Friday, actual good news came out of a Trump judge's courtroom, when US District Court Judge Thomas L. Parker ruled in the dead of night that Tennessee's drag ban is not just unconstitutional, but LMAO Go Fuck Yourself Unconstitutional. (Legal term.) This made Memphis's pride parade and festival the next day just that much sweeter, according to pretty much everyone we know, and we would know because we live there.
Meanwhile in Montana, things took a turn for the more horrifying last week, in an entirely predictable way to anyone who's been paying attention. The state's own absurdly ridiculous anti-drag law was used to ban a transgender person from reading from their own book at the Butte-Silver Bow public library. Republican Governor Greg Gianforte signed HB 359 just last week. Hopefully it will be treated like a wet turd in court just like Tennessee's ban was. But until then!
The library said it didn't make the decision, but rather the county did. "The powers that be, they thought they would be in violation of the law if we held that event,” said Shari Curtis, the adult services librarian there. Author Adria Jawort, a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, was to give a lecture on "Montana History of Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ peoples," but some brain-addled bigot complained. In an email, Jawort was told that "Ou[r] local Chief Executive and County Attorney have decided that it is too much of a legal risk to have a transgendered person in the library."
The library's full statement is in the tweets below:
\u201cOfficial statement from the library is below\u201d — Josh Margolis (@Josh Margolis)
And here is the complaint, which NBC Montana reporter Josh Margolis said came from someone named Cory Allen, which may be an alias. Margolis reported in a later tweet that a group called "White Lives Matter" took credit on social media for the cancellation. And Jawort has more receipts on her Twitter showing that it was literal actual Nazis who made it happen. Congratulations, Montana! You're taking orders from Nazis!
\u201cCounty Attorney Eileen Joyce sent me this complaint and associated social media post, saying it contributed to the event's cancelation. It was sent to the county Facebook page via messenger #mtnews\u201d — Josh Margolis (@Josh Margolis)
"Hello, there is a transsexual reading to children at the public library on Friday the 2nd," the complaint says. "[T]he 'performer' has posted on Twitter that it will be discussing sexual acts and there may be children there." They were referring to tweets from Jawort where she said she was going to be dressed "flamboyantly," and that she would "def have a book & sexuality will be discussed & minors may be present, & the State of Montana doesn't legally recognize people being trans, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" (It should be obvious to any moron that Jawort was remarking on the utter insanity of the anti-drag law Gianforte had just signed.)
Obviously, a transgender person reading from their own book is not the same thing as a drag performer doing story hour, but Republicans' anti-drag crusade was never really just about banning drag shows, although that's part of it. They may be too stupid to understand that drag performers aren't the same thing as trans people (although some drag performers are trans), but they definitely are trying to eliminate transgender people's right to exist, under the auspices of pretending to care about protecting children. (If Republicans wanted to protect kids, they might for instance start by banning children from being alone with conservative Christian religious leaders, since statistically that's who's doing the molesting.)
The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh, who is probably currently the most prominent anti-trans hate activist in the country, has spent the last few days teamed up with Elon Musk to spread his anti-trans propaganda filmWhat Is A Woman? to as many bigoted eyes as possible. Walsh, a father of six, is a fan of saying it would be a "fate worse than death" to have transgender kids, and that he'd "rather be dead" than for that to happen. He's doing this because it's Pride month.
Meanwhile, Michael Knowles, also of the Daily Wire, insists that when he says he wants to eradicate "transgenderism" he isn't issuing some kind of Hitler-esque call to eradicate transgender people. As if we cannot hear him loud and clear, as if the rhetorical games these people play aren't the same exact rhetorical tropes conservative Christians deploy with every group they want to eliminate. As if literal actual Nazis don't hear them loud and clear.
So that's what's happening here. Nazis are using an anti-drag law in Montana to ban a transgender author from existing in a public space, just like state Rep. Zooey Zephyr and many others have said people would do using these bills:
\u201cWhen I spoke about how this bill could be used to target trans people, Republican Leadership objected multiple times, stating that "the bill had nothing to do with the transgender community."\n\nThey'll use every procedural tool to silence the communities holding them accountable.\u201d — Rep. Zooey Zephyr (@Rep. Zooey Zephyr)
For the latest on this story, keep up with that NBC Montana reporter Josh Margolis on Twitter, as he says he'll be interviewing more Montana officials today.
On one hand, it definitely does look like idiot Republicans have passed an idiot law and now they have to try to uphold and defend it, like idiots. Best wishes on all that. But on the other hand, the literal worst people in the entire country are emboldened right now, and it's probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter right here.
Just got to BlueSky!
I have profiles those other places but I think I forgot how to log on.
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