Stephan: I have been friends, and have worked with a number of gay and lesbian individuals, and one trans-woman, and from all of them I have learned that the issue of gender is a complicated and painful one beginning with puberty for those who are in that world. Not a single friend in the LGBTQ community ever told me that their sexuality, let alone their gender presentation, was something they chose. I find the MAGAt Republican obsession with denying these individuals support to be not just mentally deranged, destructive of wellbeing, but deeply nasty.
There is, I think, something else going on as well. The Dobbs decision and the state laws that followed are driving doctors, nurses, and, by this report, whole families out of states controlled by MAGAt Republicans. Particularly in rural areas, I think this is going to mean a real degradation of healthcare in those Red states, as well as the loss of many well-educated citizens. This is all part of the Great Schism Trend that is creating two different societies in the same nation.
Carrie Jackson and her family of three fondly remember their home in Denton, Texas.
They had moved to the Dallas suburb from the tiny town of Malakoff, Texas, back in 2016. Jackson landed a job she liked as a lead counselor for the Aubrey Independent School District. Carrie said her 17-year-old high school junior, Cass, who is transgender, was thriving.
Coming out and socially transitioning at 14 had been rough, but by 17, Cass was a well-adjusted teen who identified as nonbinary and used they/them pronouns. Cass was making great grades, working a job, driving a car and starting to think about college, Carrie said.
“I hid away for a really long time,” Cass recalled. “But then I figured this out about myself against all odds.”
On the night of Feb. 22. Carrie was sitting in bed, scrolling through her Facebook feed, and spotted a news article […]