Canada's Conservatives turn against trans people

Anti-LGBT arsonists set fire to four schools in Belgium

I have a story in the Los Angeles Blade today looking at how Canada’s Conservative parties have taken a hard swerve into anti-trans politics. Conservatives are already importing US laws that will crack down on trans kids in schools in the guise of “parental rights,” and now the federal Conservatives are appealing to bigots who want to ban medical treatment and access to gender-appropriate spaces.

But by this morning, it’s needed an update. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has announced he’s considering using the “notwithstanding clause” in a proposed bill that would mandate parental permission for students to change their preferred name and gender in school. The “notwithstanding clause” is a quirk of the Canadian Constitution that allows federal and provincial governments to pass laws that override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for periods of up to five years. It was long considered a third rail of Canadian politics to use or threaten to use it, but in the last decade, Conservative provincial governments have gotten very cavalier about using it to override democratic controls and punish minorities.

The government of Scotland has delayed its plans to introduce a bill to ban conversion therapy, in keeping with the transgender panic that has been sweeping the UK for the past several years. A UK bill that would ban it in England and Wales has also been promised for more than five years.

Anti-LGBTQ arsonists set four elementary schools on fire in Belgium, apparently in protest over a new mandatory sex education curriculum being taught in schools in the country’s French-speaking region. Remember, these are the people who say they want to protect children from trauma.

Well color me embarrassed. After I wrote yesterday that the couples suing former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis for denying them a marriage license eight years should just move on, a jury has awarded one of the couples $100,000 and the other $0. So maybe I was half right? Davis has said she plans to appeal.

And California has formally repealed its government travel ban to anti-LGBTQ states.