 Over the past couple of years, we've seen a concerted effort by Republican lawmakers at the state level to effectively erase LGBTQ plus youth from society. And this has come in a number of forms, whether it be bathroom bills, bans on gender affirming care, criminalizing it and investigating parents who seek gender affirming care for their trans children, as we've seen with Texas and now Florida. And it's not going to stop, but I need people to understand that the attacks are much deeper than these bigger issues. Like you hear oftentimes about trans athletes or bathroom bills or gender affirming care, but the lengths that the GOP is going to punish and bully even LGBTQ plus youth is incredibly cruel and deeply, deeply disturbing. As AP reports, more than 20 Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Joe Biden's administration over a department, agriculture, school meal program that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The challenge led by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery claims that the federal government is attempting to force states and schools to follow anti-discrimination requirements that misconstrue the law. The coalition of attorneys general are hoping for a similar result to a separate challenge from earlier this month when a Tennessee judge temporarily barred two federal agencies from enforcing directives issued by Biden's administration that extended protections for LGBTQ people in schools and workplaces. The judge sided with the attorneys general, ruling that the directives infringed on states' right to enact laws such as banning students from participating in sports based on their gender identity or requiring schools and businesses to provide bathrooms and showers to accommodate transgender people. The attorneys general involved in the lawsuit filed Tuesday are from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, India, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia. Now just pause for a second and notice what that judge said when they agreed with the attorneys general with regard to the last rule that they refer to states have the right to discriminate against queer youth. And in this case, attorneys general, 22 of them are saying, we actually don't support this provision that bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. In other words, we don't think that queer youth should have access to this school lunch program that their cisgender and heterosexual peers have access to. In other words, let them starve. Fuck them because they're LGBTQ plus. I mean, this is so cruel. And it's not just like one rogue attorneys attorney general is doing this. You have 22 of them were saying, no, we all agree, queer youth shouldn't have access to the same programs that straight youth have access to. It's it's so ridiculous. I mean, flip this for a second and imagine if there were a left-leaning attorneys general that teamed up 12 of them. Hypothetically speaking, that said, we are going to deny school lunches to Christian students, anyone whose Christian is not allowed to have access to the same program as non-Christians. The right would lose their minds and rightfully so. I would not be OK with this. I'd say this is completely unacceptable. It's very clearly discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation, and it's just wrong, even if I don't like Christianity Christianity personally, that doesn't mean that Christian students should be denied access to school fucking lunches. And I say that because I'm not a monster. But it gets worse than this, actually. Greg Owen of LGBTQ Nation explains an LGBTQ Back to School festival scheduled for Sunday afternoon in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was canceled by officials and the organizer after threats of violence. The weekend event at the Fayetteville Public Library sponsored by LGBTQ Youth Group, the Equality Crew, was to include a resource fair, picnic, concert and dance party. We thought it was an opportunity to get resources into the hands of a population of students who may not feel comfortable with some of the traditional outlets in regards to school supplies, said David Johnson, Executive Director of the Fayetteville Public Library. So this LGBTQ plus event, which was intended to distribute school supplies to LGBTQ plus youth was ultimately forcefully shut down due to threats of violence against children, by the way, that's just extremely mean are the individuals who took issue with this event going to supply these children with backpacks pencils. And look, to be clear, it's more than that, right? This was a back to school festival. It's supposed to be fun. So I'm assuming most of these kids aren't just going there to pick up their backpack and their pencils, but there's events. And this is necessary when I did my capstone in college. I volunteered at an LGBTQ plus youth group. And these types of events are really important because LGBTQ plus youth are oftentimes social outcasts. So because they're different, you know, they find it more difficult to cultivate friendships. So these types of events fosters friendships and connections so these children can get to know each other. So they feel more welcome and more comfortable in their own skin. So that's why it's not just, hey, come get your backpack. It's more of a fun event. And it was shut down. Now, the reason why it was shut down was because one of the events was a drag show. Now, there's been a lot of focus on drag shows as of late, but these are harmless. Drag is just a part of queer culture and Republicans are going to have to get used to that. Since queer people existed, drag shows have been a thing. And if they are age appropriate, they're harmless. And that's what this was. This was intended for middle schoolers and teenagers. So a drag show is nothing more than a fashion show or a costume party. Like do Republicans act this unhinged when it comes to, I don't know, toddlers and tiaras or these like weird creepy beauty pageants, because if anything is not age appropriate, whatever the case, maybe it's those things. But when it comes to drag shows, they're just hyperfixated on it because to them, they still view queer people as inherently promiscuous. So if queer people are around children just by definition, that means that the children are in danger. And so that's what we're seeing here. But after this event was shut down because people threatened violence against these children, I can't say that enough. Well, one of the individuals who spearheaded this attack on this event actually took to Twitter to celebrate shutting down this event. And the individual who did this was none other than failed Senate candidate, Jan Morgan, who tweeted out, you won when I found out the Fayetteville Public Library was hosting a drag show dance for children. I asked you to help me stop this event. You responded by the thousands. The drag show for kids at your public library is now canceled. So what we've seen over the past week is Republican attorneys general trying to shut down school lunches for queer youth, a failed GOP Senate candidate trying to stop this event that was supposed to help children get school supplies. And it gets worse than that because when it comes to the state of Florida, they didn't just ban gender for men care, but now they're going to forcibly detransition transgender youth. As trans activist Erin Reid explains, I feel the need to remind everyone, given the board of medicine voting to accept the state's petition to ban gender affirming care that Florida is attempting to ban social transition of trans youth, see highlighted in this official letter. And as you can see, it clearly states social gender transition should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents. Meaning you have the government literally dictating what trans youth can and can't wear, what their names can and can't be. They're saying if you have a trans daughter, not only do you now have to dead name your trans daughter, you have to force your trans daughter to wear boys clothes. When was it acceptable for conservatives to dictate what people don't wear? I mean, if I want to wear a blue shirt, nobody's going to tell me that I can't wear a blue shirt. But they're saying, no, no, you have to dress according to our guidelines, and we won't even allow social transition. That means you wear the clothes that we want. You call your kid the dead name as we demand. And on top of that, you use the pronouns that we want for your child. What was all this talk about parental rights and education or parental autonomy that all went out the window when they started to crack down on parents who are loving and seek out gender affirming care for trans youth. Now to ban gender affirming care, puberty blockers, HRT is one thing that's incredibly cruel. But to ban social transition, I mean, that is just next level cruel. These things are medically necessary. These not only reduce rates of depression, but they reduce suicidality. But Republicans like Ron DeSantis don't care at all. They're using children as a political football because they want to score more points and boost their national profile. And it's genuinely disturbing. Anyone who supports this party is supporting the erasure of the LGBTQ plus community. And we're not just talking about queer adults, which attacks on them is bad in and of itself. But we're talking about attacks on the most marginalized in our society, the most defenseless children. Republicans have resorted to just bullying. LGBTQ plus children, no lunches. You wear what we want, no events. We want you out of society. It's disgusting. And the rhetoric used against queer youth lately has been nothing short of genocidal. And the cruelty is so over the top. So beyond the pale, that to support the Republican Party is to functionally support their goal for what is most likely genocide for queer people. And I don't think that that's hyperbole given the way that they've reacted. I mean, in the state of Texas, any parent who has found to seek out gender for mean care for their trans child is being investigated for child abuse. This means they want to kidnap children, potentially take them away from their parents and put them in a home where they'll be forced to detransition. This is extremely, extremely fascistic, psychotic shit. And if other people who may not be affected by this don't speak up, then we are absolutely doomed. We need all hands on deck because this cannot stand. This is absolutely shockingly cruel and inhumane.