Had several patients in tears about it today

yeah for *me* it's what's next, will he order a comprehensive review of all gender changes and if so how far back and if so will he order they be invalidated immediately or upon renewal they are blocked? Mine expires after my kids graduate from HS so I could be okay if that's his approach. 

For others, fucked DOA (please no pun intended) without the ability to change it now.

same fucking theme, I have means and will be okay, I shouldn't have to fucking deal with this, but newbies and those without means get crushed, ABSOLUTELY CRUSHED by these draconian, hate motivated, no substantive reason whatsoever, edicts from the most corrupt politician and political party this State has EVER seen.

It's fucking infuriating.

[troph 24781]

Now birth certificates. While not as critical to functioning normally in society as a DL is, it can still be a significant set back to not be able to update. Paxton has said nope, no circumstances under which Texas will allow a change. 
 

and no one gives a fuck.

Edited September 4 by troph

[pacman 7355]

Sick, terrible people. Of course, it spreads on twitter.

[troph 24781]

 

this looks to be really good. Reminds me of me and some of my guy friends. Though I’m way hotter and probably way more fun than Harper, sorry Harp. 

[cactusflinthead 27598]

https://www.facebook.com/reel/3012589575548554/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

 

[Bullneck 19070]

On 7/1/2024 at 2:02 AM, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

I guess it's safe to assume you'll refuse to explicitly state your point while existing in your perpetual, monotonous state of amazement without any sense of irony ignoring Ana. 

Carry on, amigo. 

Fixed 😃

 

On 7/16/2024 at 6:48 PM, safe sex said:

That's a dope shirt

I always thought this was a dope shirt.

 

 

Edited September 9 by Bullneck

[atomheartbevo 89626]

[NeverMarryAStripper 21872]

On 9/4/2024 at 3:34 PM, troph said:

Now birth certificates. While not as critical to functioning normally in society as a DL is, it can still be a significant set back to not be able to update. Paxton has said nope, no circumstances under which Texas will allow a change. 
 

and no one gives a fuck.

Well I'm glad I got my oldest son's birth certificate changed while I could.  I'm a Jr., and my son's birth certificate lists my dad as his father.

[atomheartbevo 89626]

28 minutes ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

I'm a Jr., and my son's birth certificate lists my dad as his father

[atomheartbevo 89626]

On 9/6/2024 at 2:24 PM, troph said:

this looks to be really good. Reminds me of me and some of my guy friends. Though I’m way hotter and probably way more fun than Harper, sorry Harp. 

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/will-ferrell-regrets-snl-drag-sketches-janet-reno-1236139470/

Long interview with Harper and Will.

[cactusflinthead 27598]

 

[HenryJames 66037]

Spoiler

Her trans daughter made the volleyball team. Then an armed officer showed up.

Casey Parks

Jessica Norton tried to keep raising her youngest child as a boy. But that child, identified in this story by her middle name, Elizabeth, insisted nearly from the time she could talk that she was a girl. (Cindy Karp for The Washington Post)

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. —

Jessica Norton eased her minivan out of the driveway, and she told herself she’d done what any mother would. Her daughter Elizabeth had wanted to play high school volleyball, and Norton had let her. Norton had written female on the permission slips. She’d run practice drills in the yard, and she’d driven this minivan to matches all across their suburban Florida county.

A bumper sticker on the back said “mom.” A rainbow pin tacked inside read “safe with me.” Norton and Elizabeth had spent hours laughing and singing in this extended cab chariot. But this time, Norton had decided to leave her daughter at home.

“Good luck!” the teenager called. “Don’t get fired!”

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Until recently, Norton had worked at the high school Elizabeth attended. But last fall, an armed officer with the Broward County Public Schools Police had told Norton she was under investigation for allowing Elizabeth to play girls sports. District leaders banned Norton from the building. They discussed the investigation on the local news, and soon, everyone in Coconut Creek seemed to know Elizabeth is transgender. (Norton asked The Washington Post to use the child’s middle name to protect her privacy.)

In the nine months since, school officials had talked about Elizabeth as if she were dangerous, but Norton knew they couldn’t possibly be picturing the 16-year-old who stood at the edge of the driveway in Taylor Swift Crocs. This girl loved Squishmallows and Disney World. She had long red hair, and she was so skinny, the principal described her to investigators as “frail.”

Elizabeth didn’t have an advantage, Norton thought. She was a normal teenage girl, and yet her very existence had thrust them into one of the nation’s most contentious debates.

Though it wasn't the life they envisioned, Jessica and Gary Norton watched Elizabeth excel as a trans girl. She had lots of friends, was a homecoming princess and was named class president two years in a row.(Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

Over the last few years, half the country, including Florida, had banned trans girls from playing on girls teams. Proponents of the laws argued that they were fighting for fairness, and the debate had spilled into the stands with an anger that worried Norton. Critics called trans competitors “cheats.” Crowds booed teenage athletes. And some spectators had begun eyeing cisgender competitors for signs of masculinity.

For all that fury, though, no one had been punished yet under one of the bans. Soon, Norton feared, she might become the first. The Broward County School Board planned to take up her case that afternoon, and the agenda included only one proposed outcome: termination.

Norton drove toward her fate and felt nauseous. This life had not been the one she envisioned, but she’d done all she could to ensure it was a good one for her daughter. And she’d succeeded. Before the investigation, Elizabeth had been happy. She’d been a homecoming princess and class president two years in a row. She had friends, near-perfect grades and blue eyes that lit up when she talked about the future.

Now, Elizabeth stayed home and read hateful comments on the internet. She didn’t play sports. She hadn’t been back to Monarch High School.

Norton wanted the light in her daughter’s eyes back. She wanted Elizabeth to have prom and graduation, senior pictures, all the little hallmarks of a teenage life. But first, Norton told herself, she had to fight for her job. She had to return to the school district that shunned her, then somehow she had to convince Elizabeth it was safe for her to go back, too.

Elizabeth, no longer able to play high school volleyball due to Florida's Fairness in Women's Sports Act, gives roller skating a try. (Cindy Karp for The Washington Post)

Norton was born in Florida in the mid-1970s. She grew up hearing about gay people and drag queens, but the first time she learned about trans children, she was skeptical.

It was 2007. Norton was pregnant with Elizabeth, and she’d turned on the television. Barbara Walters was interviewing a 6-year-old girl she described as “one of the youngest known cases of an early transition from male to female.”

The girl, Jazz Jennings, was cute, Norton thought, but the dispatch unsettled her. How could someone that young know anything about their gender? How could a parent let their kid change their name and appearance?

When Norton gave birth that October, her husband, Gary, picked out a boy’s name, and she bought blue onesies. But almost as soon as Elizabeth could talk, she told her parents she was a girl.

At first, Norton thought their child was confused or maybe gay. Elizabeth begged to wear pink, and she threw tantrums when Norton called her a boy. They fought over backpacks and lunch boxes, school uniforms, haircuts. Norton tried to explain the difference between boys’ and girls’ bodies, but Elizabeth never relented.

“I’m a girl,” she said.

One day in 2013, while Elizabeth was at kindergarten, Norton turned on the TV, and she saw Jazz again. The little girl had a lot in common with Elizabeth. They both loved mermaids. They liked sports, and they seemed to know exactly who they were. Ever since Jazz could talk, her mother said, she had been “consistent, persistent and insistent” that she was a girl.

Oh my god, Norton thought. My kid isn’t gay. My kid is transgender.

Norton collapsed into her couch and sobbed. She didn’t know how to raise a trans child. What if she let Elizabeth transition, then Elizabeth decided she wasn’t a girl? What if someone hurt her?

Norton kept trying to raise Elizabeth as a boy, but eventually, she grew tired of fighting. One afternoon, when Elizabeth was 5 or 6, she asked to wear one of her sister’s outfits to a concert and Norton said yes.

Elizabeth picked a teal ruffle shirt dress with a leopard print. She pulled on a pair of leggings, and when they got to the show, she skipped down the street. Norton had never seen her look that happy.

Like a lot of other girls, Elizabeth loves Squishmallows, Disney World and Taylor Swift Crocs.(Cindy Karp for The Washington Post)

Though those early years felt hard, South Florida turned out to be an easy place to raise a trans child. The Nortons live in Broward County, a left-leaning community that includes Fort Lauderdale, and its school district was among the first in the United States to adopt a nondiscrimination policy for gender identity. In 2014, when Elizabeth was in first grade, the district released an LGBTQ critical support guide, a wide-ranging document that affirmed trans students’ right to play on sports teams that aligned with their identity.

The superintendent hosted “LGBTQ roundtables” to help parents whose kids were gay or trans. Norton recalled that at one meeting in 2016, she asked if it was possible to change Elizabeth’s name and gender marker on her school records, and he told her yes. (The superintendent later told investigators and The Post he does not remember this conversation, but other people who attended submitted affidavits affirming Norton’s recollection.)

Norton was so excited, she went to Elizabeth’s school that day and asked the assistant principal to make the change.

Norton has always been an involved parent. She volunteered a few times a week at the schools Elizabeth and her two older children attended, and the experience was so positive, she decided she wanted to work in education, too. In the spring of 2017, Monarch High School posted a $15-an-hour job for a library media clerk, and Norton applied even though the job paid $13,000 a year less than she earned as a cake decorator at Publix.

A few months after Norton started, she learned the school board was considering a resolution to create an LGBT history month. Elizabeth said she wanted to testify, so they spent a weekend writing a speech together.

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Norton was nervous as they headed inside, but Elizabeth rocked on her heels, excited. She wore her favorite teal dress and a purple headband, and she smiled with all her teeth showing as she and her parents approached the podium.

“I openly transitioned two years ago,” Elizabeth said. “It was the best time of my life. I got to be who I was born to be.”

Elizabeth was 10 then. She’d always had a beautiful face, and people never seemed to look at her and see anything other than girl, but as the school year wore on, she told Norton she worried what would happen once she started puberty.

Norton found a pediatric endocrinologist, and the doctor prescribed a monthly testosterone-blocking shot. As long as Elizabeth took the injection, her voice wouldn’t deepen, she wouldn’t grow facial hair and her body wouldn’t become more muscular the way a boy’s would.

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After Elizabeth finished elementary school, she told Norton she didn’t want people to know she was trans. Her new middle school pulled from three elementaries, and most of the kids there had no idea she had ever used another name. She told Norton she wanted to be “a basic White girl,” the kind who wore leggings and drank pumpkin spice lattes, and Norton understood. Most middle-schoolers want to blend in.

The coronavirus shut down schools the next spring, and Elizabeth spent the rest of sixth grade and part of seventh learning online. But Florida was among the first states to reopen, and when Lyons Creek officials announced students could return, they also welcomed kids to try out for sports teams.

Elizabeth was ecstatic. She went everywhere that fall with a volleyball in her hand. She tossed it in the house, and she used the garage door as a rebounder to practice her jump serve. But when she tried out for the team, she didn’t make it past the first cut.

She came home disappointed and told Norton she wanted to get better. Norton didn’t know how to play, but she offered to help. They spent most of the next year in the street outside their house, running “pepper” drills where two people pass, set and hit the ball back and forth.

Norton’s wrists stung by the end of their sessions, but Elizabeth always seemed more energized. Next year, Elizabeth vowed, she would make the team.

(Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

As Elizabeth headed into the yard each night, volleyball in hand, she believed the only thing that could keep her off a team was her own ability.

For much of her life, all the big sports associations allowed trans athletes to compete, and most states did, too. Some required athletes to show proof they were taking hormones or blockers, but a dozen states, including Florida, had no restrictions at all. As long as a student could show their gender identity was consistent, they could play.

Trans people represent less than 1 percent of the country’s population, and for decades, state lawmakers rarely mentioned them. But as gay people won protections and the right to marry, LGTBQ+ rights groups and right-wing leaders began looking for new issues to galvanize supporters. Both turned their attention to trans rights.

The community was slowly becoming more visible. Trans people ran for office and appeared on TV, and 17 million people watched as Caitlyn Jenner came out on “20/20.” Trans athletes almost never dominated. But between 2017 and 2019, two trans girls beat cisgender competitors at state track meets in Connecticut, and leading conservative Christian groups warned that other girls would lose athletic opportunities if trans girls continued to compete.

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Over the next few years, Florida and two dozen other states passed nearly identical bans on trans girls in sports. Many Republican lawmakers spoke about trans athletes as if they were all the same — tall and muscular, physically dominant, grown men cross-dressing for the sake of a secondary school athletic win. The bill sponsors didn’t mention trans girls who never went through puberty. They hardly ever talked about children like Elizabeth who tried and failed to make a seventh grade team. By 2023, multiple polls, including one by The Post and KFF, found that two-thirds of Americans agreed that trans girls should not be allowed to play girls sports.

Trans athletes remain very rare. A 2021 Associated Press analysis of 20 proposed state bans found that legislators in most couldn’t point to a single trans athlete in their own region. And in Florida, state records show that just two trans girls have played girls sports over the last decade — a bowler who graduated in 2019 and Elizabeth.

Norton doesn’t follow the news, but a friend told her about Florida’s ban the summer before Elizabeth started eighth grade, so Norton went online to read the details. The statute doesn’t list any penalties for young athletes. Instead, it allows competitors who feel they’ve been harmed by a trans athlete to sue that student’s school.

Norton thought Elizabeth might be okay. She had started estrogen by then, and few people knew she was trans. Plus, Coconut Creek still seemed like a safe place. Two weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the bill, in June 2021, the Broward County School Boardunanimously adopted a resolutionopposing the ban.

Jessica Norton, center, meets with Aryn Fields, director of communications for Human Rights Campaign, and attorney Jason Starr, legal counsel to the Norton family. (Cindy Karp for The Washington Post)

Still, Norton wanted assurance. That summer, with backing from the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Norton filed a pseudonymous lawsuit challenging the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. She didn’t mention any schools. She didn’t use her last name, and she didn’t list Elizabeth’s name.

Norton assumed she’d prevail. A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump in Idaho had already ruled that that state’s ban was likely unconstitutional and did nothing to ensure the fairness of girls sports.

Norton and Elizabeth never talked about the lawsuit. Instead, they watched the Tokyo Summer Olympics, and Elizabeth fell even more in love with volleyball. As they streamed the Games, Norton researched, and she learned that the International Olympic Committee allowedtrans girls and women to compete as long as their testosterone levels were low and they’d identified as female for four years. Elizabeth met all those qualifications. Because she started puberty blockers before her body began making testosterone, her hormone levels looked like any other girl’s.

Though research on the subject remains limited, multiple studies have found that testosterone is the only driver of athletic differences between the sexes. The hormone can give a person a larger physical stature, denser bones and a greater capacity to build muscle. Without it, a trans girl like Elizabeth likely has no physical advantage, researchers have found.

Florida’s new law didn’t make sense to Norton. Elizabeth could compete at the Olympics, but state lawmakers didn’t want her on a middle school team.

Norton had Elizabeth’s birth certificate amended that year, and by the time Elizabeth started eighth grade, she was legally female. When she asked to try out for volleyball again, Norton filled out the paperwork. Next to “sex,” Norton wrote “F.”

When Elizabeth made the cut, she rushed out to tell Norton. She was shocked. She’d been afraid to really hit the ball, she said. She’d tapped it, and the coach had urged her to play harder.

They celebrated at a sports grill, and Elizabeth was too excited to eat. She’d wanted to be on a team with other girls, and now she was.

The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act didn’t make sense to Norton. Her daughter Elizabeth could compete at the Olympics, but Florida lawmakers didn’t want her on a middle school volleyball team.(Cindy Karp for The Washington Post)

Elizabeth started high school the next year. She was good enough to make the varsity volleyball team, but she rarely left the bench, and Monarch lost more matches than it won that season. Still, she loved playing. The coach later told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that Elizabeth “brought an energy” to the team. Other players described her as the team “favorite.”

By then, Norton had become the school’s information management specialist, and she took on a slew of extra jobs to help kids with their student service hours and senior class activities. Norton was so busy, she largely forgot about the lawsuit she’d filed. Her lawyer called her every few months to give her an update, but she didn’t understand much of what he said.

Elizabeth won a starting spot as the volleyball team’s middle blocker her sophomore year. She was 5-foot-8, one of the team’s tallest players, so the coach put her near the net to play defense. She scored a few points over the course of the season, but she wasn’t a hitter. Players need a lot of power to spike a ball the other team can’t return. Elizabeth was 112 pounds and not especially muscular.

Monarch made it to the district semifinals, but its season ended that October with a 3-0 loss to Stoneman Douglas. MaxPrepsranked Monarch 218th out of the state’s 300 girls’ volleyball teams.

Three weeks later, a Trump-appointed district judge dismissed Norton’s lawsuit. The law was not discriminatory, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman found, because it didn’t apply to all transgender students. Trans boys could still play boys sports, he noted.

When the lawyer called to tell Norton the news, she felt the briefest flash of panic. Oh no, she thought. What if they come after me?

Later that month, at the tail end of Thanksgiving break, a work friend asked Norton if she’d seen the email an assistant principal had sent. Norton tried to look, but her school email had stopped working.

There’s a mandatory meeting tomorrow morning, the friend said. It sounds serious.

Norton felt uneasy as she drove Elizabeth to school the next day. She’d heard rumors that some of the boys on the football team lived outside of the district, and she worried she’d be held accountable because her job included overseeing student records.

At the all-staff meeting, an administrator explained that the district had reassigned the school’s principal pending an investigation. Norton felt confused. Everyone liked the principal. He seemed like a stand-up guy, not at all the kind of person who would break district policies.

After the meeting, Norton’s manager told her the school district’s police chief needed to talk to her. Norton met the chief and a school district representative in the principal’s office, and she felt intimidated. The officer was armed. He sat next to Norton, then handed her a written notice and told her she was under investigation.

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The notice was inscrutable, just a run of numbers and legalese. Norton told the chief she didn’t understand, and he said she had caused Monarch to break the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.

Elizabeth, Norton thought. They’re going to ruin my child’s life.

The chief told Norton she was banned from the high school and would have to turn in her keys and laptop, but he assured her the investigation was confidential. No one would know Elizabeth was the reason Norton was in trouble unless Norton told them herself.

Norton spent the next two hours panicking. She called her lawyer, but she was too inconsolable to make out whole sentences. What if she lost her job? What if someone went after Elizabeth?

Just before 11 a.m., Elizabeth texted. She’d looked on the location-tracking app Life360 and seen Norton was at home. Their pet boxer Walter had been sick all weekend, and Elizabeth worried the dog had taken a turn for the worse.

“You’re scaring me,” Elizabeth wrote. “Is Walter OK?”

Norton paced the living room. It took her 20 minutes to work up the nerve, but finally, she called Elizabeth and told her Walter was fine.

Elizabeth asked if Norton had done something wrong, and when Norton said no, Elizabeth asked what happened.

“I don’t want to tell you,” Norton said.

“It has to do with me, doesn’t it?” Elizabeth asked.

She started sobbing before Norton could answer. She asked Norton to pick her up, but Norton told her she wasn’t allowed. A few minutes after they got off the phone, a school employee called. Elizabeth had gone missing.

“Where is she?” the woman asked. “It’s all over the news. Everyone knows.”

(Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

Norton checked Life360, and she could see that Elizabeth had left Monarch. Norton asked her husband, Gary, to pick their daughter up, and when they arrived home, Elizabeth ate a pint of ice cream and Gary turned on the news.

A local station called it a “campus controversy.” Reporters said that Norton, the principal and three others had been reassigned because they allowed a transgender student to play volleyball.

News crews showed pictures of Norton and footage of Elizabeth’s team. The reporters didn’t say Elizabeth’s name, but the district released Norton’s, and everyone at school knew Norton had a daughter on the volleyball team.

The phone rang. Norton didn’t recognize the number, so she rejected it, and a man left a snickering voice message.

“So you got a son who likes to sneak into women’s bathrooms?” he asked.

Neither Norton nor Elizabeth left the house the next day. They hid while reporters knocked on the front door, and they watched TV. The local news reported that hundreds of Monarch students had walked out to protest the district’s decision.

Elizabeth was allowed to go back any time, but she told Norton she was scared. What if everyone looked at her, searching for signs of boy where they once saw girl? And what if someone tried to beat her up?

Elizabeth had never been quick to talk about her feelings, but in the weeks that followed, Norton could sense something had changed. Elizabeth spent hours in bed. She told Norton she didn’t care about any of it but pored over online comments about what had happened. That December, Norton’s older daughter came home for the holidays, and she told Norton she could hear Elizabeth through their shared wall. Elizabeth wasn’t sleeping. She was awake, sobbing.

The investigation began that winter. District officials sent Norton to do janitorial work and manual labor at a warehouse, then they interviewed people about Elizabeth. In late January, two officers questioned Norton. They pressed her about the day in 2016 she asked Elizabeth’s elementary school to change her gender marker.

Norton told them every detail she could remember, but she didn’t understand why they were asking. She hadn’t even worked for the school district then. She was just a parent, and as far as she understood, she hadn’t done anything illegal.

A few weeks later, an officer brought Norton a redacted copy of the investigation, then told her a professional standards committee would recommend a punishment within a few months.

Norton read the document at her dining room table, and she felt angry as she made her way through. The then-superintendent had told reporters that an anonymous constituent had called the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and told him a trans girl was playing on the volleyball team. But the informant wasn’t just a constituent, Norton learned. He was a Broward County School Board member. (The former superintendent could not be reached for comment.)

The board had changed considerably in the five years since Elizabeth had testified and thanked its members for keeping her safe. DeSantis had removed several elected board members and replaced them with his own delegates.

Daniel Foganholi, a member of the Broward County School Board, told investigators he had received an anonymous phone call “advising that a male student was playing female sports at Monarch High School.”(Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

“I think what happened is criminal,” says Brenda Fam, a member of the Broward County School Board who had criticized trans people online and in previous meetings. “Norton’s efforts to change her child’s gender have stemmed back to the second grade.”(Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

The investigation showed that one of DeSantis’s appointees asked the district to investigate Norton. The volleyball season was over by the time Daniel Foganholi reported Elizabeth, but Foganholi told investigators he had received an anonymous phone call “advising that a male student was playing female sports at Monarch High School.” (Foganholi did not respond to requests for comment.)

The investigators’ report was more than 500 pages long, and it took Norton a few days to finish reading. Nearly every page angered her. The officers had spent considerable time trying to find out what Elizabeth looked like. They asked a district administrator to comb Elizabeth’s files and tell them how much she weighed every year between 2013 and 2017. They pushed multiple adults to describe her physically, and they asked three girls on the volleyball team if they’d ever seen Elizabeth undressed. No, the girls said. No one ever used the locker room.

The investigation included transcripts of every interview the officers conducted, and as Norton read, she saw that the officers had repeatedly called Elizabeth “he” in those discussions. On two occasions, the transcripts showed, one detective called Elizabeth “it.” (The investigation is a public document, and The Post reviewed this document and 200 other pages related to the investigation.)

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A week before they interviewed Norton, the file showed, they talked to Elizabeth’s middle school guidance counselor, and they asked her to tell them about Elizabeth’s transition. The counselor said she was worried she’d break the law if she did, but an officer told her she wouldn’t.

“No,” the officer said. “I am the law.”

As Norton neared the end of the document, she realized at least some district leaders had known Elizabeth was transgender long before Thanksgiving break. The investigation showed that in 2021, three weeks after Norton filed the lawsuit, the district’s lawyer asked for Elizabeth’s records.

What changed, Norton wondered? Why was the district investigating her now?

(Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

Winter turned to spring, and Elizabeth did not return to Monarch. She’d only go back, she said, if Norton went, too.

Norton enrolled Elizabeth in virtual school, but she rarely did more than an hour of classwork. Mostly, she played “Fortnite.” In the game, no one knew what was going on at her school. She was just a girl, spinning across the screen in pink hair and a Nike jumpsuit.

By spring, she was failing geometry. Norton spent most of her time at the book warehouse where she’d been reassigned, but one day in early April, she called in sick so she could spend time with Elizabeth.

Norton waited most of the morning, but Elizabeth didn’t emerge from her room. Finally, at noon, Norton knocked, then pushed Elizabeth’s door open. She was asleep, tucked into a pair of purple floral sheets she’d bought at Target after seeing the same set in a Taylor Swift video.

“Wake up,” Norton said. “We’re going to lunch.”

They drove to a Cheesecake Factory a few minutes from their house. Elizabeth barely talked. After they finished, Norton asked if she wanted to go to Sephora to buy the pistachio-scented Brazilian Crushperfume they both wore.

“Just in and out, okay?” Elizabeth said. “School is getting out soon.”

They made it maybe 20 feet before two teenagers waved. Elizabeth swung right, then disappeared, but Norton didn’t have on her glasses, so she didn’t notice the girls until they were right in front of her.

“Mrs. Norton!” one said. “We miss you!”

Norton scanned the street, but she didn’t see Elizabeth. She wished the girls luck in school, then she found Elizabeth hiding in a row of eyebrow pencils. The perfume was too expensive, Elizabeth said. She left without buying anything.

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On the way home, they drove past Monarch, and Norton teared up. She suddenly understood all that Elizabeth might lose. Every year, the seniors paint their parking spots. Elizabeth had already made plans to decorate hers with lyrics from Taylor Swift’s “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” but now, Norton thought, she might never paint one. She probably wouldn’t go to prom. She wouldn’t take senior pictures. She wouldn’t give the graduation speech she’d already started writing.

When they got home late that evening, a certified letter was waiting. Ultimately, the school board would decide Norton’s fate, but the letter said the committee had reviewed the investigative report, and they’d found sufficient evidence to show Norton had broken Florida law.

“The disciplinary recommendation,” it said, “is a termination.”

Norton prepares to leave for the Broward County School Board meeting on July 23 in Coconut Creek. (Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

Norton’s high school salary had always covered their necessities and little else. She worried she’d soon lose even that, so as the investigation dragged on, she took a side job selling merchandise at concerts across South Florida. The Friday night before her scheduled board hearing, she was working a Carlos Santana show when a friend texted to say the board had removed Norton’s name from the Tuesday agenda.

Norton’s stomach sank. She was tired of being silent. She decided she would go to the meeting. She would sign up for public testimony, and she’d tell the school board what had happened to her daughter.

As Norton and her husband sat in the audience that Tuesday, she could feel her heart rate climb. She looked down at her Apple Watch: 110, 120. She worried she might have a heart attack before she reached the podium.

The board reappointed dozens of employees, memorialized three young students, then finally, two hours into the meeting, they called Norton’s name.

She and her husband walked to the microphone, and Norton smoothed her floral dress.

“We are here to speak for our family and tell you how careless actions by the district’s leadership have affected our daughter and our family,” she said.

Jessica Norton, center left, and her husband, Gary, center right, during the Broward County School Board meeting at Plantation High School auditorium on July 23 in Coconut Creek. (Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

She had waited 203 days for an answer, she told them. She had done manual labor. She had answered every question, and she had sat through an interview where a detective refused to use her daughter’s legal name or gender.

Norton teared up as she spoke. Her daughter was an innocent 16-year-old girl, she said. Yes, she had played volleyball, but she had done so much more at Monarch. Her peers had chosen her for the homecoming court and student government. She had been flourishing, Norton said, but the district’s investigation had ruined that.

“It’s okay if I’m the villain in their story,” she said, “because I’m the hero in my daughter’s story.”

Norton, left, after the Broward County School Board decided on July 23 to postpone its decision on her case and scheduled a new hearing for the following week. (Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

Things started to change after Norton’s speech. The district set a new hearing for late July, and a number of school board members told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel they didn’t want to fire Norton.

On her way to the final meeting, Norton fiddled anxiously with the minivan’s stereo. As part of an earlier board discussion, one member had asked for other employee discipline data. A reporterhad posted the findings that morning while Jessica did her makeup. Adults who’d abused children had served one- and five-day suspensions. A teacher who’d slapped a child received a letter of reprimand.

“They’re recommending a harsher punishment for me than for people who abused kids,” Norton told her husband as she drove.

A dozen people registered to speak. Former students told the board Norton was the reason they made it to college. Most people asked the board not to fire her, but as Norton watched, she couldn’t tell what the district officials might do.

Some said the investigation was flawed. They described Norton as a scapegoat and said Elizabeth had suffered enough. But the chair, a former stay-at-home mom who joined the board after her daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting, said she believed any employee who breaks the law should be punished.

Like the investigation itself, much of the board’s discussion centered on the day Norton asked Elizabeth’s elementary school to change her records. Though Norton hadn’t worked at the district then, Brenda Fam, a board member who had criticized trans people online and in previous meetings, said she thought Norton “inappropriately requested and pressured” school employees.

“I think what happened is criminal,” Fam said. “Norton’s efforts to change her child’s gender have stemmed back to the second grade.”

Norton, Gary and attorney Jason Starr leave the meeting at Plantation High. (Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

Fam repeatedly referred to Elizabeth asNorton’s “son.” After the third or fourth time, Norton started to think maybe she didn’t want to go back to Monarch. How could she work for a school board that intentionally misgendered her child?

Norton walked out of the auditorium. Outside, she loaded a stream of the meeting on her phone and waited for a decision. The board members were split on what they wanted, but half an hour later, a narrow majority agreed to suspend Norton for 10 days, then move her to a different job where she no longer has access to records.

A scrum of reporters circled Norton and her husband. Norton was proud she hadn’t backed down, but she told them she wasn’t sure what to do now. She had fought for 11 years to keep Elizabeth safe in school. She would do whatever she had to do next to keep her safe still.

“Am I remorseful for protecting my child?” she asked. “Absolutely not.”

Norton meets with reporters July 30 after the Broward County School Board narrowly voted to suspend her for 10 days and reassign her to a position in which she would not have access to student records. (Eva Maria Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

The school district told Norton in late August she wouldn’t go back to Monarch. Instead, she’d do clerical work at a nonschool site. Norton didn’t want to leave Elizabeth, but she needed money, so she accepted the job.

The family spent one of Norton’s last free days at the beach, then that evening, Elizabeth said she wanted to watch her old team play. It was an away game, the second match of the year, so they climbed into Norton’s minivan and drove to Coral Springs.

All the girls hugged Norton and Elizabeth when they arrived, and most of the parents did, too. But once the game started, Elizabeth went quiet. She watched, and Norton knew she wanted to be out there with them. They left after the first set.

Norton wanted to cheer up Elizabeth, so she drove her to the mall after the game. Elizabeth didn’t talk the entire time. They ate Chipotle and wandered around, and eventually Norton found Elizabeth in the kids’ section at Marshalls, running volleyball drills with a toy.

Elizabeth passed out on the couch the second they got home, and Norton knew they couldn’t keep living like this.

Jessica Norton dances as her daughter Elizabeth sings during a family karaoke night at a Delray Beach restaurant on July 22. (Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post)

In all the months they’d been waiting for an end to the investigation, Norton had never considered moving. She loved Coconut Creek. Both she and her husband had lived there their entire lives, and she’d always imagined they’d grow old on their corner lot.

Maybe it was time to let those dreams go, Norton thought. Maybe they were better off moving to a town where no one knew them. Elizabeth might never want to play team sports again, Norton imagined, but maybe, if they found a new school, she could still have a senior year, one last chance at a normal girlhood and the good life Norton had worked so hard to give her.

 

[safe sex 11696]

@PRONG HORN After all the transphobic bullshit cartoons you posted, you really should read the above article and give educating yourself a try

[troph 24781]

On a related trans women in sports theme I had deep dive blood work for my post Covid symptoms - red blood cell count, red blood cell size and other oxygen capacity numbers - which is a theory many espouse as why later transitioners shouldn’t be allowed to play women’s sports - all came back normal FEMALE range. Who woulda thought. Fuckers. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19100]

On 9/6/2024 at 3:24 PM, troph said:

 

this looks to be really good. Reminds me of me and some of my guy friends. Though I’m way hotter and probably way more fun than Harper, sorry Harp. 

 

On 9/11/2024 at 10:55 AM, atomheartbevo said:

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/will-ferrell-regrets-snl-drag-sketches-janet-reno-1236139470/

Long interview with Harper and Will.

This is really good.

[atomheartbevo 89626]

22 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

This is really good.

And in a follow-up to that interview

https://variety.com/2024/scene/news/will-ferrell-harper-steele-netflix-will-and-harper-election-day-1236158481/

Quote

It’s no coincidence that the new Netflix documentary “Will & Harper” was released just a few weeks before Election Day. The film chronicles a cross-country road trip that Will Ferrell took with former “Saturday Night Live” head writer Harper Steele shortly after her transition.

“When we sat down with Netflix we made it clear that we wanted this out before the election,” Ferrell told me at the film’s Los Angeles premiere. “We wanted it to have enough runway for people to get to see it and hopefully start having important discussions in their living rooms.”

Quote

Since premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Harper said that she’s been hearing from a “lot of parents and kids” who want to see the movie.

“We’ve heard from people who say they can’t wait to see this with friends and family who maybe don’t share the same viewpoint and they’re looking forward to watching it all together,” Ferrell said. “Hopefully it could slowly chip away at some of that.”

Quote

While the film featured Steele struggling with revisiting old stomping grounds for the first time as a woman and the hate she and Ferrell were subjected to on social media after they were spotted at an Indiana Pacers basketball game and surrounded by fans at a Texas steakhouse, the two joked that the most challenging times while shooting had nothing to do with gender identity. “I hate to sound so flip but starting the car in the morning was probably the hardest thing we had to deal with,” Steele said, laughing.

“Yeah, that car wasn’t good,” Ferrell added.

 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19100]

16 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

And in a follow-up to that interview

https://variety.com/2024/scene/news/will-ferrell-harper-steele-netflix-will-and-harper-election-day-1236158481/

 

Just read that. FYI, the scene in Amarillo was awful. People in Texas are shitty. Glad I don't live there anymore. 

[royiv 9247]

8 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Just read that. FYI, the scene in Amarillo was awful. People in Texas are shitty. Glad I don't live there anymore. 

Hey, don’t paint us all with the same broad brush. Someone has to stay behind to fight the good fight.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33859]

11 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Just read that. FYI, the scene in Amarillo was awful. People in Texas are shitty. Glad I don't live there anymore. 

you're welcome to post elsewhere

[RomaVicta 29902]

On 9/4/2024 at 3:34 PM, troph said:

Now birth certificates. While not as critical to functioning normally in society as a DL is, it can still be a significant set back to not be able to update. Paxton has said nope, no circumstances under which Texas will allow a change. 
 

and no one gives a fuck.

And that's why this country's fate as an actual republic lies in the hands of just a few million unengaged voters. This is not to say that engaged voters give much of a fuck either, but at least their votes on other issues have a chance to align with the minor issues of persecution and fascism.

Streaming college football, I've seen the Trump ads touting the horrors of medical coverage for aiding transexuals/unsures deal with their situation. (It's difficult to word that. If I write "treat," it sounds like we're talking about a disease. I guess that helps the fascists to feel superior.)  The fact that medical professionals are making medical decisions about this carries no weight or has not been emphasized enough in the discourse that I've heard.

@Brisketexan stated it years ago, so it kind of fades in the face of new characterizations:

Cruelty is our brand. 

It excites the insecure adolescent need to feel tough and superior. 

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19100]

2 hours ago, royiv said:

Hey, don’t paint us all with the same broad brush. Someone has to stay behind to fight the good fight.

Good on you. As a woman, that is not something I could do.

4 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

you're welcome to post elsewhere

LOL.  I said people.  That means the group.  Individuals are fine, but as a whole, just look at how Texas votes.  That tells you all you need to know.

[RomaVicta 29902]

11 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

“When we sat down with Netflix we made it clear that we wanted this out before the election,” Ferrell told me at the film’s Los Angeles premiere. “We wanted it to have enough runway for people to get to see it and hopefully start having important discussions in their living rooms.”

[Longhorn_Fan68 33859]

1 minute ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Good on you. As a woman, that is not something I could do.

LOL.  I said people.  That means the group.  Individuals are fine, but as a whole, just look at how Texas votes.  That tells you all you need to know.

It's a generalization I cannot abide. Yes, in the more rural parts of Texas you're going to find ignorant and bigoted people. I challenge you to name a state where that isn't true. picking on Texas is just low hanging fruit. there are plenty of bigots in New York too - but I'm guessing you don't call them out equally

[RomaVicta 29902]

You can recognize what Texas has become and not be glorifying New York or any other location.

There are large pockets of resistence in the metropolitan areas, but we know how the white man vote largely goes here. 

I'm a Texan. I don't like having to say it almost apologetically to decent people in other states. That was not the case when I was young. What distinguished Texas and Texans 60 years ago is largely long gone. Texans used to be generally friendly and people who tended to mind their own business. No more.

Edited September 30 by RomaVicta

[Longhorn_Fan68 33859]

6 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

You can recognize what Texas has become and not be glorifying New York or any other location.

There are large pockets of resistence in the metropolitan areas, but we know how the white man vote largely goes here. 

I'm a Texan. I don't like having to say it almost apologetically to decent people in other states. That was not the case when I was young. What distinguished Texas and Texans 60 years ago is largely long gone. Texans used to be generally friendly and people who tended to mind their own business. No more.

sure, that can all be true, but we are also not unique. we're not special. our assholes aren't any more assholish than anyone else's. call me a pollyanna but I don't think Texas will continue down this road. I hope and believe it will be blue again in my lifetime. that still doesn't address our assholes, but at least they won't be in positions of power and influence anymore.

[Willfully Horn 8001]

Y’all, native Texans did not vote in the current shit show.

[troph 24781]

50 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

And that's why this country's fate as an actual republic lies in the hands of just a few million unengaged voters. This is not to say that engaged voters give much of a fuck either, but at least their votes on other issues have a chance to align with the minor issues of persecution and fascism.

Streaming college football, I've seen the Trump ads touting the horrors of medical coverage for aiding transexuals/unsures deal with their situation. (It's difficult to word that. If I write "treat," it sounds like we're talking about a disease. I guess that helps the fascists to feel superior.)  The fact that medical professionals are making medical decisions about this carries no weight or has not been emphasized enough in the discourse that I've heard.

@Brisketexan stated it years ago, so it kind of fades in the face of new characterizations:

Cruelty is our brand. 

It excites the insecure adolescent need to feel tough and superior. 

Trevor project came out with a study showing a significant rise in suicidality in states where anti-trans legislation has passed.  Not shocking but will be ignored. Why? Cruelty is their brand.

[Captainant 27628]

7 minutes ago, Willfully Horn said:

Y’all, native Texans did not vote in the current shit show.

Unfortunately, native Texans are the people setting the table for the fascist fucks that ARE voting in the current shit show. Oil and Gas barons in west Texas send their regards.

[Willfully Horn 8001]

13 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Unfortunately, native Texans are the people setting the table for the fascist fucks that ARE voting in the current shit show. Oil and Gas barons in west Texas send their regards.

That’s fair. But they needed carpetbaggers to get the votes.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33859]

35 minutes ago, Willfully Horn said:

Y’all, native Texans did not vote in the current shit show.

unfortunately you may have that backwards. it might be the transplants that save us. then again, they could be ones to sink us too. time will tell I suppose

[Willfully Horn 8001]

2 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

unfortunately you may have that backwards. it might be the transplants that save us. then again, they could be ones to sink us too. time will tell I suppose