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presleyannn · 7 months

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spoons - 9.21.23

I've been thinking about the spoon theory a lot.

Law school is an extremely competitive environment, and it's really hard not to compare yourself to all the people around you. When you're in a situation like mine, it's hard to see all the people around you being prepared for class and spending hours in the library studying, while you know you're unprepared and weeks behind on work. I look around and I find myself practicing negative self talk. I say to myself that I'm just lazy and I don't belong in law school.

However, when I'm able to take a step back for a moment of clarity, I realize that not only is that not true–because I want law school more than anything, and the work that I do accomplish is super rewarding–but also that I'm holding myself to an impossible standard at this present moment in my life. I am comparing myself to and holding myself to the standard of a person with a normal functioning brain, when mine isn't working properly.

I find that I'm being too harsh on myself, and that often makes everything worse.

I saw a TikTok the other day of a girl who was talking about how although she's in med school, she works over 20 hours a week, goes to the gym, volunteers, travels, and also spends time with her friends and family. She said "your sign that you can do it all." Someone stitched her video talking about the spoon theory and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

The spoon theory is essentially the idea that every task you complete in a day has a value in spoons. A normal person starts their day with seemingly endless possibilities and a seemingly endless supply of spoons. Therefore, they are able to do pretty much whatever they please, whenever they please, without running out of spoons/energy to keep going.

Meanwhile, a person with a chronic illness that impacts their daily life functions and overall quality of life starts their day with an extremely limited number of spoons. There are only so many tasks that they can complete with the number of spoons they have, so they have to be selective in planning their day and might have to make some sacrifices.

For example, I live with chronic mental illness. Tasks that seem mundane to everyone else, like getting out of bed, getting dressed, brushing your teeth, showering, and eating, take an extreme amount of effort for me to complete. Say, for me, each of those things cost one spoon, and I only wake up with 12 spoons to spend on my entire day (compared to the average person who wakes up with, say, 30 spoons). I have to complete all of those seemingly mundane tasks (some even multiple times a day), AND I still have to remember to take my medicine, make the 30 minute walk to and from school, go to class, go to work, complete reading for the next day, and study, all of which cost anywhere between 2-4 spoons. How do I do all of that with only 12 spoons? Just by getting out of bed, getting dressed, and brushing my teeth, I'm already 3 spoons down. I know that I'll have to shower and eat at least once at some point during the day, so that makes 5, maybe 7, spoons down. With one meal a day I'm already left with only 7 spoons, and I have a to do list worth way more than 7 spoons.

So how do you cope with this? You place careful thought in how you choose to spend your spoons, and you learn to give yourself grace if you can't accomplish everything. You can't compare your lifestyle and your accomplishments to those of people who live life with significantly more spoons than you do.

A person who completes all their tasks, using all 30 of their spoons gives 100%. But a person who doesn't complete all of their tasks, but still uses all 12 of their spoons, also gives 100%.

Be kind to yourself. You can't continue beating yourself up, making your situation even worse. Recognize that although you are not exactly where you want to be at the moment, you are still giving 100% of yourself, and that is something to be proud of. <3

Note: spoon theory was coined by Christine Miserandino on the blog "butyoudontlooksick.com"

graphic from @SpoonieSisterShop on IG

#mental illness #spoon theory #mental heath support #mental health matters #law student #law school #adhd brain

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sunflowergazer · 3 days

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Welcome!

Hi, welcome to the blog 😊

I made this blog to express my life and have a safe space to share my thoughts and feelings of life.

A little about me,

Im a law student at university, struggling through the trials and errors of adulthood, trying to navigate social life and family life.

I am apart of the LGBTQA+ community and the world of neurodiversity and disabilities. Also being a mental health advocate.

I am here to just journal in a sense and let others express their opinions in a safe space.

All are welcome so please feel free to ask questions or message me with anything. I am not an expert but if I can help in anyway please come my way. Your safe with me 😊

#mental health support #lgbtq community #early twenties #nurodivergent #disability #student life #lifestyle #safe space #about myself #new blog #welcome to my blog #books and reading #gaming #journal #skincare #welsh #university #law student

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joaquinwhorres · 1 year

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Today was the worst day in a very long time. (Reason in tags for Trigger Warnings). If anyone would like to send headcanons, asks, fic recs, reblogs, or anything that will distract me and bring me out of my head for a sec, I would appreciate it.

#one of my students brought an unloaded gun to school #but obviously we didn't know it was unloaded #this has happened before #and the trauma is stacking #fuck American gun laws #and fuck American mental health supports

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danieltlukasik · 6 months

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One Wife's Story of Her Husband's Struggles with Depression in Law School

“True Stories” is a series of guest blogs I am running on mental health in the legal profession. In this article, we explore the affect depression has on loved ones and their struggles to help. Katie has been married to her law student husband for almost four years. She has grown into a more compassionate and well-rounded Certified Health Education Specialist and Mental Health First Aid…

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#clinical depression #Dan Lukasik #depressed law students #depression blogs #depression support #law school #law student life #law student mental health #law student mental wellbeing #mental health #mental health stigma #mental wellbeing #stigma

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fairyhaos · 6 months

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how seventeen act with their doctor* s/o

*encompasses doctors, medical students and anything related to medicine or science bc as a literature/ law girly it's hard for me to be specific on this 😭

masterlist

seungcheol, hoshi, seungkwan, chan

soooooo so unfathomably proud. brings it up whenever he can bc he knows that it's a big achievement and takes so, so much effort on your part and he wants people to acknowledge just how smart and hard working you are. offers to be your ‘rubber duck’ that you bounce medical terms off of while you're rambling or revising, and gosh everything sounds so so complicated and he wants to just hug you and praise you and tell you how incredible you are for knowing all of these horribly complex-sounding things. wants to know everything, from the stuff that you're studying to that doctor's oath you have to take and can you actually instantly diagnose someone just from looking at them like those doctors do in medical dramas?

jeonghan, joshua, wonwoo, woozi, minghao

concerned about you overworking yourself, mainly. it's a difficult path to go down, and he knows that it's going to require long hours and sleepless nights but he makes a point to stress how you and your mental health comes before anything else, okay? he knows that your degree and your accomplishments are important, but what's the point in an accomplishment if you're too burnt out to relish it? lets you talk to him about a particularly bad day, where you were swamped in assignments or tests or the hospital was horribly busy and you didn't even get to sit down once. kisses your forehead gently and whispers softly until you finally fall asleep, exhausted but relaxed by his unfaltering presence

junhui, mingyu, dokyeom, vernon

you know that cliche thing in medical kdramas where the bf brings food for their doctor s/o who's working overtime? is that actually allowed??? well, whether it's allowed or not, he does it, and it makes you want to cry out of happiness every time. he's just a sweet, slightly clueless bf okay. understands nothing about what you do but is supporting you no matter what, because damn getting into medicine is hard and yet you're doing it so well. was binge watching greys anatomy this one time (the suspense of it was good okay) and you plopped down onto the sofa next to him and gave him a running commentary on all the inaccuracies, so now whenever anyone brings up that show, he goes off on a tangent about how horribly fake the entire set-up of it is

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reactions tags:

@weird-bookworm @minhui896 @bunnyiix @slytherinshua @haowrld @belladaises @newgirlygirl @moonlitskiiies @mirxzii @wonranghaeee @yonabutnotyuna @crackedpumpkin @wqnwoos @kthstrawberryshortcake-main @kawennote09 @a-wandering-stay @icyminghao @valenhui @sweet-like-caramel @evasaysstuff @odxrilove @kyeomyun @chansburgah @pepperonijem @jeonride @kellesvt @hanniehaee @astrozuya @eightlightstar @onlyyjeonghan @aaniag @amxlia-stars @all-american-fangirl

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fishnapple · 1 month

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CRYSTAL READING: What kind of career suits you best ?

A little explanation of the method I used for reading

Lithomancy : I assigned a meaning for each stone (each stone represents a planet) and cast them on a circle divided into 12 parts, just like an astrology chart and do the reading

Pick a stone :

Reading for each group below :

1. Aventurine group

There is a heavy emphasis on the theme of student and teacher.

A teaching or mental health care career would really suit you.

Especially teaching young children or teenagers where you guys are doing some creative projects.

It's not so much about the words that you say. It is your presence and care that give guidance and support to people.

You could appear to be an authoritative figure, stern but stable, be a rock to others.

You could deal with some troubled minds, someone with mental illness that needs your help.

The needs of community around you, of the society at large, would create a hidden, subconscious calling force to motivate you going into this direction.

2. Agate group

I see an image of water waves, something moving gracefully.

Immediately, I would think of dancing or something that would require practised movements.

At the core, this is a creative career, a career that brings beauty into the world.

It could involve some acting, could be in theatre, some kind of performance.

You would submerge your ego and your identity, then project out a fantasy, an image to the audiences.

So, there is a need to take precautions to protect your boundaries and your subconscious barrier in this job.

This job requires you to think deeply, to do extensive research to reach an understanding of the meaning of the subject.

And then putting in dedication to practice and perfect your craft every day, consistently.

This career would also move with the trends in society.

Some hidden obstacles or hostile energy would be present. So always keep yourself grounded.

3. Lapis lazuli group

Movements are also prominent in this group, but unlike Agate group with graceful movements,

this group seems to have lots of actions, moving around.

Something that requires force, strictness, and precision.

It could be law enforcement or health care, doctor and surgeon. Or, related to trading field.

Or something political and public. Where you need to capture a crowd with beautiful words.

You would need to speak and move around a lot. Some foreign travel would be there.

If you are a writer or a reporter, the subjects that you write would be quite practical, documentaries about current issues.

Honest or even harsh words would be needed.

4. Citrine group

There is something about uncovering, breaking something, and then mending it.

It could be physical, it could be mental, and it could be spiritual.

But the overall theme is to show the ugly truth then make something beautiful out of it.

The careers come to mind would be beautician, surgeon, relationship counsellor, reiki healer, massage therapist, something to do with shadow work, analyst.

You would need to use your hands and verbal skill to help your subjects uncover and release hidden fears or traumas to help unburden them.

Or creating something beautiful out of broken junks. To give life again.

#crystal reading #lithomancy #pick a card #channeled message #crystals #career #outer world #pick a pile #intuitive messages #divination #spirituality #astrology #astro #astrology chart #horary chart #horary astrology #crystal casting

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weirdly-specific-but-ok · 3 months

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Why the fight for queer rights isn't over (it should be obvious, but to some people it isn't)

TW: transphobia and homophobia

Hi, Tumblr, this is Asmi. If you know me, it's probably as the Good Omens Mascot, which is flattering. I've found so much love and queer positivity in the good omens fandom, and the beautiful thing is how it's canon. Many people outside the queer community don't realise how crucial media and communities like this are. Right now since I'm on break from education, I'm on tumblr for most of the time I'm awake (which is not a lot, I nap more than Crowley). It's wild how different it is from the real world, that I live in at least.

I'm sure a lot of you might have had a similar experience to this: Basically, two people in my life, my bio father and my ex, both told me to my face that queer people needed to stop calling themselves oppressed and how now it's queer people who hold all the power and are oppressing other people. With all due respect, what the fuck.

I live in India, and being a trans guy who is bi and aspec, it's a cesspit. While I'm gendered correctly on Tumblr, and people are so loving and supportive, in real life even my friends who say they support me misgender me 90% of the time. Same with my family. In my previous college which I had to leave because of bullying by both the students and admin, even the queer students would misgender me (I told them I used they/them pronouns, because he/him would have been too unsafe, but even that they didn't manage). In the college I'll join next, it won't be safe for me to be out at all, at risk of losing opportunities and safety. Gay marriage is still illegal. Homophobia and transphobia is the norm. This doesn't even cover all the daily indignities like queerphobic jokes, casual discourse on whether or not we deserve rights, etc. Discrimination against aroace-spec people is rampant even within the queer community, worldwide.

And I live in an urban area, one of the largest cities in India known for its progressiveness and for being relatively safe for queer people. I am privileged compared to other queer people here. The story in other cities, in rural areas which make up most of the country, is far more horrifying. I'm unqualified to speak about anything other than my own experience, but if you can (if you are in a stable and calm enough mental state to handle the information, please put your mental health first) I'm sure there are first person accounts on the many forums.

The fight for equality is not over. It doesn't end with laws riddled with loopholes, it doesn't end even with laws that genuinely help the queer community. Aside from the huge problems of living safely and with access to equal opportunities and resources for people, we deserve dignity, peace, and the right to feel accepted and that we're not an abnormality. And so much more.

I haven't said anything that hasn't been said before, but it can't be said enough. To the queer people reading this, take all my love. We need to stand together, eliminate discourse over who is queer enough to be queer, and be the safe space that the world will not provide for us.

It's not over, and it hasn't been won by a long shot, but what matters is that we're fighting. Even existing as ourselves in a world that tells us it is a crime, is defiance and a step towards making this right.

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feminismisstillahatemovement · 2 months

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Purely by chance found myself reading the "45 Current Communist Goals" list that was read out in the U.S. House of Representatives and into the Congressional Record by Democrat representative A. S. Herlong on January 10th, 1963.

Some of the stated goals are not so pressing since the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, but the following ones seem far more pertinent today, 61 years on.

I'd be tempted to dismiss the list as simply "Red-Scare"-era hysteria, were it not for the fact they've all, fairly undeniably, come true: --------------------------------

Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

Gain control of all student newspapers.

Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy.”

Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a "religious crutch."

Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old- fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture."

Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems.

#communism #russia #politics #how we got where we are

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a-room-of-my-own · 10 months

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Maggie* could barely believe the words she was reading in her daughter’s diary. But the words were real. And they were the first to finally explain the sudden mental health crisis that had captured her formerly happy, healthy, 12-year-old daughter.

The diary entry referred back to an incident in October 2021, when her daughter Ray*, a 6th grader at ASK Academy charter school in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, was allegedly raped inside the girls’ bathroom by an older biological male student.

(…)

Maggie only discovered what happened to her daughter several months after the alleged assault, when she was reorganizing her daughter’s room and stumbled upon her journal. After confronting her daughter about what it said, Maggie reported the rape to law enforcement, took her daughter for a physical exam, and began looking into the school’s role.

Maggie now believes the main reason a male student was alone with her daughter that day, and had the opportunity to rape her, is because the school had fully embraced gender ideology. Upon reading through school documents and talking with her daughter and fellow parents, Maggie learned that, without her knowledge or consent, ASK Academy had fully embraced radical gender theory into its policies and classrooms.

Ray, who is now 13, said the school fostered an ideologically far-left culture, which left little room for dissent. She said she felt pressured by teachers and faculty to accept the presence of men in women’s spaces, to keep her mouth shut about any feelings of discomfort, and to avoid doing anything that would be construed as “judging” someone who might identify as transgender.

It was these conditions that Maggie believes disarmed her daughter and enabled a male student to take advantage of the school’s “inclusive” bathroom policies.

(…)

According to Ray, ASK Academy had a policy of affirming students who adopted “transgender” identities, and supported their use of whichever bathroom or locker room facilities they preferred. Ray said this meant she was regularly forced to use girls’ bathrooms with boys, which conditioned her to lower her guard.

“A lot of the natural instincts, those emotions, those kinds of barriers or protective like walls that I had up, that school made it feel like those were bad,” she said.

(…)

She explained that she chose not to report the alleged assault and instead suppressed her feelings out of fear of being labeled a “bigot” by her classmates for calling out the “bathroom issue,” or being served detention for “bullying.”

Though she didn’t know the reason at the time, Maggie noticed her daughter beginning to exhibit signs of deep grief, anxiety and depression. She described it as feeling as though there was a stranger in their house. About a month after the alleged attack, Maggie started her daughter in therapy, where Ray insisted she was just being bullied in school. Once her daughter started demonstrating suicidal ideations, Maggie decided to confront ASK Academy and get them involved.

The school, Maggie said, dismissed her concerns. “They treated us like we were a problem when we tried to make them address issues our child was facing in their school,” she said, adding, “The school tried to say we must be doing something wrong at home.”

Watching her daughter become suicidal “for the first time in her life,” Maggie and her husband made the decision to pull their daughter from ASK Academy and enroll her in the local public school.

Several months later, on April 11, 2022, Maggie found her daughter’s journal, where she learned that Ray was not just being bullied in school, but had survived sexual assault.

Maggie and her husband sat down with Ray to ASK about the diary entry. When Ray finally opened up about being raped, Maggie immediately contacted Rio Rancho Police Department and their local Child Protective Services office to document and cross-report the case.

Rio Rancho Police Department began a criminal investigation, assigning a detective to the case who Maggie said was then supposed to work directly with ASK Academy. But to this day, Maggie said she isn’t confident that anyone from the police department or the school has even taken the time to review security footage from the time and location Ray thinks she was attacked.

Maggie was told by police involved in the investigation that progress on the case has been slow due to alleged staffing shortages. Recently, Maggie said the department assigned a new detective to the criminal case who she believes just began reviewing all of the previous detective's work.

It just sucks,” Maggie said. “I've been told in New Mexico, that these types of cases can take years to really come to fruition. I don't know how that's possible, but that's what we keep being told.”

IWF reached out to Captain Joel Holt of the Rio Rancho Police Department for comment, who confirmed that a criminal case is open and active. Cpt. Holt told IWF that while staffing is a factor in delays, there are other things which “potentially take time for an investigation,” but that their detectives are “working to do a thorough and complete investigation.”

In Spring 2022, by the time that Maggie started “raising hell” about her daughter’s alleged rape, she said four staffers from ASK Academy, including two top administrators, had left their positions at the school.

They're afraid of our case,” she said, adding, “They know what's coming.”

In addition to the criminal investigation, Maggie and her husband retained two private attorneys to pursue a civil case against the school, alleging ASK Academy didn’t have enough protections in place to safeguard their students, like Ray. Maggie said it took these attorneys nearly a year just to provide her family with forms to sign, however, so they are now in the process of signing a retainer with a new law firm.

The investigative and legal delays, both on the criminal and civil front, have left an alleged rapist loose at school with more than 550 students, free to strike again. To Maggie’s knowledge, ASK Academy never notified parents or students about the alleged incident or ensuing criminal investigation.

As the investigation continues to drag on, more troubling allegations have come to light.

In one instance dating back to July 2022, a 14-year-old female student at a neighboring public school was allegedly assaulted on her own campus at gunpoint. The girl identified her alleged attacker, whose name the victim’s mother shared with Maggie. After learning his identity, Maggie looked at Ray’s yearbook and discovered the male was a student at ASK Academy, and that her daughter had circled his picture with a big blue marker. When she asked about it, Ray said she recently had a “nightmare” where she remembered her perpetrator’s name.

IWF is not publishing the identity of the alleged perpetrator. However, in May 2022, the same individual’s name appeared in the subject of an email that a female student from ASK Academy sent to all fellow students years 2022 - 2026.

The email read:

"As of late we have had an issue with [REDACTED]. He has sexually harrassed, bullied, cheated off of and threatened people to get his way for his own gain. If you have experienced, witnessed or even had friends who've experienced this please, PLEASE write an incident report. The more proof we have, the better chance we can prevent this from happening to anyone ever again. Please dont hesitate to speak up. Get your parents involved as well, anything helps."

Though she had already left the school, Ray still had access to ASK Academy’s servers and was able to see the email. She and her mother heard from other parents and students that girls were taking it upon themselves to collect information about this student and personally take it to the school board, due to their perceived lack of accountability against a known offender.

Since leaving the school, Maggie and Ray said they’ve also learned of two additional survivors who were allegedly victimized by the same student, but are “too afraid” to come forward.

“We have learned that sexual harassment and assault was a commonly trending issue among the high school students at ASK Academy,” Maggie said.

“I feel extremely betrayed by them,” Ray said of the way ASK Academy responded to her allegations, along with those brought forward by other students. “For the past two years, I've had to accept that there probably won't be any justice.”

IWF reached out to ASK Academy’s Chief Executive Officer Edward Garcia for comment, as well as clarity regarding the school’s bathroom policies. Garcia said that ASK Academy is an “inclusive learning environment for all students,” and added the school does “not discriminate against any student.”

Garcia did not respond when asked to clarify whether girls’ facilities are open to biological boys.

While Garcia denied claims that sexual harassment and assault was commonly trending at ASK Academy, he also did not respond when IWF followed up by sharing a copy of the email sent out by students suggesting otherwise. He also did not respond to our inquiry about the existence of an open and active criminal case regarding an assault that allegedly occurred on ASK Academy school grounds, or offer any explanation as to why ASK Academy chose not to inform parents or students about the existence of such investigation for more than a year.

Instead, Garcia told IWF the school is “not at liberty to disclose confidential student information to a third party” and denied that any staff members left because of an open investigation.

Get Your Own Bathroom’

Today, Ray no longer feels comfortable using public restrooms and facilities by herself. At school, unless she’s with a group of girls, she uses a private bathroom in the nurse’s office, which she got special permission to do. She now needs medication to manage her anxiety and depression, keeps a knife closeby when she’s home alone, and has her family’s large, mixed-breed dog sleep next to her at night.

The entire situation has left Ray with little sympathy for efforts at the local, state and national levels to open women’s sports and private facilities to men who identify as transgender, or for the “trans” community itself.

“By them saying the only thing that matters is how they feel and not how I feel, is very selfish of them,” Ray said. “If they want their own bathroom, then gladly get your own bathroom. If you want your own sports, get your own sports. If you want to be included, be included in your own way that doesn't cause danger to everyone else.”

After a year at her local public school, Maggie and her husband decided their two daughters weren’t safe there, either. What solidified their decision was a law New Mexico passed in March that opened school bathrooms and locker rooms to individuals based on their “gender identity.” Maggie wrote to New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, to express her concerns about the legislation, even sharing the account of what happened to her daughter. Her inquiry, Maggie said, was “met with a complete rejection of the notion that he would support anything that goes against gender affirming legislation.”

He’s all about it, and his letter to me was so appalling,” she said, sharing the correspondence with IWF.

IWF reached out to Sen. Heinrich for comment. As of publication, Sen. Heinrich did not respond to our request.

Homeschooling, Maggie and her husband have now decided, is their only option to keep their daughters safe given the state’s current legislative landscape.

“She’s just a baby,” Maggie said. “No parent, no child, deserves this unimaginable pain and lack of justice. Instead, our legislative session wrapped up with the governor signing numerous bills that remove parents’ rights to protect their own children and allow the schools to put my daughters in danger.”

While the Biden administration ramps up attacks over what it calls “dangerous anti-transgender” legislation moving forward in more conservative-leaning states, Maggie knows first-hand what happens when lawmakers move in the opposite direction, choosing to prioritize the small group of transgender-identifying Americans at the expense of women and girls. It’s for this reason that, despite the ongoing investigations, she and her daughter decided to tell their story.

“I just want people to hear us because it feels like parents aren’t paying attention, aren’t taking action, or don’t want to open their eyes to what’s happening,” Maggie said. “We had a nearly perfect life before this trauma. We grieve the loss of her innocence, safety, and how things were before she was assaulted.”

“We will never be the same,” she added.

#tw rape mention #feminism #gender critical #transgender #radfem please interact

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profeminist · 1 year

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A specialist in adolescent medicine explains what it means to provide gender-affirming care and why it’s so important for transgender and nonbinary youth.

"New policies regarding LGBTQIA+ rights have been in the news recently, and the potential impact could be far-reaching — much of it directly affecting transgender and nonbinary youth.

According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 2% of high school students identify as transgender, and of those 27% felt unsafe at school, 35% had been bullied at school, and 35% had attempted suicide in the past year.

One way to support transgender youth and improve outcomes for their mental health and overall well-being is by providing gender-affirming care, says Dr. Jane Chang, an associate attending pediatrician at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital and associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.

“Gender-affirming care, at its most basic level, is about validating and supporting children and loving them for who they are as they explore their gender identity,” says Dr. Chang, who specializes in adolescent medicine.

Read the full piece here: https://healthmatters.nyp.org/what-to-know-about-gender-affirming-care-for-children-and-adolescents/

Related: Indiana bill banning gender-affirming care signed into law

U.S. readers, register to vote here

#trans #transgender #gender affirming care #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia+#trans youth #transgender youth #nonbinary #enby #non-binary #nb youth #nonbinary youth

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 month

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By: Leor Sapir

Published: Mar 21, 2024

Both critics and supporters of so-called “gender-affirming care” appreciated the candor of transgender activist and author Andrea Long Chu’s recent cover story for New York magazine.

Chu’s piece, titled “Freedom of Sex: The Moral Case for Letting Trans Kids Change Their Bodies,” makes a principled case for letting children dictate their own hormonal and surgical treatments. Chu believes that “trans kids” shouldn’t have to get a mental-health assessment before initiating hormones, and that, “in principle, everyone should have access to sex-changing medical care, regardless of age, gender identity, social environment, or psychiatric history.” Remarkably, Chu does not deny that biological sex is binary and determined at conception but argues that humans have no ethical obligation to come to terms with reality, calling this purported duty “a fine definition of nihilism.”

While trans activists often pretend that only “right-wing reactionaries” and “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” (“TERFs”) oppose their claims, Chu refreshingly observes that this isn’t true. The most “insidious” pushback, Chu says, has come from “TARLs,” or “trans-agnostic reactionary liberals.” Indeed, polling has shown that Americans with liberal views largely reject such policies as schools keeping students’ gender “transition” secret from their parents and allowing trans-identified males to compete in female sports.

Chu’s essay went viral, prompting New York staff writer Jonathan Chait to pen a “Liberal Response.” Chait has a history of opposing trans activists’ censoriousness, particularly about medical transition for youth. Last December, for example, he responded to transgender advocacy groups’ fury that the New York Times had acknowledged the ongoing scientific debate over how best to treat gender-distressed minors, which they claimed had abetted state-level Republican efforts to ban pediatric transition. Chait called for “carefully following the evidence,” and observed that “the whole reason leftists try to associate reporters at the Times with Republican-backed laws is precisely that their targets do not agree with the conservative position on transgender care.”

Chait’s December piece correctly identified the tribalist logic informing elite discussions of gender medicine in the United States, and progressive journalists’ efforts to banish from the liberal tribe those who raise questions about this controversial area of medicine. His response to Chu’s essay, however, fails to extend to conservatives the charity he expects trans activists to extend to liberals like himself. If Chait is worried about tribalism obscuring the pursuit of truth, he might consider how his own writing may contribute to this problem.

Consider his characterization of the debate over “trans rights.” Chait claims that “[c]onservatives dismiss trans rights altogether, while liberals completely support trans rights as it pertains to employment, housing, public spaces, and other adult matters, disagreeing mainly in how it is applied to children (as well as, in limited cases, addressing the problems raised by trans female athletes competing in women’s sports).”

Whether this is true, of course, depends entirely on what Chait means by “trans rights.” “Rights talk,” to borrow Mary Ann Glendon’s term, obscures the hard trade-offs and real-world costs that unavoidably confront those entrusted to make policy choices. Chait should have spelled out what “trans rights” mean in practice, but he doesn’t. His failure is especially puzzling considering two claims he makes in his essay. Chait claims, first, that “Trans-rights activists and their allies have relentlessly presented their entire agenda as a take-it-or-leave-it block, attacking anybody who criticizes any piece of it as a transphobe.” Second, he argues that rights claims generally render empirical questions irrelevant. As Chait puts it, “if, say, you consider firearm ownership an absolute right, then no evidence about how many lives any particular gun-control reform is likely to save is going to make you support it.”

Whatever Chait means by “trans rights,” the notion that all liberals support permissive trans policies outside the pediatric medicine and athletic contexts is unfounded, according to the data. Partisan affiliations are not a perfect proxy for voter ideology, but it’s telling that a 2022 PRRI poll found 31 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Independents favor laws that require people to use bathrooms that accord with their biological sex. A more recent YouGov poll found that 26 percent of surveyed Democrats backed such laws, with 22 percent unsure.

Assuming the “liberal” position on public accommodations is that people should be legally allowed to use bathrooms that accord with their subjective definition of being male or female (and many liberals would dispute that this is in fact a liberal position), and if the “conservative” position is that no such law should exist or even that laws should require bathroom access based on sex, then almost half of Democratic Party voters appear to hold views about bathroom access that could qualify as “conservative” under Chait’s scheme.

Liberal opinion similarly divides on the issue of trans-identifying inmates’ prison placements. According to the same YouGov poll, most Democratic voters either supported (35 percent) or weren’t sure about (33 percent) laws requiring prisons to house inmates according to their biological sex. In this case, support for “trans rights,” here defined as a legally protected right to be housed according to “gender identity,” appears to be a minority position within the Democratic Party.

Has Chait accurately characterized the conservative position in this debate? Despite his claim that “[c]onservatives dismiss trans rights altogether,” there’s no evidence that the standard “conservative” position on, say, employment is to allow adverse action against trans-identified people tout court. The YouGov poll found that 44 percent of Republican respondents said they support “banning employers from firing employees on the basis of their transgender identity.” Fifty-seven percent of Independents, which presumably includes some conservatives, answered the same way. Recalling the abstract nature of “rights talk,” what is framed as “employment non-discrimination” often comes down to policy questions about how employers should treat trans-identified employees or candidates in circumstances where sex presumably matters, for instance access to workplace bathrooms.

When asked whether there should be specific provisions for “transgender people in hate crime laws,” 42 percent of Republicans and 57 percent of Independents agreed that transgender status merits special protection, while 24 percent and 27 percent, respectively, said they weren’t sure.

In short, it is highly misleading to say that liberals support trans rights while conservatives do not. When the abstraction “trans rights” is broken down into concrete policy questions, as inevitably it must be, many liberals seem to disagree with policies favored by trans rights activists while many conservatives agree with them. Chait himself recognizes the uselessness of abstract rights talk when he turns his attention to Chu’s argument for “freedom of sex.”

Chait’s response to Chu’s arguments about pediatric medical “transitions” admirably makes the case that “empiricism” must be part of the liberal position on trans rights. However, his commitment to political “rights” seems to constrain his commitment to empiricism and evidence in crucial ways.

First, Chait notes that the supposed consensus that “gender-affirming care” is “settled science” is the result of “a power struggle between advocates of unmediated gender-affirming care and their more cautious colleagues,” but he doesn’t really explain what makes these colleagues “cautious” or whether there are divides within the “cautious” group. By this point he must know that there are three main positions in the debate: those, like Chu and parts of the gender medicine industry, who support unrestricted access to hormones and surgeries; those who support medical transition but call for rigorous mental health assessments; and those who believe that “gender-affirming” hormones and surgeries are inappropriate for minors regardless of circumstances. Those, like myself, who belong to the third group make evidence-based arguments. We regard members of the second group, many of whom are well intentioned, as cautious compared with the first group but overall misguided in their support for harmful practices.

While Chait mentions systematic evidence reviews from Europe and Canada, he fails to disclose that these reviews found no credible evidence of benefits for any pediatric cohort, including those treated under the “gold standard” and more “cautious” Dutch approach, which Chait notes involves “extensive evaluation and screening for mental health.” Left unstated is his apparent hope that after “extensive evaluation and screening,” some kids will benefit from early medicalization.

If liberals like Chait are truly committed to empirical medicine, they must at some point read and respond to the most important scholarly paper on pediatric gender medicine in recent years: “The Myth of ‘Reliable Research’ in Pediatric Gender Medicine: A critical evaluation of the Dutch studies—and research that has followed,” published last year. It’s hard to read this paper and come away with any impression other than that this entire medical field is based on fraud.

More fundamentally, Chait needs to grapple with a problem that runs deeper than the empirical questions discussed in clinical studies. Empirical debates about medical evidence generally presuppose a coherent conceptual framework of health and disease. We can debate, for example, whether a new drug for treating cancer is “safe and effective” because we agree that there is a condition to be treated (cancer), that it constitutes illness, and that doctors have an objective diagnosis to confirm its presence in humans.

Gender medicine, by contrast, lacks a coherent conceptual framework. The discipline is riddled with deep and abiding contradictions. Advocates argue that “gender incongruence” is not a pathology but a normal variation of human development, but they also insist that this phenomenon is a potentially life-threatening medical condition that requires “medically necessary” hormonal or surgical interventions. Advocates argue that “gender identity”—a term whose definition is either circular or reliant on stereotypes—is fixed, immutable, and infallibly knowable from early childhood, but they also say that “gender identity” is fluid and a “journey.”

Above all, thoughtful discussion of youth gender transition is not possible unless one is willing to interrogate the very notion of the “transgender child.” And this, I think, is still a bridge too far for liberals like Chait. What does it mean to say that a child “is transgender”? That she was “born in the wrong body”? That’s metaphysical talk, and absurd. It’s also dangerous to suggest such a thing to vulnerable teenagers who are going through the throes of puberty. Nor is there evidence for the transgender brain hypothesis—and even if there were, gender clinicians (even the “cautious”) ones are not calling for, and most would actively oppose, brain scans as part of the diagnostic process.

Liberal journalists who continue to use the term “trans kids,” as if it’s obvious what this means, without trying to define the term and defend it against rational, good faith criticism, are not truly interested in an empirical debate about youth gender medicine. They care about evidence and research, but only within limits.

A final note on Chait’s piece. He mentions the National Health Service of England’s recent decision to decommission puberty blockers as routine care for gender dysphoric youth. Chait should keep in mind that the Dutch first proposed using puberty blockers as part of the diagnostic process—halting puberty to create a window of time for the adolescent to sort out his feelings and decide whether to proceed with transition. We now know that these drugs do not provide neutral “time to think” (the title of a book about the Tavistock clinic) but more likely lock in a child’s incongruent gender feelings and make further “transition” all but a foregone conclusion. Chait seems to have read the Tavistock book and should at least be open to the possibility that the NHS’s decision is a step toward an eventual full national ban on medical transition for minors—similar to the restrictions enacted in two dozen Republican states that Chait presumably believes are extreme.

To his credit, Chait recognizes the potential for golden mean fallacies in the debate over youth gender medicine. He argues that we should not assume that “ideas located at the extreme at any given moment are always wrong.” I agree. But Chait should acknowledge the possibility that empirically minded, principled liberals like himself are still getting pediatric gender medicine wrong. He should be open to the possibility that one day in the not-too-distant future, he will find himself among the “conservatives.”

"Sex is real… But the belief that we have a moral duty to accept reality just because it is real is, I think, a fine definition of nihilism." -- Andrea Long Chu, 2024

"The facts may tell you one thing. But, God is not limited by the facts. Choose faith in spite of the facts." -- Joel Osteen, 2014

Same thing.

#Leor Sapir #Andrea Long Chu #Jonathan Chait #gender ideology #gender identity ideology #queer theory #intersectional feminism #liberationism #gender liberationism #gender liberation #delusion #fantasy #religion is a mental illness

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thewales · 8 months

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The Telegraph

The year Kate became a true queen in waiting

When the Princess of Wales paid an official visit to Trinity Buoy Wharf in February last year, it was her outfit, rather than the fact that she was joining the future King and Queen, that garnered most attention.

The true significance of the visit was underplayed at the time, but royal insiders say it marked the beginning of what has morphed into Project Kate, as she leads the line for the Royal family following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Ten years on, she had matured into one of the monarchy’s most dependable assets, and the palace’s image-makers were well aware that her time to step up to the second tier of the family would come sooner rather than later.

So Charles extended a personal invitation to Kate to join him and his wife at a Prince’s Foundation scheme on the Thames in east London where students were learning craft skills.

“It was perhaps a more important moment than people realised at the time,” said one royal source. “It was the first joint engagement they had done in years, and when you look at the way the Princess of Wales has stepped up since then, it takes on even more significance.”

In the 18 months since then, the Princess’s importance to the future of the Royal family has been brought into sharp focus as the death of Elizabeth II last September made her queen-in-waiting and her husband heir apparent.

She has made the step up effortlessly, using her higher profile to launch her Shaping Us campaign for early years education and welfare, convening a Business Taskforce in March to ensure action on the issue rather than words, and appearing with the Prince of Wales at events linked to mental-health campaigning.

And the public have taken notice. When the polling firm Ipsos carried out its first survey since Elizabeth II’s death, measuring the popularity of members of the Royal family, the Princess of Wales overtook her husband as the most popular.

The King himself only came fifth in the poll, but he will be relaxed about that. Having spent a record 70 years as heir, he knows only too well the importance of looking to the monarchy’s future, and is delighted that his son and daughter-in-law are riding a wave of popularity.

“It’s quite tricky for William and Kate to know how to fit into this new role,” said one royal source, “but the King really did make a template for them and his encouragement, support and thought for how to do it – not telling them what to do but supporting them – is obvious.

“He knows how you make a role for yourself when you are not the head of state, and how you fill it sensibly and wisely, and William and Kate are both doing that.”

The Queen, too, is more than happy for the Princess to attract the headlines. Camilla has never been one to seek publicity, other than for the sake of the causes she champions, and she has not always found it easy to keep pace with the busy daily schedules that are a way of life for the King.

Those close to the Princess say that not only do she and the Queen share a natural affinity as women who have both given up relatively normal lives when they married into the Royal family, but circumstance has often thrown them together, such as when they have ridden together in carriages at formal occasions, which has played a part in nurturing their friendship.

“It’s quite clear that Kate is keen to do more,” said the royal source. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there was another major project that she is intending to launch in the medium term. Obviously she will be consulting the King and Queen before she does that.”

The Princess’s decision to launch a Business Taskforce for early childhood bore all the hallmarks of her father-in-law, who spent his decades as Prince of Wales unapologetically using the “convening power” his position gave him in order to knock heads together.

“This year has been a real milestone year for her,” said a palace source. “She has been focusing particularly on the area of work she is passionate about – early years and young people’s mental health – and the stepping up in that work has led to greater prominence.

“She has devised a life plan based on dividing her time into thirds,” said one. “A third of her time is for parenting, a third is for being a wife – spending time with her husband and supporting him – and a third is for her projects and royal duties.

“I can’t imagine that will change, though with all three children now at school she will be juggling her time slots around, spending more time on her projects during the day and more time on the children in the evenings.”

Apart from a week-long trip to the Caribbean in March last year, the couple have restricted foreign trips to a couple of days here and there, and have not carried out a blockbuster tour of any of the major Commonwealth realms – Canada, Australia, New Zealand – since 2016.

That may be about to change, with palace sources saying plans for the next overseas tour are in the pipeline. With increasing talk of realms becoming republics, Project Kate will be vital to not only the future of the monarchy, but Britain’s influence on the world stage.

Full article free

#brf #the princess of wales

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the-rad1o-demon · 7 months

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Article title: "Let's Talk About The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)"

Article text:

"Back in July, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). COPPA is good legislation focused on the collection of data by web operators from users under the age of 13.

KOSA, on the other hand, is not great. The bill aims to prevent harassment, exploitation, and mental health trauma to minors on the Internet. Doing so will require broad content filtering to limit minors’ access to specific types of online content.

'This bill sets out requirements for covered platforms (i.e., social networks, video streaming services, or other applications that connect to the internet and are likely to be used by minors) to protect minors from online harm, including requirements relating to (1) safeguards to restrict access to the personal data of minors, (2) tools to help parents supervise a minor’s use of a platform, and (3) reporting of harm to minors from using the platform.'

The summary of the bill sounds innocuous enough. There’s a lot hiding below the surface. It was originally introduced in 2022, and its authors, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), had to take it back to the drawing board after a coalition of organizations publicly opposed it.

Those critics worry that it will greatly limit access to sex education information and resources for LGBTQ+ youth. It will put significant pressure on online services to over-moderate users and content. It also forces State Attorney Generals to make decisions on what information is 'appropriate.' We’re already witnessing what happens when the 'appropriateness' of content and culture is left to individual states. Book bans, sports bans on transgender students, bans on gender-affirming care, and groups like Moms For Liberty taking over school boards.

Marsha Blackburn has already admitted that her goal for this bill is 'protecting minor children from the transgender in this culture.' That statement alone puts this entire bill in the same category as all of those other state regulations Republicans are trying to push through. It makes any democratic support of the bill unacceptable. Someone needs to call Elizabeth Warren and tell her to rescind her recent co-sponsorship of KOSA.

Even President Biden has voiced misguided support for this bill. Saying, 'We’ve got to hold these platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.' In the same way we don’t need or want politicians making policies or laws about our bodies, we shouldn’t need or want politicians or web providers making decisions about what is or isn’t appropriate for our children. That’s our job as their parents. Establishing a nanny state isn’t in anyone’s best interests.

KOSA also requires that web platforms enable stricter parental controls. Parental controls are good in theory, and when actual parents enable them. But this bill puts the onus on web providers to make decisions for everyone’s kids. Including older minors who, at the age of 15 or 16, should have some right to privacy and access to information. If you’re a kid who doesn’t feel safe at home for whatever reason, being able to find online mental health resources may mean the difference between life and death.

The other bad part of this bill is that it will require websites and online platforms to collect MORE data from users. If you think The Internet knows too much about you now, just wait. Age verification may require all users to provide much more personally identifiable information (PII). Your IT Guy can tell you this will put your information at significant risk of data breaches and threaten users’ overall privacy.

To some degree, I understand and even support a desire to get Big Tech under control and held accountable for bad actions and platform mismanagement. But The Kids Online Safety Act doesn’t stop there. It’s going to make at-risk communities even more at-risk. It’s going to adversely affect user privacy. And most importantly, at least one of the writers of the bill is prepared to use it to hammer away at trans rights and social acceptance.

Reach out to your Congressional Reps and ask them to vote no on KOSA Resisbot has you covered. Or you can look up contact information for your Congressperson(s) here. If you do make a call, IndivisibleSF has a good script you can use when you leave a message."

-- End Article

#lgbtqia #lgbt #lgbtqplus #lgbtq community #lgbtqia2s+#lgbtq+#no privacy on the internet #no privacy #stop kosa #kosa bill #kosa act #kosa #kids online safety act #internet censorship #politics #us politics #politicians fucking up again #this will not end well

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canichangemyblogname · 1 month

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This is what you get when wages don’t keep up and greedflation takes over, making many necessities, like a roof over one’s head, inaccessible.

This is what happens when you have less disposable income than previous generations.

This is also what happens when you systematically attack a nation’s education system, schools, and it’s students. Book bans, content bans, speech bans, and student bans have a negative overall impact on the young. This nation’s tendency to underfund schools has also had a negative impact on outcomes.

This is also what happens when you refuse to take action on violence, especially gun violence. A lack of gun reform has turned our children’s schools into battle grounds where everyday they are expected to potentially have to lay down their life for some old man’s civil war fantasy. It’s baffling that no one seems to want to acknowledge the nation-wide PTSD our youth suffer from. Skyrocketing burn out, anxiety, depression, etc… and no one thinks to connect our mental health struggles to our nation’s culture of violence? We make children as young as 3 routinely practice hiding from mass murderers.

This is also what happens when the young are systemically unrepresented in politics.

This is what happens when you create a culture that mocks mental health challenges and mocks the need for support systems.

This is what happens when you systematically defund and neglect community spaces and programs, with major pushes beginning in the 60s to avoid integrating public spaces. The US is suffering from decades of disinvestment and is now reaping what it sowed during the austerity of the Regan and Bush administrations.

This is what happens when you push your medical system to the brink and force Americans to endanger their health, lives, and well-being for the good of the economy. The US’s public health system is chronically underfunded. Our for-profit health system ensures American spend more than any other nation on healthcare, but get nearly jack-shit in return. We do a piss-poor job of investing in programs that keep people healthy.

This is what happens when a corrupt church and religious institutions have long dominated our social and communal systems. Considering how much of the country’s social infrastructure was built around a church, the young-nones who left the bully pulpit behind find themselves faced with a relatively sparse secular social infrastructure outside of the isolation of social media. They realize that we need to radically re-envision “community” in many regards and that the suburban sprawl hell and its zoning laws our grandparents and parents created is antithetical to this. (And so many have turned to media and consuming for that illusion of community. Add to that the lack of third spaces as most “public” spaces are businesses.)

And this is what happens when the bourgeois of the older generations lie about climate change and politicians sit on their assess and pawn the climate catastrophe onto this nation’s children. “I won’t have to worry about this in my life time.” Most of our coast will be unlivable in the coming decades. Large swaths of the country will be too hot and dry to sustain life. Not to mention the worsening air quality, the roll back of water protections, and the increase in severe droughts and crop failures. It *will* happen in my life time.

So, no, NBC, I don’t think tanking youth happiness in the US is due to the fact people no longer get “crunk at the club.” —Sincerely, someone who’s one of those “Gen Z”

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karadin · 2 months

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Policy from President of the US Biden's State of the Union address

The infrastructure bill was passed

A law to assist veterans who were exposed in the Gulf to 'burn pits'

reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act

the Electoral Count Reform Act,

the Respect for Marriage Act that protects the right to marry the person you love.

unemployment rate is at 3.4 percent, a 50-year low.

800,000 manufacturing jobs, the fastest growth in 40 years

every community in America, has access to affordable, high-speed internet

We capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors on Medicare -Let’s cap the cost of insulin for everybody at $35.

giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices, Instead of paying $400 or $500 a month, you’re paying $15.

A record 16 million people are enrolled in the Affordable Care Act.

Expand coverage of Medicaid.

500,000 electric vehicle charging stations installed across the country

Historic conservation efforts to be responsible stewards of our land.

pay for these investments in our future by finally making the wealthiest and biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share

proposal for the billionaire minimum tax.

quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks

reduce the deficit by $114 billion by cracking down on wealthy tax cheats

my administration has cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion

Social Security and Medicare are a lifeline for millions of seniors. Americans have to pay into them from the very first paycheck they started.

We will not cut Social Security. We will not cut Medicare.

We’re already preventing Americans from receiving surprise medical bills

bipartisan legislation to strengthen antitrust enforcement and prevent big online platforms from giving their own products an unfair advantage.

taking on junk fees, making airlines show you the full ticket price upfront.

We’ve reduced exorbitant bank overdrafts saving consumers more than $1 billion a year.

We’re cutting credit card late fees by 75 percent, from $30 to $8.

30 million workers had to sign noncompete agreements with the jobs they take We’re banning those agreements so companies have to compete for workers and pay them what they’re worth.

workers have a right to form a union.

let’s guarantee all workers have a living wage.

Let’s make sure working parents can afford to raise a family with sick days, paid family medical leave, affordable child care.

restore the full child tax credit,

get seniors and people with disabilities the home care and services they need and support the workers

access to preschool for 3- and 4-years-old.

give public-school teachers a raise.

reducing student debt, increasing Pell grants for working- and middle-class families.

Provide access to two years of community college and a pathway to a four-year degree.

Covid deaths are down by 90 percent. We still need to monitor dozens of variants and support new vaccines and treatments.

Equal protection under the law. Give law enforcement training, hold them to higher standards.

more first responders and professionals to address the growing mental health substance abuse challenges.

More resources to reduce violent crime and gun crime, more community intervention programs, more investments in housing, education and job training.

Passing the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades. enhanced background checks for 18- to 21-year-olds. Red flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others.

Ban assault weapons now.

immigration - a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, essential workers

reinstate in law and protect Roe v. Wade, protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patients

pass Equality Act to ensure L.G.B.T.Q. Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity.

I’m committed to work with China - where we can advance American interests and benefit the world.

There’s no place for political violence in America.

protect the right to vote, n

Honor the results of our elections,

uphold the rule of the law and restore trust in our institutions of democracy.

And we must give hate and extremism in any form no safe harbor.

Every generation of Americans has faced a moment where they have been called to protect our democracy, defend it, stand up for it.

We’re not bystanders of history. We’re not powerless before the forces that confront us. It’s within our power, of We the People. We’re facing the test of our time.

We have to see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans.

#biden #democrats #us politics #state of the union

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