Ohio's Highest Court Removes 'Husband,' 'Wife' in Cases in Favor of 'Gender Neutral' Terms
This blog is LOADED with the latest MADNESS from the Modern World
The Ohio Supreme Court implemented a controversial decision Tuesday to stop using gender specific terms such as "husband," "wife," "father" and "mother" on all of rules and forms, opting instead to use gender neutral terms.
In a statement released Monday by court spokesman Bret Crow, the decision came as a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's legalization of gay marriage last summer.
"The terms husband, wife, father,
mother, parent, spouse and others were to 'be construed as gender
neutral where appropriate' and to remain in effect until the rules and
forms were 'amended to reflect the changes contained in this Order,'" Court News Ohio reports.
"Ohio Supreme Court rules and forms that address marriage and the related topics of divorce, child support, guardianships, adoption, domestic relations, and domestic violence have been amended to remove gender-specific terms."
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Obergefell v. Hodges that state level bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional.
Ohio's ban, passed overwhelmingly in 2004 by voters, was one of 13 referenda approved laws that were struck down in the decision.
Years earlier, the highest court in the state was known to be supportive of the traditional marriage definition side of the debate.
In 2004, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to throw out an attempted legal challenge against the referendum question to add an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution.
Regarding the October 2004 decision, attorney David Langdon denounced the failed effort to stop the referendum from happening.
"The attack on this amendment was nothing less than an attempt to stop the people of Ohio from being heard," stated Langdon. "Their desperation to evade democracy did not succeed."
Women whose babies develop fatal defects in the early stages of pregnancy will be given advice on going ahead with the birth so the NHS can harvest their organs, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Most expectant mothers opt for termination after being told the devastating news their child has no chance of survival once born. But now, amid a chronic shortage of donated organs, mums will be ‘supported’ to have the baby at nine months so that the child’s vital organs can be taken for transplant.
Last night the proposal sparked an ethical debate – with one critic describing it as a ‘ghoulish suggestion’ that would undermine public confidence in organ donation. The move was revealed at a medical conference where NHS transplant surgeons said they wanted to take more organs from babies nationally to address a dire shortage. As part of this drive, midwives and other NHS workers are to be educated about the potential for using babies’ organs in transplants. READ MORE
"Ohio Supreme Court rules and forms that address marriage and the related topics of divorce, child support, guardianships, adoption, domestic relations, and domestic violence have been amended to remove gender-specific terms."
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Obergefell v. Hodges that state level bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional.
Ohio's ban, passed overwhelmingly in 2004 by voters, was one of 13 referenda approved laws that were struck down in the decision.
Years earlier, the highest court in the state was known to be supportive of the traditional marriage definition side of the debate.
In 2004, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to throw out an attempted legal challenge against the referendum question to add an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution.
Regarding the October 2004 decision, attorney David Langdon denounced the failed effort to stop the referendum from happening.
"The attack on this amendment was nothing less than an attempt to stop the people of Ohio from being heard," stated Langdon. "Their desperation to evade democracy did not succeed."
NHS to harvest babies’ organs
Women whose babies develop fatal defects in the early stages of pregnancy will be given advice on going ahead with the birth so the NHS can harvest their organs, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Most expectant mothers opt for termination after being told the devastating news their child has no chance of survival once born. But now, amid a chronic shortage of donated organs, mums will be ‘supported’ to have the baby at nine months so that the child’s vital organs can be taken for transplant.
Last night the proposal sparked an ethical debate – with one critic describing it as a ‘ghoulish suggestion’ that would undermine public confidence in organ donation. The move was revealed at a medical conference where NHS transplant surgeons said they wanted to take more organs from babies nationally to address a dire shortage. As part of this drive, midwives and other NHS workers are to be educated about the potential for using babies’ organs in transplants. READ MORE
Beating ‘heart-on-a-chip’ developed to replace human organs & animal testing (VIDEO)
Scientists at the University of Toronto have successfully
implanted a pulsating ‘heart-on-a-chip’ into a rat using human tissue
generated outside the body.
Composed
of heart tissue, the microchip-like device is made on tiny scaffolding
structures that hold human cells. The researchers hope that the chip can
one day aid, or even replace, organs and reduce the risk of
post-transplant complications.Professor Milica Radisic and her team have also managed to emulate liver tissue and blood vessels. In a statement, the scientist said that these lab-grown tissues could help repair damaged organs and could reduce the risk of organ rejection.
“It really is multifunctional, and solves many problems in the tissue engineering space,” says Radisic. “It’s truly next-generation.”
Related:
Did you know that more Americans now die from suicide than are killed in car crashes each year?
According to the CDC, there has been a substantial spike in suicide deaths in the United States in recent years. Today, approximately 9.3 million Americans admit to having suicidal thoughts, and approximately 2.7 million Americans each year actually make a plan for how they would commit suicide. We are a deeply, deeply unhappy nation, but of course this phenomenon is not just limited to America. According to the World Health Organization, suicide is now thethird highest cause of death in the entire world. Globally, suicide rates have soared by 60 percent over the past 45 years, and the WHO is now projecting that by the year 2020 someone will be committing suicide somewhere in the worldevery 20 seconds.
There was an article in the Guardian that I came across today that was entitled “Financial despair, addiction and the rise of suicide in white America“. It discussed the extremely alarming rise in the suicide rate among Americans that are approaching retirement age. Many in this age group are drowning in debt, dealing with out of control medical bills, have saved very little for retirement and are dealing with significant physical pain. One fact that I was astounded to learn is that in the state of Montana there are 82 painkiller prescriptions for every 100 people. In a desperate attempt to find a way out, many Americans this age are considering suicide. 56-year-old Kevin Lowney is one example…
According to a Fox News report, the suicide rate for Americans age 10 to age 24 has “gone up every year”…
Without a doubt, the decline of our economy is playing a role. The middle class is steadily shrinking, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing month. Many Americans that are approaching retirement age do not see any viable future for themselves, and thus many of them are completely giving in to depression and despair.
But I don’t think that explains all of it. I think another major factor is the fact that our society is being drugged into oblivion. At this point, nearly 60 percent of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and many drugs are known to substantially increase the risk of suicide.
Instead of addressing these root causes, many want the government to step in and magically solve this problem somehow. In fact, there is a new proposal for mandatory depression screening that many are warning could have very serious consequences. The following is an excerpt from a piece that Ron Paul recently authored…
In the end, the real problem is in our hearts. We have pushed God to the outer fringes of society, and we have decided that we can set up our own version of utopia without Him.
Well, that isn’t exactly working out too well, is it?
If you know someone that is depressed and may be considering suicide, the following are some of the signs that livescience.com says that you should watch for…
Many of these people that are contemplating suicide could have futures that are brighter beyond what they could possibly imagine, but they are focusing on all the wrong things.
So what do you think is causing the stunning rise in suicide both here in the United States and around the globe?
Related:
Officials at Rochester’s World School of Inquiry spent last week fielding dozens of calls from parents angry about a “World Hijab Day” event that encouraged girls to wear the Muslim religious head covering. Sophomore Eman Muthana wears a hijab to school and wrote a letter to principal Sheela Webster asking if the school can put on its own World Hijab Day at the school last Friday,WHAM reports.
Webster approved the event – designed to educate students about the religious purposes behind the hijab – but did not inform parents until after the media reports of the event sparked backlash online, and angry calls to the school, according to WHEC. “As a high school teacher for over 30 years, let me say that this is wrong on so many levels,” Jim Farnholz wrote, according to the news site. READ MORE
Two women have spoken out about the euthanasia of their sister, Tine Nys, in Belgium. On Christmas Eve 2009, Tine, who was 37 at the time, announced her intention to pursue euthanasia, following a split from her boyfriend. She was killed by lethal injection on April 24, 2010, with her parents and her sisters Lotte and Sophie by her side.
In a recent interview with Terzake, a Flemish current affairs television program, Lotte and Sophie expressed their dismay at the attitude doctors took toward Tine’s request. The law requires that two doctors and a psychologist evaluate a person’s request for euthanasia. In Belgium, euthanasia on the grounds of “unbearable suffering” is permitted. In this case, the doctors decided that Tine’s breakup was a reasonable justification for her wanting to end her life. The two sisters felt that very little effort was made to persuade Tine to live. READ MORE
We knew this was coming, and we told you this was coming, yet many people still refuse to believe us.
Even as I write these words, different cities in America are considering dangerous and irrational laws that impose unfair and potentially dangerous burdens on the vast majority of citizens, all in name of helping a tiny number of deeply confused individuals. When will we learn?
To put it simply, you are guaranteeing trouble when you effectively make public bathrooms and locker rooms gender neutral. It is an experiment in social madness, and it is completely without justification, no matter how much we care about men and women who struggle with gender identity issues.
Many of us in the pro-family movement have warned for years that so-called anti-discrimination laws that include "gender identity" and "gender expression" as categories open the door to a host of potential problems and abuses.
First, these laws do not consider the needs of a multitude of women and children who will feel quite uncomfortable when a biological male comes walking into their bathroom or locker room, understandably so. (Note to LGBT activists: The fact that a biological male dresses like a female does not make women and children feel any more comfortable.)
Second, there is no way to keep heterosexual predators out of the ladies' rooms, since a heterosexual male could simply pose as a woman to satisfy his voyeuristic (or worse) desires.
Yesterday, in Seattle, "A man undressed in a women's locker room, citing a new state rule that allows people to choose a bathroom based on gender identity."
As reported by krem.com, "It was a busy time at Evans Pool around 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8. The pool was open for lap swim. According to Seattle Parks and Recreation, a man wearing board shorts entered the women's locker room and took off his shirt. Women alerted staff, who told the man to leave, but he said 'the law has changed and I have a right to be here.'"
Was he transgender? Heterosexual? Something else? Does it matter? If he feels he should be able to use the women's locker room, he can, and no one can stop him.
In the words of pool regular Aldan Shank, "Sort of works against the point they're trying to make. They're causing people to feel exposed and vulnerable with the intention of reducing people feeling exposed and vulnerable."
When I posted this report on my Facebook page, a woman named Kati commented, "This is VERY real. This new policy that was recently adopted by our local YMCA in WA allows for people to use whatever locker room they self-identify with. Just two weeks ago a boy around the age of 13 walked right into the girls side of the women's locker room. All he did was sit down and scroll through his phone. Little girls where surprised when they came in from showering with their towels wrapped around them to see him sitting there. My daughter was one of those girls. This policy opens the door to those who have malicious intent."
What kind of lunacy is this?
Last year, at a Planet Fitness gym in Midland, Michigan, Yvette Cormier was in the ladies' locker room when a man, dressed as a woman, entered the locker room. According to local ABC News, "Cormier, who had been a Planet Fitness member for two months, said she went to the front desk immediately. The man at the desk told her that Planet Fitness policy is 'whatever gender you feel you are, that's the locker room you're allowed to go in,'" she said.
When Cormier warned other members about the Planet Fitness policy, her own membership was revoked.
Even more alarming, in 2012, in Olympia, Washington, female high school students sharing a college campus swimming pool were shocked to see a naked, 45-year-old male student who identifies as "Colleen" sitting in their sauna. (The police report stated that "she" was exposing "her male genitalia.")
The girls were traumatized and the parents outraged, but college officials said they could not do anything because of state policies against gender-identity discrimination: "'The college has to follow state law,' Evergreen spokesman Jason Wettstein told ABC News affiliate KOMO. 'The college cannot discriminate based on the basis of gender identity. Gender identity is one of the protected things in discrimination law in this state.'"
Adding to the insanity is the fact that it was subsequently discovered online that Colleen also identifies as a lesbian and is strongly attracted to women, in other words, just like most heterosexual males. Yet it is perfectly legal for Colleen to sit in a sauna with naked teenage girls.
Who can possibly justify abuses like this?
Last October, The HuffPost reported, "The University of Toronto (U of T) is temporarily changing its policy on gender-neutral bathrooms after two reports of voyeurism in a student residence.
"Two women showering in Whitney Hall, a residence at U of T's University College, reported they saw a cellphone reach over the shower-stall dividers in an attempt to record them, in two different incidents, police Const. Victor Kwong told The Toronto Star."
But of course. Is anyone surprised?
Recently, before speaking at a chapel service for a Christian middle school and high school, I stopped in the restroom, which, I discovered, was in the elementary school wing of the building.
As I walked out, three little boys walked in, perhaps 6 years old.
I thought to myself, "How could any adult possibly think that it is fair to these little boys to have a confused little girl use their bathroom, or a confused little boy use the girls' room? And how could any adult possibly think that it was fine for a confused (or opportunistic) teenage boy to share a locker room with teenage girls?"
Yet in schools across the nation, this is hardly a theoretical question. In fact, in an extraordinary example of government overreach, last November a headline announced: "Department of Education orders school to allow boys to use girls' locker rooms, showers."
It's time we say, "Enough!"
I urge every man or woman of conscience and decency to stand against these laws while, at the same time, working to help those who are gender-confused get to the root of their struggles.
This social madness must stop.
Scientists say that they are close to developing birth control pills for men.
Experts have for years attempted and failed to create a male pill to rival the contraceptive options that have been available to women since the 1960s.
Now, however, scientists from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy claim to have taken a step forward by tweaking experimental compounds to develop a product that works for men and has no side-effects.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/article4712473.ece
Bergman, who runs a Toronto-based publishing company making books for children that positively portrays “LGBTQ” people, is the transgender partner of J. Wallace, a gender equity adviser at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).
Bergman writes that as a young activist, she often entertained a “delicious fantasy” of wishing that as a child she had been given the pro-LGBTQ mentors, workshops, and resources that kids today are freely given in schools.
“In [my fantasy], I was ushered into the world of queerness with care and tenderness by experienced homos and trans people (in my imagination they were like very fabulous versions of my favorite camp counselors from childhood). I would be issued my leather jacket and my protest pins, my safer sex supplies and a hotline of some kind I could call if I needed it.”
Bergman recounts that as a young gay activist she was taught how to refute accusations that the movement was engaging in “indoctrination and recruiting.” She was to tell concerned parents that she was “just providing an alternate viewpoint.” She was to use “soft” language when speaking about homosexuality.
But Bergman writes that she is tired of the “lie.”
“All 25 years of my career as an LGBTQ activist, since the very first time as a 16-year-old I went and stood shaking and breathless in front of eleven people to talk about My Story, I have been on a consistent campaign of trying to change people's minds about us. I want to make them like us. That is absolutely my goal … even if that goes against the way you have interpreted the teachings of your religion.”
“I want to be present in their emotional landscapes as a perfectly nice dad and writer who is married to another guy. Who used to be a girl (kind of). Who is friendly and cheerful and not scary at all, no matter what anyone says.”
“That is our job: to encourage people, especially children, to think differently about a subject than they do now,” she continues. “To dispel the dim and dismal miasma of myths and stereotypes, and instead allow the light of truth and fairness to shine in. That's the deal, my friends. And if we have done it -- if we have come to a place where a kid has been struggling in the muck of ignorance and hatred, and helped them up and cleaned them off and sent them to play in a meadow of love or at least kindness -- then baby, we have done the thing well.”
While Bergman paints a “friendly and cheerful” picture of the gay lifestyle, she fails to mention the serious health risks tied to homosexual behaviors. These include increased rates of sexually transmitted diseases, bacterial and viral infections, depression, and even cancer.
Research done in 2002 by Dr. John R. Diggs found that same-sex sexual behaviors expose gays, lesbians and bisexuals to “extreme risks of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), physical injuries, mental disorders and even a shortened life span.” Common sexual practices among gay men were found to lead to “numerous STDs and physical injuries, some of which are virtually unknown in the heterosexual population.” Gay and bisexual men were found to “lose up to 20 years of life expectancy.”
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have warned on numerous occasions that HIV rates, already at epidemic proportions, are continuing to climb steadily among men who have ‘sex’ with men. The CDC has stated that gay and bisexual men continue to remain at the epicenter of what they call a “HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
Bergman also fails to point out the spiritual damage that religions across the world say is caused by homosexual activity. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism categorically reject homosexual practices in the strongest language as a direct rejection of God and his plan for human sexuality.
Christianity — “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error” (Letter to Romans 1:26).
Islam — “…For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.... And we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone)” (The Qur'an 7:80-84).
The Catholic Church calls homosexual acts “intrinsically disordered” since they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”
Despite accusations of ‘homophobia,’ the Catholic Church actually teaches that people struggling with same-sex attraction “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”
Bergman is not the first homosexual activist to admit the movement aims to “indoctrinate” children into their worldview.
In 2011 U.S. gay activist Daniel Villarreal penned a column for Queerty.com stating that the time had come for the homosexual lobby to admit to “indoctrinating” schoolchildren to accept homosexuality.
“Why would we push anti-bullying programs or social studies classes that teach kids about the historical contributions of famous queers unless we wanted to deliberately educate children to accept queer sexuality as normal?”
“We want educators to teach future generations of children to accept queer sexuality. In fact, our very future depends on it. Recruiting children? You bet we are,” he added.
“I for one,” continued Villarreal, “certainly want tons of school children to learn that it’s OK to be gay, that people of the same sex should be allowed to legally marry each other, and that anyone can kiss a person of the same sex without feeling like a freak. And I would very much like for many of these young boys to grow up and start f**ing men.”
In September 2014, Bergman’s publishing company offered a free “trans-positive kids (JK-2) book” to Toronto District School Board libraries. She said she was combating “fear-mongering” from school trustee Sam Sotiropoulos who had taken a stand against homosexual activism in the school board.
Bergman and Wallace’s book list for kids to “break gender stereotypes” has 54 titles, including:
“I want kids to know [we're perfectly fine and often really excellent] even if their parents' or community's interpretation of their religious tenets is that we're awful. I would be happy -- delighted, overjoyed I tell you -- to cause those children to disagree with their families on the subject of LGBTQ people.”
“If that makes me an indoctrinator, I accept it. Let me be honest -- I am not even a little bit sorry.”
Update (March 18, 2015): After publication, LifeSiteNews learned that S. Bear Bergman is a biological woman who identifies as a man. As a result, we've changed the gender pronouns in the article to female.
Related:
You know the look you get from your liberal friends when you mention slippery slopes? Well, get prepared to see a lot of those if you discuss this week’s episode of Broad City, “Game Over.” Let’s start by saying this show is rude and crude times 10 and not recommended for human consumption. So don’t feel like you need to watch to see just how bad it is. Trust us, it’s that bad. On top of being disgusting, it isn’t even funny. One laugh per show … maybe.
The real issue at hand, though, is the slippery slope. Anytime conservatives talk about how normalizing gay marriage could lead to other issues, we get scoffed at. Yet it is consistently true. You would be hard pressed to convince anyone that gay marriage would have just happened without homosexuality first being normalized by Hollywood. How many openly gay characters can you name from the 70s? I can’t really think of any. How many shows today can you name without a loveable gay character? Exactly. READ MORE
Suicide Epidemic: Why Does The Number Of People Killing Themselves Just Keep Going Up?
According to the CDC, there has been a substantial spike in suicide deaths in the United States in recent years
Did you know that more Americans now die from suicide than are killed in car crashes each year?
According to the CDC, there has been a substantial spike in suicide deaths in the United States in recent years. Today, approximately 9.3 million Americans admit to having suicidal thoughts, and approximately 2.7 million Americans each year actually make a plan for how they would commit suicide. We are a deeply, deeply unhappy nation, but of course this phenomenon is not just limited to America. According to the World Health Organization, suicide is now thethird highest cause of death in the entire world. Globally, suicide rates have soared by 60 percent over the past 45 years, and the WHO is now projecting that by the year 2020 someone will be committing suicide somewhere in the worldevery 20 seconds.
There was an article in the Guardian that I came across today that was entitled “Financial despair, addiction and the rise of suicide in white America“. It discussed the extremely alarming rise in the suicide rate among Americans that are approaching retirement age. Many in this age group are drowning in debt, dealing with out of control medical bills, have saved very little for retirement and are dealing with significant physical pain. One fact that I was astounded to learn is that in the state of Montana there are 82 painkiller prescriptions for every 100 people. In a desperate attempt to find a way out, many Americans this age are considering suicide. 56-year-old Kevin Lowney is one example…
Kevin Lowney lies awake some nights wondering if he should kill himself.And this isn’t just an American phenomenon. Over in the United Kingdom, one study discovered that the suicide rate for men between the ages of 45 and 49 had increased by 40 percent over a seven year period…
“I am in such pain every night, suicide has on a regular basis crossed my mind just simply to ease the pain. If I did not have responsibilities, especially for my youngest daughter who has problems,” he said.
The 56-year-old former salesman’s struggle with chronic pain is bound up with an array of other issues – medical debts, impoverishment and the prospect of a bleak retirement– contributing to growing numbers of suicides in the US and helping drive a sharp and unusual increase in the mortality rate for middle-aged white Americans in recent years alongside premature deaths from alcohol and drugs.
The number of middle-aged men taking their own lives has increased dramatically over the course of the last decade.Younger people are killing themselves more frequently as well.
New research, published today by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, reveals that the last seven years have seen a 40 percent increase in the suicide rate of men between the ages of 45 and 49.
According to a Fox News report, the suicide rate for Americans age 10 to age 24 has “gone up every year”…
Their deaths as well as other recent teen suicides to make national headlines — from Westport, Conn., to Omaha, Neb., — are part of a steady rise in self-inflicted deaths among young people, ages 10 to 24, since 2007, according to health officials.So why is this happening?
“We are seeing significant increases in suicide for those ages,” Dr. Thomas Simon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s suicide expert, told FoxNews.com. “When you go back to 2007, the rates in that age group have gone up every year.“
Without a doubt, the decline of our economy is playing a role. The middle class is steadily shrinking, and more Americans are falling out of the middle class with each passing month. Many Americans that are approaching retirement age do not see any viable future for themselves, and thus many of them are completely giving in to depression and despair.
But I don’t think that explains all of it. I think another major factor is the fact that our society is being drugged into oblivion. At this point, nearly 60 percent of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and many drugs are known to substantially increase the risk of suicide.
Instead of addressing these root causes, many want the government to step in and magically solve this problem somehow. In fact, there is a new proposal for mandatory depression screening that many are warning could have very serious consequences. The following is an excerpt from a piece that Ron Paul recently authored…
The United States Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended mandatory depression screening for all Americans. The task force wants to force health insurance companies to pay for the screening. Basic economics, as well as the Obamacare disaster, should have shown this task force that government health insurance mandates harm Americans.Mandatory screening is not going to solve this problem. That will just result in even more people being put on anti-depressants and make the pharmaceutical companies even wealthier.
Government health insurance mandates raise the price of health insurance. Consumers will respond to this increase by either choosing to not carry health insurance or by reducing their consumption of other goods and services. Imposing new health insurance mandates will thus make consumers, many of whom are already suffering from Obamacare’s costly mandates, worse off by forcing them to deviate from their preferred consumption patterns.
Mandatory depression screening will not just raise insurance costs. In order to ensure that the screening mandate is being properly implemented, the government will need to create a database containing the results of the screenings. Those anti-gun politicians who want to forbid anyone labeled “mentally ill” from owning a firearm will no doubt want to use this database as a tool to deprive individuals of their Second Amendment rights.
In the end, the real problem is in our hearts. We have pushed God to the outer fringes of society, and we have decided that we can set up our own version of utopia without Him.
Well, that isn’t exactly working out too well, is it?
If you know someone that is depressed and may be considering suicide, the following are some of the signs that livescience.com says that you should watch for…
- feelings of hopelessness or desperation
- insomnia
- panic attacks
- social isolation
- irritability
- rage
- feelings of being a burden
Many of these people that are contemplating suicide could have futures that are brighter beyond what they could possibly imagine, but they are focusing on all the wrong things.
So what do you think is causing the stunning rise in suicide both here in the United States and around the globe?
Related:
New York School Organizes ‘Hijab Day’ For Non-Muslim Students
Officials at Rochester’s World School of Inquiry spent last week fielding dozens of calls from parents angry about a “World Hijab Day” event that encouraged girls to wear the Muslim religious head covering. Sophomore Eman Muthana wears a hijab to school and wrote a letter to principal Sheela Webster asking if the school can put on its own World Hijab Day at the school last Friday,WHAM reports.
Webster approved the event – designed to educate students about the religious purposes behind the hijab – but did not inform parents until after the media reports of the event sparked backlash online, and angry calls to the school, according to WHEC. “As a high school teacher for over 30 years, let me say that this is wrong on so many levels,” Jim Farnholz wrote, according to the news site. READ MORE
Woman Opts for Euthanasia After Bad Split With Boyfriend
Two women have spoken out about the euthanasia of their sister, Tine Nys, in Belgium. On Christmas Eve 2009, Tine, who was 37 at the time, announced her intention to pursue euthanasia, following a split from her boyfriend. She was killed by lethal injection on April 24, 2010, with her parents and her sisters Lotte and Sophie by her side.
In a recent interview with Terzake, a Flemish current affairs television program, Lotte and Sophie expressed their dismay at the attitude doctors took toward Tine’s request. The law requires that two doctors and a psychologist evaluate a person’s request for euthanasia. In Belgium, euthanasia on the grounds of “unbearable suffering” is permitted. In this case, the doctors decided that Tine’s breakup was a reasonable justification for her wanting to end her life. The two sisters felt that very little effort was made to persuade Tine to live. READ MORE
Thanks to ‘Transgender Equality’ Laws, Boys Are Now Sharing Girls’ Locker Rooms
Even as I write these words, different cities in America are considering dangerous and irrational laws that impose unfair and potentially dangerous burdens on the vast majority of citizens, all in name of helping a tiny number of deeply confused individuals. When will we learn?
To put it simply, you are guaranteeing trouble when you effectively make public bathrooms and locker rooms gender neutral. It is an experiment in social madness, and it is completely without justification, no matter how much we care about men and women who struggle with gender identity issues.
Many of us in the pro-family movement have warned for years that so-called anti-discrimination laws that include "gender identity" and "gender expression" as categories open the door to a host of potential problems and abuses.
First, these laws do not consider the needs of a multitude of women and children who will feel quite uncomfortable when a biological male comes walking into their bathroom or locker room, understandably so. (Note to LGBT activists: The fact that a biological male dresses like a female does not make women and children feel any more comfortable.)
Second, there is no way to keep heterosexual predators out of the ladies' rooms, since a heterosexual male could simply pose as a woman to satisfy his voyeuristic (or worse) desires.
Yesterday, in Seattle, "A man undressed in a women's locker room, citing a new state rule that allows people to choose a bathroom based on gender identity."
As reported by krem.com, "It was a busy time at Evans Pool around 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8. The pool was open for lap swim. According to Seattle Parks and Recreation, a man wearing board shorts entered the women's locker room and took off his shirt. Women alerted staff, who told the man to leave, but he said 'the law has changed and I have a right to be here.'"
Was he transgender? Heterosexual? Something else? Does it matter? If he feels he should be able to use the women's locker room, he can, and no one can stop him.
In the words of pool regular Aldan Shank, "Sort of works against the point they're trying to make. They're causing people to feel exposed and vulnerable with the intention of reducing people feeling exposed and vulnerable."
When I posted this report on my Facebook page, a woman named Kati commented, "This is VERY real. This new policy that was recently adopted by our local YMCA in WA allows for people to use whatever locker room they self-identify with. Just two weeks ago a boy around the age of 13 walked right into the girls side of the women's locker room. All he did was sit down and scroll through his phone. Little girls where surprised when they came in from showering with their towels wrapped around them to see him sitting there. My daughter was one of those girls. This policy opens the door to those who have malicious intent."
What kind of lunacy is this?
Last year, at a Planet Fitness gym in Midland, Michigan, Yvette Cormier was in the ladies' locker room when a man, dressed as a woman, entered the locker room. According to local ABC News, "Cormier, who had been a Planet Fitness member for two months, said she went to the front desk immediately. The man at the desk told her that Planet Fitness policy is 'whatever gender you feel you are, that's the locker room you're allowed to go in,'" she said.
When Cormier warned other members about the Planet Fitness policy, her own membership was revoked.
Even more alarming, in 2012, in Olympia, Washington, female high school students sharing a college campus swimming pool were shocked to see a naked, 45-year-old male student who identifies as "Colleen" sitting in their sauna. (The police report stated that "she" was exposing "her male genitalia.")
The girls were traumatized and the parents outraged, but college officials said they could not do anything because of state policies against gender-identity discrimination: "'The college has to follow state law,' Evergreen spokesman Jason Wettstein told ABC News affiliate KOMO. 'The college cannot discriminate based on the basis of gender identity. Gender identity is one of the protected things in discrimination law in this state.'"
Adding to the insanity is the fact that it was subsequently discovered online that Colleen also identifies as a lesbian and is strongly attracted to women, in other words, just like most heterosexual males. Yet it is perfectly legal for Colleen to sit in a sauna with naked teenage girls.
Who can possibly justify abuses like this?
Last October, The HuffPost reported, "The University of Toronto (U of T) is temporarily changing its policy on gender-neutral bathrooms after two reports of voyeurism in a student residence.
"Two women showering in Whitney Hall, a residence at U of T's University College, reported they saw a cellphone reach over the shower-stall dividers in an attempt to record them, in two different incidents, police Const. Victor Kwong told The Toronto Star."
But of course. Is anyone surprised?
Recently, before speaking at a chapel service for a Christian middle school and high school, I stopped in the restroom, which, I discovered, was in the elementary school wing of the building.
As I walked out, three little boys walked in, perhaps 6 years old.
I thought to myself, "How could any adult possibly think that it is fair to these little boys to have a confused little girl use their bathroom, or a confused little boy use the girls' room? And how could any adult possibly think that it was fine for a confused (or opportunistic) teenage boy to share a locker room with teenage girls?"
Yet in schools across the nation, this is hardly a theoretical question. In fact, in an extraordinary example of government overreach, last November a headline announced: "Department of Education orders school to allow boys to use girls' locker rooms, showers."
It's time we say, "Enough!"
I urge every man or woman of conscience and decency to stand against these laws while, at the same time, working to help those who are gender-confused get to the root of their struggles.
This social madness must stop.
Amazon Files Patent to Let You Complete a Payment With a Selfie
No need for a password -- the transaction of the future could be completed by simply taking a selfie.
Amazon filed a patent application this month, spotted by Re/Code, for a system that would allow users to take a selfie or video of themselves to complete a transaction.
The technology would identify the person completing the transaction is
"a living human being" by using facial recognition technology, according
to the patent application. They could also be prompted to perform an
action, such as smiling, blinking or tilting their head a certain way to
add an extra level of security and ensure the system isn't being duped
by someone holding up a photo of a user.
Amazon's application also says the entry of passwords on many portable
devices, such as tablets and phones, simply isn't user friendly. The
retailer also said it could "require the user to turn away from friends
or co-workers when entering a password, which can be awkward or
embarrassing in many situations."
The result, according to Amazon's application, is that users often store
their passwords on their devices or choose short and simple passwords
-- two compromises the company said "can be easily hacked by an
unscrupulous user or application."
An Amazon representative did not immediately respond to ABC News'
request for comment. Since the information is in a patent application,
it's likely going to be a while before any of this technology could
potentially be implemented on the site. However, it could be one of the
biggest changes to the way we shop since Amazon pioneered one-click
ordering.
Amazon introduced another clever way to pay last year with its
push-to-buy Dash buttons, allowing shoppers to hit a physical button to
reorder common household products, ranging from detergent to dog food.
Ex-Gospel Singer Insists, ‘If There’s a God at All, It’s a Woman’
Here we go again. Somebody else is insisting God is a woman. This time, it’s a Grammy Award-winning gospel artist. CeeLo Green, who’s currently on a “The Love Train Tour” to celebrate his new album, is arguing that Jesus is a girl. “God is a woman. Although this idea’s untraditional, I think God is a woman, making each one of her children original,” CeeLo Green sings in a new song called God Is a Woman. “I stare at the sky until the stars start to fall; if there’s a God at all, it’s a woman.” Wait, what? Green, the son of two ordained ministers who launched his music career in church, released his song on International Woman’s Day on March 8. That’s a good publicity stunt, I suppose, but his song defies his upbringing. “God’s still a woman. Although her human condition’s contradictory, God’s still a woman,” the song continues. “She has made everything, including history. So exalt her high above you. Beyond the brightest star. She’ll be everywhere you are, are. She’s your mother.” READ MORE
Contraceptive pill for men is close as experts learn to pause fertility
Scientists say that they are close to developing birth control pills for men.
Experts have for years attempted and failed to create a male pill to rival the contraceptive options that have been available to women since the 1960s.
Now, however, scientists from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy claim to have taken a step forward by tweaking experimental compounds to develop a product that works for men and has no side-effects.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/article4712473.ece
Gay activist: Of course our goal is to ‘indoctrinate children into LGBTQ agenda’
(LifeSiteNews.com) -- A homosexual activist has candidly admitted that gay-themed materials and policies pushed in grade schools across North America are for the sake of “indoctrinating” children into an unquestioning acceptance of homosexuality.
“I am here to tell you: All that time I said I wasn't indoctrinating anyone with my beliefs about gay and lesbian and bi and trans and queer people? That was a lie,” writes long-time Canadian gay activist S. Bear Bergman, a woman who identifies as a transgender man, in a piece appearing on Huffington Post a week ago tellingly titled ‘I Have Come to Indoctrinate Your Children Into My LGBTQ Agenda (And I'm Not a Bit Sorry).’Bergman, who runs a Toronto-based publishing company making books for children that positively portrays “LGBTQ” people, is the transgender partner of J. Wallace, a gender equity adviser at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).
Bergman writes that as a young activist, she often entertained a “delicious fantasy” of wishing that as a child she had been given the pro-LGBTQ mentors, workshops, and resources that kids today are freely given in schools.
“In [my fantasy], I was ushered into the world of queerness with care and tenderness by experienced homos and trans people (in my imagination they were like very fabulous versions of my favorite camp counselors from childhood). I would be issued my leather jacket and my protest pins, my safer sex supplies and a hotline of some kind I could call if I needed it.”
Bergman recounts that as a young gay activist she was taught how to refute accusations that the movement was engaging in “indoctrination and recruiting.” She was to tell concerned parents that she was “just providing an alternate viewpoint.” She was to use “soft” language when speaking about homosexuality.
But Bergman writes that she is tired of the “lie.”
“All 25 years of my career as an LGBTQ activist, since the very first time as a 16-year-old I went and stood shaking and breathless in front of eleven people to talk about My Story, I have been on a consistent campaign of trying to change people's minds about us. I want to make them like us. That is absolutely my goal … even if that goes against the way you have interpreted the teachings of your religion.”
“I want to be present in their emotional landscapes as a perfectly nice dad and writer who is married to another guy. Who used to be a girl (kind of). Who is friendly and cheerful and not scary at all, no matter what anyone says.”
“That is our job: to encourage people, especially children, to think differently about a subject than they do now,” she continues. “To dispel the dim and dismal miasma of myths and stereotypes, and instead allow the light of truth and fairness to shine in. That's the deal, my friends. And if we have done it -- if we have come to a place where a kid has been struggling in the muck of ignorance and hatred, and helped them up and cleaned them off and sent them to play in a meadow of love or at least kindness -- then baby, we have done the thing well.”
While Bergman paints a “friendly and cheerful” picture of the gay lifestyle, she fails to mention the serious health risks tied to homosexual behaviors. These include increased rates of sexually transmitted diseases, bacterial and viral infections, depression, and even cancer.
Research done in 2002 by Dr. John R. Diggs found that same-sex sexual behaviors expose gays, lesbians and bisexuals to “extreme risks of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), physical injuries, mental disorders and even a shortened life span.” Common sexual practices among gay men were found to lead to “numerous STDs and physical injuries, some of which are virtually unknown in the heterosexual population.” Gay and bisexual men were found to “lose up to 20 years of life expectancy.”
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have warned on numerous occasions that HIV rates, already at epidemic proportions, are continuing to climb steadily among men who have ‘sex’ with men. The CDC has stated that gay and bisexual men continue to remain at the epicenter of what they call a “HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
Bergman also fails to point out the spiritual damage that religions across the world say is caused by homosexual activity. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism categorically reject homosexual practices in the strongest language as a direct rejection of God and his plan for human sexuality.
Christianity — “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error” (Letter to Romans 1:26).
Islam — “…For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds.... And we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone)” (The Qur'an 7:80-84).
Click "like" if you want to defend true marriage.
Judaism — “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).The Catholic Church calls homosexual acts “intrinsically disordered” since they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”
Despite accusations of ‘homophobia,’ the Catholic Church actually teaches that people struggling with same-sex attraction “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”
Bergman is not the first homosexual activist to admit the movement aims to “indoctrinate” children into their worldview.
In 2011 U.S. gay activist Daniel Villarreal penned a column for Queerty.com stating that the time had come for the homosexual lobby to admit to “indoctrinating” schoolchildren to accept homosexuality.
“Why would we push anti-bullying programs or social studies classes that teach kids about the historical contributions of famous queers unless we wanted to deliberately educate children to accept queer sexuality as normal?”
“We want educators to teach future generations of children to accept queer sexuality. In fact, our very future depends on it. Recruiting children? You bet we are,” he added.
“I for one,” continued Villarreal, “certainly want tons of school children to learn that it’s OK to be gay, that people of the same sex should be allowed to legally marry each other, and that anyone can kiss a person of the same sex without feeling like a freak. And I would very much like for many of these young boys to grow up and start f**ing men.”
In September 2014, Bergman’s publishing company offered a free “trans-positive kids (JK-2) book” to Toronto District School Board libraries. She said she was combating “fear-mongering” from school trustee Sam Sotiropoulos who had taken a stand against homosexual activism in the school board.
Bergman and Wallace’s book list for kids to “break gender stereotypes” has 54 titles, including:
- Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls
- Sometimes the Spoon Runs Away with Another Spoon
- The Princess Knight
- A Girl Named Dan
- It’s Okay to be Different.
- 10,000 Dresses
- My Princess Boy
- My Mommy is a Boy
- When Kathy is Keith
“I want kids to know [we're perfectly fine and often really excellent] even if their parents' or community's interpretation of their religious tenets is that we're awful. I would be happy -- delighted, overjoyed I tell you -- to cause those children to disagree with their families on the subject of LGBTQ people.”
“If that makes me an indoctrinator, I accept it. Let me be honest -- I am not even a little bit sorry.”
Update (March 18, 2015): After publication, LifeSiteNews learned that S. Bear Bergman is a biological woman who identifies as a man. As a result, we've changed the gender pronouns in the article to female.
Related:
DAYS OF LOT: New TV Show Celebrates Bestiality, Then Whoopi Sings a Hymn
You know the look you get from your liberal friends when you mention slippery slopes? Well, get prepared to see a lot of those if you discuss this week’s episode of Broad City, “Game Over.” Let’s start by saying this show is rude and crude times 10 and not recommended for human consumption. So don’t feel like you need to watch to see just how bad it is. Trust us, it’s that bad. On top of being disgusting, it isn’t even funny. One laugh per show … maybe.
The real issue at hand, though, is the slippery slope. Anytime conservatives talk about how normalizing gay marriage could lead to other issues, we get scoffed at. Yet it is consistently true. You would be hard pressed to convince anyone that gay marriage would have just happened without homosexuality first being normalized by Hollywood. How many openly gay characters can you name from the 70s? I can’t really think of any. How many shows today can you name without a loveable gay character? Exactly. READ MORE
Catholic private school accused of ‘hate’ for requiring students to identify by natural sex?
(LifeSiteNews) – A Rhode Island Catholic school has instituted a policy against enrolling transgender students. However, in the face of backlash the school says it is open to rethinking the policy.
“Mount Saint Charles Academy is unable to make accommodations for transgender students,” the school’s handbook
states. “Therefore, MSC does not accept transgender students nor is MSC
able to continue to enroll students who identify as transgender.”
The
policy against admitting students identifying as transgender has been
in effect at the Woonsocket, Rhode Island, prep school as of October of
last year, according to The Daily Beast.
It
was recently noticed by some alumni, the report said, one of whom
started a Change.org petition addressed to Mount Saint Charles President
Herve Richer, stating, “Mount St. Charles Academy, leave the hateful
rhetoric in the past, accept Trans students.”
“It’s
completely different than how they teach their students to behave,”
David Coletta said of the policy prohibiting transgender students. “We
were always taught there to be very accepting and loving of others.”
Coletta also stated the policy “goes against their own teachings.”
The
petition had 1,654 names at press time, and a GoFundMe account was
established for the purpose of raising funds for the school to institute
the “proper facilities” to accept transgender students.
Mount Saint Charles Academy had issued a March 4 statement on the matter, with an update later that day adding the opening line regarding hurt feelings:
Mount Saint Charles Academy deeply regrets the unintended hurt feelings at and seeming insensitivity of our policy regarding the acceptance of transgendered young people. The policy that currently appears in the Mount Saint Charles Student Handbook is not intended to be discriminatory toward transgendered students nor is Mount Saint Charles Academy’s intent or desire to exclude transgender students. The policy was put in place for the simple reason that Mount Saint Charles feels that its facilities do not presently provide the school with the ability to accommodate transgender students.As a Catholic school, Mount Saint Charles recognizes its call to serve all children who desire a Catholic education, but it also recognizes that it is not a comprehensive high school with the ability to serve all students. Some students may not be academically qualified. Others may have learning plans which the school cannot accommodate. And in some cases, our facilities may not be adequate to service some students.Although the school has not been approached with any requests to admit transgender students, Mount Saint Charles Academy’s administration has been exploring ways in which it might provide reasonable accommodations for transgender students and fulfill its mission.While Mount Saint Charles can respect that some may find our current policy somewhat inconsistent and intolerant, please try to understand the reason for its existence. This is certainly not our intent. Please know that we would very much like to address the issue, and your prayers and kind assistance would go a long way in allowing us achieve that goal.
LifeSiteNews
inquired with the school as to the specific reason the policy was put
in place, whether there had been transgender students at the school in
the past, if any transgender students had been dismissed, the particular
ways in which the school was exploring providing accommodations for
transgender students, and whether the school would allow transgender
students to enroll in the future. LifeSite did not receive a response by
press time.
Coletta
didn’t buy the school’s assertion that it was unable to accommodate
transgender students, saying he knows of one who had attended a few
years ahead of him, and who had not encountered any issues with
restrooms or locker rooms while there.
“For
them to say they can’t accommodate these students is just, in my
opinion, a cheap copout because they’ve clearly shown in the past that
they can,” Coletta said.
The term transgender refers to the psychological disorder gender dysphoria, a term established
in the last several years by the American Psychiatric Association to
replace “Gender Identity Disorder,” placing emphasis in the condition
name on emotional distress in favor of disorder.
Legislative and legal battles have ensued across the U.S. and Canada in public schools and municipalities in recent years,
with those suffering from the disorder and LGBT advocates pushing for
transgender-identifying individuals to be allowed access to restroom
facilities of the opposite gender, and the Obama Administration being a forceful proponent of gender ideology in the U.S. and abroad.
Privacy and safety issues have been at the forefront for those opposing gender ideology to determine public policy.
Catholic institutions have been under the same onslaught, though they have some protection as religious entities.
“As
a constitutional matter, the fact that the school receives some state
aid is not sufficient to subject them to constitutional constraints,
which generally apply only to government actions,” said Steven Brown,
executive director of the Rhode Island ACLU, in a golocalprov.com report.
“There are, of course, separate statutes that ban discrimination in
both public and private institutions, but many of those statutes have
exemptions for religious institutions.”
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith affirmed the Church’s position
on gender ideology last fall when it said that transsexuals
(individuals having undergone gender reassignment surgery) could not
serve as godparents. The declaration came after a Spanish woman living
as a man claimed her parish priest allowed her to be the “godfather” for
her nephews’ baptism, the inability to be godparents being due to such
behavior being in “opposition to the moral demand of resolving the
problem of sexual identity according to the truth of one’s own sex.”
This Bearded Model Just Made History By Killing It On The Catwalk
Challenging
beauty ideals! Harnaam Kaur became the first woman to walk the runway
with a full beard last week. (Photo: Instagram/harnaamkaur)
This
year, Ashley Graham made history by becoming the first plus-size model
to make the cover of Sports Illustrated. But while we’ve been busy
applauding the strides size-positive models are making in the fashion
industry, there’s another model who has quietly been breaking down
beauty boundaries.
Last
week, Harnaam Kaur became the first woman to walk a major runway with a
full beard, stepping onto the catwalk for jewelry designer Marianna
Haratunian as part of a celebration to mark Royal Fashion Day.
Taking
to her Instagram to post a picture of her strutting her stuff, the
inspirational model wrote about fulfilling her life’s dream to hit the
runway:
“I
grew up watching America’s next top model. I always wanted to be like
the pretty models, so I remember copying the way they posed and walked.
“I grew up being told I was too fat, ugly, and disgusting to even model. I was told I’d never walk the runway.
“I
used to look at models and tell myself that I will never ever be able
to do what they are doing. I am not pretty enough or beautiful enough
and I don’t have the ‘right’ body type. I was laughed at when I said I
wanted to model. Jokes on my bullies.”
Canby man shows off RFID microchip implant
A Canby man says he can open his door – even unlock his cell phone – with just the swipe of a hand. It’s because he has a microchip implanted in his hand. James Newman said he is embracing the future. Two years ago, after reading some tech articles, he was inspired and had a chip implanted in his hand. He believes radio frequency identification is the way of the future and he wants to stay on the cutting edge.
“It’s a progression in technology and I wanted to be on the forefront of that,” Newman told Fox 12. Radio frequency identification, or RFID, offers many features, but it is not a new technology. In fact, you may even use it without even realizing it, if you have a microchipped pet or key fob. Amal Graafstra, founder of Dangerous Things, supplies at-home tag kits on his company’s website. READ MORE
Chastisement cant come soon enough...
