Want to be inspired in this broken world? Three years ago a few of us dreamed up a camp for trans & LGBTQ kids; a place where every camper and every counselor is queer; an oasis in the storm of Red State hate. #ProtectTransKids 1/ We are saving lives with campfires, arts & crafts, and the power of intergenerational queer community. It is a place where every kid is LGBTQ, where their counselors (who become their heroes) are LGBTQ, and where kids can dream of a better world. 2/

🧵After a break, we're back with Rep Ben Baker's bigoted, hateful #HB2355, which would force trans kids to become public spectacles in their schools....just to poop. Ps-Ben Baker is a frequent-flier sponsor of these transphobic bills. #ProtectTransKids #MOLeg 1/ Rep @Ashley4MO questioning #HB2355 sponsor Ben Baker, and pointing out the very real harm and violence faced by trans kids because of this bill (and other bills being pushed by GOP legislators). 2/

Ok, here we go: Live-thread on Missouri #SB728, which would force teachers in public schools to out queer kids to abusive parents, and would embolden and empower the worst bullies in our schools, while tying the hands of teachers trying to #ProtectTransKids. #MOleg 1/ The bill sponsor, Senator Koenig, is up first with his presentation of the bill. He's explaining the ways that this bill will force schools to out queer students to unsupportive parents and will allow bigots to sue schools are trying to protect trans kids. 2/

Live-thread on Missouri's **NINE** bigoted bills targeting trans kids and LGBTQ Missourians. We're starting off with SB728, a "forced outing/don't say gay" law for public schools in the State 1/ #ProtectTransKids #MOLeg First up is a bill dealing with Missouri's standardized testing, and the way it interacts with charter schools. It's always wild to watch our legislators actually seem to be interested in a topic, and care about its impact on actual humans (rather than just 'getting the libs!')

If you're a progressive and aren't actively and vocally working to deconstruct your own internalized antisemitism right now, please understand that the vast majority of American Jews are feeling deeply abandoned by you, and unsafe with you. 1/ And if you're comforting yourself by hiding behind the apologetics of the small minority of American Jews who are "anti-Zionist", please understand that this is tokenization no different than when GOPers hide behind the small percentage of minorities who vote with them. 2/

The extent of the security needs for American Jews and American Jewish institutions isn't normal, it shouldn't be ok, and *far* too many non-Jews have no clue. 1/ A medium sized synagogue--think the size of a neighborhood church--will usually have $100,000-200,000 in security needs, year after year. 2/

I do not believe that Missouri Republicans are done with their vile, cynical targeting of trans kids for their own political gain after this legislative session. I'm convinced it's going to get worse. A lot worse. A shortish thread on why🧵 #ProtectTransKids So the first thing to say is that this isn't just in Missouri. The demonization of trans kids is a national movement being pushed by shady conservative thinktanks that have realized that hurting my child & my family is good politics for them (More on this later) 2/

I return to this quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates again and again: "You must resist the common urge toward the comforting narrative of divine law, toward fairy tales that imply some irrepressible justice... The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine...

Missouri Senate Republicans are now directly targeting and slandering us parents (Missouri citizens!) who are showing up for public testimony to stand up for our kids. Guess this means they're starting to worry about us winning, huh? (Please go report this tweet/account) To give some context: I was quoted in the @washingtonpost about my fear of Missouri GOPs sending DFS to my door for my kids, and us needing to flee our home and our state. Fox News took this out of context and ran a hit piece on me. washingtonpost.com/health/2023/02…

Livethread: Here we go! About to start hearings on three awful, bigoted, racist bills in the Missouri House. #DontSayGay #AntiCRT #WhiteChristianNationalism #MOLeg I'm here today with 5 amazing teenagers from @CRCStLouis, as well as dozens and dozens of clergy, activists, and educators. All drove 2+h here, leaving at 530am, to testify against these racist, homophobic bills.

Missouri Republicans aren't letting the parents, doctors, friends, and allies of trans kids into the hearing room where they are debating criminalizing gender affirming care. So I'm going to tweet out my testimony instead 🧵 #ProtectTransKids #moleg 1/ My name is Daniel Bogard, I’m a rabbi at Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis, MO, I’m a 6th generation Missourian, and I’m the parent of a trans 9 year old boy. 2/

So...Missouri GOPers have opened up yet another front in the war they are waging on trans kids and their families. Now they're using the "Planned Parenthood playbook" and going after our Transgender Clinic here in St. Louis. A shortish thread on why this is big (and awful) 🧵 Some background if you haven't followed this story: there is a world class transgender health clinic here in St. Louis at Wash U. Like every clinic, there are complaints. Complaints around gatekeeping, hoops that trans folks have to jump through in order to access care, etc...

Live thread for Missouri's #SB14, a bill that would make it impossible for trans folk to change the gender marker on their birth certificates. #MOLeg #ProtectTransKids 🧵 The bill sponsor starts by talking about how "this bill isn't about trans people, it's about records of birth!" Senator @gregrazer isn't having it: "it's not ok for this assembly to legislate on issues that they don't understand."

Live thread for Missouri's #DontSayGay bill, #SB134. Follow along below! #MOLeg #ProtectTransKidd First up is SB34, which would encourage public schools to offer electives in High School on the "Hebrew Bible, Old Testament, and New Testament"

Lots of people have questions about "saving women's sports from trans girls". Heck, in Missouri it seems to be the only priority of our Legislature; Missouri's Senate will be hearing SIX bills targeting trans kids this morning at 10am. So let's talk about them! 🧵#MOLeg The first thing to know about athletics bans on trans kids playing sports is that this is an invented crisis by the GOP. There are *literally* more bills trying to ban trans kids from playing sports in Missouri than there are trans kids in the last 5y who have asked to play.

A reflection thread on yet another traumatic, inspiring, bigotry-fueled, and gratitude-filled day spent in the Missouri Capitol 🧵 #ProtectTransKids #OmnibusBillOfHate #MOLeg Tuesday in the Missouri Capitol was awful. We left our homes at 5am to testify at an 8am hearing on the #OmnibusBillOfHate. But dozens and dozens of us (myself and a whole bunch of students included) were prevented from testifying by the Committee Chair, who shut off testimony

*Live thread* for the EIGHT anti-trans bills that the Missouri Legislature is about to hear (with 25h of notice). 3 trans athletics bans; 3 medical bans (the scary ones); & two attempts to classify drag shows as pornography. 🧵 We just had a moving, powerful rally with @PROMOMissouri in the Capitol Rotunda. Some superheroes there: @crystal_quade @MoRepMackey @gregrazer @Manlove4M and so many others. And it was noticeably a less optimistic, less hopeful tenor than in past years.

Here we go! The Missouri House is hearing a series of bills that would gut the Citizen Initiative Petition process, a process that has frequently been used by Missourians to override our "they know better than us" members of the #MOLeg 🧵 Missourians wanted to expand Medicaid, but our @MissouriGOP #immoralmajority was opposed; so we passed it via Initiative Petition (and they still tried to defund it afterwards). Missourians legalized medical (and now recreational) marijuana through I.P.

Here we go! Follow this thread for live coverage of Missouri #SB42, an anti-CRT, don't say gay, anti-trans kids, anti-DEI bill that I'm calling the #OmnibusBillOfHate #MOLeg Committee chair says "since this bill is almost identical to so man other bills" they're going to try to keep it under an hour. Audible laughter in the galley from the room full of folks who woke up at 5am to be here to testify.

I'm sitting here pulling out my hair, trying to think of the words to say in my 2-minutes of testimony tomorrow that might make a shred of difference, and it's hard not to wonder if any of this really matters; if any of these (GOP) legislators really care. #ProtectTransKids #SB42 Here's the bill if anyone wants to read it: legiscan.com/MO/text/SB42/i…

For Jews who can become pregnant, access to abortion services is a religious *requirement*, and has been for thousands of years. Surprised? Let's dig into some of the texts 🧵 1/ Let's start with the Torah. In Exodus 21:22 we get a clear statement that a fetus is *not* a person: "When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant person and a miscarriage results, but no other damage ensues, the one responsible shall be fined..." 2/